Tamara and Karen Morgan and Marina Calzaretta helped entertain Slovene youth with Frisbees and jump ropes and Michaela taught several impromptu hand clapping games. Joe Porter, Sam Baker, Taylor Wettach, Gabby and Allison Hartman led a spirited game of wiffle ball. The Slovene youth don't seem to understand the concept of running the bases, but the squeals of joy as they hit the ball are far more important to everyone in our group than game fundamentals.
Kosovar Idol
I don't want you to get the impression that this trip is all fun and games for our youth participants. They are leading classes and practicing nearly every day with their Kosovar counterparts for a series of concerts this week. On Friday night, the youth held a talent show for the American adults (see earlier posts for photo details). The talent show was a mix of song, dance, skits, and a few unusual talents such as Jake Drahos' ability to solve a Rubik's Cube in no time flat. The evening ended in a frenzy of traditional Albanian dance.
Dessert Anyone?
One of the project assignments for the Iowa adults on this trip was to host dessert for the Kosovar families housing our youth participants. Originally we had planned to have each adult house make a full dinner, but this was changed at the last minute because the kitchens in each house are not equal. The thought of cooking dinner scares me on most days, let alone here in Kosovo. Dessert is more my style. How difficult could it be?
My housemates (Keith Porter, Aimee Wedeking, and Ric Smith) decided to serve American style sundaes (complete with fudge sauce and sprinkles) along with cookies and cake. The grocery stores here are full of Western pre-packed products, but cake mixes are surprisingly absent from the shelves. So Aimee and I decided to purchase a pre-packaged cake from a small store near our house for our Saturday "dessert night."
The cake on the package looked wonderful. But we discovered just minutes before our guests arrived that the cake inside did not look as advertised (see photos in earlier post for more detail). I must have watched too many Martha Stewart shows because suddenly I transformed into my "domestic" hostess persona. Everything here in Kosovo has a simple solution (or so I kept telling myself). My solution was to scrape the frosting off of the cake's plastic covering, spread it over the top of the cake, and spoon a generous portion of decorative sprinkles on top of the newly spread icing. Problem solved. Thankfully the cake Aimee and I purchased for our Sunday "dessert night" was perfect right out of the box.
Our youth host families returned the favor on Sunday by hosting the American adults for lunch. It is hard to imagine but our trip is nearly half over already and many of us feel as if we have just arrived.
Until next time...Kristin McHugh-Johnston
