--Friday, 21 April 00--
In the evening Smile came by and told me he had to work and asked me if I would come over to his place and sit outside with him and Kimeta. We did this last week and it was a pleasant time filled with conversation, food and beer -- and, since he was staring at the entrance to Chesvee all the time, Smile was working.

Smile told me that I should stay until he had to switch places with the inside guard, at 1 AM. I told him that I had to work in the morning and had to leave by 11 PM. "No, no, you stay here with me and Kimeta," he mockingly insisted.

I brought the Oreo cookies I had bought in the KFOR PX last Sunday and presented them to Smile and Kimeta. They both enjoyed them and I enjoyed the pretzel sticks and Ruffles potato chips. All in all, my kind of meal.

Once again the conversation was pleasant and roving. Kimeta translated some thing for Smile but now Smile translated some things for Kimeta. He really is improving.

Somewhere in this busy week, I found out that Smile and Kimeta had found an apartment about 50 meters as the crow flies from where there were currently and even technically closer to Chesvee. The walking route was more like 150 meters.

Smile told Kimeta that during the day tomorrow, he would move the furniture with the help of friends and at night come over to the Grand to watch an American movie on my computer.

We also agreed that since Smile had arranged for a friend to loan him his car on Sunday, that Smile would come by the hotel in the morning and take me to meet his family in his village, Roymeer (phonetic spelling). I like to have one day a week where I can sleep as late as I want, so I said that he should come by at 10 AM.


--Saturday, 22 April 00--
I looked forward to Smiles visit but, after thinking about what moving a household meant, realized that Smile would be so exhausted by the evening that he would not likely come to see a movie or for intensive language training. So I didn't expect him and he didn't show.


--Sunday, 23 April 00-- (Easter)
I wasn't surprised that Smile didn't show up last night nor that I was up and about by 8:30 AM. Breaking work habits at my age is hard. It was a mild, sunny day so I decided to walk to the street I work on and then up to near the crown of the hill and then wend my way along the crown for as far as I could just to see where it went and what I could see. I deliberately didn't take my camera. The walk was very pleasant and I saw a part of this small city that I had not seen before: small streets twisting and turning along a hillside. Homes, walls, vistas, and narrow streets. The better side of Prishtina.

On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Steve Lewarne and he asked me to join him for breakfast. I did and we chatted. He told me that he had ordered an omelet but wasn't sure what he would get. I ordered an omelet also: being unsure of what you will get is a condition of life here. As it turned out we each received two fried eggs. I asked him if the spots on the eggs were rare spices or dirt from the kitchen and he said that since salt had clearly been added, they were probably spices. So I ate my eggs.

I excused myself saying that I was supposed to meet someone at ten at the hotel. Smile was not there (surprise!) so I took some documents down to the outdoor part and read them in the sunshine. I sipped a cappuccino and looked up to find Smile looking at me.

"I came by at 9 AM to look for you," he said. "We agreed on 10 AM," I said, "I went for a walk." "No walk, wait for me," he said. "You said you would come by last night and you no come by! I no wait for you!" "I know, I know," he said -- as he frequently says -- and went on to say that the friend who was supposed to lend him his car for the day -- the friend for whom Smile had worked his shift -- had let him down.

He also told me that, yesterday, the day he was supposed to be moving the heavy furniture to his new place, the friends who were to help him move, came by and importuned him to come play football (soccer) with them in a town near Mitrovitsa (of Evening News fame). "No, no," turned into "Yes," and they went off to play football and returned too tired to do any moving.

In their absence, Smile's brothers came by and Kimeta failed to ask them to move the furniture in Smile's absence.

Smile asked me if I would go back to his place and see if his brothers had come by to help him move. I did and they hadn't but he did borrow a vehicle so we could drive to his village. After all, it was Sunday. And Easter Sunday -- in this Moslem land -- at that.

A view of part of the village Smile grew up in.

Smile had made it clear that he wanted me to go to his village so that everyone would see him as a BIG man, someone who knew the strange and mysterious foreigners who fought a war on their behalf for no reason that they could understand.

So I was not surprised that Smile told me that I couldn't wear my Bermuda shorts but had to dress up in long pants, a dress shirt and black leather shoes and take my camera. I wore my ID badges on the long chain around my neck like most everyone does.

Smile had told Kimeta that he would translate for his American friend so that everyone would be impressed with his language abilities as well as his friends.

When we arrived in his village, we stopped at a store and bought some candy for the (numerous) kids, two kilos of oranges, some chilled Coca Cola and a box of chocolates as gifts. My heavy duty cost in this was 8 DM ($4).

Smile's father and mother with nephews looking on.

We went to Smile's family home and I was shown into the main room, a rather large living room with pads on the floor along the walls and pads on the walls as well. Several times Smile asked me if I was OK and I said that as long as I could brace my back on something I had no problem.

Smile's mother with some nephews looking with rapt attention at the strange man with the camera.

The news of our arrival spread and very quickly there were 18 smiling people staring at me, hanging on my every word, which they could not understand. Smile graciously offered translation services.

Later he told me that his family had spent two years in the forested hills above the valley they farmed. He said that there were 37 people living in a three by three meter room. He told me that his mother, now 81, was sick and could not get up when he had last seen her and he was worried that she would die from the stress of leaving home and living in the mountains. When he saw here last Summer, after the war, she could walk again. Such are the ironies of life.

This region of Kosovo is 100% ethnic Albanian and like the other highly Albanian regions was particularly devastated. The frequency of burned out buildings is clear from what I could see from driving there.

Smile also told me that the area from his village to Peje was the center of "ooh-ka-cha resistance. You know what I mean?" I did. He pointed out a three story building that had the burn marks of a major fire pouring out of every window and door. "That was a KLA hospital," he said.

Smile's family's five hectares.

Smile's family's house that I saw had big rooms, some in Turkish and some in Western style. The village they live in is dispersed and doesn't seem to have any center. Smile told me that his brothers farm five hectares (about 2.5 acres) and grow wheat and corn. There had been no planting for two years so they were expecting a good crop. Their land was on the side of a gentle hill above their home, very much a contrast to the urban crowding of Prishtina. They have 3 cows, at least five hens, and many children. The homes themselves are of brick-sided concrete frame, the standard construction for the area. Smile spoke about coming for two weeks in the summer to enjoy the quiet and the air. It was easy to understand what he meant.

As we were leaving, Smile's mother gave me a new white hand towel. Smile told me that there is an obligation to give a gift to a first visitor.

On the way back to Prishtina we met Smile's principal brother, then his nephews, then the guy who was with his brother, then his neighbor, and then several of his students. All of this before we reached the paved road.

Back at Chesvee, Smile and I met two of his friends who had arrived to help him move (the two from his "son's" bar and the restaurant). Smile told me in his usual optimistic way that he would come by to see me at 10 PM.

Joe