Welcome to the Balkans!

Out of the frying pan into the deep freeze – and the locals haven’t even started wearing coats yet!

Google ‘Prishtina’ and you get mixed messages One website suggested:

Pristina is the city many of us love to hate... it's grey, dusty and traffic-clogged

Whilst another said this

Prishtina is a bustling capital inflated with the activity and personnel of foreign agencies, plus all the bars, restaurants and internet cafés to service them.

We have found them both to have elements of truth but have warmed very quickly to this war ravaged country. Whilst it is undoubtedly a post-communist, bomb-damaged eastern-block concrete jungle – it is very like-able. It might be the Coventrian in me – but the limited architecture doesn’t detract from the multitude of cosy coffee shops and restaurants that cover the city – and it certainly has earnt its reputation for having the best coffee outside of Italy. Crossing the road is mildly terrifying and everybody smokes like a chimney – but it all adds to its charm.

Prishtina is the youngest capital city in the world. 70% are aged under 28. We have rented a room in a student hall of residence (cheap – but better than you’d imagine) – and I’m pretty sure I’m the only person on campus with grey hair! It could be that that makes us stand out – or it could be the fact that we are wearing coats, hats, scarves, gloves, another coat, two pairs of socks and shivering in the biting wind, whilst everyone else potters around likes it's early spring. Our other distinguishing feature is our lack of Albanian. Whilst the locals are overtly friendly and will happily interrupt an entire restaurant to find an English speaker to translate our order – our lack of language skills is much more of a problem than in Uganda.

The hospital is large and imposing – but significantly better than Gulu. Power and water and free flowing, and there are plenty of doctors and nurses. Indeed, many doctors struggle to find paid employment and the emergency department seems slightly over-staffed. Whilst this is good for patients – it does make our tasks slightly less well defined. Fortunately (for us!), there are still obvious gaps in medical training and some of the care is very different from what we are used to at home. How we are going to be of use, with little language skills and plenty of staff – is less obvious – so we are exploring other activities including education and research.

Two views of the city: