Finnegan Hamill, a high school junior from Berkeley, California started corresponding by email with 16-year-old Adona* from Kosovo in January.
Correspondence between the two teenagers began after Finnegan heard about Adona at a church youth group meeting. Through a series of emails the pen pals have talked about everything from music and dating to the current air strikes going on in her country.
Since first publishing Adona's letters there has been a huge outpouring of support and interest from the public. The rock group REM and Warner Brothers Records sent a care age of their favorite music to Adona; teachers are using the letters to help their students understand the war; American schools have offered her scholarships to study journalism.
The following is a radio transcript from Youth Radio and PBS series that was recently produced.
She had access to a computer and wanted to use it to correspond with other teens here in the U.S. I decided to write her a letter when I got back from the meeting. The next day I received the first of what was to be a series of letters from Adona that would change the way I looked at the world.
Adona: Hello Finnegan. I am glad you wrote to me so soon. About my English, I have learned it through the movies, school, special classes, but mostly from TV. I can speak Serbian as well, Spanish and understand a bit of Turkish. I love learning languages, but I don't have much time to learn them.
You never know what will happen to you. One night, last week I think, we were all surrounded by police and armed forces, and if it wasn't for the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation] observers, God knows how many victims would there be. And my flat was surrounded too. I cannot describe you the fear...The next day, a few meters from my flat, they killed this Albanian journalist, Enver Maloku. Someday before there was a bomb explosion in the center of town where young people usually go out.
Well Finnie (I like calling you that) did I tell you that I am not a practicing Muslim and do you know why!...because if the Turks didn't force my great grandparents to change their religion, I might now have been a Catholic or an Orthodox...and I think religion is a good, clean and a pure thing that in a way supports people in their life...thanks to religion, I think many people are afraid of God or believe that there is another world after we die, so they don't commit any crimes.
[To answer your question] you are not making me bored with your emails at all, I love reading them. I love hearing about the life there and I am really happy that I have a friend somewhere who I can talk to (woops...write to).
Bye, Adona.
Finnegan: Adona may not think much of organized religion, but she is very political. She's part of an organized youth movement that blames adults for keeping the war going. Adona says she is looking beyond this war to the future--and an end to the killing and hatred that has become the only thing most teens in Kosovo know.
Adona: About the music, I love listening to Rolling Stones, Sade, Jewel, Cher and others. (Bon Jovi, Beatles) and REM (my favorite). I'm not dedicated strictly to one kind of music, yet I like dancing as well. You don't know how I am longing to go to a party, on a trip or anywhere.
I must tell you--it is scary sometimes, when the situation gets really tense, the whole family comes together and we talk about how and where we will be going in case of emergency, where we can find money, what do we do, who do we call for help, where do we keep our passports and other documents. We also have bought warm clothes in case we have to flee our homes and go to the mountains or elsewhere. And we're all prepared for the worst and taught that life goes on, no matter what.
About the NATO thing, you know I feel they should come here and protect us. I wish somebody could. I don't even know how many people get killed anymore.You just see them in the memoriam pages of newspapers. I really don't want to end up raped, with no parts of body like the massacred ones.
I wish nobody in the world, in the whole universe would have to go through what we are.You don't know how lucky you are to have a normal life. We all want to be free and living like you do, having our rights and not be pushed and pushed. Finnegan, I'm telling you how I feel about this war and my friends feel the same.
Bye, Adona, Kosovo
*In light of the dangerous circumstances in Kosovo, Adona is using a pseudonym in her letters so that they can be broadcast to a larger audience without endangering her life.*
The following is a continuation Adona's letters from Kosovo. Finnegan Hamill, a high school junior from Berkeley, California first started corresponding with this 16-year-old from Yugoslavia a few months ago. These transcripts are from a Youth Radio and PBS series that was recently produced.
Finnegan Hamill: At one point, I waited for several days for a response. As it turned out, her computer had crashed. But for those several days, I had no way of knowing if she had been taken in by the police, fled for safety in the mountains, or if she had been killed.
Adona: The violence is still going on. Some mysterious killings are happening. A few days ago, a man in Pristina was killed, and many people are getting killed in unknown circumstances in other towns, or at least they're unknown for me and my friends.
Just a few days before, a friend of mine had her birthday. We didn't celebrate because we thought it was not right…Just a few best friends gathered in her house, and we discussed different things starting from the situation here, to school, music and boys. Some think it is not right to continue in this way while other people are getting killed.
You [asked me about] the independence of Kosovo. I don't really give such an importance to the status. I don't see this as a war for getting divided...Albanians and Serbs. Neither do I think the war has started because of nationalistic reasons or to bring new borders. While Europe is trying to take the borders off, and trying to bring globalization on, we do not need to bring new ones. We just need the rights that others have. On the schoolbag of my friend, I can read, "Peace is the time between wars." At first it looked silly, but when I think deeper, it could be a logical thought as well.
Finnegan: "One of her biggest fears is that she is slipping behind in her education and if the war is over, it will be too late for her to have a career in journalism, or whatever field she chooses."
Adona: Thank you [for your offer] to help me find a scholarship. I have been trying to do that for weeks now. I'm looking at the websites through Yahoo of different high schools and colleges. But I haven't found anything yet. I know I cannot go forward if I stay here...which is towards disaster. People aren't thinking much about school and ambitions, but I am trying to keep my head somehow, in a distance from this catastrophe, and trying to plan my future.
I'll tell you more about my life and me. I love having fun and doing crazy things. I used to hang out with my friends until 11 o'clock in the evening. We were never safe in the street. But now we are not safe in our homes. I never take my I.D. card with me when I go out, because if I am stopped by the police or somebody similar to them, I just start talking in Serbian and avoid troubles. It always works out.
You must think that every single cell of my brain is affected by horror movies or something. But you are wrong. My brain, my whole life, is just affected by reality. And just one picture of a dead head, cut body or a three year old child massacred--which I certainly haven't imagined--or the news from the BBC, you would be affected too. If you were the ones to taste this bitter and cruel part of the world, you would understand me and my imagination. You would also understand how lucky I feel for just being alive.
From Bolt Reporter (www.bolt.com)