Greetings from Kosovo

I am sitting here in an internet cafe in Suva Reka, Kosovo. As I'm certain you can imagine, things here are quite different than they are in the United States. The pace of life is much more casual. This can sometimes be a little frustrating when you are trying to teach a class or work on a construction project. Yet, they have their own way of doing things here and we need to learn flexibility. This is their culture, not ours. A lot of times, Americans tend to forget that type of thing. We expect people everywhere to automatically understand us when we speak English...rarely even trying to attempt to learn their language. Yet, when people come to our country, we tend to demand that they speak our language right off the bat.

Anyway, the project is progressing well. Yesterday, I built an internal wall along with two other people. One of them was from my team, and the other was an Albanian named Sadiq. I met him last time I was here, and it has been really cool to see him again.

Additionally, we are involved in running a course in community leadership for some of the young people here. All of the people in the class speak english, so we don't need a translator. The purpose of this course is to help each of them recognize their talents and natural abilities and help them discover how they can use those talents in order to make a positive contribution to their community. Yesterday, we administered the Meyers Brigg to them. It will be interesting to see how that test crosses cultural boundaries. Maybe I'll find a fellow INTP here.

The class just ended, and it is market day here in town, so I am going to go over to the market before heading to the construction site. Since I haven't much time, I'll just end this post now. I know it's short, but I'm on the other side of the world.