Kala e Pastër-- Payç Kala -- Čist Zamak

The Prizren castle is just a little bit cleaner today. When I peeked out the window yesterday morning, it was pouring. I hadn't made any contingency plans, so I threw on my rain coat, grabbed my trash bags and headed up to the top anyways. As expected, no one was there yet (meeting time was 10 am and it was around 9:50 when I got up to the top). I found a dry place to sit and I waited.

At 10:15 I texted my colleague who was on the bus from Pristina: nobody here. pouring rain. ack! To which she replied: rain doesnt matter. be there in 30. I sighed. I looked around. Empty coke bottles and plastic bags began taunting me. I closed my eyes. Then suddenly someone was standing in front of me. My first volunteer. The rain had mostly stopped, so we put on some gloves, grabbed bags, and started in on a huge divit filled with garbage.

And then someone else arrived: one of my students from the university. Shortly thereafter, my Pristina volunteers came and we were five crazy people collecting garbage. Closer to noon, ten more of my students showed up. All-in-all, we filled about 30 trash bags. We mostly picked up garbage in the most visible areas. Although, I must admit, as we were nearing the end of the pick up, all I could see was more, more, more garbage that could be cleared. However, I'm pretty satisfied with what we were able to do. Undoubtedly, the morning rain kept some people away, but I was thrilled to see so many of my students come out to help.

My colleague and her husband rode the bus for two hours just to come down to Prizren and help out.

My first two volunteers went right to work.

From this distance all the pet bottles, candy bar wrappers, and plastic bags blend into the grass and the rocks.

These students came at just the right time. I was beginning to get tired. They injected us with a bit of energy.

At the end of the pick-up, we had to lug all the bags down the hill to a dumpster that sits behind the Sinan Pasha mosque.

There are two guys on the little ridge behind the volunteers and on the right-hand side of the photo (I purposefully tried to keep them out of the frame). They were actually jeering at us. Luckily, because I don't speak Albanian, I could easily ignore them. They were irritating the others, though. One of my students asked me if these guys could be considered "hilly billies." I laughed, corrected him, and said yes.

The final resting place.