The Kindness of Strangers

I've been amazed by how nice total strangers have been to me. Take, for example, the people I met to hike with on Sunday. We met again at 7:15 am Monday morning to go up to another fountain called "White Water" (it has a similar name in Turkish, Albanian, and Serbian). On the way up to the fountain, we stopped to pick wild apples which are good to make vinegar and compote. We also stopped every now-and-again so that someone could point out a particular tree or type of plant to me. We have plans to make the weekend hikes a regular thing. It's great.

Two of my hiking companions at the "White Water" fountain.

After walking to the "White Water" Fountain, we went back to the Pasha Cherchme Fountain, which we had visited on Sunday (you can see the fountain on the far left).

The horses have their front two legs tied together so that they don't run away. I was mortified, but everyone else thought it to be a normal method for peasants to use to keep their horses within a general area.

Another example of random kindness: On Monday, as we were walking, we ran into another guy that one of the men knew. After we stopped and exchanged morning pleasantries, they told me that the guy owned a travel agency/photocopier shop (a common combination, I've noticed).

Later in the day, I had to send a fax so I set out to find his shop, which I did easily. He recognized me and said that he could fax my documents to Pristina. I waited for him to finish up with some other customers and then he sent my fax for free. I went back yesterday to send a fax to Greece. At first he said I should go to the post office to fax it, but when he saw it was only one page he said, "Ah...this, this one page, it is no problem! I will do it!'

And he sent that one for free as well. I tried to pay him, but he wouldn't take my coin. To top it off, he offered me coffee as well! I refused because I had somewhere to go and it was too late in the day for me to drink coffee and get to sleep at a reasonable hour. I told him I'd happily have a cup with him next time (I'll just have to go earlier in the day).

When I arrived home in the afternoon, what should be waiting for my on my stairwell but a post of meat and peas in tomato sauce. A delicious dinner treat from my landlady.

I don't know what I expected from Kosovars, but it wasn't this. I am very pleasantly surprised.

(What doesn't pleasantly surprise me are the layout problems I'm having with this post. Apologies.)