--Monday, 03 July 00--
Today was the day that the technician from the French vault company was to arrive. There was a bank whose vaults had not been opened since NATO forces had occupied Prishtina over a year ago. It was my job to facilitate the process and get the job done. But first I had to locate Christian with whom I had only communicated by email.

In preparation I had contacted every group that might help in our efforts, from the police (for security) to the various groups who might have or thought they might have responsibility for the facilities (several) to the BPK which would provide secure vaults for the storage of whatever we found.

I had staff arrange for a driver to pick up Christian at Prishtina Airport. As it turned out he did not show up. I thought that to be a significant fact but the staff, who made the arrangements for me, didn't. I was never told. I only found out when I accidentally discovered staff in the CFA building and asked what had happened.

Late that afternoon, I stopped by the Grand looking for Christian but he was not there. I left a note indicating I would come by at 9 AM in the morning.

Smile stopped by on his way back from his village. His brother had given him a ride and he came by my place, got out of the car with his cast white against the black asphalt and shouted up at me. We ended up having beer and chips at his place.

I left somewhat early because I wanted to know if Christian had arrived at the Grand. He had. I called him in his room and told him I would be back at 9 AM wearing a white baseball cap with the slogan "Bad Hair Day" on it. I like to be inconspicuous at these times.


--Tuesday, 04 July 00--
I asked Adelina to act as translator and she accompanied me to the Grand where we looked for Christian, our safe cracker. I stood around conspicuously wearing my white cap until 9:15 without anyone identifying themselves to us and then we went to the NBK building. Not long afterwards Christian showed up saying that he had not realized I would be with a woman. Go figure.

What followed was a series of meeting with every group that had a claim on the bank, everyone who said they knew something about how to open the vaults, everyone who thought they had or might have responsibility for the building or its contents. That is a lot of meetings. We learned that the vaults in question are opened with two keys and a combination. It seemed that no one had all three but it developed that different groups had different parts of what was needed.

Christian in front of a vault door.

Christian told me about the security features in vault doors. In addition to a combination and two keys, the doors have layers of drill resistant steel so skillfully constructed that drill bits are directed to one side until they snap. Then there are the layers of concrete and other features. I was so impressed I asked, "How many of your company's doors have been successfully burgled?" and he answered, "Oh, they never go through our doors, they always go through the wall!" Live and learn.

The most interesting event of the morning was a sudden announcement by the BPK that they thought they had the "upper" keys and might even have the "lower" keys as well. But not the combinations.

The BPK did indeed produce what might have been half the keys, each in an envelope sealed with red wax with impressions in it. They proposed to spend all afternoon opening the envelopes. I was afraid that this would lead to interminable delays so I told them, "Fine, you open envelopes; we will open the vaults," and Christian and I went back to the BPK. Forty-five minutes later the BPK showed up with all the keys and no nonsense about meetings with minutes just to open envelopes.

There were more meetings and consultations and explanations. Finally we got on with the actual work. We were at it for several days.

The bottom line was that the right keys with knowledge of how to use them was all that was required. And they were always in the hands of the BPK. Christian need not have made the trip at all. Since he was there, we had him open every smaller safe we could find.


--Thursday, 06 July 00--
The blue striped towel disaster story: I washed the towel I was drying myself with and all my whites turned gray-blue but mostly gray. I believed that a rewash would solve the problem and when I did it, I kept the now "grays" together and added a few whites for a test. My advice is don't do this yourselves. Several rewashes later the gray was only slightly lighter but gray is gray. Sigh.


--Friday, 07 July 00--
It was Smile's first day back at work so I walked over and had some beer and chips with Smile, Halil, and Korob, a neighborhood boy whose body size has yet to catch up with his head size. Korob seems to be quite intelligent and gifted in languages.

Smile had been back to the hospital and had his ankle x-rayed. He had a bad sprain but not a break. The doctor told Smile that he wanted him to keep the keep the cast on for two more weeks. Smile went home and scissored off the cast. Now, limping badly without a cane or crutches, he felt a painful freedom. We didn't really discuss this, I just watched it happening.


--Saturday, 08 July 00--
Completed the revisions to Expenditure Procedures and uploaded. Designed forms 7 (Expenditure Credit) and 8 (Revenue Reporting) and uploaded them.

Today was like last Sunday afternoon, very hot and windy with frequent powerful gusts. The weather made the day very hard to enjoy: My baseball cap would be lifted off my head, ghostly dust devils whirled intermittently changing location from here to there. Dust assaulted your eyes -- I was grateful to be wearing glasses.

For the last week or so the electricity has been available much less than usual and the usual is so bad that it would cause riots in most American cities.

Left work at 3 PM to get some sun. Tried to read on the veranda/patio but it was an enormous effort. Constantly windy but with periodic tremendous gusts that must have at least 70 kph (40 mph). The temperature was warm but the wind robbed the day of pleasure.

Sometimes Prishtina has a way of completely sucking the pleasure out of things. Those gusty winds (that have happened three times in the last eight days) are an example. The ever present cigarette smoke is another and breathing car/diesel exhaust is yet another. Yesterday there was so little electricity during the day that when I got home at six the beer in the fridge was warm. Really depressing at the end of a long day.

This is an amazing car-centric place, more like American that Europe in that one respect. The major business construction is new gas stations, being a chauffeur is a recognized employment category, and driving is the preferred mode of travel regardless of the absence of parking where you are going. Will they never learn?

Joe