Thursday 20 – 06 – 2019

By Laura van der Wal

The first meeting of the very last full day in Kosovo was different than any other meeting we had been to, in the sense that it was not very political. Kosovo 2.0 started as a blogging platform for people to express their opinions on topics that were not really being discussed within the Kosovo society of that time. 

For our project, we interviewed Iliriana Banjska, a Kosovar-Albanian woman who had lived in the Netherlands, as well. We figured she could give us an interesting perspective, as she was a native but also worked within such an open and progressive organization and environment. She did, and what made it even more interesting is that her boyfriend worked at the UNMIK office and they had clashing perceptions about the international presence in Kosovo. 

Our second meeting was with the Ministry of European Integration. The Minister of European Integration was a very inspiring and empowering woman, and it was interesting to hear her speak about being a woman in such a male-dominated field and the challenges that this brought to her job. Other than that, it was quite a political meeting, compared to the one we had at Kosovo 2.0. 

We had the afternoon off to work on our projects and used it very effectively. We talked to a Kosovar-Albanian artist and student who was lying in the grass outside the University of Pristina. He became the last person Chaz, Libe and I interviewed for our project and still he managed to give us some new insights, which was quite surprising. 

Later that afternoon, Razan and Ekren, the lovely people that opened their home to us for the entire time we were in Kosovo, took Libe and me to their garden, which lies just outside of Pristina. The garden was full of cherry and apple trees and many vegetable plants, that we could all try. The drive back to Pristina provided us with a beautiful panoramic view of the city, which allowed me to reflect on the time we got to spend in this beautiful place, as it was the last day. 

During the last dinner, we all talked about how Kosovo changed us and many people talked about the way the group connected with each other. I emphasized as well how the afternoon at the lake for me formed the very moment where I really felt as we were a little family, and how after this moment, that feeling never really went away. 

The (cute) Albanian artist that we spoke to that afternoon had asked me to have a drink with him that night, but I had to cancel as it was much more important to enjoy the last night with the amazing Peace Lab 2019 people. Thus, these people must be a very special bunch. To celebrate Nada’s birthday and the amazing and inspiring time we had in Kosovo, we went out for a last night with the entire group and had the best time.

Thanks for this wonderful journey.