On Thursday
our group went to visit Mitrovica, a town located in the north of Kosovo. For
many of us it was the first time, Ivan and I however, were lucky enough to make
this our second visit to Kosovo, and Mitrovica. Just like last year, the drive
towards Mitrovica as well as wandering around the city gave me an instant
feeling of home, Jo then explained to me that Mitrovica was my ‘Spirit City’. I
come from a small town in a wine region in Germany (Bensheim and er Bergstraße)
and Mitrovica, with the wooded mountains surrounding it and modern high buildings
reminds me of it a lot. When I told this to our teacher Anne, she immediately
asked me whether I was from Heidelberg, which is indeed very close to my
hometown and the landscape resembles to that of Mitrovica. What added to this
impression was our final appointment that day.
In the
afternoon we met with students and teachers from the International Business
College Mitrovica. This university is unique to Kosovo in many ways: it is one
of the few opportunities for young Kosovars to study in English. Furthermore
they created two campuses to offer Serbian Kosovars, who mostly live in the
northern part of the city, and Albanian Kosovars, who live in the South, equal
opportunities. Even though it has been 16 years since the war in Kosovo had ended,
Mitrovica is still divided, not only due to the tensions between north and south, but also because it
has two parallel institutional structures, including police forces,
municipalities and mayors from the Kosovar system, but also under Belgrade’s
supervision. Since tension between the two dominant ethnicities is still very
much present, the two campuses are crucial to ensure the sense of security of
their students. Another unique aspect of their education is the practical approach
to learning. Students try to gain as much work experience throughout their
studies as possible. For the majority this means working with local enterprises
and businesses, as well as thinking ahead on how to apply their skills to give
back to their community and city. Our group was received in the northern campus
of the ICBM. Both, teachers and students were very proud of their recently finished
campus. After walking through the modern building (the architecture quite
similar to our own university in Amsterdam), we sit down in the acclimatized
(!) library. Upon entering the room many of us let out a big sigh of relief,
since we had been walking through the town and had meetings in small stuffed
rooms all day, and that with 35 degrees and sunshine (horrible, right?). The
library is located on the top floor of the university, and whilst sitting down
we could see many rooftops of the new, modern buildings of Mitrovica. Together
with the cool room and landscape in the background, I almost felt like I was
transported back to my high school, from where we could often look out of the
windows and see some of the higher buildings in my hometown or the wine hills.
Considering
that Kosovo almost completely rebuilt itself in less than twenty years and that
Mitrovica remained the center of violent outbreaks for many years after, this
impression was almost surreal. It shows how much progress a country can make,
especially with students that are so motivated to learn and willing to put
their energy and knowledge into their hometown. What struck me about this is
the sharp contrast that stands between the new modern site of Mitrovica we
could experience from the library, towards the dry, hot and to be honest, dirty
reality we found in the side roads outside. It was quite confrontational to
leave that clean, modern impression and suddenly face, poor roads, torn down
houses and giant heaps of trash, simply thrown together in the middle of the
road or in backyards. To me this made me realize what this city, and Kosovo in
general, has already achieved and, at the same time, remember the challenges
that still lie ahead.
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