All Creatures Great and Small

Spiders fascinate me. I love them, and still I'm a bit scared of them. I don't have problems to take them to my hand (though I really used to). I even have a spider tattoo. And the word spider - regardless the language - somehow it fits my mouth. It kind of tastes good.

Spider. Marimanga. Hämähäkki. Spindel.

It hasn't always been like this. When I was little, I used to be scared of spiders. Very scared. Now, after years have passed by, I have turned to love them. It's funny. Another thing I used to be scared of and later turned to love is thunderstorm.

I am not a big fan of other bugs than spiders. On the other hand, I can't kill any bigger animal than a mosquito (ok a deer fly, my greatest enemy, doesn't count here).

So, here's the pattern:

six legs -> not so happy with them

eight legs - > love

(Should I put here also two legs...?)

But: now I have encountered a new creature that lives in my house. And it has 30 legs. 30. Like, T-H-I-R-T-Y! And I can assure, it wasn't a small creature. I mean 30 legs already need some space themselves, not to mention the body that holds them. According to my formula (more legs, more love?) I should have really warm feelings towards this one. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. Though I had some strong feelings - I had a nightmare the night after meeting a centipede. These are the rare moments I find myself missing Finland (a little). At least it's so cold there that not all these weird things come to lurk in your house.

Learning to learn outdoors

Another great weekend in Rugova behind!

This time ERA organized a training course about outdoor experiential learning. Our trainer was Petr Kubala from Outwardbound Czech. He led us to nice games and activities inside, outside and during the hike to the lake.

The last two weeks it had rained almost every day, so I was a bit worried how it would turn out with all the outdoor activities. But - sun was shining the whole weekend. And autumn colors, all the frosty mornings... I just love it there.

Again, I have left a piece of my heart in those mountains. I wonder if one day it will be the last piece. Then I'll have to stay there and never come down to the city?

Boys boys boys

They are raised to be kings of the city, if not the world. They are let to do whatever they want, and even encouraged to do stupid things. They are spoiled, they are wayward, they are sons. They are loved. More than daughters.

Within a week I have twice stopped a bunch of boys tormenting a stray kitten. Last time yesterday. A kitten was running under a car, three boys following and trying to kick it. I flipped out (in my mind) and angrily compelling them to stop. I got some weird faces but didn't care. Finally boys ran away and the kitten was safe for a while at least.

The other day we were having a walk with my friend. In one hour timeline two random boys tried to kick or hit us. And what do parents do? They laugh. Boys are boys.

Here, a family concept is different. A new wife moves to her husband's home after the wedding. And I mean home-home. With a mother-in-law, and other brothers' families. She goes to visit her own family once a month for a week or so. In her new home, under the eye of the mother-in-law, the newest bride serves everyone. She stands up whenever someone comes of goes to the room. She brings coffee to guests. This continues until she gives birth to a son. Daughters don't count. Sons do. Oh, and only the sons inherit, too.

What is this patriarchal society? Raised to believe in equality, I find it really hard to accept such things. Today, (I would say luckily) more and more city girls share my thoughts. But village girls - this is their dream. To get married to a wealthy family. To get a son. Because they are so precious. They are kings of the city.

Tik-llakat

If I ever have hated something, it's this thing. Life in Peja has been peaceful, until around two weeks ago... streets started suddenly to fill with these things. They are strings with a ball at each end. And they make noise. And they cost 50 cents. You put that plastic ring in your middle finger and when moving your hand, balls hit against each other and make extremely annoying noise. It's tik-llakat, and its only function is to make irritating noise. And that it succeeds to do.

For me, tik-llakat represents everything bad, evil and disgusting. It is cheap, it's crap and it has no reason to exists. Yet it's so popular. Now, absolutely everybody has tik-llakat. Bunch of kids in the street have them. Youth have them. Roma people have them. A mobile operator salesman has them. A waiter in the café has them. A taxi driver leaning his car waiting for customers has them. A stray dog has them. And they make noise. They make me crazy. All the time, also right this moment, home, in my bedroom, I'm forced to listen that tapping noise as my neighbor's child has one. Though I'm not alone hating them. Also other neighbor's dog hates them. He barks. I just curse in my mind where all the silence in the world has gone.

One night in Prizren

The title may be a bit misleading. It was only a half an hour adventure and we made it to the hotel before 21:30. Alcohol was not involved either.

I was in a coordinating team in SALTO SEE's study visit in Kosovo, in this case in Peja, Klina and Prizren. After Peja and Klina, we arrived in Prizren, accommodated in a hotel, went to the youth center to eat flia. After dinner, participants headed to the city center to continue evening but the coordinating team decided to have a meeting and join the others later (at 21:00, to be sharp).

The meeting took longer than we originally thought, as we started to have ridiculous problems with a really small practical matter. Discussion went further and further and at one point everyone was just laughing and laughing. At the end, we found a simple solution to our problem. It was time to join the others. Except... a couple of people decided to stay at the office, and as it was raining and we being tired, me and D. decided to go to the hotel.

As mentioned, it was raining. We didn't know where the hotel was located (except that it was quite far away) so a local guy promised to call a taxi for us. But then his friend Arijon was leaving to same direction and was supposed to take us.This guy left to meet the others and me and D. went outside to wait Arijon and his car. We stood under my umbrella, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. And at exactly same moment started laughing. It was clear that our driver had vanished.

We still standing outside and laughing, a boy who has been inside the building approaches us. We ask if he is Arijon. He doesn't speak English a lot, just a few words, but it's clear that he's not our driver. I'll try to explain the situation to him with my rusty Albanian, D. tries if he speaks Serbian. I put almost all my existing vocabulary there and yet he doesn't seem to get it. And of course he doesn't - he works for TV, not the organization we were visiting. They just happen to work in the same building.

The TV-boy leaves, and D. decides it's time for us to call a taxi. Of course we don't know any taxi company, so we go inside to search for the TV-boy. He seems to have vanished too. We split up and look for him everywhere. Finally he comes out from one room, next to the office we had our meeting. We ask him to call a taxi as he can explain where it should come. There's a lot of confusion when we don't have any strong common language, but finally it seems to be solved and taxi coming.

Both me and D. realize that we don't remember the name of the hotel. D. opens the door to the office to ask from our colleague who stayed there working. Immediately the same idea pops in our heads and we start laughing hysterically - all the time we tried to speak with the TV-boy there has been an Albanian speaker right behind the door! We can't stop laughing but manage to ask the hotel's name. We go out and the taxi comes. We hop in and tell our destination. The taxi driver is a young guy, he asks D. where we are from. D. tells his origin, I mention being from Finland. And the guy starts speaking Finnish! He tells that he lived in Espoo and worked in Helsinki for one year, in Eerikin Pippuri. I don't know the company but smile widely. He pronounces it perfectly. We arrive at the hotel. Kiitos. Hyvää yötä!

May I introduce my dear friend - headlamp

My house has been without electricity for 24 hours. Typically it turns off every now and then for technical difficulties with delivery. Now it's different. This neighborhood hasn't paid their electricity bills. Which means KEK (Kosovar Electricity Company, or something like that) has decided to cut the electricity until they pay. The problem here is that though households have their individual electricity consumption meters, the houses are still connected so that the company can't cut the delivery to houses separately but it has to torture the whole neighborhood. So thanks to my neighbors, my house doesn't have electricity either until they pay. Too bad that most of my neighbors seem to have a generator. Guess if I have one?

So now I'm sitting in pitch dark. Can't take a shower. Can't cook. Can't do laundry. I'm waiting my laptop battery to die. After that can't listen to music. But it's not that melancholic and depressing that it may sound. I can always read. Or go to sleep early. Not being able to cook is also a great excuse to eat only corn flakes. Life goes on without you baby.