A personal quest for meaning through community service led Casey Johnson, 34, a 1992 graduate of Calistoga High, into a tiny, war-ravaged country on the other side of the world.

That was nine years ago, and that country — Kosovo — which survived only by the direct intervention of the United States, celebrated its independence from Serbia in February 2008.

“It was a very gratifying time to be in Kosovo,” Johnson said during a recent interview at the Calistoga Depot, where he stopped off for a cool drink. “I went there as a volunteer to help create recreational programs and work with children.”

Nine years later, Johnson and his wife, Antoneta, are raising their two children in Kosovo.

Johnson is the son of Rotary President and Calistoga Joint Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Johnson and Shawnee Johnson, director of home health care at the St. Helena Hospital.

One thing he’s done while home for a two-week visit is air two short documentary films he and Antoneta created.

The first, he said, “is a short documentary about the independence of Kosovo,” Johnson said.

The second film, which he plans to show at Calistoga Roastery on Aug. 21, is “about how the changing times are changing the relationships of marriages in Kosovo,” he said. Johnson calls it “a tragic comedy, like most romance stories are.

“The screening at the Roastery is actually a fundraiser to buy a rototiller for the specialty salad and greens farm we’re making over there in Kosovo in cooperation with Forni-Brown gardens here,” Johnson said.

Together with Forni-Brown, Johnson and his family members, including father-in-law Nasir Kastrati, began a farming business in Kosovo. “We learned everything from them (Forni-Brown), they helped us get started,” Johnson said. “We introduced the same baby greens and salad mix they grow here in Calistoga and serve it in about 15 restaurants there.”

Johnson’s main job in Kosovo is producing a weekly current events television program similar to CBS’ “60 Minutes.” He said the farm, in its third year, supports two people, his father-in-law and another man who’s in charge of delivering the greens to restaurants.

Since the war’s end, pensions have been lost and the country is going through a serious economic crisis, according to Johnson, and his father-in-law only draws the equivalent of about $100 a month. Right after the war a lot of people began farming. That year, Nasir planted a field of watermelons — but as it turned out, so did everyone else. The watermelons sold for almost nothing.

During a visit to Calistoga 18 months ago, Johnson met with Lynn Brown and the others at Forni-Brown. “They sent me back with a mix of seeds of the exact same things they grow here, and the restaurant owners in Kosovo were so excited that they someone was beginning to grow the kind of greens they were serving in their restaurants in other countries.”

Johnson said he’s not one to try and predict the future, but he, Antoneta and the girls could be moving to the United States soon.

“It’s hard to say right now,” Johnson said. “In a couple of years Antoneta will have a Kosovo passport, not just a travel document. Plus, there are times when I really do miss Calistoga.”

He explained that his wife has never lived outside of her home country and would like to try living in America. In a couple of years his wife will also have her master’s degree in journalism.

If the Johnsons do come to America, Johnson plans to continue his career as an independent documentary film producer.

“We’d love to have them here in Calistoga,” said Johnson’s dad, Jeff. “He’s a hard-hitting news producer, and sometimes pokes fun at some people who don’t have much of a sense of humor.”