Exploring the city

By Anna Paoli

The population of Kosovo includes six main communities, which are reflected by the six stars drawn at the top of Kosovo’s flag. These include Albanian, Bosniak, Gorani, Roma, Serbian, and Turkish communities. On the 13th of June, we had the chance to meet with one of the founders of an NGO named “Roma Versitas Kosovo”, which aims to create a sustainable environment for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities in Kosovo. 

This organisation works with Kosovar students from their community on a daily basis, as a way to improve the retention, performance, and timely graduation of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian students in Kosovo. Gene Broqi talked to us about the process of founding an NGO, challenges they had faced and the achievements of the organisation since its foundation in 2017. I found his professional career super inspiring, as the organisation takes an intersectional approach to peacebuilding in a post-conflict newborn nation. 

After the meeting, we went for a walk in the streets of Pristina and ended up having lunch on the balcony of a very cute Kosovo Albanian restaurant. Since we arrived, we have been seeing “cheese in the oven” on the menu of every restaurant we have been to, so we decided to finally order it and share it between the four of us. After a few minutes, the - very friendly - waiter brought us a delicious and freshly oven-baked melted cheese with bell peppers; this is a meal I strongly recommend to anyone who might visit Pristina in the future. 

In the hours that followed, I got the chance to properly walk around the city, discover beautiful neighbourhoods and talk to locals who were kind enough to advise three obviously lost and sunburned visitors on where to go and what to see. 

I got to experience the authentic and warm atmosphere of Pristina in the narrow streets of a hidden market, the inside of Saint Mother Teresa Cathedral and the small and homey cafes of Bulevardi Nënë Tereza, in the heart of the city. 

We also went to explore the Biblioteka Kombëtare e Kosovës (National Library of Kosovo), where we saw behind the scenes the preservation of the intellectual heritage of Kosovo. Going up a squeaky spiral staircase, we ended up in small study rooms made of wood and got to explore the underground storage rooms of the library archives, where piles of cardboard boxes seemed to have been stacked up for some years now. 

On our way to the exit, we noticed the “U.S. library corner”, in which we met this very interesting retired American professor, Paul Rutter, also former war veteran and nuclear submarine engineer. In a lengthy conversation with him, we learned that he had been teaching Kosovo Albanians to speak English and conduct research as part of the Peace Corps program of Kosovo. Meeting these people and visiting remote neighbourhoods of Pristina were truly amazing experiences, and I can’t wait to see what the coming days have in store for us!