The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
by Paula Huntley
 Drita with her students, May 2009.  With Granit 2, his wife Shqiponja and his parents at their home in Prishtina, May 2009.  February 17, 2009 - Leonard and Granit 2 celebrate the first anniversary in Kosova's independence.  Granit 2, Paula, Granit 1 at PAX Orientation in Long Island, August, 2003  Paula greets Granit 1 and Granit 2 as they arrive in the U.S. for their senior year of high school.  Fazile and Paula, Spring, 2001. In the classroom at the Cambridge School, Prishtina.  The Professor - in class, winter, 2001 |
Students Then and Now Ed with Leonard and Leonard's fiance, Dafina. Prishtina, May 2009. In May 2009 Ed and I returned once again to Kosova to visit those Kosovars we had grown to know and love during our 2000-2001 stay. Many readers have asked for updates on my students. Here are a few:
In 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. Now, in May 2009, he is back in Kosova where his work at a bank is helping his country's struggling economy. Leonard's sister, Nora, graduates June 6, 2009 from a fine 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 made excellent grades and has become an institution at this wonderful school. She has received a full scholarship to study at St. Marys of the Woods in Terre Haute, Indiana. She begins college in the fall of this year. Nora and Leonard's parents are very proud of their children's accomplishments and are hopeful that the whole family may now have a future. Granit 2 graduated from the American University of Kosovo in the spring of 2008. His entire college education was being paid for by a generous couple from the US, who flew to Kosovo to attend his graduation. And Granit was married in 2008 to a bright, beautiful young womanm Shqiponje, and they are expecting their first baby in the summer of 2009. Granit is the first of my younger students to take the exciting step of marriage and fatherhood. Granit, like Leonard, has secured a good position in a bank in Prishina. He 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 high 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. I visited Drita and her students in May. It is clear that her students love and admire her, and that she is an excellent teacher. 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. The Professor is still teaching at the University of Prishtina. Sadly, his wife died last year. 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, help secure peace throughout the region. Thank you! Paula Huntley  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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