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The people of Kosova are very warm and engaging and amazingly optimistic. They are also quite stoic. You can ask a person whether they have ever experienced difficult times in their life and they will shrug and say no. But if you keep talking with them, they will tell you about their home being burned down or family members being killed by Serbian soldiers. They seem to accept as a fact of life that each generation will be affected by war at some point. Now that their turn with war has come and passed, they are very optimistic about their future.
The city of Prizren is alive with positive energy. Everyone I meet reminds me that Kosovars are working twice as hard to rebuild their country and to use their new freedom to create a better life.
The youthfulness of their population contributes to the optimistic spirit. The streets are filled with teenagers. Living in Prizren is like living on a high school campus. I keep expecting all these kids to get on buses and go home, but they never do. They make me feel old. I keep looking down at my hand to see if there is a blinking light like in Logan's Run. Maybe they all have me fooled because I'm new and don't speak their language, but all the kids seem quite decent. I haven't spotted any troublemakers. They are not as hardened and jaded as American kids. I'm guessing that comes from not watching TV and movies. (They now have MTV, so this happy state of affairs will not last.) If this many young people gathered together in one place in America, the governor would have his finger on the speed dial to dispatch the National Guard.
Girls of all ages link arms when they are walking together, which looks very sweet. Boys walk with their arms around each other's shoulders, even in 90 degree weather, which doesn't look so sweet. Fortunately, the boys stop doing this around age 14.
Over the weekend, there were even more young people than usual in Prizren. Busloads were shipped in so that they could see the city of Prizren on a historic occasion. Albanian leaders from all over Europe were meeting here to decide the future of Kosova. It is the first meeting of its kind in 122 years. Many people pointed this out to me with great pride. I felt privileged to be here while the meeting was taking place. The kids also knew it was a special time. At night, the streets were filled with thousands of kids with no adult supervision. Some of them would hold hands in a circle and sing chants under my window. There was laughing and singing and the honking of car horns until midnight. Seeing the young people so happy is encouraging to the adults of Prizren and I can understand why.
The Kosovars love Americans. I was in Bujar's travel office when an older man entered and spoke with Bujar. When he was told that I am an American, his face brightened and he started talking rapidly. He told Bujar to tell me that the people of Kosova thank me, Bill Clinton, and all of America for what we have done for Kosova. I told him that I didn't have much to do with it, but he was welcome. He insisted that I have some of his candy. He stressed the fact that it was American servicemen and planes that made up 85% of the bombing runs over Serbia.
This would not be the only time a Kosovar expressed his gratitude for America's war assistance. I always get a big reaction when I tell people I came here from Arkansas. It is safe to say that Bill Clinton is much more popular in Kosova than he is in America. I was opposed to getting involved in the war and I have not changed my position, but it makes me feel good as an American to know our involvement had a positive result and to know that the people of Kosova appreciate it.
Before coming here, I had read that during the NATO bombing, Serbia took advantage of the opportunity to escalate the killings and force even more people from their homes. In the end, Serbia agreed to basically the same surrender terms as he had been willing to accept at Ramboullet before the bombing. Therefore, I thought it was questionable whether the bombing campaign accomplished anything other than kill a lot of Serbian civilians. But based on how grateful all the Kosovars are, I have to assume that the bombing campaign accomplished some good after all.
Before coming over here, I had no idea whether the Kosvars were grateful or even cared. I think it is important that America know just how grateful they are. That is the main reason I wrote this particular e-mail.