Hope Takes Flight in Kosovo, Yael Sachs, Goodthings.com
This personal account of Kosovo from a transplant to the region offers a much more uplifting portrayal than news reports of its civil-war aftermath. Yael Sachs's letter, posted on Goodthings.com, relays the writer's fond encounters with Kosovars, whom she finds to be 'exceedingly warm and hospitable.' Two examples of this affability especially stand out in her mind: 16-year-old Anisa and 18-year-old Lavdrim, enthusiastic students who attend one of Kosovo's ravaged schools. Although ethnic tension is still very strong in Kosovo, Sachs says the youths are working for tolerance. She tells of the duo's outlook for their homeland, their actions to help wipe out prejudices between people of differing ethnicities, and their eager plans for their own futures. 'For the first time, when asking Kosovars about their take on the ethnic tension between the Serbians and Albanians, I met an untarnished vision of coexistence and goodwill,' she writes.
--Julie Madsen
Go there>>