Wheels in Kosovo - Days 5 & 6

Our Wheels for the World team are working in Kosovo during June - you can catch up on all their updates by following this link.

Sunday

Today was a rest day and everyone had a much needed rest and lie-in. We then walked to Gjakova family church with our partners. This was an incredible church with so many young people. The worship was awesome, Pastor was great and the young people's enthusiasm was infectious. The service ended with everyone jumping up and down shouting/singing ‘po zot, po zot, po po zot' which means 'yes lord, yes lord, yes yes lord'. We finished church and went up the hill overlooking Gjakova. Here we visited some cemeteries of a street of men, boys and some women who were killed in the war. This was very sobering - especially for George who found one man who was born in the same year as him and was killed just before his sixteenth birthday.

We then went to a beautiful restaurant for lunch we had a great time. We then split into three groups and did some home visits of people who needed wheelchairs so we could measure them for chairs and sort out later in the week. We returned home and had the SEED Kosovo team for a games night at our house.

This was a great evening – we played the hat game, mafia, singing and clapping games, spoons as well as food and drinks. A lot of laughing happened. The girls after told us that they don’t laugh a lot so it was a good time building relationship and loving our wonderful partners. We are learning so much for them.

 

Monday

The team were excited as working in Gjakova at the storage areas of the wheelchairs. This is the area that the SEED Kosovo work in so much easier for people to come and be seen. The team worked hard to create chairs for those who they saw yesterday but also conducted many other home visits. Kosovan people do not like waiting so a great system was found where our drivers would go and pick/drop people off. This meant there was a steady trickle of people and no one had to wait very long.

On Sunday Pam, George and Glenda visited a young disabled man who was just lying on a mattress on the floor. He had been lying there a very long time and not been able to get up or see anything but people’s feet. The team got to work committed to not being defeated. They found a fully reclining seat and made many alterations and adjustments to create a VERY complex seating system. The problem was the how to get the seating system and a new hospital bed from SEED Kosovo to his house. The solution was to go on a horse and cart to take the equipment to the house. At the house the man and his family were ecstatic with the seating system, bed and the support they were been given. Pam is planning on going back later in the week to give some physiotherapy training and support on how to loosen up his muscles and support him.

The team returned very late to the house, but walked to a wonderful restaurant where we had some great food before returning back to the house.