--Friday, 03 March 00--
I arrived at the UNMIK/Government Building early and went to floor five and tried to get some good pictures of the bombed-out Post Office building next door but there was no view from the fifth floor. Floor four had the best views but they were not any where near as spectacular as I had hoped.

The 9 am meeting was in Room 301 and I was early. Room 301 is a large room with a huge table seating 38 and translation equipment. At one end were two glassed-in rooms where the translators sit and observe the proceedings. The room was well-heated and the chairs were comfortable. The meeting was quite efficiently run and a fair amount of info was exchanged.

That evening I met Ishmail at 8 pm and we walked to a tiny bar that a friend of his (who teaches biology with him) works at. The electricity being off -- a regular occurrence now -- there were candles on the tables. I learned some more Albanian, followed by more language lessons at the Grand.


--Saturday, 04 March 00--
I finally finished the budget codes and reconciled what I did with George and Naim. At about 10:30 George and I visited with Larry, the Budget Director, and Maureen, his assistant, and asked for a meeting. Larry and Maureen had just moved into the building that morning so we agreed on 3 pm. I gave them the codes and the "Expenditure Procedures" document for their review.

I have been working on getting clarification on the budget codes all week. I had a variety of input sources, which was good, but they had differing notions of what the fields meant, which was bad. I used all the information I could get and made some decisions of my own. At a meeting with the Budget Director we (Naim, George, Alan and I) presented our results.

For an hour and a half we corrected minor errors, discussed various philosophies of coding, and made changes based thereon. The meeting was a success: the coding came out improved in small and large ways and we (Treasury and Budget) had agreed to agree.

I hastened to input the changes and prepare final copies (fool!). Alan had asked for a copy to go over finally and found some changes that he deemed necessary. Later, Maureen came down with some old changes and some new ones.

The order of the day is, "It doesn't happen until it happens," which reflects the difficulty of accomplishing anything.

Collecting customs duties is an example. When they were first established they yielded substantial revenue each month but then the revenue steadily declined until it was realized the importers switched from the Macedonian to the Montenegrin border where no customs officers were present. The solution was to have Customs Posts on the Montenegrin border but it took weeks of negotiations to achieve this.

I talked to Shkumbin as he connected my Mac to the Internet. He stayed in Prishtina during the bombing and I was curious what it was like. "Was the bombing scary?" "No," he said, "we were only worried about the police. When there was bombing at night or during the day, we did not have to worry about the police." "Ah, so the police stayed under cover when there was bombing. So it was like, 'The bombs are falling, my child, so you can sleep now,'?" "Yes, we didn't have to worry then."

Mild mannered Donnie told John that they are just waiting for the Gypsies to return to Prishtina. The implication of intended violence was clear. Everyone hates the Gypsies.

Alan asked what I was doing for dinner and I said, "Nothing." He invited me to join a group of Brits (real and former empire) who were getting together for drinks and dinner. I was pleased to accept and had a very pleasant evening with people from Australia, England, and Canada.

The conversation was robust, wide-ranging (the America's Cup, the Presidential race, the US's past due payments to the UN, English as a world language, etc.) and informed. People said things I disagreed with but everyone could support his/her arguments effectively. It was superior conversation.


--Sunday, 05 March 00--
I walked over to the shopping center at the Sports Complex to buy some gifts for tonight's dinner with Ishmail and his wife. I got a bottle of red wine and a bottle of rose and then got some cashew and pistachio nuts. At least I would not arrive empty handed.

I wanted pictures of Prishtina from the surrounding hills, so I walked up to the Government Building and beyond, constantly turning to walk up-hill only. I passed some British troops who were guarding a Serbian Church. "What are you doing here", I asked. "We are protecting that Orthodox Church so that the neighbors don't burn it down," he said. I asked if they get hassled. "Oh, no. They respect these," he said, pointing at his gun. On inspection I had to agree: a soldier with a big gun is always impressive.

KFOR troops guarding a Serbian church. They said, "we protect the church, this (pointing at the sandbagged structure behind them) protects us."

I continued walking up the hill until I reached the top of the ridge. I found a place with a vista of the downtown and the hills beyond and took some pictures of the city.

The smoking structure o the right of center is the sports complex that caught fire two days before I arrived. It was paid for by a special tax on wages and was a national symbol. A major concert was planned for the day after the fire occurred.

On my way back down the hill, I visited two mosques within a block of each other. Each mosque was very small consisting of a covered front porch, an entry alcove (with a staircase up to the balcony for the women), and a main worship room perhaps 9 meters on a side.

A detail from the exterior of an old mosque.

In one mosque only two elderly men were praying. In the other there were 40 worshipers (two under 30, three in their forties and fifties, the rest over 65).

Ishmail was in the lobby of the Grand promptly at six and walked me over to where he lives. His home is on the other side of the University, a little ways up the hill. When I arrived, I met his wife, and his friend and his friend's wife and son, Dion. We chatted for a while and then his friend and family left and we had dinner.

The dinner was the equivalent of a five course meal. Soup, salad, an entree of chicken with roasted potatoes and rice, desert and fruit. It was well prepared and tasty. But the greatest pleasure was the conversation. I asked about the recent troubles.

When Ishmail and his wife, Kimeta, were forced to leave Prishtina, getting into Macedonia very difficult for them. The men were separated from the women and allowed in at different times. Refugees were sent to different locations which increased the confusion.

Kimeta told me that she was bussed to mosque where Albanian Macedonians invited people to stay with them. She was chosen by a family and went to their house as a guest.

I asked how she and Ishmail found each other and they told me that there was a TV station that broadcasted notices of "John Doe located at this phone number wants to meet his wife, Mary Doe" and vice versa. There were a lot of people who watched the show and many family reunions resulted.

I asked Kimeta and Ishmail if whether they wanted Kosovo to merge with Albania but they said, "No." Kimeta cited crime, poverty, (and possibly a lack of working spirit?) as major differences between Kosovo and Albania.

Joe