Re: [strawbale] Kosoco needs straw bale builders

[LoisPeace@aol...]

Dear Catherine, Hannes, and Horst,

It was wonderful reading all your responses to my frantic call for help.  With all the events in the USA, I was too busy contacting my children and grandchildren to even read your wonderful correspondance until today. Thank goodness all 30 members of my immediate family are ok after these horrific events in NYC and DC.

Thank you Catherine for contacting everyone.  I imagine you are right about the time of year.  Zubin Potok in in northern Kosovo, so our weather is getting colder every day now.  I suppose we would have to wait until next summer.

Hannas, you are right about how people feel about their conventional building.  So I do believe our first step is to talk directly with the two men whose house was destroyed by the NATO bombing.  

Horst, I can't believe you are right here in Kosovo.  Last year I ran the elections close to you, in Recovic (excuse spelling).  It was in the German KFOR area between Prizren and Pec.  Right now I am typing this letter in Pristina, because I come down every Sunday to call my children and to use the Internet Cafe.  I am stationed in Zubin Potok, in northern Kosovo.  Actually, starting tomorrow morning I will be driving out almost to the border of Kosovo, to Oclace.  I am an OSCE Election Registration Supervisor, and I take a mobile team to the remote villages to register for this Nov. 17th election coming up.  I am a little apprehensive about this week, because I understand the road to Oclace is absolutely HORRIBLE!  The last supervisor who drove this road ran off the mountain with four local passengers in his car.  It was an act of God that they all survived!

Anyway, back to business!  We finish registrations next Saturday and next Sunday we will close out all our paperwork, etc.  Sunday night the UN and OSCE is having a party in Grecianica, which I might attend for an hour or two, and then I plan to stay here at the Grand Hotel in Pristina Sunday night, the 23rd.  Monday morning we have a bus leaving the Grand Hotel quite early and we are going on a ten-day vacation to Budva, Montenegro. Our leave is from Sept. 24 - Oct. 4.  Then we will train the 5-6th, and from Oct. 7th on I'll probably be back in Zubin Potok again.   That is my itinerary for the next few weeks. 

I would love to meet up with you somewhere along the way.  Maybe we could talk to the two men together, so we could clearly describe what the house would be like.  Actually, do you have a video on strawbale building from Germany?  Our CivPol office in the Zubin Potok CivPol office has a vcr, and I would love to show them the one Catherine made......but I don't have it with me.  I believe the vcr shows all types of video's.  The Assistant Chief of CivPol is Keith from the USA, and he said if we would build this house for these men we will have the full support and help of the entire multinational force of CivPol there.

It would be a very important project, because no-one from the International community has offered to help rebuild this house.  Actually, the feeling in the Serbian area is that everyone in the world is helping the Albanians and no-one is doing one thing for the Serbs.  

I don't have a phone, but I check my e-mail often at the CivPol office in Zubin Potok, so let me know when you think we can meet.

Thanks, Catherine, for the contact.  Love to you.

Warm Regards,
Lois Nicolai