Four weeks later…

By Dave van Twuijver

You can find our project here

The last four weeks have been very unusual, but in a very good way. The course format of the Peace Lab Kosovo class differs quite a lot from a regular intensive period course. Which I think is a good thing if you look at the course’s learning objectives. The structure of the course allowed us to spend a great deal of time, especially in the last week, to focus on our projects. We quickly realised that we wanted to base our project on the Mitrovica Bridge. We were drawn to the bridge because of its story, its complicated role in the city and especially its symbolic role in the city.

Our project started off rather messy. We weren’t really sure what the physical shape of our project would look like or which exact parts of the bridge’s story we would include in our project. Firstly, we thought that a short film based on some mythology that we found on the river would be incredibly cool to do. However, we also soon realised that this was way too ambitious and wouldn’t include some of the key parts that were supposed to be included in the projects. So we decided to make a zine, a short magazine, which I had never done. Luckily, my group members did have some experience with making projects like this, so that was a huge help.

As soon as we decided what we wanted to do, the fun part started. During the meetings with people in Kosovo we would ask questions about the bridge. Especially our meeting with Community Building Mitrovica was extremely helpful in gathering information on the bridge. Aside from asking questions during the meetings, we looked for interviews and got valuable information from them regarding what the bridge stood for and meant to the local population from both Albanian and Serbian backgrounds. 

Seeing these interviews and being able to talk to the people who are actively doing peacebuilding work in Mitrovica was very inspiring and a good learning experience. Shutting up and listening, as Anne likes to say, had proved a very effective method to gather information. However, the phrase also took on a new meaning for me as I lost my voice for a good three to four days. This literally forced me to shut up and listen, but also to let my teammates guide me throughout the progress. This wasn’t a role I was used to taking on. All in all, the course has been a wonderful experience and throughout the course and the group project I have learnt many lessons that I will bring with me throughout my academic and professional career.