The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
by Paula Huntley
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 Leonard visiting Paula and Ed in California  Paula greets Granit 1 and Granit 2 as they arrive in the U.S. for their senior year of high school.  Granit 2 and Granit 1 beginning their high school year in the U.S.  Granit 2, Paula, Granit 1 at PAX Orientation in Long Island, August, 2003  Genti, Leutrim and Fazile - in the class, fall 2000  Fazile and Paula, Spring, 2001. In the classroom at the Cambridge School, Prishtina.  The Professor - in class, winter, 2001  Fazile - as we visited again with each other in the spring of 2002  Drita, Spring, 2002 |
Students NowIn May of 2006, Leonard graduated summa cum laude from Graceland University in Iowa, with a double major in International Business and Business Administration. In addition, he received the award for the Most Outstanding Student in International Business of 2005-2006. And he became a student leader who relished making public presentations. Not bad for the painfully shy young man with faltering English who was my student in 2000-2001! Leonard was able to attend this university thanks to a full scholarship from Graceland's Kosovar Scholarship Program. Further help came from readers who were touched by Leonard's story: A men's book group in Louisiana paid for textbooks; a generous donor in California bought him a computer; other readers paid for clothes and incidentals, and yet other readers took him on vacation to New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC. After graduation, Leonard spent some months in Washington DC working as an intern for the League of Conservation Voters and later for the Faith in Politics Institute. He is now back in Kosova, looking for a position in a business or an NGO where he can use his education and skills to help his country's struggling economy. Leonard's sister, Nora, is now studying in a college preparatory school for girls in California. She received a full scholarship, and generous donors in San Francisco are paying the rest of her expenses. Nora is making excellent grades and is, already, an institution at this wonderful school. She spent her spring break this year with Ed and me at our new home in Durango, Colorado. Nora and Leonard's parents are very proud of their children, and are hopeful that, with an American education, the whole family may now have a future. Granit 2's education at the American University of Kosovo is being paid for by another generous donor from the US. And Granit was recently married - the first of my younger students to take this exciting step. Granit is an extraordinary young man. Both Granits 1 and 2 graduated from American high schools in 2004, participants in the PAX educational exchange program. Their year in the US was paid for by many generous readers of my book. Drita is teaching English in a middle school in a village just out of Prishtina and at the Cambridge School, where in 2000-2001 I was her English teacher. You can imagine how happy I am that she has chosen this work. At only 20, Leutrim, "Trimi", started his own web design and advertising firm, and is off to a great start of what will clearly be a very successful business career. Genti, the last I heard, was in Turkey, learning to speak Turkish in preparation for attending college there. Faton received his PhD from the university in Jena, Germany and secured a wonderful research position in that country. Faton continues to be one of the hardest working - and sweetest - young men I have ever met. Luan, the Mechanical Engineer-Poet, was granted a Research Assistantship at Oakland University in Michigan. He has completed his Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and is going forward with PhD work. He is enthusiastic about the school, his work, and his prospects. He visited Ed and me in California and we hope to see him soon in our new Colorado home. Leonard, Drita, Nora, Granits 1 and 2, Leutrim, Luan, Faton and all the other bright educated young Kosovars are the future of their country, and of the Balkans as a whole. It is they who can bring the ideas, knowledge and skills that will build strong economies, and with these strong economies secure peace throughout the region. Thank you! Paula Huntley  Leonard in Pristhtina, Kosova  Granit 2, Besart, Granit 1 - Prishtina, Spring, 2002  Leutrim, Granit 2, Paula, Genti, Besart, Granit 1, reuniting in the spring of 2002  In the classroom, Spring 2001. Paula in pink sweater.  Granit 1 and Besart, in English class, Fall 2000 |
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