Nuevo Ritmo

Day 5 – Prizren

Day 6 – Prístina

Day 7 – Vushtrri

Day 8 – Ferizaj

Disclaimer, I still don’t know how to spell the names of these towns… but there’s my best try!

Week one went by relatively quickly, but it felt like we had so much time. Week two went by in five minutes. I started realizing that and tried to record more detailed notes in my phone during our (minimal) free time. It will probably be noticeable in this journal compared to week one.

Day by day, we got increasingly better at teaching – incorporating things we’d heard at other hospitals, knowing what questions to ask, engaging the students even more. It felt great. We also had a few students this second week who were super engaged and really touched our hearts (more to come on that).

The first day of the second week was in Prizren, and it was a day I’ll remember forever. First, Karolina got to join us, and with the friendship we’ve formed, it was special to share this experience. We had a great group that *finally* played Stayin Alive with us — right when I had almost given up hope! You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that song… There was this one blonde nurse who just smiled ear to ear the whole time in the front row. I will never forget her face, especially because of what happened after class. They took us to the neonatology ward to distribute the hats my mom made, and my gosh. It was so special putting the little hats on these precious babies – some orphaned, some newly born that same day. Everything I had been feeling the past week+ came out in the form of tears. I cried in front of all the nurses and doctors we had just taught, Dimitri, Karolina, our translator, driver, and a professional photographer who happened to join us that day. I told them how special it felt to me, and I’m not sure that they fully understood. Something about it felt like a full circle moment to know that these babies and mothers would have a piece of my family with them while raising their child. It touched my heart in a way I still can’t describe. To top it all off, we stopped at a gas station on the way back to Skopje, and they had air fresheners that said “Stayin Alive” on them. We bought two.

I needed a glass of wine that night, and we had a lovely dinner at, fortunately, a wine bar. Here we had some lovely talks and laughs with Sashko and Angel, two of the great guys from Project HOPE, who shared some inspiring stories about their mission work over the years. I learned that the Project HOPE team just shows up to a disaster, without funding commitment of any kind, and then they basically say “we’re here and we’re doing X Y Z. If you give us funds, we can do A B C.” This differs greatly from other non-profits and disaster relief organizations that wait to receive funding prior to deployment. Pretty amazing. They also made us laugh with stories about Rakija and ways their mothers used it growing up — filling their socks when they were sick, cleaning the windows, and other crazy things. This group will be having a deep, meaningful conversation one moment, and the next be making you laugh until you cry. Or, bursting into song. It is a wonderful thing.

The next day we visited Vushtrri, the first ‘Sheikh’ hospital we had been to, and it was noticeable. The UAE has donated several hospitals in the area, and this one was stood up in 1999. It was definitely a bit nicer than anywhere we’d been so far, but it wasn’t perfect. We’d gotten so used to people not knowing we were coming that we were pretty lax about our arrival time. Of course, we were about 10 minutes late this day, and the director of the hospital was waiting to meet us. Oops!!! It turned into a good day, though. There was a really nice pediatrician who spoke great English and talked to us a bunch. You could tell he was passionate about his work and honestly felt like someone we’d be friends with. Funny enough, he had taken a course in Myrtle Beach before too. He gave us his contact information for future opportunities, and I hope we will see him again someday. I committed to sending him some neonatal pulse oximeters at minimum.

The next day we visited Prístina, which is the most ‘advanced’ hospital in the capital city of Kosovo. If memory serves, it was also donated by ‘Sheikh’ / Humanitarian Foundation of the UAE. It was way nicer, no doubt, but ironically is still lacking basic supplies because the government doesn’t fund them at all due to the UAE donations they receive… even though they only receive follow-up donations every 10 years. Can you imagine?

The most special, memorable part of this day was one doctor who really engaged us. She was about 60 years old, white hair, with piercing blue eyes that told a story on their own. There was a sadness in them for sure, but it was combined with a strong sense of resilience that let us know she had not given up yet. In fact, one of the most powerful things she said was that hope keeps her coming back every day, year after year. She said this is necessary for anyone working in this field. I especially loved this remark because of the work we are doing with Project HOPE, and their slogan is “everybody deserves hope.” She shared how hard it’s been to retain staff and hire new staff. Many people don’t have the drive or desire to work in a place like this and end up working at the private hospitals where they can make more money. It was so special to see her dedication and commitment to this hospital and her patients, even when she is perfectly aware that she could be making more money and likely having an easier job elsewhere.

Last but certainly not least, we visited Ferizaj. I was definitely emotional this was the last day of volunteering, and we made the most of it. The group was very engaged that day, and I made every effort to engage them even more. In fact, I commented on how much I appreciated their participation, and they said it was because of our teaching style, so that meant a lot to me. There were two doctors who spoke good English and were pretty funny – not only did they sing Stayin Alive, they also played a little sound of a crying baby on their phone to pretend that the resuscitation attempt had worked 😂 I counted in Albanian for them, and they said I reminded them of the girl from Bring it On. Hilarious that they had seen this movie. We gave out the last of the baby hats to some very appreciative moms, and Dimitri got to speak French with one of the nurses which was neat. Last but not least, there was a laboring mom when we visited their ward, as evidenced by some very loud screaming… AND, there was another mom who had just given birth, that we awkwardly walked in on with her feet still up in the stirrups. Rest assured, she got a hat for her little boy. To top off a great day, the nursing director wanted to take us for coffee afterwards. We went to a really nice place near the hospital, and she shared her favorite way to have coffee with us: a single espresso with a pinch of sugar and squeeze of lemon. It was delicious.

I was really sad when the week came to a close. So sad, in fact, that I changed my flight to stay for one more night. So did Karolina, which made me feel a bit less crazy. Thank goodness we did, as I truly couldn’t have imagined missing out on those precious moments and the closing ceremony to wrap it all up. Though our work there still feels unfinished in a way, this was helpful to spend more time with the team, decompress, and hear a few words from Sorcha, Vlatko, the CEO of Project HOPE (Rabih) and even the Prime Minister of North Macedonia. It felt very official, and we all got a little certificate of appreciation. After the “important people” left, the rest of us got to get back to our usual shenanigans – laughing, singing, and dancing to Total Eclipse of the Heart, anything by ABBA, and the Belgian anthem. Naturally, we stayed up until we had to catch a taxi to the airport around 2 am, and I got to show Karolina the delicious experience of an airport Burger King. It never tasted so good. We shared some tearful hugs and goodbyes and boarded our respective flights home.

It’s hard to put words to what this experience meant to me, but I do know that I will remember it forever. I understand that the feeling of wanting to volunteer, to do more for others, is very intense after a trip like this, and I will let it come down a bit, but I also don’t want to forget how I felt these two weeks. I felt truly myself; I felt appreciated; I felt good at what I was doing. I found incredible meaning in the work. While I’m not sure where these feelings will take me, I know that I want to let them be a guiding light to how I live my life and spend my time. Life is too short to ignore something so true and so powerful. ❤️‍🔥