Fieldwork Practice: In-Depth Interview

Another skill that was deemed necessary to our rapidly approaching summer internships was the art of interviewing. To break into this new arena, we were to hold a group interview with Nebi Qena, the Associated Press correspondent in Prishtina.

He spoke to us about the parallel system covering all aspects of life that emerged when Belgrade took over the institutions in Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians were expelled from their jobs and their schools, and thus re-created their own. Nebi told us of community members asking ethnic Albanians for the use of their homes to set up parallel schools, and how this new school system involved sitting on the floor, crammed in a tiny room learning with other kids - all of varying ages and levels of study.

Nebi was also a journalist for Koha Ditore, an Albanian Daily newspaper. He covered the war and was expelled to Macedonia. During the time when many people were expelled and the refugee situation was increasing, Koha Ditore created a section of the newspaper for families to write messages to one another, since locating family members was near impossible. Koha distributed these newspapers free for four months in order to help families communicate in the difficult situation.

I enjoyed his stories and perspectives, and I am starting to get a feel for the reality of Kosovo during the past 10  years. It's also interesting to think about how the people who experienced this war at a young age are now my age and have vivid memories of the horrors of war, which to them seems like just yesterday.

Context Analysis: A Forshadow of Albanian Hospitality

The first assignment in our skill-building workshop was a transect walk in a predominately Albanian neighborhood in the Bronx, where we were to check out the area and make observations. Granted, observations made in a neighborhood in the Bronx probably wasn't going to give me a lot of insight of life for Albanians in Kosovo, but I was still interested to explore this part of New York that I had never been to. Shortly after arriving at the Pelhem Parkway stop on the 5 train in the Bronx, I started to notice Albanian flags hanging out of windows in apartment buildings, and even murals painted on the sides of buildings depicting the black eagle of the Albanian flag, indicating a level of nationalism (which I would later on find out was very high!). 

Growing hungry I stopped at Dukagjini Burek on Lydig Avenue. This tiny restaurant sold only burek, which can be described as a pillo dough type pastry filled with either cheese (djathë), spinach (spinaq), or meat (mish). I took the spinach, and immediately fell in love. 

Digging in to the burek me spinaq (with spinach)

Store front of the burek spot on Lydig Ave.

While we were eating in the small, five-table restaurant, the two guys at the table next to me came over and asked where I was from. I explained I was going to Prishtina in the summer and they were so happy to hear that an American was taking an interest in their country. They had both come to New York during the war in 1999 but still had family in Prishtina that they visited every year. During a little Q&A, they had me ask them something I was interested to know about Kosovo. I told them I was curious about the type of music people listened to there. At that, one of the guys ran out to his very nice car (which was double-parked right outside) and came back with an Albanian music CD and gave it to me. They also invited me to an Albanian concert going on later that night, but it was too expensive for me to oblige. Before we left they had given me contact information for a couple of their cousins living in Prishtina that could show me around when I got there. They also told us about an Albanian grocery just down the street from where we were so we could go pick up some Turkish Delights, a common candy, as dessert.

Unë jam Amy, më vjen mirë !

Albanian lessons have begun! This is not an easy language; it doesn't sound even close to any other language I can think of, and there are some tough pronunciations. But, I have an amazing teacher, Semra, who is from Macedonia and went to university in Kosovo. She is teaching us the Gheg dialect which is spoken in Kosovo, opposed to the dialect spoken in mainland Albania. 

She is teaching us some cultural differences of the Albanian people as well, which is really useful. Albanians are very family oriented, so often when you run into someone on the street, you go further than asking how they are by also asking about everyone in their family, and strangely enough, how they slept the night before.. I am told it is also a very cafe oriented culture, so some coffee shop vocabulary is useful as well. Here are some of the basics we're studying now, that seem to be most important to know in this culture:

Mirëdita, qysh je, a je mirë? - good afternoon, how are you, are you well?

Qysh e ke familijen? - how is your family?

Qysh flejte? A je lodht? - how did you sleep? are you tired?

Hajde të pimë kafe - lets go get coffee!

The best part about this language is that it sounds so foreign to me that I'm not even embarrassed to try and speak it, because I have literally no idea how poorly I am pronouncing it. Whereas in French, I know I'm butchering the pronunciation so I'm a bit more sheepish to speak, especially around Francophones. Albanian is great!

Good News !

Today I received confirmation that I have been accepted to participate in the International Field Program through the New School University’s graduate program. The program sends a limited amount of students to various countries to intern for the summer. My first and only choice was Kosova. This program was the reason I chose to apply to the graduate program at the New School.

With a concentration in Conflict and Security, Kosova seemed like the perfect place to spend the summer given their tumultuous history. The violent 1999 conflict, which resulted in a NATO bombing campaign of Serbian troops, continued the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and the reign of Milošević. In 2008 Kosova declared independence but there are still many countries that do not recognize it today. Kosova is still in a very transitioning phase and still under UN control.

To prepare for the summer, this semester I will be taking classes in Albanian language, humanitarian intervention, research methods, reading a ton about the history of this young country, and participating in various skill-building workshops. I will find out in the next few weeks the organization where I will intern.

The flag of independent Kosova