--Tuesday, 11 April 00--
Someone told me of a laundry on the way to work so I decided to try it out. I carried two big plastic bags of dirty clothes there and found out that the laundry has two fees, 4 DM per kilo for un-ironed wash and 5 DM per kilo for ironed washed. I can pick up my laundry at 3 PM the following day, a workable time frame especially considering that the Grand charges perhaps three times as much and doesn't fold my shirt collars down.

The day was hellish with more than the usual processing and more than the usual complexity of problems. About five George stopped by and asked if I would stay late since this was his last night in town. We processed expenditures until 6 PM and then I had to figure out why certain pie charts looked liked the edges had been nibbled on by mice. But we got it done.

George went over Alan's desk (who had left ten days earlier) and piled up things, some for Alan, some for me, some for Naim, etc. He was beginning to realize that he was really on his way home for a vacation.

He gave me keys to his office, the payment room, and the petty cash safe. He seemed cheerier and cheerier. He asked if I was interested in some food and so we ate chebop at the Centrum. By now George was in an expansive mood. By accident we were joined by David Douglas and we chatted about work -- the one common denominator for expats in Kosovo.


--Thursday, 13 April 00--
This week raced by with furious abandon. I look up and the morning was afternoon, afternoon was evening and today became yesterday. Yes, I accomplished things but the list of things that needed to be done seemed to grow relentlessly.

I have taken to delivering the expenditure documents to the bank each morning. In addition, I now bring them to the BPK just before lunch so that those who have to have their money today -- just about everyone it would seem -- can be serviced.


--Friday, 14 April 00--
I received a huge envelope with a purple "Urgent" slip (in four languages) and very little paper inside and no designation of the sender. It seems a UN delegation will be visiting and the Russians are complaining. Something must be done, but what? Since I had to go to the Government Building anyway, I stopped into the office and asked what was wanted. No one knew but thought that a few sentences about the budget would be helpful. I wrote them out on the spot and simply said that the budget was approved under regulations issued in conformance with appropriate UN resolutions and much more could be found on our web site.

Smile came over for intensive English training and then invited me to a Chesvee party. We went to his house and picked up Kimeta and walked up hill to the disco. We sat in the back and various people came over. I took pictures of Smile, Kimeta, and Analissa, the Chesvee person who was returning to Italy. It was a pleasant party but I didn't have the energy to enjoy it.


--Saturday, 15 April 00--
Quiet and busy. Not many expenditure approvals but I got some work on an important transfer where we appear to be behind.

I was reading the Herald-Tribune out doors when Smile came by rather late (6:50) and we chatted. He asked me to walk him home and I did so. His co-worker's mother was ill so he would work two shifts and not be free until 7 PM Sunday. He said he would come by the Grand at 9 PM tomorrow but we shall see.

I walked him home and he and Kimeta set up chairs and a table on flat place that can be used as a deck and Smile watched the entrance to Chesvee. And we chatted, first Smile and I (Kimeta had to go to her office "for ten minutes"), then Smile, Kimeta and I and then the three of us and Adam, the 18-year old who speaks excellent American and happened to be walking by.

Kimeta told me/us that she was jealous of the fact that Smile had put his arm around Analissa's neck for a picture last night. Smile said that it was nothing since Analissa left for Italy this morning but Kimeta said that she could not say that she was not jealous. She said that she could not imagine a life without Smile.

Kimeta said that Smile had criticized her for not being willing to leave Kosovo to pursue greater opportunities but she was greatly attracted to Kosovo and wanted to live here all her life.

It was a charming time sitting in the not-quite-warm out-of-doors air watching the Chesvee entrance, chatting and drinking beer. I had to leave around eleven so I could get my beauty sleep.


--Sunday, 16 April 00--
A beautiful day -- as beautiful as yesterday was disgusting. Something must have happened late at night to flush that filthy air down some metaphorical drain.

I had been told that the restaurant in the UN compound had a real British breakfast so I decided to try it out. I walked to the restaurant and found the heat in the room to be oppressive but I was interested in bacon and eggs and I will suffer a lot to get them. It turned out that the eggs were overcooked, the sausage was a frankfurter and the bacon was ham. The black pudding was OK but the Coke was warm and the toast unbuttered. Not an experience I am likely to repeat soon.

In the distance, one of Prishtina's power plants.

I decided to walk north to the railroad tracks, then left along tracks to a street heading up hill. Prishtina is in narrow slopped valley surrounded by hills. It seems that each street headed up one of the hills has a small stream headed down the hill. These streams follow the contour of the street and swing from one side to the other and here and there gather into puddles deep enough to cause a considerable splash when a stupid, inconsiderate a**hole drives through them too fast. Combine a larger than usual puddle with a more than usually inconsiderate a**hole and put me two meter to the side and you have an explanation of why I spent the next several hours with brown splotches all over my left side.

I asked about the above large monument to four Kelmendis. I was told that the father was the leading lawyer in Kosovo and the day after the bombing started, he and his three sons were simply murdered.

At the top of the street an Albanian cemetery covered the crest of the hill. In the distance you could see one of the power plants that occasionally provides power to Prishtina. The graves were close together as they usually are in European cemeteries. Most tombstones had near photo quality pictures of the deceased subtly carved into the stones.

Adjacent to the cemetery was an odd park with all the trees the same thin diameter and the same height. As I walked along the dirt road that separated the houses on the hillside from the park I wondered about the likelihood of mines in the area. I noticed that there was an organized soccer game underway nearby and that the US and USAID "missions" were close by and KFOR headquarters adjacent. So I tried not to worry.

Some of the photographic quality images on the tombstones.

As I walked a small beetle of metallic green and with great energy landed on my chest. It eventually figured out that I was not the light of its life and flew away. I felt proud that I was ecologically friendly.

Two days ago the weather was around 25C (high 70s F) and sunny. Yesterday was an evil air day with low hanging, visible air borne down by the smoke from open burning, the coal fired power plants just over the hill, and low octane car engines, all against a bright gray overcast.

The municipal administration here has no money so it provides very little in the way of direct services. Trash collection is a boutique service and cars park on sidewalks in away that majorly impedes pedestrian traffic (two of my pet peeves). Something can be done because Prizren has done it. Loose trash and open burning are not the problem there that they are in Prishtina and, in addition, the traffic circulation pattern has been turned into circle, something Prishtina desperately needs -- along with controlling/limiting sidewalk parking on major streets. With municipal elections scheduled for the Fall perhaps someone will make a campaign issue out of the situation.

Smile came over and we went out to dinner at the Dora. He ate his dinner and half of mine. I think I enjoyed his pleasure in eating my steak more than I enjoyed the steak itself -- and it was a very good steak.

Joe