Frustrations and friends

By Katharine Broberg

Hey there, it’s Katharine, a second year student reporting from our hostel with questionable wifi. Peace Lab is almost coming to an end, as we are on the second-to-last day of meetings. I will tell you about our evening on Wednesday (19 June).

 

After visiting UNMIK and the mall, we were meant to have a meeting with other UN agencies, one being UNICEF’s Kosovo mission. UNICEF, a global leader in advocating for children's rights across 190 countries, including Kosovo, believes in providing every child, regardless of their background, with essential rights to survival, development, and protection, to reach their full potential. It was founded in 1946, and collaborates with diverse stakeholders to address prevalent challenges like poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination, guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This organization relies solely on voluntary contributions from individuals, businesses, foundations, and governments to sustain its operations. It would have been very insightful to have a meeting with them, but when speaking with UNMINK we heard their team has been severely reduced, so we instead spent some time reflecting on their efforts in Kosovo in the UN bus, as the nation is still fighting poverty. Around 23% of children in Kosovo are living in poverty.

 

I feel eternally grateful for the UN bus because of its working air-conditioning. Personally, as a diabetic, this trip came with some complications. My insulin was not taking the 30-35 degree heat well, and coming into the bus and holding up my pen to the aircon was life-saving, literally. After giving a presentation on UNICEF to my peers in the bus, we arrived at the Field of Blackbirds, a beautiful site that had a monument about the Battle of Kosovo between Lazar and Murad I. As I felt a burn starting in the sun, I decided to go inside the tower and climb to the viewpoint. Inside there were many more plaques - my Bosnian friend translated some of the Serbian script on them. After spending another 20 minutes there, we then left and took the bus back to Newborn. Our hearts ached as we parted with the cool bus and stepped back into the sweltering heat. 

 

In Pristina we headed back to the hostel to get some rest before dinner, which was at a restaurant called Vendum. It had many plants inside, and was therefore quite humid, but we got some cold drinks and shared some of the mix of cuisines they offered. Considering it was day 9 of the trip, finding clean clothes was a challenge. So Ellen lent me her magical green top that always gets people compliments. Around 9pm, the lights dimmed to almost darkness, creating a vibe perfect for the live music that was about to take place on stage. 

 

We stayed for a while to enjoy the ambiance, and then headed to a bar, where we met up with our local friends to spend some more time together before the trip ends.

Drit and Olt are both from Pristina and made us feel so welcome whilst we were there, showing us fun places to eat, bars, and clubs. Getting to know them gave us a glimpse into the life of Kosovo’s youth. 

On our way back to the hostel from the bar, we came across one of the many street dogs we see in Kosovo on a daily basis. The very cute dog silently followed us whilst rolling rover to ask for belly rubs. Then we finished off the night with a nice cup of chai tea at the hostel. We chatted a bit more about the day, and we are now going to sleep, highly anticipating our meeting with the Ministry of Justice's department of European Integration tomorrow.