--Thursday, 05 April 01-- 6.7 C.
I awoke to no electricity but it didn't interfere with my shower and shave. I am getting used to this.


--Saturday, 07 April 01--
I met Smile at the Kukri for lunch and we ate Chinese again, probably for the last time but we were able to sit outside in the sun. It was most pleasant.

Near the Kukuri I saw a 4-year-old boy smoking a cigarette.


--Sunday, 08 April 01--
Up early and had cappuccino and orange juice at the Kukri. Walked to work as the Half-Marathon runners passed me on Mother Theresa Street. After the fleet feet at the front came the over-weight, the winded and the wheezy. I went into the CFA to try to complete needed tasks before I leave on Wednesday. Completed the NBK coin inventory, something I have wanted to do for months.

Mary returned today so I moved back into the Grand.

I meet Smile at the Kukri at 6 PM. We had exchanged our "Don't you forget!"s and chuckles.


--Monday, 09 April 01--
At lunch at the Napoli, I had five beers with Ram -- a record exceeding even the four I had with Matt on Friday.

Met Rajeesh and his friend at the Kukri for a few beers and tried to get in touch with Smile and Kimeta to tell them they should come later since I had to go to Matt Macellaro's going away party at Tony Sphagetteria. Smile and Kimeta came on time but they had no problem with me going to a dinner so I went to Matt's party and then came back about 90 minutes later. A half hour later we were joined by Matt Macellaro and Dan Berney. We had some interesting conversation.


--Tuesday, 10 April 01--
Another crisis with the BPK: We needed to make a Social welfare payment of 5.5 m but were 1M DM shy in the main account. Arzen and I went over the other CFA accounts and I highlighted about 2.5M that should be transferred anyway.

There was a 4 PM going away party organized for me so the staff can have something to eat and some time off. Everyone showed up for the food and beer. Adelina had organized the event and had met my only request: cold Skopska beer. Mike spoke at length because Tony had a previous commitment he could not avoid. I spoke 300 words and meant them.

I addressed myself mostly to the Treasury staff who had borne the brunt of my training efforts and who had responded well. I told them:

It has been my honor to walk in the footsteps of leaders such as George Smith, Alan Pearson and Tony Preston-Stanley. In all I have done I have tried to transmit their values, their reverence for standards, to you.

If I have been ferocious in communicating my vision of a professional finance operation, I hope that you perceived the beauty of the vision despite the blemishes of the messenger.

If I have been demanding, I hope I provided the training for staff to meet those demands.

If I have been strident, I hope you perceived that I did so out of a sense of principle rather than personality.

If I have been pertinacious in my demands on staff, I hope you realized that it was never with any personal animus.

If my vocabulary has been overblown, I hope that you understand it was from the love of my language rather than from any longing to obfuscate.

I hope that I will be forgiven for all these and my other transgressions, whether of omission or commission, whether of language or administration, and that what will be remembered of me is that I cared deeply about the quality of the work of the CFA -- and about the staff that did that work.

The world will little note nor long remember what I say here but you, the staff of the CFA, having made memorable achievements, can go on to continue those achievements.

I say to you, "Keep up the good work" and adopt my slogan as your slogan, "Nolo carborundum illigetimi est!" (Translation: "Don't let the bastards wear you down!")

Being here in Kosovo and working with all of you has been a wonderful experience for me and I will always remember you and this land. I wish you the very best."


Smile came to my room at seven and told me that he had been calling from the lobby for half an hour but my phone never uttered a peep. We had our last intensive English training and we will both regret our inability to do it again. More than even fond memories, it left me full of things to take with me into the future.

Then we walked over to the Kukri for the last time and sat quietly drinking beer.


--Wednesday, 11 April 01-- Departure Day (D Day)
Having left all this behind me, at 11 AM, I left the CFA and walked up Mother Theresa Street with a strange feeling inside me. Was it regret -- or just indigestion? When it comes to Kosovo, it is hard to tell.

Smile got out of work for an hour to see me off. I was impressed since it was not necessary but Smile has seen me off on all my previous departures. He met me in the lobby of the Grand and came up to my room to help me with my bags.

When I checked out at the Grand, someone tried to claim that the bill from September had not been paid. When I had checked out then, staff had told me that a woman had come by and paid my bill. They insisted that everything was paid for. I said there had been some kind of misunderstanding and left my card. Later, I tried to pay twice but Grand staff produced a paid receipt which they gave me a copy of.

Today staff showed me a bill that had no indication of when it was written. Feeling that it was someone who wanted to pocket the money for themselves, I told staff that it had been paid and they asked for evidence. I went to my bag and brought them the paid receipt from last September -- it sometimes pays big to be a paper keeper. They seemed confused and asked if they could keep the receipt which they attached to the new bill which was on a differently shaped piece of paper.

I shook Smile's hand and felt a sinking in my heart. But there was nothing to be done about it. We said goodbye and I got into the car to the airport.

At 2:07 PM the plane lifted off from the tarmac of Prishtina Airport. At last I was on my way home. The flight to Vienna was quick and easy. Since Thuy and Colin were also on the flight, we got together and took the bus into the center of Vienna and went to dinner at the Esterhazykeller (recommended by George) and then had a pleasant time ambling around. St. Stephen's cathedral is very impressive.

Back in my hotel room I noted the luxury of a waste basket in the bed room. Small pleasures.


--Thursday, 12 April 01-- Arrival Day
In the morning Thuy, Colin and I met for breakfast to a McDonald's in the airport and had a so-so meal. Then we went our separate ways, Thuy and Colin to Australia via Kuala Lumpur and me to Chicago via Copenhagen, Denmark.

I got rid of my two big bags and wandered the terminal until I found a bookstore, where I bought a Harry Potter book. At the Duty Free shop I bought a liter of Grand Manier and then visited a cafe.

As always in an airport, it pays to check to see if they changed your gate: they had. I sat near the jetway entrance and got on early to assure an overhead bin. No problem this trip and there was one wonderful feature: on the Copenhagen-Chicago leg, after three beers and three Irish Cremes, I got to sleep on three seats for three hours or more! What a difference sleep makes in long distance travel! It shortened the nine hour flight, it left me rested instead of exhausted and I exited the plane feeling much better than I would have if I hadn't slept.

My apartment was in fine shape and I settled in very quickly. I walked to a McDonald's and had plain double cheeseburger. It is great to be home.


Some Final Thoughts
Things are changing in Kosovo. The Grand has replaced its elevators with brand new ones so there is no longer any need to press 7 before 6 to get the elevator to stop at six and the Grand bar now actually serves cold beer. The Kukri is a lot fancier than it used to be (they actually have candles on the outside tables now). The electricity is a lot more reliable -- if not continuously available,

And yet some things never seem to change. There is still trash everywhere and frequent open burning of the surplus; the dust is always in the air, swirling along the streets agitated by the frequent winds; every male Kosovar above the age of nine (and some below it) still seems to smoke, the Communist service at the Grand continues and the paper towels in the CFA still tear badly and disintegrate on contact with wet hands. The feral dog problem seems to grow steadily.

There are things that I would hope would never change: the sound of rebar dragging on asphalt.

I has been incredibly difficult to keep even the skimpiest of notes of my activities for the last six months -- not even mentioning that I could not write any issues of the Press. I find that very frustrating. Working at the CFA was like running a race, a race with no finish line.

Kosovo has taught me things. I learned a new word that describes a significant part of my experience there: verbigeration (vuhr-bij-uh-RAY-shun) noun. Obsessive repetition of meaningless words and phrases. [From Latin verbigerare, to talk, chat, from verbum word + gerere, to carry
on + -ation.]

Beyond words, as an experience, Kosovo was different from my other overseas experiences. Instead of the usual training-report writing-advising role, I was heavily involved in (and ultimately responsible for) establishing a government Treasury operation (meaning in American terms, accounting and cash management) for the entire province. The operating budget and designated donor grants amount to about 250,000,000 USD a year and we had to create procedures, design and implement procedures and forms, hire and train our central and regional staff of 20, and train the departmental staffs. Along the way I got prior verification of commitments implemented, data entry up-to-date, introduced a system of non-cash payments and maximized interest income.

In my time in Kosovo I met many wonderful people who I have come to genuinely admire. I wish every resident of Kosovo the best possible future. There is a lot of work needed before the people of Kosovo can have the kind of life they yearn for. I wish them all the very best.

Joe

A view of that beautiful but elusive thing, a rainbow.