There were a couple interesting experiences that just made us grin and shake our heads.  In the first village we visited, we ended up pulling our vehicles off to the side of the road in the village and our Ministry rep. went to go gather the families.  There were two older women (pictured below) that were standing near where we pulled over.  Naturally curiosity set in as to why three UN vehicles pulled over in a poor small village and they came over to see what was going on.  One of them tried to hop in and help us give out the aid by suggesting color coordination of the outfits...kind of "no that color isn't good for her" deals which was just humorous to us because we were going by clothing size rather than color for the kids.  Before we left, we decided to give the elderly ladies some food aid since they stood around the entire time we were in the village and most of the village was poor.  As we were leaving, the older of the two stopped our friend and gave him back the flour out of the food aid bag telling him that she didn't want it :o) 

In the same village, we gave a girl a jacket in a bright orange color.  After going home, she returned about 30 minutes later asking if she could change the jacket.  At first we thought that maybe it was the wrong size but later through interpreting we discovered that she just didn't' like the color and wanted a different one (beggars can be choosers?)  The color of jacket that she wanted was size "M" and the jacket she was trading in was a "XXL"...slight difference.  But she insisted on taking the different colored jacket probably saying "By goodness I will squeeze into the M even if it kills me just so I look good!"

Below I'm sharing some of my favorite photos of the children and families that we gave aid to over the past two months.  I have to say that after yesterday, I feel like we have really done a lot of help families in need in Kosovo and I'm looking forward to

An extremely vulnerable family outside of Vitina

A vulnerable family of 7 in Grncar Village

Vulnerable family from Vitina

Checking the fit...

Little Nikola, what a cutie :)

Waiting in Line

Thank you to the owners of the Phoenix Bar as well as the quiz volunteers for allowing us to do a quiz night for charity. 

We managed to raise a whooping 622 Euros through the quiz, donations, and auction for the Clothing & Toy Drive which was fantastic! 

It took us a while to reach Novo Brdo due to ice and snow on the roads but we finally arrived mid-morning to pick up our Serbian & Albanian Ministry workers at the municipal building in Novo Brdo.  Then we were off to the first village!  As far as I knew, we would be going house to house to give the families on the list support but instead we ended up parking on the main street of the village and trying to give things out from the back of the vehicles. 

Now remember that the Ministry of Social Welfare gave us the list of families to support in each village.  Almost immediately we started receiving complaints through our translator about why we were only giving some families things and not everyone.  One woman was particularly pushy trying to shove her child in front of all the others from the side and yelling at us that she was also poor and needed help.  Our Ministry worker didn't assist but just sat back and watched us try to organize the families and provide each one with help.  In the end, we did give something to all the families that came but we found ourselves supporting double what was expected due to the lack of organization and help from the Ministry worker.  Fortunately in this case, the people were respectful enough to allow us to help each family one by one and seemed grateful that we were willing to help them even though they weren't on our list of families in need.

The next stop was at an apartment building where we were supposed to support two families with approximately five children.  Within a minute of the same Ministry worker going to get the family, we were surrounded by a group of 20 children all peering into our vehicles and trying to grab things.  I'm still not sure which family was supposed to receive help from the apartment building but after we tried to give things to the group, we discovered that our Ministry worker basically went into the building and told all the families that we were giving out "free stuff" and they should go down to us!  After shutting up the vehicles, we had to have a talk with the Ministry worker that s/he could not do that again because we would run out of things and not be able to help the families that were on the list...the families that s/he had already chosen for us!

Then we were off into the hills of Novo Brdo municipality to help families living in the middle of nowhere or in very small groups of 4-5 houses.  Visiting these families was the highlight of the day because we could see how poor the families were and they expressed such gratitude that it really made you feel good about going out and helping them.  One family was even apologetic that they did not have a regular bathroom for me to use but just an outhouse in the back of the small house...and I think surprised when I said no problem I would use it :) 

The last location that we visited was the worse unfortunately and it didn't do good to keep our Christmas spirit alive.  I won't sugarcoat what happened and the situation was actually so bad that my volunteers are refusing to go back to the village if we are around to do the same charity drive next year.  Already we were tired from driving around to the remote locations in the snow and ice and we weren't prepared for what I term "mini riot" in the last village.  We were told that we were going to support three families in the village but as soon as we arrived, it seemed that the entire village came out.  Unlike the orderly and respectful group we dealt with in the first village, these villagers crowded around us, pounded on our shoulders, and started screaming at us.  We caught several of the adults stealing things from our vehicles while were were helping other families and it got so bad that I had to push people away from the back of my vehicle, shut the door, and tell the interpreter that we would not continue until the villagers settled down because they were getting out of control.

We tried to explain to the villagers that we were not being sent by the UN but rather we had received private donations and were volunteering.  We also tried to tell them that if they needed assistance they should go to the municipality and request for help.  But they simply would not listen to us.  There was so much screaming and yelling that my ears still are ringing from the noise. 

But I think by far the worst part of the experience was not being yelled at or mauled by the parents but it was the manner in which they treated us.  Here we were a group of volunteers going into the remote hills of Kosovo to give aid to people living in poverty and instead of asking us for help and having dignity despite their situation, they threatened us with harm if we did not give them aid.  One of the women backed me up against the car and was screaming at me that she was poor and I had to give her help now or else she would not let us leave the village.  To me, if she would have come quietly and respectfully to me and told me her situation, I would have been more inclined to help her. 

We did end up helping all the families that came to us but even then they were not satisfied.  When we got into our vehicles to leave this particular village, I locked the doors just because it had been such a madhouse.  One adult came up to the car and tried opening the backseat door.  Then another, his hands full of things we had given him tried to stand in front of our car and block the way until one of the other villagers grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him off.

The manner in which this group of villagers treated us really destroyed the positive spirit or Christmas spirit that my team had and now some of them question why I ever want to help anyone in Kosovo again.  My answer to them is this:

Despite the fact that not all the families we helped today showed us gratitude or thanked us for helping them, we in our hearts know that we did help them, especially the children, and we know that we have done the right thing.

I have asked our focal point in the DCA to speak to the Ministry for the next visits and better organize the lists.  We have several lists of school-children that need aid but when they come with their families, we discover that there are actually three or four other siblings that also need assistance.  I told them that we would help everyone we can but that the Ministry needs to give us a complete list of all the children.

Even though I have said that we will end the collection for the 2007 Charity Toy & Clothing Drive, I am extending the collection of funds and donations through 4 January in order to give better aid and help the entire family rather than just one child from the family.  So if you read this and haven't donated, I would ask you to think about donating something...even something as small as one Euro can make a difference.