Beni

My evening had an unexpected ending. A friend of mine on my nursing course, upon learning I planned to go to Macedonia, told me they had a friend here and would pass on my details to them. Having heard many “ I've got a friend there’ yarns I didn't think much of it. Anyway, shortly after posting the earlier entry I got a call from Beni, the ‘friend of a friend’. He said he’d be at my hostel in 10 minutes. I waited with intrigue outside when a brand spanking new Audi pulled up, sticking out like a sore thumb among all the 20 year old Yugos which seem to be the car of choice among people in this neighbourhood.

He asked if I’d eaten- I hadn’t- and so he took me to a expensive looking Italian restaurant, parking virtually on top of a busy intersection right outside the restaurant. I had a lovely pasta meal ( now wasn’t the time to be paying attention to my low carb diet) and had several beers. It was a nice evening and the conversation flowed nicely. I asked him about his work and he tentatively and vaguely said he worked for the government. When it was time to leave I said we should get the bill to which Beni said to me dismissively, “ Don’t worry about that...” and we returned to his Audi, parked conspicuously on this busy intersection with neither of us having paid a penny. On the way back he reiterated his desire to help me here in any way he can. I think that he, being of Kosovan parentage, was happy to hear of a foreigner making the effort to visit the country of his heritage. As we were sat in traffic he turned to me and asked, “Richard, have you ever held a gun?” I replied that I’d never even seen a gun in my life, let alone held one. (Those attached to the waists of policemen don’t count). He then opened up the glove box to reveal a loaded semi automatic hand gun, the real deal. He was careful to remove the magazine and then placed the gun in my hand. A weird surreal moment indeed. He said he carries it for ‘protection ‘when I asked if was something to do with his job. I gave him the gun back, he reloaded it and placed it carefully back in the glove box, at the same time pointing out a CB radio that he uses to listen in to police channels. I didn’t want to ask but I’m guessing there’s more to Beni than meets the eye.