We continue with our trip in memory.
The memory of a people, the Serbian, robbed of its traditions, its culture, its roots. But resisting, among a thousand attempts to weaken this resistance.
A trip to Kosovo and Metohija, for me always means a "Mago" who takes his throat. Each time, like the first time. The tension is strong in my wonderful companions and interpreters. Czech (read Zezza), 16, Tanja, 18, 13 and Jadranka 19 Beba, some for the first time in Kosovo, there have been some last year, someone else can not remember. Why was a child and fled, without his knowledge, between the arms of terrified parents.
in Decani, the enchantment of the monastery, we sleep always kind and welcoming guests of the monks. Father Ilarijom guardian of Andrey, suddenly left for Belgrade, and Petar, who also know well, which is in Gracanica.
After the liturgy, we are offered coffee, rakija and a nice dinner, with good red wine. There are other people who will stop to sleep. They come from Osojane, a nearby village and one of them, Sonja, we exchange addresses and want to do things. We plan a party in his village.
Before going to sleep wondering whether you open the hall with candles of Princess Milica, wife of the legendary Prince Lazar, Serbian knight defeated in battle in June 1389. The candles, lit for the first time in 1924, after the Balkan wars, were replaced with copies of the work Karadjordjević Aleksandar and his wife Maria, whose reproductions stand out in the lounge. Candles originals are kept elsewhere, in the monastery. The Avakum elderly father, whose name means love for God, we gladly tells the story, benevolent and well disposed toward those sweet pictures that I carry around. Watching them speak, in intimacy, is something that has to do with spirituality. I can only shoot this meeting and be a witness. An elderly priest who was chatting amiably and in full harmony with the young girls of her little bit
him, in a place so sacred. It 's the story that becomes a reality. And 'the memory that is handed down. dawn, the girls get an appointment very unusual. We go to the source, accompanied by an armed military to take the water of Bistrica. Will be water for the day, what to drink. It 's a ritual that continues to repeat in the monastery ever since. The water is fresh, slightly fizzy drink and all. After attending the morning service, we start saying goodbye, one for all, father Silofont that is detached from the liturgy for a brief moment to listen to us. When I asked to pay for the rooms, he replies with a polite, smiling, dry ... "Of course not."
At eight and a half we were in Gorazdevac, which is scheduled for May 14, the festival for the patron saint Jeremija, the Slavic Village. It seems that the Jeremija really protect the village, after the bombing, it is still inhabited by Serbs. But perhaps Jeremija found that cooperation in KFOR, of course, did not expect to come to Kosovo to protect those who had bombed. But so much. There is life in Gorazdevac!
This religious holiday, opposed the war by the government of Tito, has been transformed, over time, and cleverly, in a festival linked to the liberation from fascism, so they can still be celebrated. A kind of historic compromise throughout Yugoslavia.
E 'tells us what a retired chemistry professor who, with his wife, came specially to attend the party and with whom we converse in friendship.
On this day, the procession with the icon of the saint, with the Serbian flag and the banner of the community out of the church around which will do three laps, while the bell will ring a festa le campane. Poi, si va a rendere omaggio alla vecchia chiesetta del cimitero, quella del XV secolo, restau
rata nel 1960 quando venne rifatto il tetto, ma con ancora la struttura originale ben conservata. Il pope celebra la sua breve funzione davanti la vecchia chiesetta che viene aperta al pubblico per l’occasione. Poi, la processione prosegue per tutto il villaggio dove, nelle case, sono pronti cibi e bevande da offrire al passaggio del corteo. Tavoli imbanditi, alcuni vegetariani nel rispetto delle usanze, altri… meno, aspettano la folla che sfila nelle strade, rendendo omaggio al santo e chiedendo grazia di protezione e buon raccolto, non disdegnando un pezzo di carne o di pesce arrostito o un bicchiere di wine or a rakija.
My wonderful interpreters help me in interviews that the elders tell their experiences and their memories of the party. We gain a lot of material to be released, but meanwhile, they also, in addition to having fun, they learn ... their roots, traditions and backgrounds. Here, then, speaks Czech with people rummaging among his memories of the stories of grandparents and parents. Talk to the elderly, who found almost relatives, villagers near Kijevo, a village of Klina, where his grandparents were born, their birth parents, where she was born. Where to now, however, the Serbs did not arise because most driven and unable to return.
Here, winning initial hesitation, con Jadranka chiediamo a delle ragazze che siedono su un muretto della chiesa, cosa fanno, come vivono. E loro ci raccontano che stanno abbastanza bene, vanno a scuola ma non escono molto dal villaggio. Ma è meglio di quando sono dovute fuggire in Montenegro, con altri profughi. E’ meglio vivere a Goraždevac, libertà limitata, che come profughi altrove…
Ecco, ancora, che Tanja va in giro per il paese con la sorella Beba, guidata dal cugino Marko Bogicević, 20 anni, che nel 2003 scampò, uscendone “soltanto” ferito, all’assassinio dei due ragazzi serbi che, con lui, facevano il bagno nella Bistrica, il fiume che porta acqua nei numerosi rivoli e fiumiciattoli che attraversano il villaggio.
In one of these streams, past the mill, at the end of the procession, a boy immerses himself in the four symbolic meaning of the cross, but also the four cardinal points, which show the phases of the moon, sun and growing in the fields.
Jeremija St., St. Jeremiah, will continue to protect the village for next year. But then, suddenly, it unleashes a fun and festive uproar!
Dozens of guys throw themselves in shallow waters and bathing kicking everyone who comes to pull
o. The fluid is soon surrounded by mud where they are also victims, but the occasional well-placed visitors. Everything remains as part of a festival, never overdo it will also paying our Jadranka that, inevitably, will be involved. Moments of nervousness among Marko and another guy who wanted to throw in our water even Czech! But you know, the guys in the end they always end up fighting when we are half the girls! Everything back in place in a moment. Jadranka you help with a couple of drinks rakija the Serbian and envelopes for socks. He will return to his home in Vitanovac, near Kraljevo, soup but happy.
But Mark's house, where Jadranka will dry a little, we meet the father of Dragan Marko, and Miskito, Tanja and Beba's uncle, a cousin of Dragan.
After we refreshed and had conversed before Dragan leave us hanging in photo in his room in the place where the tragedy occurred in 2003. Bicycles of the boys on the ground, the river and its strange light, a sense of emptiness and death all around.
tells us of those two boys, one 12 and one aged 19, killed in gunfire. Of nearby, large swimming pool managed, after the bombing, by Albanians and when the passage of the funeral of the boys, the music was lifted at full volume, a sign of further insult and contempt. A group of Italians who were in Gorazdevac for projects of reconciliation, reconciliation asked what was possible before all this hatred. Their answer was a look down.
But these Italians were there for a better world, could neither wanted no one to take sides even if, sometimes, the equidistance may do even more damage. Why does not include the search for truth. Equidistant for a better world, then. But, now, do not the Serbs. It
without even Jugoslav, 17, killed by Albanians in 1998, along with his friend. Miskito, the father, tells those dramatic moments
... "I remember telling heavy ... I always told him to be careful not to leave too, do not ever be alone, especially when away from home. Were in the fields to work. His friend was hit by a bullet that pierced his head as he was hit on the right side. It remained so for hours, no one to help him. I know, who did it, and I would have killed him, I know where she lives. The death of a son killed in that way, blind you from the pain. But when I saw his family, his small children at that time I did it. And even if I did that today would be the end for the other Serbs of the village. Who would understand my gesture? ".
Not even the revenge has been to Miško. She needs to see and endure in his homeland, no longer of monasteries, Metohija, but Haradinaj, the criminal "acquitted" in The Hague, the tribunal for crimes in Yugoslavia ... patrols of police Kosovar Albanians in the former kind of terrorists 'Uck, wandering around on their car with machine guns, in the middle of the peaceful crowd in celebration. Paths of memory which leave a mark!
They leave in the soul of the Czech, translating the tale of Miskito, still shaken, but relief of mild tears of anger ... full of Jadranka, discovering previously unknown stories of its people, appropriated, and finally with a great desire to be there again ... Tanja and Beba, who are the experts, this being their second trip to Kosovo, but already think of festivals to keep "their" village, one of Osojane.
We welcome and where we go back in the van waiting for us, as well as Vinko, the driver, even Ratković Mijo, with which we are going to resume his son Joseph, for the first time in Kosovo, which we left in Belo Polje, Radomir Elder uncle, where a beautiful and nice garden speaks the language of the poor, honest and decent life, lived by simple things.
Mijo We pass in front of the house, that plundered and destroyed, in Belo Polje. But Mijo not even looking at it once more now.
in the round of Pec, meanwhile, stands a giant poster of William Walker. Vanguard
CIA destabilization in Latin America, the OSCE mission chief in Yugoslavia in '99 (European observers, however, guided by this American ...), who gave the green light to the NATO bombing, responsible for so much suffering and injustice in the world, is another "worthy" father of the Kosovar Albanians.
Flags Stars and Stripes from the houses make it free forever.
ps Coming into Kosovo, after a little 'get a message on our phones ...
"Welcome to Italy on TIM network!"
mobile telephony in Kosovo has been cut to the Serbians. Serbian cards, therefore, behave as if calling from abroad. Radomir, Mijo the elderly uncle who lives in the village of Belo Polje, if you want to call his children in Serbia, is charged as if calling Bill Clinton in USA. But he only interested in his children, to feel less distant. And feel, less distant. Instead
no, that is stubborn, has not yet figured out that Kosovo is an independent and free. Those like him, by the likes of her children, by the likes of his elderly, sick wife. And if you want to pay less, that is, as before, what for him is essential given the precarious economic situation that lives will not change the tab and put a Kosovar Albanian. Would pay the same way. Much.
No, I should just leave. He and other Serbian villages. Forever. Meanwhile, however, will pay a lot and call her daughter. Interestingly, the rate charged to the TIM Italy, which operates lines in roaming, I think you say and write well.
So much for the protection of minorities.
