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Migjen, this missionary!

2026-04-20 09:13:00, Kulturë Boris Miska

(Written on April 18, 89 years since the arrival in Puka of Migjen, this great humanist).

There are many accolades for Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, certainly among the most deserved!

He has been called a great writer, a hurricane in the making, a poet of misery, a master of verse, a new voice, but few have explored the other side, that of the man, the human dimension, the missionary, the figure of the teacher dedicated to the point of selflessness.

As a student of the school bearing his name, as a connoisseur of the place where he lived and worked, who gave so much in those turbulent times, in respect of the memory and gratitude of that time, I sit down today and write a few lines.

Migjeni came to Puka in the late thirties, almost ninety years ago, during a difficult period not only for him in terms of health, but also for the small town with a great thirst for development, education and growth.

Today it is easy to say and write, but it was not so easy to realize at that time, in the conditions of a harsh climate, in snow and rain, in wind and snow, in great shortages, and in almost elementary living and educational conditions.

I imagine Migjen, the teacher, at the school door, looking down at the city where the little ones came with their stacks of books in their hands, who needed several minutes or even an hour to travel to their classrooms.

They gathered at the school not only from the small town, but also from the surrounding neighborhoods; from Lajthiza, Zezaj, from Mehaj and Pezhve, Laçaj and Kukaj. Wet, tired from the journey, eaten and not eaten, but with impatience in their eyes because knowledge, a second parent, the head teacher, compassion, the caress of the hand and word, hope awaited them.

The lesson began with half the children gathered around the stove to warm themselves and dry off. The gliding of chalk on the blackboard was accompanied by the crackling of flames and the steaming of wet clothes.

The young boy from Shkodra was not the only one, there were many other teachers like him, in remote villages and remote areas, not only in Puka but throughout the country.

He was not married, he had no children, but he loved them with all the strength of his soul.

I find it hard to believe that he was not forced to accept that job offered by the country's educational institutions!

Or to climb to that city with its harsh climate just to help him recover from the lung disease that was gradually taking his life in the prime of his youth.

No!

Migjeni didn't go out of his way, not even to celebrate!

Within his soul lived the desire and thirst to serve people, little ones insatiable for knowledge, it was a kind of mission that he was entrusted to fulfill before he passed away.

And right there in that poor city, among those young students, he would reveal the most brilliant human values, write stirring verses and rare stories, which today do honor to national literature and culture.

I don't know if there were others before him!

But then there were many, not of that level, perhaps not on that scale, but who were heirs to the human values ??he left behind, the desire to serve people, the spirit of sacrifice, teachers and professionals who today I remember with fondness and respect.

For Migjen the teacher and every other teacher who gave life and left his mark on entire generations of educated adults, we must speak tirelessly, tell tirelessly, to bring closer models that are missing today, to revive that spirit that has unfortunately been suppressed and is being atrophied by time, its backward understanding, its narrow meaning, and petty interests that have nothing in common with the great name; educator.

*Boris Miska, former student of the 'Migjeni' school in Pukë.