Aiva and Kosovo: The Friendship That Conquered the Remote

In an interview for Voice of America, Ayva state governor Kim Reynolds said that if you compare the people of Aeva and Kosovo, differences are quite small. The joints of the two populations are making friendship sustainable, although the distance between them is too great.

The state of Aeva and Kosovo split about 8 thousand and 500km. But distance was no problem for a wine shop in the city of Johnston of this American state. Now of a time, at the <x0Wine Styles”, a wine produced in Kosovo is sold.

The owner of the store, Allan Graham, says that his clients, in addition to the taste of the Stone Castle wine, learn much about where it is produced.

Not many people know wine comes from Kosovo, so what I like to do is I offer you a summer champion without saying anything about its origin and I expect the reaction, which is always very positive. Clients are stunned to know what is and where it comes from. Then they are interested in knowing more about where this summer comes from. I think if you tell them where you come from before they try that reception, they're the other ones. Then there are a lot of people who say I thought this summer was from California”, says store owner Allan Graham.

This co-operation came as a result of a special partnership report that Aiva and Kosovo have in 2013, when the two states signed the sister states agreement.

“has grown strongly in various fields, relations and opportunities to work together in education, agriculture, military, police, law enforcement, and continue to co-operate and find new ways of co-operation”, says Ayva state governor Kim Reynolds.

The strongest field of co-operation continues to be that of the military. Last week alone, four members of the Kosovo Security Force remained for 10 days, under training for response in cases of natural disasters.

The “has certainly been a short time, but the impact of this exercise is too great. And this exercise is extremely valuable to us as a new force in the Balkans”, says Drilon Rama, Lieutenant in the Kosovo Security Force.

So these lessons that we've learned from the National Guard of Eva, we'll definitely implement when we get back to our unit. Given that any experience taken here will affect the development of our” units, says Bujar Ferizi, captain of the Kosovo Security Force.

Taking experience from the Aiva Guard made Kosovo today have its military with high capacities, says Governor Reynolds.

I'm very proud of the guards serving in the army. It was an extraordinary opportunity to create opportunities to share infrastructure and management. We are proud of the men and women who spent time in Kosovo, as if you had a military presence in Aeva working together and I think that Kosovo is in a very good position today because of this very healthy report between the National Guard of Aeva and your army”, says Parliamentary Governor Kim Reynolds.

The plans are for Kosovo to receive experience in Aeva even in the area of renewable energy, which the governor of this state says are first.

“We have several businesses working to deploy to Kosovo, in particular in the area of renewable energy. And on the other hand, having businesses from Kosovo to Iowa is fantastic. We've been talking about young entrepreneurs and opportunities that exist, so we can bring them from Kosovo to see our infrastructure and opportunities. It's taking us a while to get to that point. But we hope that you will create the best ecosystem we had at our beginning. And to divide, we have ideas about Kosovo and Kosovo can have ideas for us”, says Governor Reynolds.

Kosovo is the only country to have its consulate in this American state. The presence of Kosovo diplomatic staff in Des Moines makes Kosovo participating in many cultural events taking place in the capital of Ajeva.

Last week, Kosovo had its own special space under the international food and music festival. The importance of participating in these events is great.

It's very important because when we first opened the console it's not like most people knew where Kosovo is. Therefore, it is important, in addition to relations with institutions in these other areas of agriculture, economy or education to have people know a little bit more about our culture, what foods we have”, says Rinoora Jeliki from the Kosovo Consulate in Des Moines.

The cook from Kosovo, Progress Babalija, was participating in the festival, which presented the festival's participants with traditional Albanian taste.

We have done something, a very simple cooking, but which is from the area of Kosovo. We've made sons of eggs and rice. We've made Kosovo's pot of white corn flour, cream and sheep's cheese, we've made a watermelon with goat cheese and black tartuff because we traditionally used watermelon in our families, bread and cheese. This is a plate that we can modify today, because in Kosovo we have a lot of truffles and the tartuff should be like a first item that we should boast about that we have very large amounts. And we're going to make a dish where we put Kosovo products in a modern plate”, says the chef who came from Pristina to Des Moines of Aevas, Progress Babalija.

Governor Reynolds says that the more two peoples learn each other's culture, the relationship is getting stronger and stronger.

I think there's a lot of similarities. Everyone says that when you travel to Kosovo you feel like you're in Iowa. People are warm and sincere, careful, and with those words, they can also describe the inhabitants of Aiva. Because we care about people, the community, we try to offer opportunities to everyone and the same feeling they give me to all those who come from Kosovo to Ajva. I love youth in Kosovo's population, I think it's wonderful and many opportunities open up from that perspective. That's why I think it's a relationship we'll see grow”, she says.

Days ago, 28 students from Kosovo started studying at the Des Moine Community College, enabled by the Millennium Foundation with funds from the US government.

They will study in the energy field in two-year programmes, to return to Kosovo later to develop this sector.