Margaret in Bosnia

Law Tying Candidacy to Ethnicity is Contested

2009-06-06T13:53:00.002-04:00

Someone commented on an earlier entry I wrote about corruption and inequality, saying that the ethnicity requirements for entry into politics were a major cause of Bosnia's continued political instability and obstacles to legitimacy. Now that issue is being pushed at the European Court of Human Rights.

Read more from The New York Times

Some BBC Articles about Bosnia and the Balkans

2009-05-20T02:16:00.002-04:00

Here are links to three BBC articles from the past year concerning the Balkans. Two are about Joe Biden's trip to the region and one is about Bosnia's attempts to build a singular nation. The articles mention that the Obama administration is going to be more actively involved in the region, which I think is positive.

Bosnia struggles to build a nation

US seeks to rebuild Balkans ties

Biden to 'renew' ties with Serbia

New York Times Article about Bosnia

2008-12-14T15:05:00.001-05:00

This article echoes some of the fears I have been hearing in conversations for the past year and a half.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/world/europe/14bosnia.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

International / Europe
Fears of New Ethnic Conflict in Bosnia
By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: December 14, 2008
Even as Sarajevo appears to be enjoying a renaissance, talk of the prospect of another war is creeping into conversations across the ethnic divide in Bosnia

The Search for Ratko Mladic Continues

2008-11-10T11:14:00.003-05:00

The BBC News website reported that the search for Ratko Mladic, the chief of the Bosnian Serb army during the war, has increased in intensity in recent days, culminating in a search of a factory where Mladic was suspected to be hiding. Ratko Mladic is a wanted war criminal indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague. He is one of only two people remaining on the wanted list for the Yugoslavia Tribunal after the capture of Radovan Karadzic earlier this year.

See the article here

More Pictures from Mostar

2008-08-21T19:48:00.004-04:00

Laura and I at the waterfall, Kravice

Our last day of class coincided with Mina's birthday (Mina is second from left). We used this as an opportunity to have a party - we taught the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" in English and talked about celebrations. We gave her a birthday present - we had a few donated school and art supplies left and the entire class got cake. They were so excited and rambunctious because they knew we were having a party, but they all listened while we taught them the song and sang at the top of their lungs.

Saud showing off his "muscles"

Adisa, Aldin (our wonderful interpreter and friend), and Adis. Once, Aldin bought a bag of candy for the small children. He was amazed at how many candies Adisa (who is quite skinny) could eat. She bragged that she could eat an entire bag in five minutes. Aldin bought her the biggest bag of candy he could find and she succeeded without even a stomachache.

Zejna is a twin. She has one of the greatest handicaps at the orphanage, while her sister is not special needs. Due to her handicap, Zejna is often overlooked among the older kids. We drew names from a hat for our field trip, and she was chosen. This was wonderful because she was included. She smiled more on the day of the field trip than I had ever seen her smile (except possibly when we took her out for ice cream). I took this picture of her and when I showed her she kept clapping and hugging me and laughing. I think this was the first picture she has ever seen of herself, and in fact I may be the only person who has ever taken her picture.

Radovan Karadzic Captured

2008-07-22T15:46:00.002-04:00

Radovan Karadzic, who was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the war and who is at the top of the international war crimes tribunal's most wanted list, was arrested in Belgrade (the Serbian capital) yesterday.

His military commander Ratko Mladic, who is also at the top of the most wanted list, is still in hiding.

For the article detailing Karadzic's arrest and a more complete background, go to this BBC link.

How Can You Forgive?

2008-07-20T13:54:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was talking with a friend from Bosnia on the internet. He had recently watched some news about Serbs in Kosovo. The story focused on the persecution the Serbs said they faced now that Kosovo has declared its independence. My friend was disgusted by this. He focused on one girl in particular. This girl said she was scared to leave the house because of her treatment by ethnically Albanian Kosovars. My friend cursed her as he talked about the long history of Serbian mistreatment of Albanians. "She is a liar. What about the killings, the torturings? People who see this news will never know the truth - will never know about the Serbian wrongdoings. This is why I cannot wait to leave, to get out of this corrupt place, this hellhole that is the Balkans."

While I don't know how valid that particular news was, I do understand his point about people having misconceptions of the truth...particularly concerning the recent history of the Balkans. I have encountered so many misconceptions about the people and war of Bosnia when talking about and fundraising for my program. One particularly memorable encounter occurred when someone told me that "it was terrible what those Muslims did to the Christians in Bosnia - especially since it is a Christian country." I held my tongue as a wide variety of retorts passed through my mind, saying only, "Serbian Christians actually perpetuated the acts of genocide, ran the concentration camps, and committed massacres in safe zones - all against Bosniak Muslims. And Bosnia has been a country of mixed religions and (until the 1990s) remarkable tolerance for at least a thousand years."

This was not an isolated event. I told my friend that he was right - that many Americans do not even know where or what Bosnia is, and those who do have an incomplete or incorrect knowledge of the war. I told him that the words Omarska, Trnopolje, and Srebrenica have no meaning in America, that although to me those words have the same meaning as Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

He said that he knew that, and added that the Serbian people themselves do not even know the meanings of those words. He told me a mutual friend of ours, a Serbian secondary school student, did not even know some of the concentration camps and massacres and existed and occurred until he started working with my organization and travelling to the camps and speaking to survivors. This friend was alive during the war, there were camps a short drive from his home, but because Republika Srpska has an independent education system, he never learned about what actually happened in Bosnia from 1992 - 1996.

I agreed that the schooling in incredibly imbalanced. I mentioned to him that in some of the Srpska schools I visited, there were pictures of war criminals hanging in places of honor on the wall. In the schools, students are taught that these criminals, these perpetrators of genocide, are heroes.

How can they learn? How can these people heal? I wondered as our conversation continued. These children, the Serb children, will never know and accept their own recent history. They will never be forced to reconcile the actions of their parents - to make their own peace and understand the whys and hows of Serbian civilian brutality durng the war. They will spend their lives thinking that they were the only victims in the twisted mess that was the Bosnian war. With these views, they will never be able to coexist. Their Bosniak counterparts will know what the Serb youth think and will not forgive. War will happen again.

Then my friend changed the subject. "I was so young during the war, and my mother and I moved to Germany - I did not face huge losses personally. But my father - he lost his parents, his brother, his best friend, his house - he lost everything that mattered to him besides my brother, my mother, and I. How can he forgive? I am so angry, but he has forgiven." He continued on, talking more about the atrocities of the war, but I was focused on the sentence he had just typed.

"He lost everything...but he has forgiven." The tension I felt started to dissolve, as I once again saw hope for Bosnia. My friend's father has forgiven. He does not hate based on a person's name or ethnicity. He - who knows as well as any other person in Bosnia the pain that was inflicted - can accept these events and forgive. If someone who has lost everything can forgive, so can the rest of the people of Bosnia.

Our conversationn gradually ground to a close. I was distracted by my thoughts. How did his father forgive while he did not? What does this forgiveness mean? Does he have Serb friends, or does he simply not hate all Serbs without cause? Can he talk with others about his forgiveness and spread the message of acceptance?

How can you forgive? What is needed most for this wounded but wonderful country is not development or infrastructure or an increase in capital, but forgiveness, acceptance and healing. The biggest danger Bosnia faces is another war.

I think the key to forgiveness is education, poverty reduction, and healthcare.
If people are educated about the war, they will begin to accept.
If people have the ability to live, and the tools to make a living, they will move on.

I do not know how to implement this idea on a larger scale, for more than the 42 children in the Mostar orphanage and the kids I have met during workshops and camps. Despite this, I have hope. My friend's father gives me hope. He has forgiven. Others can too.

Some Pictures From Mostar

2008-07-15T15:51:00.004-04:00

Check out our TWI page for some other updates from my time in Mostar. TWI Page
With Belma and Jasmina, two of the younger girls, during class. Belma (right) is 7 but cannot speak more than a few words in Bosnian. She did not understand that Laura and I spoke English instead of Bosnian - she just thought she was having trouble understanding us and that we were strange. She called me "luda" (crazy girl) because of my inability to speak Bosnian. She was one of my favorites: a major troublemaker but also so sweet.
This is Petchuka (spelling nowhere near correct). She is 5 years old and a real handful. She is one of the youngest at the orphanage, so the older girls love to make her say crazy things in Bosnian. We think Petchuka has one of the worst learning disabilities. She is not in school and stays behind when a lot of the other children go on trips. She's a sweetheart and I really bonded with her during the program.

With some of the older kids during our field trip. We went to four places near Mostar that are important to Bosnian history or major landmarks. This is Kravice, Bosnia's largest waterfall.

Trnopolje and Omarska II

2008-07-15T15:37:00.002-04:00

The day after we visited Trnopolje, we visited Omarska. Omarska was the site of the most brutal concentration camp during the war. The people who ran the Omarska concentration camp were civilians, not members of the armed forces. It was located at a mine that operated throughout the concentration camp's existance and that continues to operate today. Survivors and activists are attempting to have at least part of the site made into a memorial, but they have had limited success.

Emsuda showed us the building that most detainees were held in. We were not able to get very close since mining work was occuring during our visit in the afternoon. We did however, enter the "white house" a small white building that was the center of the Omarska concentration camp. No one who entered survived, and every morning there would be bodies piled outside the house. The day the concentration camp was shut down, there were people inside the house. Some of those people were still alive. Their descriptions of the torture and horrifying things within is chilling and shocking.

Emsuda told us many more stories of Omarska. During one Serbian holiday, the guards at the concentration camp built a huge fire. They spent the day torturing the detainees, then throwing their bodies - some dead, some alive - onto the fire. Those who survived say that during that day, they wished they were dead. The survivors were forced to watch the torturings and burnings and say that at that point, they would have preferred death over continuing to watch. Emsuda finished the story by saying that her brother was one of those who died on that day.

The stories continued as we walked around the grounds. Hearing about these horrible things as I walked upon the ground where these things occurred was overwhelming. Even more shocking was watching the workers at the mine only feet away. These workers knew the stories of the buildings in which they worked. Some had even participated as guards at the concentration camp. Despite this, and despite their knowledge of the reason for our visit, they continued to work uninterrupted. They did not seem to care about the terrible history and importance of Omarska.

Back in the US

2008-07-07T01:01:00.002-04:00

I am now back in the United States. I will be in New Hampshire from Monday through Saturday. Afterwards I will be back in New Jersey.

I will continue updating this blog for the next few weeks since I still have many more things to write about.

Trnopolje and Omarska

2008-07-03T16:04:00.002-04:00

On Monday and Tuesday nights our group stayed at a peace center in the town of Kozarac. Kozarac is a predominantly Muslim town in Republika Srpska (the Serbian entity within Bosnia). It is also located near a string of concentration camps. We visited two of them during our stay.

The first was Trnopolje. We visited with a woman named Emsuda. She runs the peace center and was also detained in Trnopolje during the war. As we visited the site she told us her story. She was "lucky" - her family secured a small room near the rear of the building, so they escaped the notice of the Serbs who every night went through the camp raping, torturing, and shooting the detainees. Her other stories, compiled from various victims, were horrifying. Family members were forced to rape each other, torture was commonplace, and the shooting started at sunset and went on until dawn. Trnopolje was one of the more well known concentration camps - the pivotal image of the war (starving men behind barbed wire) was taken there. As a result, the camp was shut down relatively quickly.

The camp was run in a school and adjacent building. Today the school is once again in use and Bosniak children must attend school in the very rooms were their parents were detained. The adjacent building was used as a discoteque for years. As we walked the grounds, I noticed beer caps everywhere. There were children playing football in the field. There is a complete lack of respect for the suffering people faced there. Even worse, at the front of the building is a memorial to the fallen Serb soldiers. This is completely disrespectful because no Serb soldiers died in the area, so its placement is purely for the purpose of distorting history. The camp I visited last year had a memorial and was no longer used, so seeing this was very shocking to me.

Emsuda has been working to have the memorial removed. She has had some success. Schoolchildren (including Bosniaks whose parents were detained at the camp) used to be required to place flowers at the memorial on holidays. That is no longer allowed, although she still sees flowers placed there on holidays. Hopefully the memorial will be moved in upcoming years - once that is done, acceptance and healing can begin.

Leaving Mostar

2008-06-21T10:46:00.002-04:00

Dad - In response to your comment....yes I can travel. I am walking pretty well now and we have been taking busses and taxis to make it easier for me. Jason will come tomorrow and he is aware of my foot and will help me continue to care for it.

We left Mostar yesterday. It was so hard - even harder for me than Aldin and Laura because they will be back on the 26th for one night. Many of the kids were crying which made leaving even harder. I tried to make our departure fun by starting a water fight with the older ones. I think I was successful because when we left they were all laughing at me and how soaked I was...winning a water fight is hard when you can barely walk.

The days before we left we got even closer to the kids. The littlest girl (she is four years old) started calling me Mama and following me constantly. I know she has never experienced having a parent so leaving her was especially hard.

I will do a longer update soon. I think I may be able to upload pictures while we are here in Sarajevo.

Two Entries in One Day?!?!

2008-06-17T16:25:00.002-04:00

Facebook isnt working and I still have another half hour of internet time, so I will update again.

Several entries ago I mentioned the corruption that runs throughout Bosnias government. I knew about this corruption from research and past trips here, but I have learned a lot more about it recently. In Bosnia, many jobs that we consider to be nonpartisan are actually political appointments.
Schoolteachers and directors of orphanages here are not chosen based on experience or talent, but instead because of their money or who they know. This causes many problems, from having incompetent people in charge of public education to the mismanagement and abuse of money dedicated to the children of Bosnia. Even jobs that are not openly political appointments are not assigned based on merit. People cannot find steady employment in a sustainable field without connections. I know people here who speak perfect English but cannot find a job (even though I hear tour guides with poor English every day) because they do not know the right people. Many of the people we know here are in college, and they say that they work incredibly hard to pass their exams (in the college of social work less than 10% who enter graduate), but people with money can simply bribe the professors instead of taking exams.
Bosnia is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Its unfortunate, since Bosnia has so many needs, but its corruption prevents others from sending aid.

Something I noticed that is not corruption but is another problem with Bosnia and the region was that when busses enter Croatia, most people who get checked or pulled out for questioning have a Bosniak (Muslim) last name. When we were entering Croatia on Friday to get to Neum, Aldins ID was taken to be scanned. He was travelling on a full bus and was the only one to get checked. They let him through without any problems, probably because he was travelling with us. He told us that he gets checked every time he crosses the border and told us that once he and our friend Žuti got pulled aside and they ripped apart Žutis shorts looking for drugs. One can only assume that the reason they are always taken for questioning is because of their name.

This is not a problem in all of Bosnia, however. In Neum, most people were Croatian Bosnians, but Aldin did not have any problems. In fact, the people whose apartment we rented exchanged numbers with Aldin so that they can make a donation to the orphanage.

The next time I am on the internet will probably be Saturday (I will be in Sarajevo). Please look for an update about the past and future of the kids at the orphanage.

Only a few days left in Mostar

2008-06-17T15:01:00.002-04:00

It is hard for me to believe that we have only two and a half days left in Mostar. Although I am really looking forward to the camps and travelling, I will miss all of the kids so much. It will be especially hard for me to say goodbye to the older girls, because it took a while for us to develop a relationship with them but we are now very close.

Classes have become somewhat chaotic now - none of the kids have school anymore, so our class size has doubled. It is working out for the best, I think, because the older kids help out the little ones. Some of the boys who we rarely saw before speak English well and are really interested in learning.

Today after class we took a van of 11 people (Laura, Aldin, and I and 8 of the teenagers) to three very different places near Mostar. First we went to Poticelj, a city that was first mentioned in literature in 1444. There is an amazing fortress and castle that the kids really enjoyed. Laura and I also got to do some shopping. Afterwards we went to the river Buna and the kids swam and played volleyball. The third place we went to was Kravići, Bosnias largest waterfall. The waterfall was absolutely amazing and we are hoping the director will give us teh van again on Thursday so we can go back.

I wasnt able to hike up to the fortress and castle or go swimming because I have an enormous cut on my foot that makes walking difficult. This past weekend Laura, Aldin, and I went to Neum, the only city Bosnia has on the coast. Bosnia has so little coast that to get to Neum by bus requires traveling through Croatia. While I was swimming on the coast I stepped on a sharp rock or a piece of glass. That day wasnt too bad but the next day I could hardly walk. We were staying in our own apartment (for 10 Euros a night!!!) and the people who rented it to us were great and helped me clean it up. They put some antibacterial stuff on my foot and then poured rakija (strong Bosnian alcohol) on it. It hurt like hell, but it must have worked because I went to the hospital once we got back to Mostar and they said there was no infection. Since I am not a Bosnian citizen, I had to pay for the hospital visit, but when Aldin told the nurse that I was working at the orphanage she lowered the cost and told me the hours and days she was working - she is going to change my bandages and reclean the wound for free. Everywhere we go in Bosnia people are so hospitable and nice. When they hear that we are volunteering at the orphanage, they go even more out of their way to help us. I will be sad to leave.

The Future of Bosnia

2008-06-10T11:45:00.003-04:00

Over the past few weeks I have been talking with a lot of people about the war and the future of Bosnia. Their is a huge difference in the perceptions of old and young people. Everyone here thinks that war is awful, but the older people in particular think that war is the greatest evil. Having lived through the war as adults and having lost so many people, they are desperate to keep war from happening again.

Younger people, on the other hand, seem to think that war will happen again within a few years. One of my friends said it was inevitable because of the hatred that still exists. He was very young during the war (he talks about playing a game in which he and his friends would run to see who could pick up shells the fastest after they exploded because he was too young to be afraid) but he says that people who lost their entire family during the war hate all people of other ethnic groups. The easiest way to tell which people are of which descent by their names, and he says that many of his friends will hate someone as soon as they hear his name. He asks how you can blame those people for judging people by their name and background, when name and background where the only reason their family members were killed.

Another friend tells me that it doesnt matter what people think - it is the government and authority figures that want another war. Ordinary people cannot prevent it. There is a lot of corruption in Bosnias government (I will talk about it in another post), so that attitude is understandable.

Living in Mostar makes the possibility of war seem very real. Mostar is essentially two cities in one - there is a Bosniak (Muslim) side and a Croatian (Catholic) side. It is very dangerous for males in particular from one side to go to the other. I have never even been to the other side. Aldin took us to the unofficial but very real border, but we did not go further. The other side is beautiful, so we are planning to go this week either with Alisa or with Aldin. If Aldin takes us he will only speak English (so they wont hear his accent) and we will call him Cory (his nickname, since his last name is Čoralić). I knew that both sides were divided, but not how rare it was for people to visit the other side.

The first day we were here, Velež, the football team from the Muslim side of town, was playing the team from the Croatian side of town in the Croatian stadium. One of the kids from the orphanage was the ballboy for the game. Someone threw a stick of dynamite onto the field (to try to hurt the Muslim players). Ilija (the boy from the orphanage) thought that it was a sparkler and picked it up to throw it away. It exploded as he was throwing it. He has serious burns all over his hand and he may lose part of his thumb and one finger. He is a really good goalie, and was counting on playing soccer as an adult, and the damage may prevent him from doing that.

Bosnians vary in their expectations of the future. Some are hopeful and some pessimistic. Despite the negatives I have seen, the positive change I have seen in the three years I have been coming here have made me hopeful. I think the work we do makes a difference, that young people are realizing that peoples names and ethnicities does not determine their worth as people.

"I like children without parents."

2008-06-05T09:22:00.003-04:00

Almost every day we go to a gas station next to the orphanage to buy drinks or snacks. One of the cashiers, who speaks a little English, asked why we came so often. We told him that we were working at the orphanage. He gave us some candy to give to the children, explaining "I like children without parents." We understood what he was trying to say, but its just one example of the funny things that happen to us because of the language barrier every day.

We have been learning more things about the kids pasts, but with our limited Bosnian and their limited English it is hard. Two of the girls got into a fight the other day, and we found out it was because one of the girls told the other her mom was crazy. This girl, Lejla, is actually an orphan, so she responded violently. Many of the children at the orphanage are not actually orphans - instead, their parents are mentally or physically incapable of caring for them. The war inflicted so much damage on the adult population that the children who were born after the war ended are impacted as well. Another girl told us that her mom is alive, but in a mental hospital in Zagreb.

Although the orphanage provides clothing and food for the children, their upbringing is vastly different there. Many of the children are mentally challenged and the vast majority have emotional problems and anger issues, which is understandable consiering that they have had no regular adult role models or parent figures. The older kids try to keep things under control and will often separate the little ones if need be, but they are not a substitute for parents.

We are planning a movie night and a dance for the older kids sometime next week. We like to plug in Lauras ipod to speakers and sing and dance with the older ones which is a good way to teach them. We have also been listening to their music and having them translate it. One of the older girls, Merima, had never spoken a word of English to us. The other day she saw me without Aldin and came over and started talking to me. It turns out her English is pretty good. We have realized that some of the older girls are shy around Aldin, so Laura and I sit with them whenever we can and talk with them. Even when we understand things they say in Bosnian, we make them translate. This week we have definitely gotten to know the teenage girls better and we are having a lot of fun with them.

The little kids are still having a lot of fun and classes are going well.

Ways I have changed in three weeks in Bosnia

2008-05-31T03:42:00.002-04:00

1. I love techno
2. 90 degrees is considered refreshingly cool (at night).
3. I have no problem drinking cloudy water.

Our class is going very well. The kids are so responsive and they really seem to remember what we are teaching them. It is not uncommon to hear the "ABCs" being sung whenever you walk through the orphanage, and I definitely notice the kids speaking more English. When they see us they ask us how we are and what we are doing in English. Even the kids with whom we have not yet had class (because their school conflicts and does not end until next week) are certainly practicing their English when they talk with us.
One thing they all know now is how to talk about swimming. One day we swam in the freezing cold Neretva River, and the next we walked about 15 kilometers in search of a lake that never appeared. Now every time we leave they ask us if we are going swimming and then tell us that we are crazy because the water is cold.
The older kids are a little harder - our classes with them always seem to get cancelled, whether because of scheduling conflicts, the caretakers, or because the soap opera is on tv (the girls refuse to miss it). Still, just spending time with them and hanging out means that they speak English and practice, and we try to get as much teaching in as possible. For example, one of the kids, Šemso, was reading a Bosnian newspaper, so Laura went over and made him explain to her what every story was about. Listening to music is also a good way to sneak some teaching in.

I still havent figured out the older kids stories. Some of them are definitely orphans, but others have at least one parent living but are unable to stay with them. In some cases, the parents cannot afford to feed and clothe them, and in others the parents have their own issues. Two of the boys told us that their father, who is alive and used to send them money, is in jail in Italy. They are both almost too old to continue living in the orphanage and will have to move out soon. They have living grandparents who may be able to help them, but the others are not always so lucky.

I have a lot more to post about. The orphanage has not yet let us use their internet (I am in Sarajevo now) but hopefully they will soon so I can update more frequently.

2008-05-24T08:09:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been great. We went into Sarjevo for the night on Thursday and had a great time. Aldin went to see Lord of the Dance so we went into the city with some friends and met up with him afterward. He enjoyed the show and we had a great night too. The bus ride is a little under 3 hours, so we´ll probably only go back again for a longer period of time. We have weekends free so we are thinking about going back to Sarajevo next weekend. Having a whole weekend there will be great.

The orphanage is hosting a boxing tournament. There are about 60 boxers staying there in their guest houses. They are from all over Europe - Croatia, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia of course - and some of them speak English. We watched their semifinal last night and it was really cool to see. The final is tonight and we might watch some of it. The only bad thing about the boxers being there is that it has made the whole orphanage really busy and crazy. We werent able to have classes yesterday because of it. The boxers are leaving today and tomorrow, so next week we should be able to get into a more regular schedule as well as our own classroom. They are using the biblioteka (where we will have our classes) as a training center for the boxers right now, so we have just been teaching the kids in their living room.

Tonight is our friend Alisa˝s graduation night. We are going to the ceremony and then to her after party. Graduation from high school is a really big deal here - she?s been preparing for weeks and is so excited. It will be cool to see a graduation since it sounds like a lot of fun. Afterwards the whole graduating class has a party at a hotel and then goes into the city to celebrate, so it should be a fun night.

Sunday we will spend preparing for classes and relaxing. We are hoping that once the boxers leave and things calm down we will be able to do more English classes. Right now we have one great class with the younger kids (ages 4 - 7, I think) and another class with the teenagers that is a lot less organized. I am hoping that this week the caretakers will set up a time for us to work with the kids aged 8 - 12 and also that the teenager class will start to be a little less chaotic. If not this week, then next week everything will work out, because they will be done with school and will have more free time for our classes.

Email is not working

2008-05-21T07:38:00.003-04:00

I just tried to check my email and it did not work, so I probably wont be responding to those messages for a while. Let me know here if there is anything urgent.

First Few Days in Mostar

2008-05-21T07:26:00.002-04:00

We are at the computer club near the orphanage and there is only one computer with internet so I will update quickly. Our first few days in Mostar have gone really well. We moved in Saturday morning and spent a few days introducing ourselves to the kids and just having fun before classes started on Monday. We have two classes a day. At 10 am we teach the little kids and we teach teh older ones at night. The younger kids classes are going really well - we have taught them the alphabet, numbers, colors, and fruits. With every thing we have songs or crafts to help them remember. Today (Wednesday) the kids were still able to sing their "ABCs" that we taught them on Monday. Its great to know that the things we are teaching them are actually sticking. The older kids are more challenging because there is a wide range of ages (11 - 20) and abilities. We have been trying to focus on things they can actually use and on making things fun. Later today we are taking them to get ice cream. We are paying for them, but they have to speak only in English while we are there.

Tomorrow night we go back to Sarajevo to hang out with some friends. Aldin has tickets to see Lord of the Dance so we are going to take the train back with him. It should be fun and it will be nice to have the break. The kids are great, but we are with them all of the time except when we sleep. It will also be nice to be around more people who speak English.

Laura was sick for a while but is feeling better now, so hopefully we will start going into the city more (the orphanage is about a ten minute walk outside of the city proper).

Sarajevo

2008-05-14T06:00:00.002-04:00

I arrived in Sarjevo yesterday at about noon local time. The flights were really tiring, since we didnt get to our hotel until about 11 in London and had to wake up at 2 30 to take the first bus to the airport.

We lost two out of seven bags in transit. Laura and I each have one personal bag and the rest were supplies and donations for the orphanage. Unfortunately Lauras personal bag was lost along with one orphanage bag. It would have been better to lose two orphanage bags, since we dont leave for the orphanage until Saturday. The bags are supposed to be delivered to our flat today.

Last night Laura and I went to the Mexican restaurant in Sarajevo with our friends Aldin and Zuti. Its crazy that some of the best Mexican food Ive ever had is in Bosnia. Another American, Will, came as well. He has been in Bosnia for the past 10 months working for TWI, the UN Development Program, and now OSC. He is living in an apartment owned by Zutis grandma. I think its really cool that he started out working with TWI and then worked for the UN doing development work, since thats what I hope to do after graduation.

Four Hours Until I Leave!

2008-05-12T00:36:00.001-04:00

I just finished packing and I am leaving in about four hours for the airport! I procrastinated quite a bit with my packing, but I think it’ll actually help me because I’ll be tired enough to sleep on the flight.

While packing, I found my notebook from last year. It was fun to read and remember. I wrote down the names of some of the kids I’ve met at the orphanage in past years, so I hope I’ll be able to remember at least one or two of them. There is one boy, Sasha, who speaks some German, who I will make sure I greet by name. Besides the formal lesson plans I wrote about last time, I’ve been trying to think of games and songs and crafts that will make class fun. We’re also planning events, like a “disco,” for the older kids. Living with the kids full time means that we’ll be teaching constantly – they will have to practice their English if they want to talk with us.

I have four days in Sarajevo before I go to the orphanage. I’m going to be in meetings and training for part of that time, but I’ll also have a lot of time free. I’m going to meet Aldin’s family which should be a lot of fun. Aldin is so enthusiastic and funny, so I’m sure his family will be too. I’ll also hopefully get to see all of the interpreters who have done camps with me before. Sarajevo is a really cool city and I can’t wait to be there.

Planning in New Jersey

2008-05-09T14:15:00.002-04:00

Laura and I met on Tuesday to work on some lesson plans. We decided that our overall theme will be "My Life." Each week will have a different topics within this theme. Week 1 will be “My Life Before”, so we can review the English they already knew as well as introducing topics like introductions (“my name is…”/“I am …. Years old”). Week 2 will be “A Year in My Life” and we will be teaching the kids about seasons. The other weeks also follow this theme. We have, using an old lesson plan as a guide, come up with games, crafts, and music to accompany our topics and make our lessons more fun and interactive. Right now we’re gathering all of our supplies. We’ve had donations from a wide range of people. Laura’s dentist has donated some toothpaste, people from my church have donated magazines, and others have donated supplies like paper and crayons. We still have some supplies to purchase, but hope to get most of those costs covered by donations.
Tonight Laura and I are meeting again to finalize our plans, and tomorrow we are meeting with Bobby Houser, the director of TWI. TWI is the organization that is sponsoring us. It has facilitated our placement with the Mostar Orphanage, hired our interpreter, Aldin, and organized most of the details of our program. There is a link to their website, with information on their wide variety of programs, on my post below.
Our flight is on Monday at 8 am, so I’m very busy packing, planning, and shopping for last-minute supplies and necessities. The next time I update will probably be in Sarajevo next week.

First Post

2008-04-24T14:11:00.001-04:00

I will be using this blog as a way to keep in touch with everyone back home during the summer of 2008 while I travel in Bosnia. I'm scheduled to leave on May 12th (only 18 days!!!) and I'm really excited.

I'll spend the first few days with Laura and Aldin in Sarajevo, finalizing lesson plans. Then, I'll leave for the orphanage in Mostar, where I'll be teaching English until June 20th. After that I will head back to Sarajevo to meet up with the IST team and spend two weeks travelling with them working at friendship camps.

My access to the internet may be somewhat limited while I'm in Mostar - I know of a few internet cafes in the town, but don't know how often I'll be in town. I'll probably have internet access at least once a week. Please leave messages here or email me. You can also check out the journal Laura and I will be writing at Educational Project - Mostar .