we wake up early enough. Mark is coaxed out of bed with the promise of espresso or just another macchiato. As the OXAB team we meander down to our local bakery to get the usual, loaf of bread and chocolate buns. Today Mark tells the lady the price. Before she suggests what the cost is Mark has interjected with ‘three euros?’ at which point her eyes light up with the prospect of us paying twice as much as anyone else.

whilst we pootle down the damaged roads and play dodge-ball with the cars coming from both directions Fazz gives us a call saying he has left uni and is on sunset strip waiting. He swaggers towards us with a proprietorial air about him, this isn’t his town but it’s his Kosovo. The first thing we do is find yet another glorious coffee bar, Mark is thrilled at the potential of the caffeine. We discuss the charity and MAK and how Fazz has built up all his contacts. As we decide to leave there is a rush to the bar to pay, we have to restrain Fazz from paying for everything.

Urban FM DJ, looking out over Pristina

the four of us then set off to Urban.FM, the radio station that is the pioneer in political broadcasting to the masses without state intervention. We drive round the back of the buildings and get out. up the stairs is a studio with an array of computers, speakers, microphones and an enormous mixing desk. all the shows are live and get to about 65% of the whole of Kosovo. That, however, is not the most exciting part. While we wait we talk to another broadcaster about the radio and the things he plays and talks about but then out of nowhere Kosovo’s Che Guevara assertively strolls in. He introduces himself with a firm handshake and says how the radio station has allowed people to get an idea of the news without having to rely on the governments information.

Here it is very important to build a mental image of the man in front of me. Wearing what can only be described as the typical journalists shirt, brown, slightly baggy, un-tucked, blue jeans and shoes (that suggest he has been working hard). Then his face. The only features you can acquire with just over a hundred cups of coffee a day and smoking your body weight in cigarettes, his eyes tired and determined. the coffee has given him the shakes and he talks fast and passionately about what he is doing and what he wants to achieve. we discuss the possibility of having journalists coming over to the UK and Oxford people working within the radio station, the casual question is asked, ‘are there any security threats?’. Che pauses. He looks at us calmly, coffee mug shaking and still holding the cig he took out an hour ago but has not stopped talking so just didn’t have time to light and smoke it, and says, ‘well, when i was walking to the press conference of the peace train [a train containing DJs and music that travelled through kos spreading democracy and unity of serbs and albanians] a man pulled out a knife and threatened to stab me. I said, just before you do can you tell me why. the man said you are a traitor. I said, bullshit, this is bullshit I am not a traitor.’ Che wasn’t stabbed and assured us that was a one off incident. After many stories about the peace train and conversation starts to wain as it’s obvious Che needs to get off and lead the next revolution and OXAB just didn’t have the political will to do it we left.

Fazz drives us the now common route to Prodejeva and we have another coffee, its only the third of the day. we talk about Che and all his adventures and how the people here are just bored of the gov saying things are gong to change so they are taking it on themselves and making a difference and making sure it is working the way they see things working in Kos. All i have to offer is stories about will and his conquests, Fazz is a quick learner and is taking the piss out of will within minutes. Fazz then suggests we go for coffee with the Mayor, not really thinking anything of it we’re like yeah cool, why not?

Meeting with the Mayor of Podujeva

We get into the government office and people greet Fazz, hands shaking, hugs conversations. He pops up and then beckons us up. Fazz is very pally with the man. We have another coffee, and suddenly it dawns on me, I don’t think I would be able to call up Boris and be like, oh I’ve made a friend from Kos and he fancies meeting you, can you fit me in today? Will and Mark talk about the work OXAB do and the benefits and what we want to bring to the country and how we see room for development. I  then pipe up for the first time with a question, it goes through the official translator, Fazz, and the Mayor stops, he thinks for a second and says (translated) ‘Baghdadi. where are you from?’ We then get into the ever so common, oh Iraq, but there is something more this time. There is a perceived mutual understanding, countries that have been affected by war and are on the mend. My question was lost never to be found again. The photo shoot goes off without a hitch and we are all happy to have met each other and part ways.

Just to make sure everyone is happy and Mark’s caffeine levels aren’t falling below the critical threshold, we go for a cup of coffee. We postulate the gorgeous women of Kos are created out the coffee, that makes them active, and the nicotine that suppresses their appetite. Fazz really thinks we are chatting rubbish but does agree that the girls are lovely to look at and of course will has to interject with his ideas and experiences of girls, classic Breame. Fazz then pipes up and invites us to the ballet in the national theatre. of course Fazz’s cousin is the lead dancer and is stunningly attractive, Will is then pushed seriously close to having a heart attack over the prospect of seeing lovely looking girls in leotards.

the time flys and before we know it it’s 1800 and we get the bus. the one euro dream waggon that takes us back to Pristina. We talk about the usual rubbish on the bus; charity work, revolution, changing the world, girls and food.

On the way home we stop off at the local shop and deliberate for a good half hour over the various pasta sauces we could get. we decide on a tub of pepper sauce and buying 2 tins of tuna, couple of tomatoes and a chili, good work fellas. oh and 2 large bottles of beer that the man behind the counter looks at us with sheer disgust. Little does he know that it will only be a matter of hours before we are back with the a request of another 3… they have civilised coffee drinking and conversation, we have drinking beer and chatting shit, i know what i prefer.

Will cooks the dinner because Mark and I have nothing to do. He warms the pan, cuts the chili and onions and throws them all in. The landlord then pops up, the glorious Pablo with only money on his mind and booze on his breathe, and starts to wince. with the chemical warfare will has just started. A sight to be seen, Mark, Will, Luke, and Pablo, the best dressed man this side of Milan with his dapper suit and slippers all coughing and laughing at the situation. when we go to open the window Pablo shouts the idea down, how dare we let precious heat out, you will loose your eyes before the heat is lost!

we eat, we drink then the conversation arises, is society built out the individuals of society or is it the society that creates individuals? I can safely say that i was captivated with academic argument going on around me… once all 10 litres of beer were drank and things were winding down a knock at the door came. A french boy with nothing but girls jeans on was stood in front of us. Mark initially closed the door but with an overwhelming sense of inquiry he open it again. All being open minded we invited him in for a conversation, he kindly declines. In fact he is searching for a condom and explains the jeans he is wearing are the young ladies he is with. 3 twenty something boys, he must have been thinking he was quids in! Will scurries off in an attempt to save the poor young-un from making the mistake of his life but returns empty handed! the boy then leaves us muttering that he will find what he needs else where.

at this point, tired and drunk we decide the success of yet another day will help us sleep well.

Tags: Kosovo, OXAB Kosovo Exploration Trip by Luke
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Looking out over the Peace Park

On our first full day in Kosovo, we wake up early and head down to the local bakery for bread and Pain au Chocolats. For six pain au chocolats and two loaves of bread, the total cost is only €2. After some searching in the nearby supermarket we find fillings - corned beef and jam. Brilliant.

At 11 our local guide comes and picks us up from our hostel. Fazz is 20 and an art student at Pristina university. He’s been working with aid organisations in Kosovo for the last five years, and we found him through one of them.

As we drive east from Pristina to Podujeva, we can’t help noticing how well developed the country is. The roads are good quality and there are virtually no signs of the war which wreaked such destruction in this area less than ten years ago. The buildings, too, are of a very high standard. Fazz explains that a lot of people earned money abroad and then brought that back home after the war - most of the buildings were fixed up by the people who live in them. The prosperity is somewhat superficial, however: the unemployment rate here is around 70%.

When we arrive in Podujeva, Fazz takes us to the Peace Park. Manchester Aid to Kosovo has been building the park since 2004, just on the other side of the rail tracks from the town centre. There’s still a lot of work to do but it is starting to take shape. The land on which the park is being built used to be a swamp, but was reclaimed to build an area where people could relax in a beautiful environment. Totalling 4 acres and designed by the Eden Project, when complete the park will include sports areas, a paddling pool, and play area. There is also the potential to use the station buildings for a community centre. In March, the park will be dedicated to the municipality, to commemorate a massacre in 1999.

After visiting the peace park and seeing how much work has already been done and the great potential that it holds, we head off for coffee with Fazz. Kosovo is surprisingly big on cafe culture, and Podujeva is no exception. We sit in a swanky cafe overlooking the river and, over macchiatos, discuss how OXAB could help in Kosovo. Fazz is very receptive and we begin to realise that with his contacts there is a lot of opportunity.

There are two real parts to what we have in mind for Kosovo. Firstly, we would build on our work in Bulgaria and Bosnia, helping vulnerable and disadvantaged children and disabled people. Secondly, we would tap into the great skills base that Oxford obviously has to try and help in more specialised ways. This could include, for example, English-language teaching to children and local businesses, medical students helping in the local health centre, management or entrepreneurial courses by MBA students, and environmental awareness projects.
We head off for lunch and on the way bump into Samir, the owner of a local English school. He is keen to emphasise the unique format of his English classes: his is the only centre in Kosovo that uses a combination of the Internet and software. Over lunch, Samir gives us some context and background to the Kosovo conflict and explains that there was actually fairly little animosity between ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians before the 1980s. However, after that point, leaders used Kosovo to distract attention away from a worsening economic situation. Will and Luke had kebabs (much better than their English equivalents!) and I had a stew a bit like Goulash. The meal was rounded off with “Russian tea” - the same as Indian (or English) tea, but black and with sugar and lemon.
After lunch we headed over to Samir’s school to see how he works. Thanks to British Council funding, he uses modern computers connected to the Internet, along with workbooks and a whiteboard. English is obviously very helpful in getting ahead in the world and so Samir’s school is important for helping develop not just the skills of Kosovans, but because of that also Kosovo’s economy more generally.
We go over to the bus station and, saying “bye” to Samir and Fazz, jump on the bus to take us back to Pristina - a forty-minute journey that costs only €1. We walk through the centre and stop off for some supplies at a local supermarket before heading back to the hostel. We have dinner and switch on BBC World News. Today is the first day of operation for EULEX, the European Union’s law and order mission in Kosovo. At the weekend there had been protests against EULEX, and we saw signs in Pristina saying “EULEX: made in Serbia”. The reason is that many Kosovans consider the agreement made between the UN, EU, Serbia and Kosovo to have been slanted in Serbia’s favour. They worry that the division of forces between northern Kosovo - around the Serbian enclaves such as Mitrovice - and the rest of Kosovo will lead to the partition of the country. However, Fazz says that the protesters are very much in the minority, and in any case, most of them are not protesting against the whole of EULEX but only a part of the agreement.

As it happens, there are Bulgarian EULEX customs officers staying at our hostel. We talked to some of them (and promised to come down to see them), and on the way out we bump into another guy called George on the computer, have a brief chat and head down.  When we get there, we knock on the door and the Bulgarians are sitting around smoking and drinking Raki, Luke introduces himself to someone we have already met who says “I know” and then in the awkward silence says “We’re looking for George” knowing full well where he is.  They then say “where’s George? He’s on the computer” which they know is outside our room.  This is the first day of the EULEX mission (taking over from the UN) so they’re a little jumpy, and one of them rushes up to see where George is, we invite them for a beer to which they say “We’re Bulgarian” and so Luke repeats and they then say they just drink “hard spirits” so we just slink away.

We get to a bar outside the UN/EU compound at about 23:00 which theoretically should give us only about an hour’s drinking time - but licensing laws are pretty loosely interpreted here, so we stay quite a while longer! While we drink Peja beer and mull over the day’s events, what is really striking is the way that almost everyone else in the bar - and it’s pretty busy for a Tuesday night - is drinking macchiatos. Smoking is something you really can’t get away from here though, and with such a small bar it’s impossible not to leave stinking of smoke!

It’s amazing how much we’ve learned just on our first day here. We head back to the apartment tired but excited about what tomorrow might bring.

Tags: Kosovo, OXAB Kosovo Exploration Trip by Mark
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We wake up early. The alarm is set for 3.45am but we wait until it hits 4am before getting up.  We’re aiming to make the 5am Gatwick Express for our 8am flight, but figure we’ll settle for the 5:30. Luke puts on his red duvet jacket and heads out into the cold, dark London morning on Southhampton Row. When we arrive at the bus stop the bus had already left and the next will make it tight for the 5:30. We stop a black cab and after ascertaining an approximate price, decide to take it to Victoria for £14. I buy the wrong ticket at the station, but get a refund from the ticket desk. We walk onto the apparently secret 5:15 departure. We sit next to an Italian couple who of course have bought the wrong tickets and are therefore charged extra by the ticket conductor which I assume they must think is some sort of bribe, which perhaps it is. Mark is at the airport when we arrive.  I look at the screens to find the 8:05am to Sofia, only to find a 7:05am departure with nothing til 11. I check my tickets again to find that in fact we are booked on the 7:05am, it is now 6am so we make a hasty move to check in where we hedge our bets in the queue. Luke gets to the front first and so we attempt to join him at the desk before being confronted by an angry English man who thinks our tactic somehow undermines the queueing culture using somewhat more colourful language. We settle to wait an extra 2 minutes.  We rush through security and have to pick up the pace to a trot on the way to the plane which we get despite Mark’s insistence on buying a bottle of water.

The plane is uncomfortable but we still manage to grab a couple of hours sleep.  The queuing culture at Sofia airport is more relaxed than at Gatwick airport but without any problems we walk into the terminal building which seems only to have people from our flight around. Soon we are out of the terminal building and whisked away by our taxi driver who was waiting for us and helpfully took us to a small exchange booth where I was able to exchange some sterling into Euros with some very unhelpful change in Bulgarian Lev. 

We get back to our taxi (a modern silver VW passat estate), and Mark has his eastern European hat on and busily trying to confirm the price (185 Euros) with our taxi driver who plainly had no clue what was going on. Mark is satisfied with the information that I have an email print out with the price from our contact Krasmir. From the car we see the beautiful Balkan countryside, horse and carts with some relics of heavy industry lining the route. We find out why the driver had no idea about the final price when we pull into a disused petrol station near the Macedonian border. After 10 minutes, a car pulls up beside us and our driver ushers us to change into the other car.  Mark warns us that his last attempt at crossing the border took an hour but this time the customs official opens our bags, does a little rummaging and then waves us on. Our passports are finally stamped and we are on our way. We change again, into a car running on something which is surely not petrol. The car then whisks us away.  The driver puts on a CD, and “toxic girl” blares out as we weave through the mountains overtaking dangerously but not recklessly.  The CD skips all the way to the Kosovan border, but our driver seems not to mind. The car is hot, 27 degrees by the cars reckoning and we all fall asleep.  The UNMIK border guards are friendly, but the Kosovan Policeman’s attempt to check what the driver has said fails when I fail to understand a word the man is saying.  Our taxi drives onwards into Kosovo, stopping only 10 minutes from Pristina to fill up on LPG.  We think this must be a home, or at least budget, conversion since the petrol gauge has read empty since getting into the taxi in Macedonia. 

We arrive at a roundabout which looks like so many others we have seen, and the taxi pulls up behind some Pristina taxis.  The driver takes our address to ask one of the old men standing around in the darkness next to the lights of the taxis.  The driver returns with good and bad news. The good news is that they know where it is but the bad news is that they wont say unless we get in the taxi with them.  Fortunately, the driver says they will only charge 2 euros.  We change again for the final time, settle our Macedonian taxi, and confirm the 3 euro price with the new taxi driver.  This taxi races through the hilly streets of Pristina; cars come from all angles, but somehow everything is simple. There are a large number of UN, EULEX 4 x 4s, and some very nice local cars as we have seen ever since leaving Sofia.

We get dropped off outside the guesthouse, and have little time to exchange pleasantries with because a large lorry is wating to pass on the narrow steep street not wide enough for two cars given the cars and 4 x 4s parked half on what might be considered the pavement and half on the potholed road. The guesthouse itself is hot, and before taking 10 steps I have to remove my scarf and undo the jacket which had protected my from the cold outside. We step into a living room setup which is labelled reception and a smiling older gentleman of about 5 feet 8, not overweight but certainly not underweight. He shakes out hands, Luke says later that these are farmer hands, but at the time we are all overcome by their softness. Luke christens the man Pablo despite his introductions. Pablo shows us to our apartment which is in a seperate building to the living room/reception. He explains in broken by accurate English how he has improved his buildings. In this new building there is a TV with Albanian pop music showing to an empty sofa in the reception area of what could be a large house. Upstairs, Pablo opens the door to a room with a sofa with fixed benches around it, a tiled floor and a new electric cooker and hob with a hot water tank, fridge and work surfaces. The next room is large, with one king size bed and two smaller ones, some sofas, a TV, a huge electric heater and  with a waxed wooden floor.  Pablo explains how he has recently installed central heating, and it shows, the room is hotter than the Macedonian taxi. Pablo warns us of the cold and of the park at night, but is jolly throughout. He says that if it gets cold we should use the electric heater but we assure him it is quite warm enough.

We leave our suitcases and step out into the cold night. We walk up the steep hill which happens to house the Dutch embassy and has a reassuring number of UN SUVs parked along the side of the road.  When we get to the centre we opt to take money out from the Raiffeisen bank, garish yellow and with ATMs all over the city. My card fails and so does Luke’s so we are forced to opt for the Pro Credit bank which dispences enough Euros for us to pay Pablo at some point in the future. We haven’t had any food or water since Gatwick and we are getting weak. Despite it being Eid, a religious and national holiday, there are a number of places open on the pedestrianised and colourfully lit main square we dub the sunset strip. We find a place serving fast food. When we walk in, the owner swiftly clears a table for us and gives us a verbal list of what is on offer. We settle for some meatballs with salad and some beer. Satisfied, we stop at a shop to buy water and we walk the 30 minutes back to our, by now, very very hot apartment.  Luke and Mark are asleep by 9:30pm and I follow not far behind.

Tags: Kosovo, OXAB Kosovo Exploration Trip by William
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OXAB already works with disadvantaged people across the Balkans, and we’re keen to expand into Kosovo. Over the next two weeks (8-20 December), you can follow the progress of Will, Luke and Mark as we travel round Kosovo to set up new links with centres and projects here.

Tags: Kosovo, OXAB Kosovo Exploration Trip by Mark
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