America tells why it left Texas to live in Kosovo

The long lines of multipage books were never reaching out to satisfy the great curiosity he had about Kosovo. Lindsey Keeling is a young Texas girl who flew over the deep blue waters of the Atlantic for hours, leaving America five thousand and a few miles behind. Fanned by new cultures, the desire to travel and live in other countries for some time makes Lindsey choose the group's “Peace Corps program to realize all these wishes.

Not like all other American children, Lindsey as a little girl had read about the war in Yugoslavia, especially about the one in Sarajevo, which had also increased her curiosity about visiting a state that is being rebuilt and has just been independent. Bored with the fact that in Texas you rarely see the snow - covered streets and roofs of houses carrying smoke out, she added one reason to her list of why it should come to Kosovo. I want to see if I can adapt to the cold weather, because in Texas we almost never have snow”, Lindsey said.

Books she had read about Kosovo described Pristina as a dusty city, with color and grey prevalent. More informed about Kosovo in 1999-2000 than about today, Keeling with luggage in his hand and his mind that he will face people who have been traumatized by the last war, boarded the plane that the last destination had Pristina Airport “Adem Jashari”.

In Kosovo and Books

Exhausted by the long road up there, upon the clouds of the blue sky, the earth covered with water, and sometimes with long green fields, she finally landed on the ground she had read about since she was a child.

“Pace Corps” (Percuse of Peace), had chosen a family of four members in Kamenica to place Lindsey in it for the next three months.

It was a voice coming from abroad that ruined his sleep by coming to Kosovo, which he had never heard before. That voice was the Enan who was singing the hoja shortly before dawn in Kamenica. Now she doesn't mind ezani anymore. She even wakes up a little after the ezani is called to get ready to go to work that group “Pace Corps” has chosen for her.

Now she works as a teacher, but this is not the only profession she's done. I worked as a journalist in a local Texas newspaper, an administrative assistant at the Department of Education and the Police Academy, as well as in a brewery”, Lindsay was already expressed as a new resident of Prizren's Pousk village, as the program she is choosing this small village for her, where she will stay for the next two years with a Bosnian family.

Pousk village, Prizren

The mornings in Texas were slightly different than those in Kosovo. Usually, the sunny morning was enjoyed by drinking coffee with her boyfriend, and often even by walking her dog. Reading news was routine before going to work, but now Pousk is different.

I wake up at about six o'clock to have time to have a cup of coffee and read the news, go to school where I teach up at about one o'clock, then I get off to town, or go home”, she said, describing a typical day in her beautiful little village of Prizrenas.

A Texas teacher

In the small Bosnian village, located in the depths of a high mountain, which shows Prizren's magnificent view and has no more than 50 homes. Lindsey walks almost every day to the small village school, where she teaches English.

“ec to school daily on dry, homeless streets and arrive in 5 minutes”, she says, continuing to show that she likes to work with her students and that she feels they enjoy English - speaking hours.

Among the most interesting things about being a teacher is that children are excited to learn, she said, continuing to tell them why they are.

The students are excited to learn because I am different, not because I am American, but because I am different from other teachers. I think in the school where I work is the tradition of learning everything from books only, but I'm informing them of different activities, I'm giving them the opportunity to do something different”

In the deep waters of his profession that he has never done before, Lindsey is also facing difficulties that he is finding delightful for a reason. The main difficulties have to do with language, but it's good, because that's how students are encouraged to communicate more in English with me”, she says, and continues to count other challenges, which seem more serious.

Other “difficulties involve textbooks that are not good for certain classes. They have mistakes. In them, for example, from the fourth grade, where basic words are learned, they are passed to the fifth grade, where whole conversation and grammar are taught” is expressed.

Kosovo, Kosovars impressions

The family, America, the city, the work, the society and her dog were left thousands of miles behind, but the moment she stepped onto Kosovo soil, she felt like it wasn't the first time she was here. I felt like I'd been here before. Kosovo seemed familiar to me”, she said until she continued to confess to Kosovo, Kosovars, culture and some of the interesting and ridiculous memories she had already placed in a part of her heart.

Impressed by what she had seen with coming to Kosovo, she shows that the impression had left her the fact that the family here is important to everyone. Its impression of Albanians, Keeling, sums them up in a short, clear sentence: “I think most Kosovo Albanians are gregarious. Of course, there are differences in culture, but in general they're social”.

Although she lacks her favorite food, “Tacos”, she has already replaced it with other traditional foods, which she also put on her favorite diet list. She likes pie and arani, but she loves black tea, popularly known as “chiy Russian”> Lindsey has created many good reports with the two families he lived with, with the Albanian family in Kamenica and the Bosnian one in Pousk. She even feels that families are similar. Making the event somewhat more comical, says “The only difference between families is that Bosniaks drink more Turkish coffee instead of black 15x5>.

Kamenica

She will never forget the 90-year-old's smile with the white plys on her head, whose mood, although she did not understand it well because of the language, she laughed very much. He did not stop working in his garden, where he was very often taken to spend time there.

He will always remember the ridiculous occasion that had happened to him in Caminice while he lived there. It followed me to the bridge that wasn't close to our home, which was my destination with another American friend. He thought I'd be scared of stray dogs, but in fact I loved them, all because I didn't know how to explain them in Albanian”.

Lindsey has already spent almost a year in Kosovo. She has two more left until the day she returns to Texas to share her experiences with her circle.