In the future

The view we had at the restaurant near the lake that was on the border between Kosovo and Albania

By Chaz Lenfant

There we are again, back in Amsterdam. From the moment we landed I felt something weird inside me. It was a combination of sadness and joy. Sadness because the trip was over, and joy because I realized how lucky I was to be able to experience something like this. The day after we came back, Dormfest took place, which meant that I did not have much time to process everything that happened. 

For me, this happened when Laura, Libe and I started to work on our project that we decided to name "Voices of Kosovo". For our project we interviewed citizens of Kosovo on their perception of international intervention and especially UNMIK (the UN Mission that has been active in Kosovo since 1999). While our first idea was to only interview students and people that work for UNMIK, we decided it would be more interesting to interview a more diverse group of people in order to get more perspectives. We ended up interviewing local shop owners, UNMIK staff, students with a Serb background, students from an Albanian background, faculty staff and people working for NGOs. 

All these interviews with people from different backgrounds, different age and different stages in life gave us incredibly important insights. The perception of international intervention in Kosovo is extremely complex, just like the country itself. While we were looking to draw conclusions and in some way make generalizations, we found out we could not. To me this was a really valuable realization: No matter how many people we interviewed, and no matter how diverse the group was, one cannot generalize and put people into boxes.

During this trip I also realized that in the future I would like to work for an NGO or an international organization that focuses on improving the situation in post-conflict areas. I still don't know what type of position within those organizations would fit me best, but for me I feel like it is a big step to finally have an idea of what I would like to do in the future. My interest in this field comes from taking the course "Violence and Conflict", but now, after first-hand experiencing the work they do, I definitely know that I would be happy doing this work and hope to get more and more qualified to do so throughout the coming years.

In the end, I am grateful to have been part of this trip to Kosovo. It was a perfect combination of interesting meetings with a diverse group of people working for different organizations and students from different parts of the country, and enough free time to work on our projects and explore Kosovo by ourselves. 

Thinking back I would also like to mention one last thing that amazed me, which is the kindness of the Kosovars we met. They were all willing to tell us their stories and were incredibly welcoming. In addition the students we spoke to were also always curious about us, especially where we came from and why we were in Kosovo, and this really shows how eager they were to learn more and more. All in all, this was a trip that taught me important lessons that will help me throughout my life.