Coming together

By Sara Jelijs

 

Saturday 18 June 2022*

 

13.30 at Newborn. That means we could all sleep in a bit. This was not an unnecessary gift, as the entire group had gone clubbing the night before, wanting a taste of the nightlife Prishtina had to offer. And how we got that taste. Friday had been a day of meetings, first with EULEX, then with the Women’s Network. Both were very interesting, yet a combination of getting a lot of information and lacking sleep had started to kick in. All of us just wanted, needed, to dance.

It was the middle of the night, and a line of taxis came to pick us up in front of our hostel. We were not done with the day, yet. Our destination was ‘Zone’, a club on the outskirts of Prishtina. When we got out of the taxis, the place first seemed deserted. How could this have been the place we heard such good stories about? Entering the club was free of charge for all the girls, which meant getting in was free for almost all of us. This didn’t raise any eyebrows at first, but it maybe should have. We entered the club, it was dark and we followed the beat of the bass to find our way. We entered the main hall, with Albanian pop songs blasting through the speakers. It was dark, but we could still quite properly see the looks we attracted. We could also see the club was full. Of. Men.

 

Sure, attention is fun, and we got tons of it. All of us wore cute tops to dance in, and all of us were in an energetic, bubbly mood. However, not all the attention we got was as pleasant. Some of us experienced intimidating behavior from some of the other club goers through sexism and racism. We were sad and shaken by this, and it did leave its mark on the night. We were ready to go back to the hostel. Once back, most of us sat down in the living room to talk about the night.

 

13.30 at Newborn. We slept in and got on our way. Today had quite contrasting clothing instructions from the day before. We were to visit a Serb Orthodox Church in the Municipality of Gračanica. We had been told in class the week before that in this exact same church, a Peace Lab student had been hit with a stick by a nun for wearing shorts inside the church. We had been warned, and the message was received. All of us showed up in decent clothing to visit this special site. We stepped on the bus, entered the highway and left Prishtina behind for the day. On our way to the church, we stopped at the memorial sign for all Serbians that went missing in the Kosovo War. In letters the same size and font as ‘Newborn’, the monument said ‘Missing’. On the letters, pictures were displayed of those who haven’t been seen by their loved ones since the war. The memorial silenced us, showed that war causes pain and grief on all sides involved. Interestingly so, right next to the monument children were playing in a quite newly constructed playground. Children playing close to such a site signifies hope, a common future.

 

We continued our bus trip to the church. As soon as we reached the site, we saw that a wedding was going on. All guests were dressed beautifully and were a sight for sore eyes. We decided to come back later and to drive a bit further to a Roman quarry a bit further away. There, we walked around calmly, chatted, did some cartwheels and sang songs. The scenery was a bliss, and made all of us consider moving to Kosovo.

 

We went back to the church, a UNESCO-protected site, where we got to enjoy the sight of beautiful frescoes. The sun nicely lit up the the church and the grass and trees surrounding it. The breeze, the sun, the special site, the silence and the frescoes inside the church; all contributed to a calm and peaceful atmosphere.

 

After having spent time at the church, gazing at the gorgeous frescoes and walking around calmly at the site, we continued our trip. We walked through a small village on our way to a beautifully located restaurant. The restaurant hired both Serbian and Albanian staff and is therefore contributing to peace and integration in the region. We sat down at a long table and were served Serbian specialties. Outside, the restaurant had a little garden looking out over the hilly landscape. After dinner, all of us sat down there. We drank wine, smoked more cigarettes than we should, and watched the sun go down together. It felt as if our group had really fully settled in and come together.

 

 *Please note that the blogposts are not appearing in chronological order of the days of the trip.