Kosovo

So, despite the fact that the title of my blog is "Anna in Costa Rica" I'm actually writing from Kosovo where I am for about two and a half weeks doing a consultancy with Care. So let me tell you a little bit about my trip here and my first impressions...I just arrived on Thursday night.

I arrived after much drama originating from an extrodinarily delayed flight from Costa Rica which caused me to miss my connection in Atlanta. From there it continued like this - stay an extra 24 hours in Atlanta, layover of 10 hours in Vienna, late arrival at 11 PM in Prishtina (capital of Kosovo) to a lost bag that just arrived yesterday. One wonders how the bag could have not made it here if they had 24 hours in Atlanta and 10 in Vienna, but I know better than to ask those sorts of questions of airlines these days. Anyway, the positive side is that I got to explore Atlanta and Vienna. I had been to Atlanta before but there are always new things to see wherever you go.

Moving on...So my first day in the office was Friday and the staff here are really nice and generally young. The culture seems a lot like Bulgarian, although not exactly the same of course. The people are extremely friendly and really want to play the host - trying to make you feel comfortable, included, and paying for everything. It's quite the change from my experience in Malawi and Costa Rica where most locals don't want anything to do with me. I'm mulling around in my head if that is a cultural thing or if it's a factor of being from the Embassy community...

The city of Prishtina looks a lot like other major cities in the Balkans - less tall buildings, no international hotels, but otherwise very similar. It has several major European chain shops like Bennetton, Mango, and Terranova and the streets are lined with outdoor cafes where everyone is drinking coffee and smoking.

The food is great - a lot like Bulgarian which I miss. The fruits and vegetables are so much better in this region of the world. I've eaten cherries - which we don't get in Costa Rica and the most wondeful tomatoes. Breakfast is buffet style and each morning I eat Bulgarian feta cheese (I'm sure they call it Kosovar feta here...but I'm sticking with Bulgarian - very different from greek feta - much softer and saltier), tomatoes, cucumbers, a delicious type of Balkan salami, and some fruit and other more normal breakfast food. Because of the heavy presence of foreigners in the last decade or so there are also a lot of "international" restaurants like Italian, Mexican, a Brazilian coffee shop, lots of pizza places, etc.

Speaking of the presence of foreigners, the Italians are currently the soldiers who are here keeping the peace. I know some people were worried about my safety coming here, but honestly it feels completely safe. The only funny thing is that yesterday I was sitting in a cafe having a drink and five army hummers (not the kind that idiots drive down the street in urban areas of the US but like really all armored, guns on top, etc.) drove right down the street that all the cafes are on. It seemed strange and when I asked on of my Kosovar collegues, he said it was just to make sure people knew they were there. Whatever. Several British soldiers also came in on my flight. Still trying to make heads or tails of all the military.

When talking to people about customs, attitudes, etc. they preface almost every comment by "before the war, people did this...after the war people do this..." It makes perfect sense since the war was so recent and affected everyone, but for some reason it really made an impression on me.

Well, the good news is that they have already asked me to come back again to help with another project for a few weeks so I'm happy about that. I'll go back to Costa Rica for about a week and then come back here...then Tyler and I have a trip planned to Mexico with his parents for about a week - I almost don't feel like I live in Costa Rica anymore!