Picture if you will, a place that is frothing with hopes, dreams, and a whole lot of barbed wire. Welcome to Pristina, Kosovo, the NATO supervised entry point to this weeks New Friend Friday.
The dust coated bus engine is churning and the driver is closing the door. I throw my fold-up bike in the compartment and take my seat near a dark haired woman of fair complexion. We share a look with each other somewhere along the lines of, ‘what are you doing in Kosovo?’ We turn to look back out the window at the tug of war land known as ‘the field of black birds’ or Kosovo Polje.It’s not until our first stop in Serbia proper that I learn why Orli is here and try to explain why in fact I am here. Orli Fridman, who pronounces her name with a silent ‘r’, was born in Israel and lived in Tel Aviv long enough to get her Masters. She then high-tailed it to D.C.’s George Mason University to go pedal to the metal with a P.H.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking too!
So Orli (remember, no ‘r’) is on this bus with me because she is working out the second year of a course she teaches to Jewish students about conflict areas. Kosovo, being a hotbed for debate and ethnic outbursts of violence, is among Orli’s list of places she has worked. The others include Northern Ireland (gasp), Cyprus (egads), and of course Israel (gadzooks).

The smell of cheap cevapcici and dirty socks permeates the bus. It’s been 12 hours, maybe more and we get to Belgrade the capital of Serbia. This is where Orli is presently living and she shows me to the train station. After she gives me a list of places to see, we say goodbye and I ride into the Serbian capital, secretly wearing a red, $3 Kosovo t-shirt under my jacket.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s New Friend Friday and also, did anyone happen to read about what happened in Copenhagen? If you’re passing the same newstand as me then you probably noticed that Ungdomshuset, the ‘Youth House” came down just days after the New Friend Friday about it was reported. That brings our NFF casualty rate to 1 out of 19. That means the next NFF has a 5% fatalty rate.

Be careful friends.

Love,
Erik