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Just over in Kosova and popped over the border into Skopje for coffee and the shops, short drive from Pristina through the mountains to Macedonia. Skopje a very clean ex-eastern bloc city, wide bouvelards lined with trees, open air tables, thronged with café culture people, big sunglasses, and designer fashion for the boys and girls, an altogether very vibrant atmosphere pervades throughout the city. The atmosphere is matched by the wall to wall designer shops and when the currency conversion is undertaken back into euros and then GB pounds, it is not any cheaper and so no bargains are to be had. A London Pub complete with red phone box, (unvandalised), has opened in the last month. It is a city that may not yet be on the tourist list, but well worth a visit.
As I left the underground car park and exited the shopping centre with the Saturday morning shoppers, I noticed a young girl lying on the floor blowing into a plastic bag and then lying and rolling on the floor. There is a bakery at the end of the ramp on which she lay and it was there that we made our stop.
During this time this girls plight was almost surreal, people passed by as they do throughout the world, but what struck me about this young girl, was her general state of distress amongst the shoppers, who walked by as if she were invisible.
A woman stopped and handed her some coins, she clutched them and then placed them on the floor like someone rolling a set of dice, and she then discarded them on the floor. My sisterin-law purchased her a pastry took it to her she took a piece and then proceeded to shred it and discard it.
Yes there are beggars throughout the world and there are many views on such practice, but watching this girl was heart rending, her plight heightened by her surroundings, amongst the cosmopolitan atmosphere there she was alone and obviously vulnerable, and not obviously begging for money at least, but perhaps for something that money can never buy.
A woman walked by with a pram, a grandmother the girl ran to her perhaps the pram was the initiator for this she shouted something, with only the deep guttural childlike wail that only comes from children in distress - she was dismissed.
Her behaviour was erratic, she was very obviously distressed and the dirt was ingrained so deeply in her skin. She sat with the remnants of the paper from the pastry and just stared at it.
She is somewhere out there in Europe, an hour ahead of us in the UK, less than 3 hours flying time, yes she will be like many others, but I wish her luck and hope her fortunes change for the better.
As I left the underground car park and exited the shopping centre with the Saturday morning shoppers, I noticed a young girl lying on the floor blowing into a plastic bag and then lying and rolling on the floor. There is a bakery at the end of the ramp on which she lay and it was there that we made our stop.
During this time this girls plight was almost surreal, people passed by as they do throughout the world, but what struck me about this young girl, was her general state of distress amongst the shoppers, who walked by as if she were invisible.
A woman stopped and handed her some coins, she clutched them and then placed them on the floor like someone rolling a set of dice, and she then discarded them on the floor. My sisterin-law purchased her a pastry took it to her she took a piece and then proceeded to shred it and discard it.
Yes there are beggars throughout the world and there are many views on such practice, but watching this girl was heart rending, her plight heightened by her surroundings, amongst the cosmopolitan atmosphere there she was alone and obviously vulnerable, and not obviously begging for money at least, but perhaps for something that money can never buy.
A woman walked by with a pram, a grandmother the girl ran to her perhaps the pram was the initiator for this she shouted something, with only the deep guttural childlike wail that only comes from children in distress - she was dismissed.
Her behaviour was erratic, she was very obviously distressed and the dirt was ingrained so deeply in her skin. She sat with the remnants of the paper from the pastry and just stared at it.
She is somewhere out there in Europe, an hour ahead of us in the UK, less than 3 hours flying time, yes she will be like many others, but I wish her luck and hope her fortunes change for the better.
