8
Decembre
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Bruxelles - Skopje
(Macedonia) with a C-130 of the Belgian Army.
Bllacė - Pristina - Mitrovica in a
military vehicule; we spend the first night in a (non-heated) unccupied
commercial building (formerly a bank), occupied at that time by the French
and Belgian occupation troups.
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9
Decembre
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Mitrovica - Cabra again
with a military vehicle. Cdt Declercq, whom we had met in Skopje, takes us
to different places in Mitrovica and to the village of Cabra.
Leposavic - Leshak - Belobrdė : in
a jeep, with Belgian militaries stationned in Leposavic. We spend the
night in a little Serb hotel, in the middle of the forest, a few miles off
the border with Serbia.
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10
Decembre
 |
Leposavic - Pristina. Now
we leave our military friends, and find a hotel room in Pristina. We hire
a driver (Idris), who will accompany us in the rest of our trip troughout
Kosovo. |
11
Decembre
 |
Pristina -
Malishevo -
Gjakova : on our way to Gjakova, where we want to meet a Belgian team
of the Caritas NGO. They are in charge of an important school
reconstruction program in that region. We visit with them the Mustafa
Bakija school, where we spent quite a bit of time with teachers and
students.
Junik : with Marc-André, the leader
of the Caritas team, we go to that little mountain village close to the
Albanian border, where a school is currently in reconstruction phase. No
hotel in Gjakova : we spend the night in the house occupied by Caritas,
sleeping on the ground in an office. Not a lot of comfort, but the evening
spent with the team is one of our best memories.
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12
Decembre
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Gjakova - Peja : we
move to Peja, where Philippe, another Belgian, is a member of the UNMIK
team managed by Bernard Koeshner.
Gllareve : now is the time to find
out more about the "little girl with the red sweater". We find
the Gllareve village; we have taken with us the pictures taken there in
July, and we show them to a few children in the village. One of them knows
Shqipe, and takes us to her parents' house. Deep emotional moment.
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13
Decembre
 |
Pristina - Prizren - Dragash
: trip to the southernmost part of Kosovo, just on the Albanian
border. On our way to Dragash, we meet Russian soldiers, who are part of
KFOR, like many other countries. |
14
Decembre
 |
Pristina - Ferizaj - Tetovė
- Skopje : Already our last day in Kosovo. We want to avoid waiting
for hours to cross the Macedonian border, so another driver, recommended
to us by Idris, shows us a little country road that goes to Macedonia
through the Mountains. We cross the border by foot, but without problems. |
15
Decembre
 |
Skopje - Eindhoven -
Bruxelles : annoying surprise in the military airport : the Belgian
plane which we had hoped to use to get back to our country did not arrive
from Brussels. Staying in Skopje for a few more nights is not a very
tempting alternative. Fortunately, we notice a small Fokker plane of the
Dutch army, that is just about to leave empty. After some discussion, the
pilot accepts to take us aboard and he drops us in Eindhoven (Holland). We
get back to Brussels late at night. |
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