--Saturday, 17 June 00--
I finally finished up the last details on the budget allocations -- it took an elapsed 7 days. It turned out to be much more complicated that anyone wanted to admit. Many budgets had major startup costs which had to be calculated into the allocation. Nothing goes fast here.

Lunch at Leona's consisted in a very good pepperoni pizza, the second real pepperoni pizza in town. With two different restaurants offering real Pepperoni pizza, there may be hope for Prishtina.

Took the opportunity to clean up my desk, which had a nice effect since rediscovering the wood veneer beneath the paper made me feel good.

Smile stopped by for some language training and later went to work and I to Kukri to read yesterday's paper. Met Steve Campbell of the BPK who asked me if I was interested in renting his apartment. I agreed to meet him at the CFA tomorrow at 9 AM to view it.

Visited Smile, Hilal and Smile's co-worker. Kimeta stopped by with a paper tape calculator that she discussed with Hilal and then left.


--Sunday, 18 June 00--
I met Steve Campbell outside the CFA and we walked to his apartment which turned out to be at the south edge of town and not really the "block from the CFA" that he had said. He showed me his apartment and I agreed to take it because it wasn't awful and it solved my six weeks time-in-country problem.

Smile was waiting for me at the CFA building and we walked to the bus station and took the 10 o'clock bus to Peje (5 DM). The road to Peje was bad in some places but repairs were already underway, at least on the part near Prishtina.

When we arrived in Pea I suggested that we should go to Ishtok immediately, see it, and then come back to Peje and walk around. The van to Ishtok left from a corner very close to the bus station and we lucked out in that the van left as soon as we were on board.

The road the van took to Ishtok was no better than any other I had been on and had the further problem that it became a dirt road about two-thirds of the way there. The number of burnt out houses visible from the road seemed higher on average than I had seen before.

Trout farms are a great idea for getting truly fresh fish to local markets.

Ishtok itself is hardly more than an intersection (with a prison, as I later learned) but it has a mountain stream, a trout farm and an associated restaurant and "Trofta" motel. The complex is not very large but pleasant to visit.

The restaurant had a two page menu in Albanian only but the second page was all drinks. We decided to have Birre e Pejes (Extra) and "trofte e ferguar" which at 6 DM ($3) was quite a buy and very good. They served three trout on the plate but it was a light meal. There is always the bone problem but this trout meat was so good that I didn't mind much at all.

Just as our food had been served, Luan, who was hired into the Treasury during my absence, walked by and we chatted briefly. He graciously insisted that we eat our meals while they were hot and left us to dine pleasantly.

I asked for a very cold beer and the waiter told Smile that "cold is not good for your throat", but the beer was cold despite the waiters attitude.

We took the van back to Peje and walked around the old town. Peje is a pretty city with mountain stream running through it and the walk was pleasant. We caught the last bus back to Prishtina and Smile dozed all the way.

Combining a restaurant, motel and trout farm seems to be a local specialty.

--Monday, 19 June 00--
Used the driver to go to the Micro Enterprise Bank for a withdrawal, checked out of the Grand, moved into Steve Campbell's old apartment, and got back to the office in about 90 minutes.

I met Smile at the CFA building at 6 PM and walked him to my new digs. The landlady and her daughter were there to collect the rent from Steve who they said had not been around for a while. I introduced myself and said that Steve had told me that he would write them a letter. She seemed mollified by the fact that I offered to pay the rent. I committed to six weeks. Smile translated. We agreed that I would prepare a receipt and we would meet tomorrow at 7 PM.

The apartment is two rooms, a living room-kitchen and a bedroom, with a bath that has no wash basin. Go figure. It is relatively cheap at 1050 DM a month. It is another place with only ceiling lights. There are two lamp fixtures but neither is plugged in. It will be OK for six weeks -- and no more.

I have started to notice urban feral dogs recently. The credit for my insight goes to those animals who bark continuously at night for no apparent reason. There seems to be at least two packs living around the Grand and the seem to argue with each other all night. They wake me up during the night. Oddly, they do not seem to be visible during the day.


--Tuesday, 20 June 00--
Today I made my second trip to Peje in three days. I visited the CFA office and found everything in extremely fine order. All the documents were neatly organized, the staff seemed to know what they were doing, the bank seemed to know what it was doing, account balances were available, there was no nonsense. The BPK branch head even suggested that he provide a sub-office at the customs site and offer collection services. We have a fully functioning regional office in Peje, a real achievement in this environment.

On this trip we had a car and driver so when we finished up our work around 3 PM into Rugova Canyon of the Cursed Mountains. The main street of Peje barely gets out of downtown when it starts to climb into the mountains. The canyon narrows and you quickly find yourself in a narrow and pretty gorge with the stream far below. It was fun to take a few minutes off and see some local scenery.

We were back in Prishtina around six and I went to my new apartment. Smile and the landlady showed up. I paid my rent with Smile's help and was left in my apartment with Smile.

Since Smile helped me with translation I invited him to Joly Dixon's goodbye party at the Blue Fish restaurant. Joly is a Brit who works for the EU and has been on assignment here in Kosovo for the better part of a year. He headed Pillar IV (don't ask about the terminology, suffice it to say that I work in "Pillar IV") and was a force for common sense decision making. We will miss him.

Smile was in seventh heaven being around all the expats. He re-introduced himself to Alan and both of us ended up talking to Alyssa, secretary to Joly. Smile made up to her and I think she liked it.

Joe