Author: Meredith Davenport

Running with a champion

So I often run in the Germia Park which is right down the street from my apartment and RIT-K. Today was a little cooler and a beautiful day for a run so after a visit with Beki in the lab I started running to the park. It is basically one long slow hill up to the park and then some steeper hills. So as I am slowly hauling myself up the hill, I look to my right and a spritely, gray haired man comes blowing by me. I thought to myself, “man that is so lame, you really need to get back to where you used to be” and watched him fly by waving at me with a smile and a “mirdita” which means good day in Albanian. A few minutes later, down the hill he comes on my left side and all the sudden, he is running next to me! We run for a few minutes and I think he asks me if I’m German and I said “American” which is always the right thing to say here. I get a huge smile and a handshake in full stride. As we run in perfect sync at a much slower pace closer to mine than his but still a challenge for me, I notice people smiling. This is a big park but everyone seems to know my companion and I could hear an occasional shoutout..”ehhh, Bravo Muhamet” and he skips and continues to run alongside me. I realize after a mile or so that he is wearing professional clothes and shoes which is not always common here, and I start to wonder if the shirt he is wearing is actually from a team or if he is part of a team so I am not surprised when he whips out a laminated paper that announces that he is Muhamet Rama Vusshrria an athlete who has broken two Balkan records in the veteran who ran 1500 meters (very close to a mile) in 5 minutes and 16 seconds. Ok people, I could not run that when I was 16 much less now! Muhamet and I ran about 3 miles together and it was pure delight to run beside him and will be one of the highlights of my time in Prishtina.

Meredith Davenport and Muhamet Rama Vustre in Germia Park July 17, 2016
Meredith Davenport and Muhamet Rama Vustre in Germia Park July 17, 2016
Muhamet Rama Vustre in Germia Park July 17, 2016
Muhamet Rama Vustre in Germia Park July 17, 2016

Louis Sell speaks at an afternoon seminar

There are so many amazing people teaching here this summer including Louis Sell who spent a good deal of his 28 year Foreign Service career dealing with the USSR and Russia, and he just completed From Washington to Moscow: US-Soviet Relations and the Collapse of the USSR (Duke University Press, 2016)  https://www.dukeupress.edu/from-washington-to-moscow/?viewby=title

Louis gave an informal talk about his work as a diplomat in Russia and had some great insights into the current issues between the relationship with the US and Russia in the garden at RIT-K. He has followed the career and life of President Putin and it was so interesting to hear his candid and “off the record” views about this leader we hear so much about in the media. The program has these informal talks every week or so. Today Col. Michael E. Hess (retired) will talk about the stresses of life on a peace keeping mission. Mike, as everyone calls him here, has served and led some of the most important peacekeeping operations in the past 20 years including the operation in Kosovo. Many of the students are taking his class about peacekeeping.

Louis Sell, center, speaks to students in the garden at RIT-K during an informal seminar. Sell spoke about his experience working as a diplomat in Russia and the USSR.
Louis Sell, center, speaks to students in the garden at RIT-K during an informal seminar. Sell spoke about his experience working as a diplomat in Russia and the USSR.

Albanian Supper Club

It’s been really fun to learn some basic Albanian phrases with Alketa Bucaj while eating at one of the many great restaurants in downtown Prishtina. We went to this small Italian restaurant last week for our first class. We learned to initiate a basic conversation as well as words like “thank you” and “I’m sorry” Alketa is a great teacher and it’s good to be able to say a few phrases in Albanian. I’m really looking forward to learning some numbers this week.

Alketa Bucaj (center) teaches Wentian Chen (center right) and other students basic Albanian phrases at an Italian restaurant in Prishtina.
Alketa Bucaj (center) teaches Wentian Chen (center right) and other students basic Albanian phrases at an Italian restaurant in Prishtina.

Kosovo 2.0

We had a really inspiring visit to Kosovo 2.0 with the Editor in Chief Besa Luci. Besa told us about the short history of this young journalism website and magazine. Her group of 6 writers and editors along with freelance journalists are trying to tell the Kosovo story and the regional story on their own terms, in a different way. The group has produced beautiful and innovative long form journalism on the web and in themed magazines that touch on such polemic issues as “Sex” and “Corruption” in the Balkans. The issues and online pieces correspond to community events to engage people around the topics they are reporting on. RIT student Lauren Peace contributed a compelling editorial to Kosovo 2.0 about the recent bombings in the airport in Istanbul.  I think we were all really engaged and impressed with the courageous and creative work that Kosovo 2.0 is doing.

RIT-K students Lauren Peace, Daniel Vasta, Emily Hunt and Brittainy Newman meet with Besa Luci, Editor in Chief of Kosovo 2.0 in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.
RIT-K students Lauren Peace, Daniel Vasta, Emily Hunt and Brittainy Newman meet with Besa Luci, Editor in Chief of Kosovo 2.0 in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.
RIT-K students Lauren Peace (R), Daniel Vasta, listen to Besa Luci, Editor in Chief of Kosovo 2.0 in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.
RIT-K students Lauren Peace (R), Daniel Vasta, listen to Besa Luci, Editor in Chief of Kosovo 2.0 in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.
Copies of some of the themed editions of Kosovo 2.0 in their offices in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.
Copies of some of the themed editions of Kosovo 2.0 in their offices in downtown Prishtina on July 4, 2016.

Fashion photo shoot

We had a beautiful Sunday with the talented and kind photographer Norik Uka at the Mirusha waterfalls in Central Kosovo. RIT-K student Micah Bintz and my co-professor Jeta Abazi and her son Jani and I joined Norik and his model and assistants on an afternoon shoot. Norik is the premiere wedding photographer in Kosovo and this month he will photographing over 30 weddings as the Kosovo diaspora return home to have a traditional Albanian wedding. Micah will be documenting Norik’s work and the weddings he is photographing in the upcoming weeks.

Swimmers enjoy the lower fall at Mirusha in Kosovo on a very warm summer day.
Swimmers enjoy the lower fall at Mirusha in Kosovo on a very warm summer day.
Swimmers enjoy the lower fall at Mirusha in Kosovo on a very warm summer day.
Swimmers enjoy the lower fall at Mirusha in Kosovo on a very warm summer day.
RIT-K student Micah Bintz holds a light during a fashion shoot at the Mirusha waterfalls in Central Kosovo.
RIT-K student Micah Bintz holds a light during a fashion shoot at the Mirusha waterfalls in Central Kosovo.
Norik Uka (R) and Micah Bintz (L) during a fashion shoot in the Mirusha Falls in Central Kosovo.
Norik Uka (R) and Micah Bintz (L) during a fashion shoot in the Mirusha Falls in Central Kosovo.

Srebrenica

We have been on a whirlwind bus tour of the Balkans for the past 6 days. It has been non-stop. Our group was divided into two trips. One group went to Greece and Macedonia and the others went to Serbia and Bosnia Herzogovina. I am in that group. We did a visit to Srebrenica on June 23.

The visit was quite powerful. It was hard to look at the rows and rows of family members who were some of the more than 8,000 people killed in July 1995. Our tour guide managed to escape through the forest and his testimony was heart wrenching. The factory where the memorial is housed was the site of the Dutch UN Base where thousands of internally displaced people lived before they were forced to leave and killed.

Adriana Bhalla sits at the Srebrencia Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia on July 23, 2016. There are more than 4,000 victims of the 1995 genocide whose remains have been found and buried on the site. The RIT-K students visited the memorial as part of a regional tour
The Srebrencia Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia on July 23, 2016. There are more than 4,000 victims of the 1995 genocide whose remains have been found and buried on the site. The RIT-K students visited the memorial as part of a regional tour.
PIctures by Tarik Samarah at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrencia, Serbia on June 23, 2016
PIctures by Tarik Samarah at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrencia, Serbia on June 23, 2016
Brittainy Newman looks at a photo exhibit at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia on July 23, 2016. The memorial commemorates the 1995 genocide of over 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks by the Serbian Army. The photo of the suicide of Ferida Osmanovic on the wall is by Darko Bandic.
Brittainy Newman looks at a photo exhibit at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia on July 23, 2016. The memorial commemorates the 1995 genocide of over 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks by the Serbian Army. The photo of the suicide of Ferida Osmanovic on the wall is by Darko Bandic.
A view of the gravestones at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia. There are more than 4,000 victims of the 1995 genocide whose remains have been found and buried on the site. The RIT-K students visited the memorial on July 23, 2016
A view of the gravestones at the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia. There are more than 4,000 victims of the 1995 genocide whose remains have been found and buried on the site. The RIT-K students visited the memorial on July 23, 2016
The names of all the people who are missing are listed on dozens of stones at the entrance of the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia. The RIT-K students visited the memorial on July 23, 2016
The names of all the people who are missing are listed on dozens of stones at the entrance of the Srebrenica Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia. The RIT-K students visited the memorial on July 23, 2016
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Adriana Bhalla sits at the Srebrencia Memorial in Srebrenica, Serbia on July 23, 2016. There are more than 4,000 victims of the 1995 genocide whose remains have been found and buried on the site. The RIT-K students visited the memorial as part of a regional tour.

Pre-launch

My best friend always teases me when I am getting ready to leave on a trip, she sees my preparation time as preparation for a lift off. I love the idea of being thrown into a new place and letting go of things that I don’t need in that place and finding new parts of myself that do not always emerge in the culture I live in. This time, I am doing it with 8 other people who I am very excited to be working with!! I already see some much possibility for you all and I am very impressed with how you all are dealing with the pre-trip stress- which is normal! I have it too. You all get to be in a new place for the first time and I want you to be very very aware of your first, precious impressions. It’s a special time and will give you a lot of insight. Write it down in your journals. I have already been to Prishtina but there is so much more for me to explore. I imagine very nice evenings looking at your awesome work, talking and running in the beautiful park near campus. Maybe getting a bike and exploring the city. I recall the fresh, simple cooking and am looking forward to enjoying that as well. I imagine the countryside to be very different from the city and am very curious to get to see more traditional Albanian homes and families.

I found this quote that I want you all to read, I wrote in on the cover of my journal from my last trip:
“A journey is a person in itself: no two are alike and all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” John Steinbeck

Have a safe trip everyone and find each other in the airports ok. See you on the other side!!!!