--Thursday, 15 June 00--
One odd thing I have discovered is that Kosovars nod vertically when saying no and horizontally when saying yes, just the opposite of us. I didn't discover this on my own; an expat told me about it and I tested it on Smile and he did not notice the difference.

In a document that I prepared for Tony, I referred to our hiring and training of Kosovars as the CFA's "Kosovarization". Tony told me, "say localization, at least localization is a word." Some people are so particular about their words. I prefer the "Wild West" approach of Americans who don't hesitate to verb nouns and noun verbs. Of course Brits are not perfect in these matters: In England the OED recognizes "to handbag" as a Thatcherism for "to bully."

Today I nearly got the June allocations done. The delay was necessitated by questions raised by comparisons of spending through May 31 and the proposed allocations. Tony provided useful information, that allowed me to change some numbers and run the mail merge.

When I got back to the Grand, Smile was outside talking to a friend of his. I joined them and we sat in the patio section and I ordered a COLD (ftoft) beer. Smile even talked to the waiter in Albanian to explain exactly what I wanted. The waiter brought us 3 bottles of what he said was cold beer but which I would call, at best, cool. I said, "This is not cold!" The waiter seemed surprised.

When the waiter left I told Smile, "This is why I don't like to sit here. The beer is never cold. They don't know the meaning of the word cold. At Kukri's the beer is cold. At Brooklyn the beer used to be cold but they had a change of management and the beer is no longer cold so I don't go there anymore." He seemed to understand.

Part of the Grand's problem is what I call "Communist Service." Under Communism, service staff, like everyone else, had a job and regular pay check for life. In such an environment, customers are merely an inconvenience. The wait staff eventually ends up showing this. "Of course the beer is cold -- and cold is what we define it to be." It is an attitude that is slow to change whether it be here in Kosovo or in Romania or in other places I have been.

The Prishtina Press is behind schedule due to insufficient time to write it. I have barely been able to make my daily notes, such are the pressures of the work to be done. The pressures are real on the one hand (the list of things that I should do is huge and growing) but at least partially self-imposed on the other. About the only discipline I force on myself is leaving work by 6 PM. But this doesn't measure the office work I read at night or the editing of documents I do in my hotel room or the time I spend thinking about how to deal with problems. Being a resentful, self-denying workaholic is not an easy role to play.

And even leaving at 6 PM is a psychological problem in that many of the expats in the CFA work until 7 or later. I confess to feelings of guilt. However I have decided that I will not allow work to consume me body and soul. I have done this in the past and it, as Rodney Dangerfield, that great observer of mankind, noted, "don't get you no respect."

This struggle in my soul is amplified by my respect and liking for the people I work with. They are mostly Australians (Alan Pearson, the Head of the CFA, is Australian and has hired mostly Australian finance experts) but are, on the average, considerably above the average you find in international work. Working with such finance professionals is definitely a plus.

So, by six, I boldly go back to my hotel room and buy a Herald Tribune (when I one is available), sit in a cafe, read the paper, drink cold beer (when I can find it) and then go back to my hotel room when the light is gone (around 8 PM). Then, either Smile comes to visit or I go to visit Smile. At least Smile is a social part of my life that is away from work.

And now I am teaching Smile to type. Why? It just so happens that Smile's brother is the principal of the local school in his village and some humanitarian organization decided the school could not exist without a computer and so Smile's brother has entered the world of backups, saves, documents, and COMPUTERS. Smile's wife, Kimeta, is taking a six-week computer course and is learning all about backups, saves, documents, and COMPUTERS. These things are deemed to be very significant, even if the people who believe so could not give a detailed explanation why.

My guess is that Smile feels left out and left behind. He clearly senses where the future is and his wife and his brother seems to have stolen a march on him. "Kelley, you must teach me how to type in computer!", he announced to me.

I searched the Internet for some teach typing software, found it, and turned the problem over to Smile's level of commitment. So far, he has proceeded from 3 words per minute to 15 (all on the asdf row) and shows and unflagging commitment. Smile is a good student.

Looking a lot like three drunken friends, these bus stop shade providers need to sober up.

The details of my work are interesting only to those who understand all the intricacies of government finance. Suffice it to say that the finance activity in Kosovo has achieved international recognition in the finance community (all credit to Alan Pearson and those who preceded me). I have added incrementally to that recognition, primarily by establishing a web site (www.Kosovo-CFA.org) that takes advantage of the Internet to make financial disclosure easier and faster, and to provide easy access to our financial forms and procedures. Dull stuff to average folk but wildly heady innovation to the government finance community.

The result is to continue the CFA in its previous established role as a dynamic leader in very difficult circumstances. Bluntly, there aren't many success stories here so the CFA success stands out in a very significant way. I am proud to be part of this team -- even when the electricity goes out.


--Friday, 16 June 00--
In the afternoon the sky darkened and a thunderstorm started that lasted into the evening. The temperature dropped sharply. I stayed in and replied to my emails. That consumed the evening. I got no writing done. The Press edition will have to wait for another day.

Joe