Ramadan starts tomorrow. There are so many mosques here. Yesterday I left the market and heard the call to prayer. I’ve never heard this before, and it felled me. I found it both holy and calm: in its ritualism, it awakens all of the senses. Even an outsider can sense the weight of time and history.

I have been told that Albanian Kosovars in Prishtina are not very observant, but I do sense a conservatism. I don't see any pornography in the magazine racks, and young women don't dress like hookers-in-training.