Balkan Reflections

2009-12-16T16:51:00.001-05:00

First published April 16, 2006

The happiest of happy Easters to all!

Well, we've definitely entered a new chapter of Balkan Reflections. On the 19th of March, the Feastday of St. Joseph, my husband told me he was coming home. That is great news.

He comes home next week.

The other related news is that our eldest son will be flying to Banja Luka very soon to work with the same company over there.

My nest will have another empty spot!

I am sure our son will help provide me with new material!

God Bless You.

2009-12-16T16:50:00.001-05:00

First Published May 9, 2006

Greetings

Well, dh is back home. I am writing on a Serbian keyboard attached to a laptop as our computer has crashed.

I hope we can rescue our pictures!

DS is now in Banja Luka. He has, effectively, replaced my husband at his position!

We recieved a terse little email from him the day after his arrival, telling us he was there, and who was sending greetings.

But today we received a phone call. He sounds good, and says he is. He has discovered that there is more incompatibility than just electrical current between here and Europe!

The boy insisted on taking all his DVDs with him over there. And now he finds out they won't play on the apartments DVD player! Apparently we're area 1 and they're area 2 or something like that.

We're already packing a box to send to him. He forgot a couple of clothing items I think he'll miss. But I won't send the DVDs he forgot!

He's had a refresher as to how to drive a standard transmission (stickshift) car.

He also tells me that he didn't notice any war damage as he drove from the airport in Zagreb! He did see mine warnings though. I suspect he's just not sure what he's looking for.

It will be interesting to see what we saw through the eyes of a young man. I hope to keep you posted.

God Bless

2009-12-16T16:46:00.002-05:00

First published May 12, 2006

Hello!

Our son is now ensconced in B-L, doing very much the job that his dad was doing before his return to Canada.

I don't think there will be a shortage of stories to tell, however I will wait until I can do it from my own computer, which is currently ill, and making it so difficult to retrieve files.

Please excuse the pathetic fallacy...but these machines DO tend to develop a personality!

God Bless

Jaye

2006-09-23T10:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a while.

Our son is having the time of his life in Bosnia. It looks like he'll be home in the Spring, as the EU is closing its base in Bosnia.

Our son figures he'll be working there again in 2 years...he's afraid that once the EU pulls out, hostilities will resume. Sadly, that was my impression too.

Ds went to a local boxing gym. His Serbian friends tried to talk him out of it, but ds insisted. As he put it later "A gym full of weighted gloves and guys who hate NATO. I shan't be going back."

He's nothing if he's not wise!

I do wonder at the formation we gave him. He actually attempted to attend Mass. He couldn't find the church. It turns out, he thought the Catholic Church was an Orthodox Church!

He made a rather astute comment, I thought, last night regarding peace and violence. I will find it and quote it later on!

God Bless

2006-09-03T21:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm finally back. We just got our net connection at the apartment today. I apologize to those who have been faithfully and fruitlessly checking in!

We arrived here safely nine days ago. The flight was long but uneventful. The children behaved beautifully, and everything was either on time or early. I did find Gatwick airport unweildy, but we managed.

Our drive through Slovenia after our landing was gorgeous. Think of all the storybook pictures of big, square houses with flower boxes in every window! Everything appeared spotless.

The road through the Balkans was twisting and narrow (we were along the Sava River, but not on the main highway. I at times suspected I'd removed my motion sickness patch too soon!. This was compounded by the frequent sight of some very large truck bearing down on us at high speed around a curve on roads that appeared to be only 1 and a half lanes wide!

For those family and friends who have received pictures of our apartment, be assured that the pictures do not do it justice! It is VERY nice. My only real complaint so far is that the washer does not spin out well, and there's no dryer, so line drying in this relatively humid area is VERY slow.

Although I have not been online, I have been journalling, so I have a lot of material for this blog!

I plan to discuss attending Mass, differences between central Europe and home, the politics, as understood by me, the language(s) as understood by me, shopping, as understood by me the inveterate NON shopper, our day-to-day life, and that sort of thing. There are so many things that have caught the attention of the family!

Well, duty in the name of our youngest son calls, so I must go.

God Bless and hope to see you all tomorrow!

2006-09-03T21:49:00.000-04:00

Nine days to go. We're getting excited.

We now know that we'll be returning on December 9. Another detail down. That trip will be during the day and we splurged and bought premium class! I suspect that by the time we land, we'll be glad for that extravagence.

Coming home, I fully expect to have a walking baby. I think he's waiting to see Daddy before he makes his first steps...take THAT child development experts! At any rate, the bulkhead seats will be more comfortable, I'm sure.

We'll be homeschooling while we're there. We're going light, as I fully expect the girls to learn a lot by osmosis. Plus, who wants to use up all the luggage allowance with books?

So, we're taking English, Math and Religion with us. We'll learn Serbian over there (along with Landmine Awareness!) and I expect history will just come with the territory. Upon coming home, we'll rediscover Latin, Logic (okay, we'll make the attempt!) and science.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to mitigate the 12 hour stopover we'll have in London on the way over...it's going to be VERY early in the morning after an over night flight. We will not be at our best, in all likelihood.

Wish us luck!

Oh...please remember the Afghani people who will be having their first election in 30 years this Sunday, the 18th. Send prayers up for them and for those international troops there to oversee this operation!

God Bless

2006-09-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

Well, we're another day closer...and my nerves are getting edgier. Some sleep would be nice. I'm sure I could handle things a lot more efficiently if I could open my eyes all the way!

I'm new to international travel. Heck, I've only been on a large jet on one other trip. And now I'm doing it with three kids in tow.I've heard stories about parents travelling alone with children and how tough it can be to get across international borders. I suppose if someone were attempting to kidnap my child, I would appreciate this diligence. As it is, it's just one more bit of bureaucracy to deal with. So dh is supplying me with a letter giving me permission to travel with our children.

And we still have one dose of Twinrix to get.But I managed to get a number of little things out of the way today, so it was productive.I have a small business selling Catholic books and gifts. Of course, I will be mothballing this while I'm gone, as I do not (yet...) have a website. But today was my absolute cut off for orders...so there was that last minute flurry of orders going in. I"m sure the distributor I was talking to will be glad to see me go after this past week! I am hopeful that I've left myself enough time to receive these orders and distribute to my customers...and of course to get my GST return done for this quarter!

While we're gone, our eldest son will be minding the fort. I'm not concerned about wild parties, and he's already starting to keep an eye on the utility bills, so I'm sure they'll be okay.I am a little concerned about the house turning into a science experiment while we're gone. Ds's personal space tends to exhibit his rather relaxed view of housekeeping!

Well, this blog has already caused a reunion of sorts! I sent notice of its existence to a family related to my husband and quickly recieved an update on the family. We haven't heard from each other in several years now.

Greetings to the Victoria connection!

Tomorrow I will be visiting with a friend. I am looking forward to this. We always have a good time when we're together.

And in the 'Pennies from Heaven' department...Last night I was out strolling with our three youngest children. Our baby is way too old to not be walking. Someone suggested that we get him a toy he can hang on to and 'walk' with. I was reluctant as we will be here such a short time and will not be able to take it with us.Well, as we were going through the neighbourhood, what did we see on the curb for "garbage" pick-up but one of those little ride-em cars that can double as a walking toy? It was completely intact, if rather well-loved.It has now been scrubbed and loving decorated by the older siblings. Now we just have to convince the baby how to use it!

Good night and God Bless!

2006-08-15T19:28:00.000-04:00

Hi Again

Well it seems that in trying to create a place to put links to other blogs, I have managed to erase my archives. A wee bit depressing.

If anyone can help me figure out what I did, I'm open to suggestions.

2006-08-01T12:05:00.000-04:00

Hello travellers!

My son has sent some news of the more interesting things he has experienced.

Due to his age, his gender, his ethnic background and the company he keeps, he spends a fair bit of time visiting the 'clubs'.

This past weekend was no different. He and a few others went to one place last weekend and were refused entry. They didn't know why. This was a time where they didn't have any Serbians with them, and the group didn't know enough Serbian between them to understand what they were being told.

One of the Canadians, who was there with his wife, started to give the bouncer a hard time. The bouncer reacted...with his fist. He then started to give the fellow's wife a hard time, which brought the first Canadian back to action. The altarcation was quickly heating up as others in the group joined in the fray.

Then my son (generally cool of mind) and another fellow dug out the magic bullet...the EUFOR ID card.

The fight stopped dead. Apparently the look on the bouncer's face was priceless. I will remind you that EUFOR badges are almost a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Now there are a couple of interesting things to note here. At one point, anyone who spoke English here was figured to be a EUFOR employee and was treated with deference.

This English speaking group was apparently thought to be tourists. What this means is that there ARE tourists coming into B-L.

As recently as last September, a customs worker looked at us in puzzlement when we said we were going into Bosnia. She asked us why!

Now, eventually the Serbs will have to learn that you don't rough up tourists for know known reason...but still!

Anyway, incident reports were filed both with local police and with the EUPM (who monitor the local police).

There is a list of places to avoid published and circulated among the foreign contingent. Our son says this is how they pick the clubs they go to...

God Bless

2006-07-14T09:24:00.000-04:00

This is from a news service I belong to. This explains some of my observations from when we were in Banja Luka!

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief

=================================================

13 July 2006
BOSNIA: TO LEGALLY BUILD A PLACE OF WORSHIP..
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=811
Legally building a place of worship in Bosnia and Herzegovina is often
difficult, Forum 18 News Service has found. Religious communities of all
faiths face obstruction in getting permission to build or re-build places
of worship. For example, in the Bosniak-controlled area, mosques have been
built without official permission. But Catholic and Protestant churches,
and Jehovah's Witnesses, face years of official obstruction, Forum 18 has
been told. In the Croat-controlled area, especially in and around Mostar,
Muslim and Protestant places of worship cannot be legally built. In the
Serb-controlled area, Serbian Orthodox churches can be built, but places
of worship of other faiths can face much obstruction. Another problem
Forum 18 knows of limiting building and other activities throughout
Bosnia-Herzegovina is taxation. All religious communities must pay 17 per
cent VAT on all their activities - even on humanitarian aid.
* See full article below. *

Kyrgykistan and Kasakhstan

13 July 2006
BOSNIA: TO LEGALLY BUILD A PLACE OF WORSHIP..

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=811
By Drasko Djenovic, Balkans Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service

Eleven years after the end of Bosnia and Herzegovina's civil war,
religious communities of all faiths face obstruction in getting permission
to build new places of worship, or rebuild those damaged or destroyed,
Forum 18 News Service has learnt. In the Bosniak-controlled parts of the
Federation (the larger of the two entities which make up the country),
many mosques have been built, apparently without official controls, but
Catholic and Protestant churches face years of official obstruction. In
Croat-controlled areas of the Federation, especially in and around Mostar,
Muslim and Protestant places of worship cannot be legally built. In the
Serb-controlled Republika Srpska (the smaller of the two entities),
Serbian Orthodox churches can be built, but places of worship of other
faiths face much obstruction.

The Catholic Church recently received permission to build a church in Novi
Grad, in Sarajevo, "after many years struggling for building permission,"
Monsignor Ivo Tomasevic, Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Forum 18 from the capital Sarajevo on 24 May.
"For many years, Catholics did not have a place to celebrate Mass. This is
the first building permission we have received in Sarajevo since the
Second World War."

"However," Monsignor Tomasevic noted, "we have also been waiting for years
for building permission for a church in the Grbavica district of Sarajevo.
If you ask town officials they will tell you that they are open and that
we will receive this or that paper. But to complete the whole process to
get building permission is impossible. There is not the political will for
us to receive it."

Sarajevo City Council claims no responsibility for planning in Grbavica,
stating that this is the sole responsibility of Novo Sarajevo District.
With considerable difficulty, Forum 18 was able to track down an official
able to discuss the matter. Velma Kljuco, of the Department of Urban
Planning of Novo Sarajevo District, told Forum 18 on 12 July that "the
first planned location for a Catholic Church was near the Zeljin Stadium.
But because of a planned swimming pool, we offered another location. But
at his location a mosque was planned, and residents were opposed to either
a Catholic church or a mosque. So we will need to revert to the first
location. This means changes in plans, new paper work, and so on."

Jehovah's Witnesses in Sarajevo also have problems in Novo Sarajevo.
Building permission was received without too many problems in Ilidza
District, Djuro Landic from their office in the Croatian capital Zagreb
told Forum 18 on 12 July. "But in districts like Novo Sarajevo we have
been indirectly told that we will never receive permission." In Novo
Sarajevo, "we found a plot for a Kingdom Hall and after a year collecting
the different necessary papers, we learned that the urban plan for this
location was changed."

From Forum 18's knowledge of similar situations in the region, it may be
many years before the problems faced by Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses
in Novo Sarajevo are resolved.

Monsignor Tomasevic noted that some religious communities do not face
difficulties. "Something I have found personally in Sarajevo is that
mosques are built like 'mushrooms after the rain' - as we say in the
Balkans," he told Forum 18. "Some are smaller, some bigger." He said that
some sources put the number of mosques in Sarajevo at 250 or more.

Hare Krishna devotees rent a building as a temple, Miro Skorup of the
community told Forum 18 from Sarajevo on 12 July. He stated that "Sarajevo
is a multi-ethnic town, where the international community is highly
involved in the government, so we believe that we would not have too many
troubles in getting building permission." Outlining how many devotees
there are in Bosnia, Skorup said that "we collected 300 signatures for
registration without too many problems. We do not have a 'church
register'".

"Obtaining building permission in Bosnia and Herzegovina varies from town
to town," Landic of the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. "After the
civil war, we have built 6-7 new Kingdom Halls to add to those we built
before the war." Bosnia-Herzegovina's slightly over 2,000 Jehovah's
Witnesses have not requested building permission in the past year.

There were "a lot of problems in Zenica, in the Bosniak-controlled area.
We submitted all the required papers and exhausted all the legal
possibilities in the town. So eventually we had to take our case up with
the highest authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, such as the
Ombudsmen." When the Jehovah's Witnesses did this, "very soon afterwards we
received building permission for Zenica's Kingdom Hall," Landic told Forum
18.

In Bihac in the north-west, also in the Bosniak-controlled area, Jehovah's
Witnesses are planning to ask for building permission for a Kingdom Hall.
"We will see how this will work out," Landic commented.

In the ethnic Croat-dominated town of Mostar in the south, sharp
geographic religious divisions are clearly visible. City authorities have
not allowed the Muslim community to rebuild the destroyed mosque, Muharem
Omerdic, director of the educational service of the Islamic community in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, complained to Forum 18. He added that in Banja
Luka, in Republika Srpska, renovating the town's sixteenth-century
Farhadija Mosque, destroyed during the civil war, remains a big problem.
"It is a political game," he told Forum 18 from Sarajevo on 30 June. "The
Islamic community insists that everywhere where believers and real needs
exist, rebuilding places of worship should be allowed."

Mufti Seid Smaikic of Mostar told Forum 18 on 30 June that, several times,
the Muslim community has built small mosques without permission. "Building
a mosque east of Mostar, towards towns such as Capljina and Stolac,
conflicts with the 'ethnically clean' concept that some politicians have,"
he told Forum 18 on 30 June. "When we apply for building permission, the
administration just gives no response. So in west Mostar, we built a
mosque without building permission." Smaikic said "besides these small
mosques, we need bigger - modern mosques. In Mostar we have been waiting
for permission for such a mosque since 2000."

It is not just Mostar's Muslims who face obstruction. Karmel Kresonja,
president of the Evangelical Church in the non-Serb area of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, says there is a "big problem" in all of the
Croatian-controlled area. "In Mostar we have been waiting for planning
permission for more than six years," he told Forum 18 on 3 July. "It is
basically impossible to get it, even though in law we have the right to
build a church."

Despite repeated requests from Forum 18, and a promised response from
Miroslav Landeka of the city Press Office which has not been made, the
authorities in Mostar have declined all discussion of building permission.

Bernard Mikulic of an Evangelical church in Capljina, in the
Croat-controlled area, stated to Forum 18 on 30 June that "we are told
that under the urban plan, it is not possible to build a church in the
area where we land for a church. We are not able to get building
permission." The church intends to ask the authorities where it can have a
church. "But to be honest, I do not thing that we will be able to get
permission for a church," Mikulic said, "even though under Bosnian law we
have the right to have a church for worship."

Mikulic told Forum 18 that "only in Sarajevo do I know of Evangelical
churches which have not had building permission problems. In Capljina,"
he continued, "we received building permission for a house where we can
privately have singing and prayers - but we cannot hold public worship
services there." (The building permission describes this as a "monastery,"
but the permission is for a pastor's house with a room for worship.) The
church also intends to apply for permission to build a conference hall and
office.

In Republika Srpska, the Orthodox Church is the only religious community
that does not face obstructions in gaining building permission. Forum 18
has learnt that, because of this, Protestant churches usually buy a house
and then convert it into a church.

Monsignor Tomasevic noted that, in Republika Srpska, the problem for
Catholics is not rebuilding churches, but the return of Catholic people.
From a pre-civil war Catholic population of about 200,000 Catholics, only
6,000 stayed in the area, and in the 11 years since the civil war about
6,000 to 7,000 have returned. "Most churches and parish houses that were
destroyed have been rebuilt or renovated. The problem is that the people
cannot return," he complained. "It is easier to rebuild church buildings
than the living church. The government causes administrative problems to
make it harder for people to return."

Landic of the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that in Republika Srpska,
"the Serbian Orthodox Church has the last word." Noting also problems with
registration, Landic said that it "is almost impossible for us to get
building permission." In Banja Luka, the area capital, permission was
received. "We were lucky that because there was already building
permission for another building on the plot of land, not giving permission
for a Kingdom Hall would openly show religious intolerance, so we received
it." Landic claimed that the situation in the entire Republika Srpska "is
chaotic. The Land Register is in chaos and everyone asks for a bribe."

Forum 18 knows of religious communities with problems gaining building
permission in Republika Srpska, who think that publicly discussing this
will end their chance of gaining permission. In one case known to Forum
18, a Protestant church's building permission was revoked when it became
public that a Protestant church would be built.

Another problem facing religious communities is taxation, which restricts
humanitarian work, building projects and other activities. Since January
2006 all religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina must pay 17 per
cent VAT even on humanitarian aid. "For public kitchens and other
humanitarian work, this is a big burden," Monsignor Tomasevic, Secretary
of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, complained. "Especially when it is
well-known that the whole country still depends on humanitarian aid."

A printer-friendly map of Bosnia and Herzegovina is available at

(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
=================================================

SUBSCRIBE here:
http://www.forum18.org/Subscribe.php and enter your e-mail address for
either the full or the weekly edition.

- Or send an empty e-mail to (for the full edition):
f18news-eurasia+subscribe@forum18.org

(for the weekly edition):
f18news-weekly+subscribe@forum18.org

UNSUBSCRIBE here:
http://www.forum18.org/Subscribe.php and enter your e-mail address for
either the full or the weekly edition.

- Or send an empty e-mail to (for the full edition):
f18news-eurasia+unsubscribe@forum18.org

(for the weekly edition):
f18news-weekly+unsubscribe@forum18.org

=================================================
If you need to contact F18News, please email us at:
f18news @ editor.forum18.org

Forum 18
Postboks 6603
Rodeløkka
N-0502 Oslo
NORWAY
=================================================

2006-07-08T13:09:00.000-04:00

Hello Family, Friends, and those who just happened to land here from cyberspace...

Finally got a little news from our son regarding his activities. He's keeping busy!

He finally told us that he was in a car accident in MAY...wasn't badly hurt, fortunately. He may not realize how fortunate. Apparently the local hospitals are not exactly what he find at home!

He has done some partying in the residences of the local university, and has apparently claimed the land their for Canada!

He has met a number of local women, but the one woman he seems to bump into the most often is one woman (and their are probably not many like her) who cannot stand EUFOR. She scowls whenever she sees him. Oh well...

Last week he told us he has infiltrated the local castle. All it took was dropping down a well and crawling under some barbed wire...I might add that he's doing this alone and at night. I hope he doesn't end up breaking a leg. He could be there a long time.

And just to make mum grow a few more grey hairs, he's off shooting M-16s with the Green-Howards this weekend.

Never a dull moment!

God Bless

2006-05-22T14:29:00.000-04:00

Hello All

A fair bit of news from the Balkans today. Montenegro (aka Crna Gora)has voted to leave the Serbia-Montenegro partnership. This is the last of such associations left from the Yugoslavian part of their history.

And dh managed to have a lengthy MSN conversation with our son...finally.

He appears to be having a blast, finding out just where there are people who speak English, and finding out where the pretty girls are.

There is no shortage of pretty girls!

The woman at the Apoteka (pharmacy...where he was picking up some throat drops) told him he needed to go and have a big serving of chevapi...which he has apparently done.

He is apparently wowing those at work with his computer skills. Good for you!

And lo and behold, he has friends coming to visit him! He has apparently connected with some of his 'gamer' buddies who live in Europe.

Of course mum and dad are just a WEE bit concerned, but ds (dear son) maintains he knows them well.

He tells us that he will have the Kiwi (New Zealander) watchman on speed dial while he's busy showing them around!

He's encountered another glitch. Before he left, ds went to change his bank account so that he could remove more than $100. daily from his bank account. $100 was the limit he had when it was a youth account. Well, the change didn't happen. So getting his rent out every month takes a week! And I must remind him that it also costs him $5.00 for every transaction...

Ds also seems to have adapted to driving in B-L. He says it's no harder than driving in downtown Ottawa. Hmmm. might be so, but I don't like driving in Ottawa either! And at least in Ottawa, you can be reasonably certain the cars are in running order and that people will obey the rules of the road.

In Ottawa you don't have to give right of way to a horse and cart though!

God Bless

2006-05-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Our son is now ensconced in B-L, doing very much the job that his dad was doing before his return to Canada.

I don't think there will be a shortage of stories to tell, however I will wait until I can do it from my own computer, which is currently ill, and making it so difficult to retrieve files.

Please excuse the pathetic fallacy...but these machines DO tend to develop a personality!

God Bless

Jaye

2006-05-09T15:34:00.001-04:00

Greetings

Well, dh is back home. I am writing on a Serbian keyboard attached to a laptop as our computer has crashed.

I hope we can rescue our pictures!

DS is now in Banja Luka. He has, effectively, replaced my husband at his position!

We recieved a terse little email from him the day after his arrival, telling us he was there, and who was sending greetings.

But today we received a phone call. He sounds good, and says he is. He has discovered that there is more incompatibility than just electrical current between here and Europe!

The boy insisted on taking all his DVDs with him over there. And now he finds out they won't play on the apartments DVD player! Apparently we're area 1 and they're area 2 or something like that.

We're already packing a box to send to him. He forgot a couple of clothing items I think he'll miss. But I won't send the DVDs he forgot!

He's had a refresher as to how to drive a standard transmission (stickshift) car.

He also tells me that he didn't notice any war damage as he drove from the airport in Zagreb! He did see mine warnings though. I suspect he's just not sure what he's looking for.

It will be interesting to see what we saw through the eyes of a young man. I hope to keep you posted.

God Bless

2006-04-28T19:55:00.000-04:00

The happiest of happy Easters to all!

Well, we've definitely entered a new chapter of Balkan Reflections. On the 19th of March, the Feastday of St. Joseph, my husband told me he was coming home. That is great news.

He comes home next week.

The other related news is that our eldest son will be flying to Banja Luka very soon to work with the same company over there.

My nest will have another empty spot!

I am sure our son will help provide me with new material!

God Bless You.

2006-02-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some news clips from the Radio Free Europe Website.

There seemed to be a lot of news from the Balkans, including some with regards to war criminals.

I wish I had found this site earlier. Other sources of new, which I otherwise usually hear only from my dh, are scarce!

I do not know who 'BW' is, but I hope there is no problem with me re-posting this writing!

God Bless!

SERBIAN GOVERNMENT DENIES REPORTS OF MLADIC'S ARREST
The Serbian government on 21 February denied reports that war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic has been arrested, international news agencies reported the same day. "The news about Ratko Mladic is not correct," Reuters quoted government spokesman Srdjan Djuric as saying. "It is a manipulation which damages the government and does not contribute to its efforts to fully complete its cooperation with The Hague," Djuric added. The official Serbian news agency Tanjug cited TV BN in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Republika Srpska as reporting that Mladic was arrested in Belgrade and was being transferred to The Hague via the Bosnian city of Tuzla. An earlier report by Belgrade's Studio B television said Mladic was located "in the area of Tuzla," Reuters reported. BW

MEMBER OF BOSNIAN SERB PARAMILITARY GROUP ADMITS GUILT IN SREBRENICA SLAYINGS
Pero Petrasevic, a former member of the infamous Bosnian Serb Scorpions paramilitary unit, admitted on 21 February to killing Muslim civilians, Beta and B92 reported the same day. On trial since 25 December 2005 for his part in the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Petrasevic had refused to testify in his own defense. He confessed on 21 February to the murders of six Srebrenica civilians, adding that he was following direct orders from his superiors. BW

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA APPROVES DRAFT AGREEMENT WITH HOLY SEE
The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina on 21 February approved a draft agreement regulating the country's relations with the Vatican, Hina reported. The draft, which has been in the works since 2001, calls for nationalized church property to be restituted over a 10-year period. In cases where the state is unable to restitute church property, it will provide fair compensation. The draft also affirms the separation of church and state, but calls for the two to cooperate to promote spiritual development and general well-being. BW

FORMER BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CHARGES OF CORRUPTION AND AIDING KARADZIC
Momcilo Mandic, a former Republika Srpska justice minister, pleaded not guilty on 21 February to charges of abuse of office, organized crime, and aiding war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, Reuters reported. Mandic and three other Bosnian Serb officials, including former Presidency member Mirko Sarovic, have been charged on 14 counts in Bosnia's State Court. The group is accused of transferring depositors' funds in Privredna Banka -- which Mandic owned -- to political-party accounts, causing the bank to go bankrupt. Some of the funds are alleged to have abetted Karadzic. BW

2006-01-10T17:00:00.000-05:00

Hi again!

Well, Happy New Year!

Our party went well. The Serbian food was well received. The Chevapi was all gone and a good portion of the salad went, to.

It was fun.

Orthodox Christmas was celebrated last weekend, which roughly corresponds with Epiphany in the Gregorian Calendar. (The Orthodox Christian churches follow the older, Julian Calendar).

Dh was well fed by his landlady. He was invited for dinner on Saturday, and dinner was sent up to him on Sunday, Christmas Day.

The "Christmas Eve" dinner is traditionally vegetarian. Salmon was the main dish. There was also a potato and onion salad, a cold bean salad called "Spek". There was also latkes and a yorkshire pudding-like dish. It had Trappist cheese inside. Of course there was also rakija!

Christmas day supper was pork, and more potato salad.

Mostar has been the site of a major drug-bust this past week. Unfortunately, it degenerated into a shoot-out which resulted in the death of the dealer's wife and the paralysis of his son.

There was shooting into the air (a really dangerous practice the EUPM are trying to stop in the area!) to 'celebrate' the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.

I find this absolutely ghastly. I don't think the society in Bosnia can be close to healing when this sort even can be celebrated by anybody.

And my dh was, with his coworkers, evacuated due to a bomb scare today. Dh says he first thought it was just overzealousness, but it turns out it wasn't...quite.

Sometime recently, it would seem (and I guess one would hope!) one of the locals, wanting to remain anonymous but responsible at the same time one presumes, pitched a plastic bag of Tito-era hand grenades over the compound fence, where they were found by cleaning staff today. They were dealt with without further incident. I suspect the area law enforcement is thankful that the grenades aren't still sitting in someone's shed!

Mir Vama!

2005-12-30T11:10:00.000-05:00

Well...we are again this year partaking in what has become a local tradition.

For about the past five years we have been getting together at the same friends' home with almost the identical group of people on New Year's Eve. Children are part of the landscape, too, which makes it all so easy. And we sleep over! Then those of us who are choir members drag our butts to Mass in the morning and attempt to sing through very stodgy vocal chords to Mary, Mother of God. Sigh. She seldom gets our best.

This routine has come to go without saying!

Well, as we've just spent the last quarter of our year in the Balkans, what would my contribution to the potluck be? Serbian food, of course!

The Shopska salad would be pretty easy, as all the ingredients are common to here as well. Dh suggested from B-L that I would have to make up some Cevapi, too. Contrary to what I seemed to think when we were talking about it, finding a recipe was a challenge.

But I've got one now, and again, the ingredients aren't too challenging.

It's the accoutrements which will pose a challenge. I've decided to not even try to find Lepina bread in our little area. This is what cevapi is served with. It's like a pita bread, but much thicker. It's sliced open and the cevapi is put inside. This is served with sliced onions. Onions I can do. I think I can even do pickled peppers, which is also sometimes served with it.

But what I learned to love was Ajvar. It is a kind of relish, I think, that is made from peppers. It's bright orange and delicious on nearly anything.

I called up the local German Butcher and described what I was looking for. I even gave him a brand name. The young man said he didn't have a clue what I was asking for, but he'd look and call me back.

About 15 minutes later he did call back. He said they have it...in two types! I didn't know there were two types! Anyway, I suppose I'll be able to serve the cevapi with ajvar! What a treat!

Mir Vama and Sretna Nova Godina (Peace be with You...and Happy New Year's)

PS: Went shopping to get the groceries for our New Year's Party offering, and got a special treat. As I was at the German Butcher, I certainly found the Ajvar. I also found pickled, roasted red pepper, and most surprisingly (to me anyway) I found pre-packaged Cevapi spice! Not only that, the clerk said that they make the Cevapi itself in the summertime!

2005-12-29T12:54:00.000-05:00

Greetings all and Merry Christmas! The Octave of Christmas ends on January 1st. The Christmas Season goes on for some time after that!

We celebrated back in Canada without our father/husband, which was certainly not usual. As dh commented though, given our extended contact with military life, it's surprising this is our first Christmas apart.

Having been back now for almost a month, I've had some time to mull some things over.

I've discovered that I enjoy writing, and some of you have encouraged me further. I have come to the conclusion that the story of the Balkan Wars, particularly the Banja Luka area (which was not actually in the war zone) needs to be written. Does it need to be written by me? Oh, I don't know about that!

The story of the Balkans, even if limited to just what is now Bosnia, or limited further to the Republic of Serbia, or further still to Banja Luka, is so complicated that I'm not sure an outsider could understand it.

That said, I wonder if the story needs to be told by an outsider who can attempt to see what someone too close to the story may not.

We have already seen and heard the denial of some of the people in Banja Luka with regards to what happened there. People who will not admit that many mosques in B-L were blown up...they'll say that there were never so many mosques there in the first place! We've heard people say that people in B-L always got on well. I'm not sure how these people reconcile that with the huge number of people who suddenly felt compelled to pack up and leave.

I have a number of questions forming in my mind. And primary sources are still easy to come by.

Well, I had a funny little incident, sort of, after we returned. The baby was ill when we got back to Canada. I ended up meeting our Doctor in Emerg at the hospital (it just happened to be where he was working that day). In the process of checking in, I told them that we'd just come back from Europe. They asked if we'd been anywhere where there was Avian Flu. Initially I said no, then I recalled we'd been in Croatia in October, so I told her this. She says "That's okay that wasn't one of the countries affected". I corrected her of course! Was having our car sprayed not one of the reasons for our late return from Zagreb?

Anyway the baby didn't have Avian Flu. A course of antibiotics caught the ear infection and possible pneumonia. He's fine and becoming quite accomplished as a bi-ped!

Mir Vama!

2005-12-15T19:51:00.000-05:00

Home-schooling in Europe.

When we were in Europe, we decided on homeschooling.

We had already home-schooled our second eldest daughter for one year, so home-schooling now really seemed the most sensible thing to do. So our youngest daughter was also taken out of school for the year. The girls are 14 and 10 respectively. Also joining us in this adventure was our baby who was 21 months old.

I had made the decision that we would do home-schooling ‘light’ in the interest reducing the number of books we were hauling to Europe. I selected Math (Saxon), Grammar (Adventures in English and Loyola Grammar Practice Books), Religion (Baltimore Catechism #2 and Novalis Confirmation workbook…the latter not being my choice but required by our parish), plus a few books for reading. Our girls and I were also supposed to keep a journal of our days. Mine took the form of this weblog or ‘blog, and the girls each kept a journal in a hardcovered lined book. Our 14 year old was actually quite prolific. She ended up putting hers into the computer.

This would be supplemented, I figured, by hands on history lessons as we traveled. We also planned to take Serbian Lessons.

The history ended up being a bit lighter than I’d hoped, as funds for travel dried up as the Euro, in which my husband was paid, fell dramatically while we were there. Even so, we took advantage of what was there. We visited the Kastel (Castle) in Banja Luka, parts of which date from Roman times. We also took a landmine awareness course offered to us by the Eufor Base in Banja Luka. As we lived in Banja Luka itself (“on the economy”, as the phrase goes) we had quite a bit of interaction with Serbian people, and learned a lot about how they live.

Our Serbian Lessons were fairly intense. We generally had one or two two hour lessons a week. These consisted of both oral and written work and homework. They were given by a young woman who is soon to be a doctor.

We did our lessons on days when my husband was at work. Initially, he worked 4 days on and 4 off, but by the end of our 10 week stay, he was working 5 days on and 2 off. I generally had the girls up by 8am and lessons would usually last until lunchtime or shortly thereafter.

On Sunday, we attended Mass at a local parish. Mass was said in Croatian (very nearly identical to Serbian, but for complex reasons the Catholics spoke Croatian). The priest did speak English, so we could talk to him outside of Mass and learn some of what had happened in the area.

The other days, we explored the city or nearby areas. We did take a trip into Croatia and along the Adriatic Coast. It was very interesting seeing how different the flora was in this area compared to our Eastern Ontario home!

It was an eye-opener for the girls to see some of the differences in cultures. There were no Thanksgiving or Halloween observances. And although the very small Catholic population of the area would celebrate Christmas in December as we do at home, the general population, which is Serbian Orthodox, celebrates Christmas in January. One little treat though, is St. Nicholas Day, which is celebrated by Catholics in Europe, but generally not in North America. This is early in December (the 6th, although for practical reasons our parish recognized it on December 4th this year). The children receive toys and candy from St. Nicholas. Black Peter was also present. His presence surprised our Serbian friends, when we recounted the day. They’d never heard of Black Peter. In my very limited experience with St. Nicholas (one St. Nick Party thrown by German friends many years ago) Black Peter was always present. I assumed they always went together. I guess there are some cultural variations in this practice.

Shortly after our arrival in Banja Luka, we attended a football (soccer) game between two teams of ex-pats, mainly British, German and Canadian. There was also one Slovenian and one Dutch fellow present.

We were talking after the game and I was asked what our children would be doing for education while we were in Europe. When I said I would be teaching them, they assumed I was a teacher by profession.

It would seem that home-schooling just isn’t done in these countries. All were aghast that I could do it and that it was permitted…mind you, some relatives give me the same reaction and they’re Canadian!

As we talked more, it became clear that these men had many of the same problems with their children’s education as parents do elsewhere…parents who often go on to teach their own children. None of the people we were talking with seemed to entertain the possibility of home-schooling for their children. I think the idea was just too outlandish.

I do not know what the regulations are for schooling in BiH itself. As foreign nationals, those rules didn’t apply to us anyway. What I do know is that the education system there is scrutinized rather closely by outside observers to ensure that old prejudices, the kind that cause wars, are not being perpetuated, at least not through the school system.

We found quickly that we did not bring enough reading material. Sadly, just two weeks before we were to leave Europe we discovered that the local library had a section for English books. I hadn’t thought to ask! We did find an English bookstore. It was mostly textbooks, but had some classics as well.

I think the only thing I would do differently is to research a bit a.head what would be available to us so I could plan some lessons for history or science. Mind you, when I tried to do more research on the Kastel in Banja Luka I was dismayed to find almost nothing online…in English anyway. I do not know what is available in writing in English as I have not had time to research it.

Knowing that there is an English section in the library, I would have regular trips there, too. I have also been told that an American library opened up just days before we left the area. That would, I’m sure, be a great resource.

2005-12-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we're home.

The trip was a bit 'glitchey' but all in all not too bad.

When we woke up on Wednesday, it was raining, again. As a matter of fact, we noticed all along as we drove to and into Slovenia, that the rivers were very high.

We packed up the car and left B-L in good time. As we reached the outskirts of town, our back right tire went completely flat. Fortunately we were withing metres of a service station. The mechanic there didn't speak English, but the problem was rather evident!

He jacked the car, (with us still in it) and removed the tire. He inflated it and gave it the bubble test. He could find nothing wrong with it. He was obviously concerned about something, so he phoned a friend who spoke English. Through his friend he told us that the tires on the car were not very good... especially if we encountered snow. As the car was a rental, there wasn't anything we could do about it.

We decided that we had time to return to the rental shop. There, my husband phoned our Serbian tutor for help, as the rental guy didn't speak English. Through her, our problem was explained. The man agreed to change the tire. He asked dh to follow him. While we were starting the car and trying to get the windows unfogged, the man disappeared. We hadn't seen him leave!

Dh drove into a couple of sidestreets, but there was no sign of the man. Finally, we see him in another car and follow him. We did, just about the whole breadth of Banja Luka to an Italian tire shop (the car was an Alpha Romeo, so I guess it needed Italian tires?). At this point we knew for sure that the nice breakfast we'd planned to have on the way out of town wasn't going to happen.

Dh thought that, as we were just sitting around, that he'd walk over to a bakery and get some sandwiches. He returned 20 minutes later looking half drowned. He'd left his wallet in the car, so there were no sandwiches!

Changing the tire meant hauling all of our abundant luggage out of the trunk and putting on the spare, which was not a 'donut'.

Anyway, we're finally back on the road but running a bit later than we wanted to be. We decide to forgo food(I did have a few snacks in the car at least)until we were much closer to the airport and could judge our time.

We arrived at the Ljubljana airport and checked in. We had time for a quick bite, which we all thoroughly enjoyed!

Then we said good bye to dh/daddy and boarded the plane.

We arrived in London about 2 hours later. The baby had slept for most of the flight. We collected our abundant luggage and went to catch our shuttle to Victoria Station. We had been told this was the best way. From the station it was a short ride to the hotel.

The ride into the city was interesting. I don't think any two seats had occupants who shared the same language. I dubbed it the Babel Bus.

When we arrived downtown, we were essentially dumped, with our luggage, on the sidewalk. Not a luggage cart or cab in sight.

The girls and I stand and figure out what to do. I leave them with the luggage and try to figure out where we can catch a cab. Our plan was to relay carrying the luggage so that neither pile of luggage be unattended. One of our bags was very heavy, so two of us would have to haul it any distance.

On my return, I had eliminated one path to find a taxi. As I was about to set out in another direction, one of four men who had been sitting on a window ledge near us stood up and asked, in heavily accented English, if they could help us.

Now, I'm not totally naive, and I've heard the warnings. But were stuck, and a little voice told me it was okay. So I thanked them and said yes, we could use some help.

They descended on the luggage, hoisting even the heavy bag effortlessly (this fellow reminded me of a Serb...very tall!) and started marching us out to the road, where the tall man hailed us a cab.

We got one, got loaded, I thanked them and they left.

The cabbie asked me who the men were. When I said I thought they must have been angels, he said that this must be our first time in London, and that we really must be more careful! He had us count our bags to make sure everything was there...it was!

I gave him a little comfort when I told him that I HAD followed admonitions to go only with 'Black' cabs. I was warned by two different people NOT too ride with anyone offering a 'good deal'. They would be the unregulated ones. That seemed to appease the cabby. I told him that I trusted that he was taking the shortest route to the hotel!

We arrived at the hotel, which was a 200 year old building. It was quite a nice place. We got settled and decided to have a bite in the hotel restaurant, as it was rather wet outside and we were tired!

The next morning I called the airport to confirm our flight to find out that our departure had been moved ahead THREE HOURS! That meant that instead of leaving at 9am, we were leaving at 6am! And we were now too early to use the airport shuttle! The desk was not much help, so I got out the phone book and started to make calls. Eventually I found "Airport Cars" which would charge us about the same as the shuttle would have cost. It was still very expensive, but much cheaper than many of the other places I called.

We were out of the hotel by 10:00 for our day of sightseeing. We took the 'tube' right downtown and the first thing we saw upon leaving the station was Big Ben!

We saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Parliament Block, Hard Rock Cafe London(we have a little collection of HR pictures from various places family members have been. Still trying to figure out how to get a pic of HR Cafe Kandahar!). The kids and I went on the London Eye. If you're going to do that, get a GOOD guidebook. We saw people with the cheaper book and they were at least as frustrated as we were without one at all. It's hard to figure out which building is which from so far in the air.

I have just found out that the day we were in London was the last day the double decker busses were running...and we didn't ride one! They do figure in at least one of the pictures we took, though.

We got back to the hotel, despite some tense moments as we found ourselves just a bit lost on the tube, to finish packing and preparing for our very early morning. My attempt at a bit of sleep was thwarted by a very fussy baby. By morning, he was running a fever. Good thing I still had some liquid ibuprofen.

Despite a scarily heavy fog, our little airport car (which seemed to absorb our luggage...it was amazing. It was a Skoda Octavia) had us at the airport at 4am. We were to board at 5am. That time came and went. Turns out someone had left a bag on the plane from the previous flight, so the police and bomb squad had to be called. We were in the air, finally, at 7am.

Everything was pretty smooth after that. The baby slept most of the trip. The girls were enthralled by the movies.

It was nice to get home again, even if it was in considerable disarray. I gathered that ds's fascination with housework was short-lived.

Now, I am thinking about the past few weeks...I suspect this is where the 'reflections' may really kick in.

2005-12-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

This will likely be my last post from this side of the Atlantic

We had a very nice, busy weekend. Friday night was an early Christmas party. Met with many people dh works with, had a lovely turkey dinner and said many good-byes.

One Saturday, dh and I were downtown. We were doing a little shopping. As we left the one store, we saw someone we’d spent a lot of time talking with the previous evening. He was very distressed that there wouldn’t be time to get together again before the children and I leave. This fellow was very encouraging of us coming back. He is a local man who works as an interepreter here.

Dh and I then went to have a drink on our own. The fellow we’d just been talking with was meeting a friend at that point, so he didn’t join us. As we left the side of the restaurant we’d been in, we looked across the the bar side and saw a couple of men who’d also been with us the previous evening. They invited us to join them for a beer, which we did. Our daughters had spent a good part of the previous evening entertaining and being entertained by one of these fellows in one corner of the party room. (Honestly, I’d been a little concerned that they may have been monopolizing the time of this obviously accommodating man!) They shared stories of Canada, card tricks, jokes.

As dh and I shared a beer with this man, he told us what a lovely time he’d had with the kids and how polite, and funny etc…that they were. Email addresses had been exchanged and he was determined to stay in touch with all of us. He asked if he could see us before we left…

Gosh it’s nice to hear good reports of one’s children!

We dashed out, as we were planning to attend Mass on the Base at 5pm. We did make it, although dh didn’t really hear any of Mass, as he’d been out tending our suddenly inconsolable baby.

After Mass, we again joined Father for tea, along with a couple of British fellows who were also posted to the base. We had a great chat and realized we’d see each other again at 11am Mass in Budzak. I was bringing the younger two children for St. Nicholas Day celebrations, the one British fellow was accompanying some comrades who couldn’t attend the evening Mass.

Well, on Sunday morning, it was standing room only at the Budzak chapel. There were several English from the Base, and many children there because of the party.

After Mass, Father corralled us anglos up to the meeting room for coffee, telling us it would be too crowded downstairs, where we normally meet after Mass.

We ended up staying until 2pm. We had a great visit with the British people and Father. The children were both introduced to St. Nicholas and Black Peter and given a grocery-bag full of treats! Airplane snacks!
It was nice discussing impressions of the area with other ‘outsiders’ who were in various stages of their stays here. It was also nice to be able to share with them some of what I’d learned in my time here. None of them are living ‘on the economy’ as we’ve been doing.

They gave us a ride home, which meant we showed up in front of our apartment in a ‘EUFOR’ van, which could be some cause for concern for our landlord if their affiliations are anything less than honourable…it kind of shows that we’re ‘connected’ or something.

From there, we soon left again to visit and say good bye to our Serbian tutor and her family. We shared coffee, rakija and a delicious cake made by our tutor’s mother with them. The evening was very enjoyable, but brought to an end by the requirement for us to return the car borrowed from the base.

All in all, I’d say it was a great set of memories with which to make our departure! I hope our trip is smooth, so as not to dispel the good feelings!

I will arrive back home with mixed feelings. It will be nice to see our two older children again. It will be nice to see our friends, too. But dh will be here for Christmas. And it will be another 6 months at least before we see him again.

So, until next time…

Mir Vama!

2005-11-30T04:59:00.000-05:00

Being the last day in November, this may also be our last day with internet, so I should do a blog, don’t you think?

It’s raining. We’re winding out trip down. Starting to pack, figuring out the fine points of the itinerary…that sort of thing.

I have really enjoyed my time in B-L. I’ve learned a lot, and I expect that after we return home (Dec 9th) I will realize more and more of what we’ve seen. So I might just keep blogging! Stay tuned…

I know that I’ve come away with a taste for travel. I hope to do it again sometime.
I’ve also come away with a greater appreciation of my Faith and its importance.

I have, I think, a clearer picture of the history of this area. I also know that there are huge blocks of the history here which do not seem to be well documented. I’ll have to keep looking.

I’ve also gotten to know our younger children better, and they, each other. We’ve had some fairly undistracted time together. It has also been really interesting to learn a language together with them and observe how we all learn differently.

I am sorry that dh will be here by himself at Christmas time, but I am also looking forward to seeing our eldest daughter and son again.

I look forward to seeing our friends again and putting this whole experience in perspective.

God Bless

2005-11-26T11:33:00.000-05:00

HI friends

This is a long letter from our son, who has been home alone while we’ve been over here. It has been edited slightly, mostly for punctuation and paragraphing!

And my dh wonders why I want to go home?

Mir Vama!

Hey Mom,
How’s your trip been? Thought I'd e-mail you tell you what I've been up to...

So Ill start with Week 1 when you guys left...
I went to Canada's Wonderland just for fun, it was on the way, and when I was there I won a free pass to go there again(which never got to be used :( It went through the wash), anyways I left when it closed and started driving home. Now I get to about Barrie and I'm practically falling asleep at the wheel and I said to myself this won't do; I can't die on my first day without parents. I need to save that till at least week 2 (which also happens to be the day I light the stove on fire...I’ll go more in depth with this story when I get there.. stay tuned). Anyways, I get to Barrie and decide I will find a cheap hotel to stay at for the night, I go to five hotels all of them booked; no vacancy. They tell me the nearest one is in Orillia, another 20 minute drive, so I muster up all my will/Redbull, and drive to Orillia. I go to two hotels there again booked solid...they tell me everything is booked, again no good at all...so I drive around thinking this can't be true. I need sleep. I need to find a hotel so in my solo exploration of Orillia(a really boring little city) I find one more hotel, but it’s really nice:(. I think to myself, might as well try. I get in the hotel, they have a room, I was, like, awesome so everything is not booked. Then this group of people come in behind me and ask for a room, the clerk was, like, "Sorry there are no more"...I chuckled at my luck for the day, holding my room key in one hand and my free ticket to Wonderland in the other. I then go to sleep for the night.

I awake the next morning to find a meal ticket on the dresser next to my bed. I guess I hadn't noticed it the night before but I wasn't about to complain. I go downstairs after showering and confiscating one of their towels and have my breakfast, hoping to God the van hasn't been towed because I was parked in the only free spot at the hotel, which as with most busy places was a handicap spot.

On to the drive home. Driving home I was well rested and felt like a good drive so I took the longest way back home, I went straight to (I’ve edited out locations, but trust me when I say he definitely took the LONG route home! JP) and then through (…), stopping of course at Tony's Restaurant to say "Hi", while there he tells me to come by on the following Saturday, and we can all get together from the play (note, our family has had some involvement with the local Little Theatre), plus S who we all knew anyways. So I said I would, and continued my perilous journey back home.

So I get back home, and what do I do? Absolutely nothing! I watched some movies, then went to bed because it was late again. The next day I woke up and said to myself: what will I do today? I decided I'd do dishes so I could start with a clean slate so I could no longer, for the rest of my stay here, blame the dishes in the sink on someone other than myself… but boy did I complain on that first load of dishes! Of course nobody listened except for the cat, so eventually I just sulked to myself and finished up. After doing dishes I decided I would clean every room in the house. Why? Because I was just that bored, and my ADD kicked in (mother’s note: the length of this note attests to the fact that ds does NOT in fact have ADD!) and I got bored of playing on the computer. So I clean dad's room, 2nd hardest by far. I'm sorry but for him not being in it for so long I couldn't believe how messy it was! (Mother’s note! DH strongly protests that the room was NOT messy when he left!)

After I had finished Dad's room I continued on to C's, only to find it was not in dis-array at all, easiest room by far. Now, who wins the award for hardest to clean? I know you’re all dying to know...It was your’s mom. You have a lot of random stuff in your room. Your room I did in steps. One day was spent just organizing what already had a surface, the next was just finding space for everything else, yet making it possible to move around...

The next room of course is S's, very easy to clean, just raked everything up, and put in the laundry, garbage, or wherever it was supposed to go.

Now of course your’re wondering about my room, saying to yourself, "V cleans rooms. What about his? Where does it stand in this competition for hardest room to clean?"...Now I say to you, "Do I ever clean my room? :)" So I think you know where my room stands. lol (P.S I did eventually clean it, Ill get to that later).

So yes now a couple days have passed and all I've really done is clean the house. I've not really socialized too much, except with the cat, who I must say will use any excuse to talk. So we move on to Saturday. I have the day off, so I head down to (…), and make a stop at the restaurant to talk to Tony and see what’s going on. He doesn't really know so I decided I'd make the plans...now I'm not really good with making plans, but I figured I'd try and get something going...this backfired...so I enlist help. I stop over at S's (last name S. I told you you knew her) and she calls everyone up: C, T, some other people I do not know. I had brought down my DVD's. I like bringing them with me in case of emergency. Those and my security blanket make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. So we watched a bunch of movies until about 3 in the morning, we then call it a night and I go home...

Next week,
Cursing myself because I know I have church in a couple of hours, I fall asleep when I get home in about 2 seconds. I wake up and it’s time to go to church. I'm happy because its Thanksgiving at the L’s that day too. I get together with M after church and we chill waiting for dinner. Dinner was amazing. Me and M decide we'll get together tomorrow and I go home because I need sleep.

Monday I wake up, and call up T too, and he says he'll come over in about and hour, so I quickly clean my room(told you I did it), and putter awaiting T’s arrival. He comes over we play some World of Warcraft(WoW), then get going to pick up M. We basically just watch TV and movies at M's house, then we go out for supper and then they go back to school at around 7PM. The rest of this week is pretty boring: just talking to people on MSN, playing games, going to work… that’s about it.

By Thursday I'm getting bored of this and decide I need to take up something to keep me somewhat busy. Tony had mentioned the play for Little Theatre, so I go and sign up to be stagecrew, for that which will at least keep me busy Saturdays. I coaxed S into doing it too, so that at least I know someone doing stage crew, although I know most of the cast as well. At practices I don't really do much stage crew yet, so I mostly go help E with singing training for the cast (Mother’s note:!!!!).

Oh yeah, also this week I caught the stove on fire. That was on Tuesday. I decided I'd make Perogies to eat, I then went downstairs to clean the basement, then I went on my computer, and was playing some games. When I got bored of that I went back upstairs, now forgetting about my perogies which are in the frying pan on the stove, I think to myself "I'm hungry" so I go into the freezer and get out a steak and go to the BBQ and start to cook it… still completely forgetting I have perogies on the stove. So my steak is done cooking, I bring it inside to eat it at the table, I start eating it, when I suddenly smell burning. I thought nothing of it and continued eating because it was faint and the house sometimes gets a smell like burning in it (mother’s note…this smell had puzzled us. We eventually discovered that the occasional insect was flying into the halogen lamp!) Then the smoke alarm goes off so I rush up run to the smoke alarm to shut it off, when I whip around the corner I see flames, I then remembered "Oh s**t, I was making perogies for lunch"! So I cover the frying pan to put the flames out. I use “flames” loosely. They weren't that big but boy did they smoke. And put my carbonogies into the green box. That was about it. I then laugh because I thought of the humour in it (mother’s note…I had tears running down my face, I was laughing so hard at this point…but I wonder how my children know how to handle kitchen fires so well).

The next couple of weeks, are pretty boring. The most exciting was I had an 80s night with the people from D where we watched all the big movies from the 80s. It was good. Other than that pretty boring weeks ensue although there were a lot of freakin weddings. I went to 3 but heard of, like, 8. So I bought a nice suit for the occasions knowing I was not going to be wearing it just once and put it away forever. To go along with the suit I also bought a Fedora, which I turned into a Tilsbey hat(gangster hat). Basically you take a fedora and take the feather out, and bend the front down so it curves down not up, and you have a Tilsbey hat. As well I got a stainless steel flask, and a stainless steel Zippo, because when you’re wearing that suit, you have to have a big cigar in the front pocket(even if you’re not going to smoke it, its just part of the style) and when you have a big cigar in the front pocket, people are going to ask you for a lighter, and you can't just pull out a normal plastic lighter, because that just throws off the coolness. You need to have a nice lighter, and a stainless steel Zippo is styling. I will be getting both the flask and the lighter engraved, but that will be later, because I’m trying to save for Christmas right now. (Mother’s note: He doesn’t smoke ANYTHING!LOL)

So the play is going well, we gave S a gift today for her baby and we all signed a card. There’s another women sort of taking over because S is apparently due any time and it wouldn’t suprise me; she looks like she will explode. I've been keeping myself busy going to the bars and stuff with colleagues from work, played poker with some of the guys, been doing well. Just thought as your trip winds down I'd tell you what I've been up to. Oh yeah in other news too some doctors quit delivering babies at the P Hospital, Drs. P (both) and I believe Dr. G. They said it is too dangerous and refuse. They say the hospital is ill-equipped...Dad thought you might want to know. (Mother’s note…this ward was just renovated. Our baby, who is not yet 2, was born on the old ward. And they were about the last GPs who delivered babies in our area)

Anyways thats pretty much it,
Ill be seeing you on the 9th.

Love You,

2005-11-22T04:40:00.000-05:00

What a nice Sunday we had! Life is full of little surprises!

Last week, dh offered to take us to Sunday Mass at the Cathedral in B-L, which we had not yet seen inside.

We set off bright and early, as Mass there is at 9pm and we were taking the bus.

We walked in and, hoping to genuflect, I looked for the Tabernacle…dh points over to this golden globe up against a wall…with no Sanctuary light that I ever found…we then found a pew.

The Cathedral in B-L was built in the 1970’s I believe. The earlier Cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake in 1969. I won’t go into details here, but as one with an interest in liturgy and ‘worship spaces’ I would say this building demonstrated more than a few of the ‘thou shalt nots’ of liturgical ‘reform’, at least as some of us see it now.

After Mass, we were looking around the building, and the Bishop, who had celebrated Mass, came back in to pray. He saw us and came over to find out who we were…and to be yet another person making eyes at our little son! He speaks a little English, and we a little Croatian, so we shared a little. We did introductions and he got rather excited that our eldest in situ daughter would be having her name Saint day very soon.. He invited us for coffee.

As his Excellency herded us into his lovely home. The Sister who had played the organ and led the choir was also there. We went up into a parlour, and another Sister brought in a tray with coffee, tea for the girls and cookies. Dh and I were, of course, served rakija. One wonders at the possible connection between rakija and Purgatory!

As we talked, or attempted to talk, with our collective deficiencies of language, we started asking questions and the Bishop started telling us a bit about the area and the troubles its been through. He left us for a few moments and came back with a couple of books and some prayer cards. One book was on the visit by Pope John Paul II to the diocese in 1994. The other book was written by the Bishop himself and translated to English. Dh started looking through the book and reading out some of it. Dh later told me that he’d recognized the Bishop’s name as soon as he started looking through the book, which is a collection of the letters written or co-written by him during the Balkan Wars, from 1991 to 1995 to many and various people requesting help, and giving support to his flock.

The Bishop is Bishop Franjo Komarica and the book is In Defense of the Rightless. The Bishop worked tirelessly, and often facing death threats and personal danger to try to achieve a secure existence for Catholics and other non-Serbians in his diocese of Banja Luka.

Sister, as it turns out, was a great help in the conversation, as she speaks English fairly well. She reiterated what a bad time it has been for Catholics in the area. Many who left during the conflicts will never return, although the Bishop wishes them to return.

(a note here…there is still some pressure upon Catholics to leave the area. A Croatian of our acquaintance has a friend who has had HALF his house confiscated by the city for a ‘green space’. One wonders which half. Dh adds to this that given how slowly things work here, the man could be retired before any action is actually taken!).

The Bishop tells us that this is the last copy of his book, of which only 2000 were printed. We eagerly spend a few minutes looking through it. The book has, if I understood correctly, been distributed to Bishops of the world and to agencies interested in human rights

At some point, Dh is sent off to have a look at Sister’s website www.bkbih.org/kta (for English bits, click on the British flag). They seem to fully expect his input at a future point! As DH returns to the parlour, he tells me that the Bishop’s book is online…
http://www.biskupija-banjaluka.org/obespravljeni/english/I_pog.htm

The Bishop asked a number of questions about our parish and its location. He has traveled extensively in Canada, visiting Croatian communities now in Canada. He has met with the Canadian Bishops, too it seemed. He seemed quite familiar with our own Bishop, as well as the Archbishop of Ottawa.

We passed a lovely time. The Bishop asked me to try out the grand piano which was in the room. It turned out to be dreadfully out of tune. He told me it had been moved from Visoko. As my piano playing is rather minimal, that it was out of tune provided me an ‘out’! I didn’t have to play. It wasn't until later that I learned that the Bishop is very interested in music!

The Bishop and Sister were both interested in dh’s computer abilities. I think Sister may want help with her website!

As we prepared to leave, the Bishop presented us with gifts. To myself and our youngest daughter, there were saint medals. To the baby, was a brightly coloured finger rosary from World Youth Day. To our ‘Saint Day’ daughter was a medal, and a little napkin holder with cows on it! She was thrilled. And to Dh was the copy of the Bishop’s book!

We reluctantly left the Chancery. In a funny note, as we walked through the gate onto the main street, dh stopped behind me and said to the girls "Help your mother out". The girls looked at my back half and burst out laughing. It seemed that the good Bishop's piano bench, which was covered with cowhide, had left cowhair all over my rather lint-collecting black pants!

After we return home, I sat down with the book. It makes very real the troubles experienced by the local Catholic population. It also dispels some myths we have been fed about the source of the persecution (it would seem that the Serbian Orthodox Church had no official policy against the Catholics. In fact several joint statements were issued by the local leaders of the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Muslim faiths).

A friend of ours who served in this area with the Canadian Military had told me that in the conflict "...there were no good guys".

I'm pretty sure we just drank rakija with a "good guy".

This book, and the situation it represents, bears a great deal more study.

What an unexpected treat!

2005-11-18T10:43:00.000-05:00

Hi

I was warned by something I read on a website that things would be different here with regards to landlord tenant relationships.

That is certainly the truth.

When we arrived, we had a welcoming party to watch us unload.

I was invited down for coffee by the landlady (I did mention that I don’t, or certainly didn’t at the time, speak a word of Serbian?). It was a bit painful, but I went to be polite. Her son was there, so he could translate a bit…when he wasn’t enthralled in his TV show. But mostly I just smiled and nodded.

When dh and I went to pay the rent the first time, we’d just arrived home from getting groceries. They were still in the car! But we didn’t know how to say ‘no’ when we were asked in, and weren’t sure it was a good idea anyway.

I had to say no another time, as the baby was sick. I have not been asked again.

And the houseplants…mostly African violets. About 20 of them. After the first week we were here, they checked to make sure I was caring for them properly.

I guess at some point they decided I wasn’t. After our trip to Croatia, we arrived home to find all the plants taken from our girls’ room. That was actually a relief. It reduced the humidity!

Also upon arrival home from that trip, I discovered all the plates had been moved to a bottom cupboard…no word of explanation. Good thing I found them before the baby did.

Last week, we discovered what I had suspected from the time we arrived here. We have a mold infestation. It was first evident in the girls’ room by characteristic black spots in the room corner. Ah! This might explain why we’ve been ill?? I have been keeping the windows open for a while in the mornings.

One disadvantage to radiant heat is poor air circulation. A fan would probably help the problem immensely.

Last weekend, while our Serbian tutor was here, the landlord and his son’s girlfriend, who speaks some English, came up to tell us about keeping the windows open (“or we’d have a bad problem”…no kidding…). They reminded us that we can run the electric heat/AC/dehumidifying unit to keep warm while the windows are open. And we are to leave the windows open when we’re out of the apartment…

Then they went on to tell me that I needed to make sure the washer was very full when I ran it. Very full. Or it would be bad…we should read the book. Book? We didn’t get a book! The only problem with this washer the way I use it is that it nearly boils the clothes on any setting and everything is still nearly dripping wet when I take it out.

And anyway, how do they know the washer ISN’T full (and it's rare that it isn't full!) unless they’re in the apartment when we’re not here?

Yesterday, our tutor was here again. She said she was getting angry overhearing the conversation.

I heard a story from another expat about him waking up in his apartment in the morning to find the landlord watching TV and drinking rakija in ‘his’ living room. I can say that we haven’t had an experience like THAT…

God Bless

2005-11-17T11:45:00.000-05:00

What I will and will not miss about Bosnia and Herzegovina…

What I will miss:

LOW prices on nearly everything!
Dairy products, especially the cheese.
Tasty chicken (everything is free-range here! No extra charge.)
Bus system…no, I’m not kidding.
Scenery
Proximity to so much of Europe…
The colourful buildings, appliances, shopping carts
The wine
The pizza
My girls will definitely miss the shopping
Fr. Karlo

What I will not miss:

The corruption
The lack of quality control (but perhaps that is a result of the low prices!)
Rakija
The sidewalks
The traffic
The manners (or lack thereof)
The very complex politics
Kajmac
Lack of electric clothes driers
Lack of highchairs in restaurants
WCs with ‘squat’ toilets!
The traffic…although I’m told it’s worse in Cairo…

Mir Vama!

2005-11-16T04:28:00.000-05:00

Dh and I were wandering around downtown yesterday evening. It was very warm for the time of year, and certainly warm in comparison to the previous few days.

Many people were out taking advantage of the weather, despite the darkness. Even outdoor café tables were occupied.

The park was no different.

Every day of the week sees two chess games, at least, going on in the park. Two games are life-sized. The game boards are painted on the pavement and game pieces, about 18 inches in height, are stored in large wooden boxes alongside the sidewalk.

I would love to know who keeps the keys for these boxes, which are locked up at night!

Anyway, during the day, especially on weekends, the games can attract quite a crowd. There are often even regular sized games going on on the benches along the sidewalk.

The actual players of a particular game suffer no shortage of advice as to how to make their moves!

What is quite notable about these games is the complete lack of female input. Women do not even observe these games! One weekend, we were walking through the park and dh wanted to have a look at the game in progress. He peered over a man’s shoulder. The man turned slightly, as if to admit dh to the clutch…and then the man saw me. We were given a disdainful look and he turned back to the game.

Last night, as we were walking through the park, we were surprised to see a game in progress…just one this time…with a small group of men watching. I suspect this would be one of the last evening games of the season.

Dh noted later that he didn’t think he’d even noticed chess games like this anywhere else he’d been here.

2005-11-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

Today I will list things that I’ve noticed about Banja Luka while here.

I do not necessarily have explanations for these things and would appreciate input from anyone who might know about these things.

Things I’ve noticed…

-Many yards in our neighbourhood have manual, old fashioned water pumps in them. I don’t think the houses are really much more than about 40 years old.

-Very little wood is used in house construction. Brick and stucco (inside and out) are primary materials.

-Doors, even in large commercial buildings like hotels, open inward. That would never pass fire code in North America, I don’t think.

-Nearly everyone seems to smoke. Mind you at about 60-75 cents a pack, it’s not nearly as expensive as in North America.

-General diet seems to include much more salt and fat than in North America…but my the food is GOOD!

-People here consume a lot of bell peppers…roasted, pickled, fresh…and in a delicious spread called Ajvar.

-Many more businesses (but not all, by any means) close on Sunday.

-the windows and doors in newer buildings are VERY energy efficient.

-There is no copyright protection whatsoever.

-Women are much more style conscious.

-Women also get their hair ‘done’ much more, and use a lot more hair colouring…but again, the price is definitely an encouragement.

-Serbian Catholics do not like to be called Serbian…they are Croatian.

-Croatian Catholics do not use the Cyrillic alphabet. Everyone sings at Mass, and when Sister wants them to stay after Mass to learn new music, they stay…every single person!

-Serbian language sounds a lot like Klingon, especially when you’re reciting the days of the week.

-Everyone with a yard seems to have a garden.

-Serbian music sounds very ‘Eastern’…as in Middle Eastern, not as in ‘Great Big Sea’.

-Restaurants with high chairs for babies are very rare.

-The better the restaurant, the more primitive the toilet facilities. Ah, yes…the hole in the floor type facilities. No, I’m not kidding.

www.nycc.org/photos/ 04_alps/day2/rr_043_a.jpg

We’ve found these in more than one place. When you’re done, you pull a cord and water rinses off the tray.

-Gas stations have terrific WCs (as they’re very often called here. Which is especially interesting when you remember that Serbian has no ‘W’ in its Latinate alphabet). They also don’t seem to care a whit whether or not you purchase gas.

-Some restaurants, especially in very old areas like around the bridge in Mostar, have no toilets at all.

-Rakija is considered a health drink.

-Serbians wear a lot of black

-Serbians really like very colourful socks, and wear some very interesting footwear, too, like shoes and boots with square toes, and shoes and boots with long and very pointed toes.

-Lingerie is sold in great quantity at the public, open, market.

-People here do not use back carriers for babies. Ours seems to be unique. We have seen a couple of Snuglis.

-despite the diminutive size of many elderly Serbian women (I’m not sure how these women managed to produce the very tall Serbs we see now) I have not noticed any signs of osteoporosis.

I guess now I should come up with a list of things I will and will not miss about Bosnia and Herzegovina…

2005-11-10T08:16:00.000-05:00

It’s a grey day in the Balkans today. Fog has rolled in and apparently goes as far as from here to Ljubljana! For the poor fellow coming in to where dh is working, this is proving a difficulty.

So, I am going to recall some of the drive back from Međugorje. We chose to drive along the Adriatic Coast.

When we first arrived in Europe, and were driving to B-L, I thought I saw a lemon tree in Slovenia. It was most likely an Uglyfruit tree as Slovenia is a bit far north for citrus.

However, one does not have to go too far from here to get into vegetation that is definitely NOT available to most parts of North America!

On our drive along the Adriatic, we saw orange trees, pomegranates, Palm trees and miles and miles of grape vines.

Some of the Palms I dubbed “pineapple trees”. They didn’t, of course, grow pineapples, but they sure LOOKED like pineapples! The trunks were very thick and pineapple-shaped…sort of like a teardrop. The colour was light brown and they had the triangular markings on them from leaves of previous years, I suppose, just as a pineapple has. And of course there was the characteristic spray of palm leaves out of the top.

Orange trees and pomegranate trees were everywhere, as we got closer to the Adriatic.

We were definitely in the off-season, given that it was mid-October. It was grey and cool and had been raining. At Makarska, we pulled into a resort area, which appeared abandoned. My husband and the girls left the car (I remained with the sleeping baby) and took some pictures. The girls dipped their toes in the Ocean. It was pretty cold! Still, it was beautiful. I suspect one could have a pretty nice holiday, minus the crowds, here, even in the off-season.

I do regret that we didn’t stop to purchase some local oranges or wine. It seems that pottery and woodwork is also a fairly large commodity here. There was also what appeared to be chunks of white stone being sold. I have no idea why. The quantities were fairly small, so doing up a driveway would not be the reason.

Something else we noticed along a large portion of the trip was the terracing in the hills. So far, I have not been able to figure out the age of these terraces, or the purpose. These terraces were quite far up into the hills, where the ground looked rather inhospitable for farming. If anyone reading this can shed some light, I’d appreciate it. Googling the word ‘terrace’ has brought up a large number of restaurant and hotel websites! This is not what I’m after.

We saw some ruins of castles, too and some ruins of a more recent empire…Communism! We saw buildings that were training areas for the military once upon a time.

.
Just this past weekend, at the local market in B-L, there was a vendor selling domestic mandarin oranges! I am surprised. Maybe it WAS a lemon tree I saw in Slovenia!

2005-11-08T13:01:00.000-05:00

Another little incident…

One evening last week, dh took me and our in situ children downtown after he got home from work.

Now, I must give some background. There is a street downtown called, in Serbian, “Gentleman’s Street”. The foreigners call it the “Chicken Run”. Each evening, EVERYONE, it seems, dresses up in their very best and walks down this promenade. All ages, singles, couples and families are represented. Some shops, particularly coffee shops, bars and Pekaras (bakeries), stay open late to accommodate the traffic. Others show up just for this occurrence.

Well, this is where we found ourselves.

We’d been walking for some time and the girls were getting thirsty, so we were starting to look for a place to have a drink.

“Gentleman’s Street” contains some impressive looking buildings. As we walked, we noticed one of these was open and very lit up. The large sign was written mainly in Cyrillic, and I made out something like “Cultural Centre”. There was some sort of a neon sign inside. Thinking it might be a club or something, dh heads up the stairs and inside.

Now, the girls and I are not made of the same stuff as dh. We were hovering nervously on the stairs wondering whether to follow or not, when a large man (did I ever mention just how TALL Serbian men tend to be? I’d say the average height is at least two inches above the North American average. They also tend to have jet black hair) bolted up to me and asked me something in Serbian.

I suppose the look of terror on my face indicated my lack of comprehension and he, mercifully, switched to English. He asked if he could help me. I called into the door to my husband who came back out. He asked what the building was used for.

The man explained that there are rooms upstairs for orchestra musicians to practice. There is also a place for the musicians to perform. Oh, and over on that side is the private residence of the President of the Republic of Serbia!

How do you say “oops” in Serbian?

One of our daughters noticed that the entrance on the other side of the building was not only closed, but it had a guard in front of it!

Something really strange about this, we noticed in daylight a few days later, is that there is a sign on the outside of the building, which I did not see in the dark, that says “Restaurant”.

2005-11-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

Hi Folks

Well, Aaron and I are recovering from yet another ‘bug’. I do hope we can stay healthy for the rest of our time here.

Our priest here tells me I need to drink Rakija every day, and I’d be healthier. Hmm. That’s a tough choice!

Well, it would seem that we’re learning just enough Serbian at this point to get us into a bit of trouble! Well, actually it’s been a bit of fun…

A few days back, while dh was on one of his days off, he and I were wandering around downtown. We noticed a cluster of mostly elderly people on the sidewalk, around one of the vendors. This vendor was an elderly man with a couple of used pop bottles full of a curious looking substance. In his hand he was holding some sort of root that looked like a piece of a branch. After looking for a couple of minutes, I guessed that what he might be holding was a piece of horseradish. It WAS only a guess, as I wasn’t sure horseradish grew here. And why this man was attracting so much attention, I couldn’t guess.

Later, we passed by him and the crowd had diminished. I saw the sign on his little box-that-served-as-a-table. Of course I could read all of it, but I saw something about ‘rheuma’ and ‘cirkulacija’. Ah! Snake oil. I said to dh that he had concocted something from the horseradish for rheumatism. The man who was standing with the vendor heard us speaking English and immediately started rubbing his elbow and saying ‘very good’! When he heard me say ‘horseradish’ he started nodding emphatically.

Dh tried talking with the vendor who asked, in German, if dh spoke German. The answer was ‘no’. Then, dh asked the vendor if he spoke French. The vendor considered this for a moment and answered ‘nema’. We chuckled together, then dh and I went on our way.

The next day, we found ourselves downtown again, and there was the vendor again, with more bottles of concoction and a much shorter piece of root. He remembered dh, who walked up to the vendor and put down a 2 KM coin. The man starts gesticulating dramatically and I got the impression he was showing how insulted he was. After all, I gathered, these bottles were worth 10 KM!

Dh didn’t want the concoction. He wanted a piece of the root. Too late. The sales pitch was launched. Before he knew it the man had scraped some of the white root off, and with the flat of the knife scraped it onto dh’s forearm.

Quite the crowd gathered. Eventually, dh made motion to just walk away, at which point the vendor’s friend motioned toward the forgotten coin. The vendor cut off a chunk of the root and wrapped it in newsprint.

Sometime later, dh, wiped the white substance off of his skin. The skin was now quite red. It stayed red for another day and a half! Definitely stimulates circulation.

2005-11-01T13:09:00.000-05:00

Things I Miss about Canada: (in no particular order)

Clear air.
Unobstructed sidewalks.
Large coffee cups
My friends and family
English books
English
Daily Mass
Manners
Crossing signals that mean something
Cars with at least one headlight.
Pharmacies
High chairs in restaurants
Canadian meat
Lower fat food (and I cannot believe I’m saying that!)
Law enforcement
Tenant privacy

Things I do NOT Miss about Canada

McDonald’s Restaurant
CBC
American News (no slight there. I don’t like EU news either!)
North American music videos (again, don’t like European ones either)
Architecture
Canadian Beer (the offerings here are very good and very cheap)
Canadian Wine (ditto)

2005-10-31T00:53:00.000-05:00

Today's word is 'Hate'.

We've been trying to teach our children not to use that word. Since 9/11, we're fairly certain they don't really know what it means.

We live now in a country where many people DO know what it means.

Hate is what drives someone to wish injury or death on someone else...someone they may not even know.

The events of 9/11 made hate very evident to, at least, a whole continent. But this is nothing new. Conditions of hate have existed for centuries in some places...like the Balkan countries, Northern Ireland, Cypress...

I discovered, while doing a bit of research yesterday, that one of the towns we drove through after our little road trip of a couple of weeks ago, had been the sight of a mass grave. The place was Mrkonic Grad. While we were there, I did notice that it looked harder hit than many areas we'd seen.

I have also been reading about centuries old churches and mosques that have been looted and/or destroyed along with many treasures, by one side or the other in this long conflict.

Perhaps most poignant are the graveyards that have been desecrated. Stones damaged, in some cases removed, and in some places the very graves themselves have been disturbed.

A grave without a stone means that the person will cease to exist, even in memory, in any human sense.

I cannot speculate on what might drive a person to such a level of hatred. I do know that the local school here in B-L is being supervised to make sure that old hatred is not being perpetuated by the teachers. This may help.

I find it particularly unbelievable that hate is often being taught and perpetrated under the guise of religion.

I cannot draw any conclusions here. It would seem that, like other sin, the tendency to hate is part of the human condition.

All I can dare to suggest for these situations (and they certainly exist outside of the Balkans) is humble prayer.

2005-10-29T13:15:00.000-04:00

Hi
I am so sorry about not being able to meet you on Wednesday. It was ‘one of those days’ and nothing much worked out.

We were slow getting across the border as they were doing a VERY thorough search of the car ahead of us.

We were a little later than we wanted to be getting into Zagreb, and then dh got a little lost…just a little. Once he found where he wanted to be, it took an hour to find parking.

Once we parked I tried to phone you while dh went to the bank to get Kuna (the Croatian currency). The phone didn’t seem to be working when I called you (it would have been around 11am). I tried several times and dh tried a couple of times, too. It would seem something got through at some point, because you got our number on your phone…and we later discovered that dh’s phone card had been debited for the calls!

We went to another bank, and dh’s card worked there…we have no idea why it didn’t work at the first one…

We went for lunch…this at least worked well. It was a nice lunch and they had a highchair for the baby, which seems to be so rare…at least in BiH! By the time we were finished, it was time to go back to the car and head for the airport.

It was just as we were leaving the restaurant that you called us. Your English is so good. Have you lived in North America? I was so surprised. It was nice to at least speak to you a bit.

When we got back to the car we started loading in the baby and ‘stuff’ (although we didn’t get to do ANY shopping…just no time. It’s amazing what you have to carry with a baby.) Paul stands up and says ‘Where’s the key?’. We started unloading. He had the key when we first arrived at the car, because we had to unlock it! Turns out when he put the baby in the carseat, he’d dropped the key in with him.

We leave Zagreb without too much incident and got to the airport…just a bit
Late.

We drive to the border and see miles of trucks lined up…and dh had to have the car back by 5pm. We managed to skip ahead of some of the trucks, and then a couple of Eufor vehicles drive up…and Paul gets in behind them! Both dh and the fellow we had picked up work with Eufor too!

It was still quite a while before we got across. Turns out that they were spraying the tires of all vehicles coming through…for Avian Flu I suppose.

We were late getting back to B-L. Our daughters, who’d stayed at home, were wondering what had happened to us, and dh’s co-worker (the one waiting for the car) was nearly late for work.

So that was our day. I’m sorry you ended up being one of the victims. I do hope we have another opportunity to do this.

We did see the square, and it would be a great place to meet…right by the horse. Next time I can plan better as I know how long stuff is supposed to take!

******

To this information, by way of apology, my friend responded that she had never received any phone call or message from me. Neither had she spoken to me.

So now we’re left wondering who on earth we were talking to!

We have learned that we cannot make calls from our cell phone in Croatia, which was the problem we were having. This doesn’t, apparently, prevent us from receiving calls! This is funny because in an email before we left, my friend speculated as to what sort of technology we might or might not have.

And aside from my email friend, there is someone else out there who thinks I’m completely bonkers…

That was one strange day

2005-10-27T16:07:00.000-04:00

When I was a child, I remember asking someone how a boy could be under a haystack. I was told he wasn’t really UNDER the haystack, but close beside it at the bottom.

Well, I think now that that may not have been an accurate answer.

One of the first things I noticed as we drove through the countryside here was the ‘construction’ of haystacks. The final product is a cone-like pile with a stick projecting from the top.
“Where is the boy who looks after the sheep? He’s under the haystack, fast asleep!”

The hay is piled over a tall triangular sort of frame. The bottom row on the frame is up off of the ground.

It would actually be possible for a small child to push aside the hay at the bottom and climb UNDER the haystack! And given how hay generates heat if it isn’t completely dry, it would be a very cozy place to be!

2005-10-26T16:05:00.000-04:00

Tuesday was definitely a vignette of live in B-L.

I was on the balcony at about 8am hanging out laundry. I was reminded that Tuesday is livestock day at the market when a large truck backs up into the driveway.

A small steer is taken off the truck and tied to a tree in the back yard. We found this rather interesting! Our neighbourhood is NOT rural. I figured he was going to be fattened a bit, as he didn’t look very large to me.

Throughout the morning, we heard the occasional ‘moo’ coming from the back yard. Our girls, while not actually going anywhere near it, named it ‘Ben’. I named it Čevapi (a ground beef dish), in honour of its ultimate destiny, as I saw it.

Later on, I was out on the balcony again checking on the laundry. I cast a look over to where the little steer was…or wasn’t. What I saw was a head on the ground. Little Čevapi was hanging from his back legs from a frame by those same trees. Sigh. This city girl just isn’t used to being this up close and personal with dinner.

I decided not to mention ‘Ben’s’ fate to the girls. They’d find out soon enough and I’d rather they NOT see his fate in progress.

They discovered ‘Ben’s’ demise after the mess had been cleaned up. They came home from a walk to see some of the butchering happening. Minor stuff. The older of the two was a bit pale as she re-entered the house.

She was aware of where beef came from, but like me wasn’t used to seeing it in process. Our youngest daughter didn’t seem too fazed by it, but her resolve not to eat beef was strengthened.

Such is life in Banja Luka. At home this wouldn’t be permitted by zoning regulations!

2005-10-25T04:10:00.000-04:00

People in this area have many ways of getting around.

Walking is done far more than at home, it seems. Even very elderly people can be seen out daily walking and buying their groceries. And they aren’t afraid of carrying things! I seldom see a backpack, but I do see people carrying large quantities of nearly anything you could imagine, from ducting, to a live pig (okay, two men were struggling with the pig!)

Bicycles are also very much used. Many of these bicycles are also ridden by rather elderly people, particularly men. The majority of the bikes are ‘one speed’ types and very old. Often, on the return trip from the market, the bicycles are walked, with large sacks of cabbages or potatoes balanced across the frame. This practice seems more common with women’s bikes, I think. Their bikes don’t have cross-bars!

Cars are everywhere, including the sidewalks. Some are museum-worthy models of makes which are seldom seen in North America: Fiats, Renaults, Yugos. Many are Volkswagens (very few of the new Beetles, but lots of very new Passats). Some models I’ve never seen at all, like the Volkswagon Polo. Some are makes I haven’t seen at all, like the Seat (I’m sure that has to be pronounced with two syllables, but I’m really not sure) and Opels. In with the mix of ancient little cars are the new, luxury, little cars like Mercedes, and Skodas. Japanese makes are scarce, but Fords are certainly here.

All the cars are small! There are few mini-vans (called people movers) or SUVs.

B-L has a bus system. It took us a while to venture on to it as we weren’t sure what we were working with. After the war, several countries donated busses to the area. These busses haven’t been repainted, so they come in several styles and colours. We thought they were all separate bus lines! None seem to have stop signals that work, but it is a fairly reliable system. It also goes quite far out of town. We noticed this of Mostar’s system as well.

There is a little train that putts through here several times a day. It serves many cities. It is electric. The little toot-toot it gives out compared to the big diesel engines at home still makes me giggle.

We still see horse drawn carts. As a matter of fact, we passed one in the mountains as we were leaving B-L on Wednesday. Imagine coming around a steep mountain curve and suddenly seening a horse cart in front of you! Funnier still was that it caught up with us later as we were stopping for a refreshment break.

There are lots of large trucks…Mercedes, Man, TAM. There do not seem to be any designated truck routes, so they’re nearly everywhere too. And watching them pass each other on the narrow mountain roads gives one concern, I’ll tell you! More on that another time…

We’ve seen a few modes of transport which defy categorization. In B-L there is a roving band-saw. It is mounted on a platform with a motor (no cab at all!) and is driven from job to job. When we were coming back from Croatia, we saw a home built creation which looked like a buckboard with a motor. Steering appeared to be the handles from a rototiller. There were four people, including a lap-held infant, sitting on the seat across the front. And yes, both of these vehicles were on public roads.

We have also seen various motorized two-wheeled vehicles. Some are driven very young drivers. I haven’t seen a helmet yet (and that goes for bicycles, too).

I have been getting some interesting questions about some of my posts. I will try to answer some of these as I go.

And I have a couple of corrections and updates. I have found baking powder. Interestingly, it’s called “Baking Powder”…but in Serbian. I’m not sure why it was so hard to find.

And my friend in Zagreb tells me that she’s quite sure Međugorje has never been part of Croatia. I think my confusion comes from a very early discussion I had…over 10 years ago…with a Polish friend of mine as we were trying to find it on the map (it wasn’t there). Perhaps it was our speculation that made me think it was in Croatia. Thanks Ivana!

God Bless!

2005-10-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

In the afternoon of our full day in Međugorje, we decided to take a trip to Mostar.

Mostar is still in BiH (although NOT in the Republic of Serbia…and please don’t ask me to explain that right now! I’m not sure I could) and was the site of a lot of fighting during the Balkan War. This fighting is still very evident in buildings which had not yet been either torn down or repaired.

It would be hard to judge which buildings were to be rebuilt. I saw rebuilt sections of buildings which I would have thought had been too badly damaged. At any rate, as in other parts of the war zone and up to B-L, there was a lot of building going on.

One could easily see that Mostar had been and would likely be again a beautiful city. Here, it appeared, the population was largely either Muslim or Roman Catholic. We saw much evidence of both faiths.

We walked from the carpark to what had to be the jewel of the trip. This was the ‘Stari Most’ or old bridge, from which Mostar derives its name.

This bridge was partially destroyed when the Serbians were retreating from Mostar during the Balkan War. The center span, which had sustained heavy damage, has been rebuilt. I am not sure of the age of the bridge, but 500 years would seem in the ballpark.

In the approach to the bridge, we were walking on cobblestone which was worn down to a sheen by centuries of feet. The streets became very narrow. The buildings, equal in age I’m guessing to the cobblestones, were shuttered by iron or wood shutters. It looked like a medieval castle.

The bridge, and the stones and buildings on either end, is of the local stone which is a beige colour. It gets very smooth with wear, and as it was also a bit wet from rain, we had to be careful. The bridge curves up and over the river (the name of which is not coming to me…I’ll look it up). Along its curved surface are raised ridges of stone which make walking a bit treacherous but which have prevented countless falls over the years, I’m sure!

The river itself is a lovely emerald green colour.

At either end of the bridge in the ancient buildings are many shops and cafés. The shops contained a dizzying array of products from bits of old uniforms and antique household items to beautiful glassware, copperware, textiles and jewellery. There were a rather shocking number of souvenirs made from spent bullets and artillery shells. Unfortunately, it was hard to discern which items were actually made in the area and which items were imported. One item which I’m sure was produced locally was the T-shirt sporting the picture of Marshall Tito (head of the former Republic of Yugoslavia) which we saw at one shop.

These streets carried such a wealth of history! From the bombed out ruins we’d seen down town, to the bullet marked old town, it was a sight to behold. History layered on history.

I noticed in the archways of the old town that at one point it had been very colourful. Remnants of a very bright blue paint could be seen in some of the ridges of the stone.

There is still a tension in this area. At one point as we were looking for a place to eat dinner, we heard what initially sounded like a gunshot, and then like a firework. Dh’s shoulders stiffened right up and he asked a shop owner what the sound was. She smiled and replied that we were in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That lone firework was the signal to the faithful that they could break their fast!

Mostar is definitely a site I’d like to explore further. I have tried to add photos to this post, but our slow dial up won't let us. I will try again later...

God Bless

2005-10-22T08:03:00.000-04:00

Well we’ve returned from our trip safe and sound. Although it was only a couple of days, it seems like we covered a lot of territory…and actually we did.

We set out to Međugorje on Wednesday morning. We anticipated a 5 hour or so trip. It is really hard to tell by most maps just how far a place is, as switchbacks are not always indicated, and road conditions and ‘pit stops’ never are!

It was a nice day. The car we rented was…get this…an Alpha Romeo! It was actually a nice sedan.

For those who are not familiar, I will tell you a bit about Međugorje. First of all, I will tell you that it can be spelled in a few different ways. I have chosen here to spell it as it is spelled in the town itself. The ‘d’ with the line through it is pronounced like the ‘g’ in George. The ‘je’ is pronounced like ‘ye’ in yellow.

Međugorje has been the site of alleged ongoing apparitions (visions) of the Blessed Virgin Mary since the mid-1980s. Originally there were six (I think) visionaries. Now, I am told that there are only three who receive a vision monthly. The main messages, I am told, are calling us all to prayer, and to peace.

I am not a follower of apparitions. It is not something I’ve ever felt called to…not even the apparitions approved by the Roman Catholic Church. Međugorje is not an approved apparition, mainly (for now, anyway!) because it is ongoing. The Church will not approve an on-going apparition because of the risk of post-approval messages being something the Church cannot support. So any apparition that is approved is one that has stopped. Even then, the Church is very slow and cautious in this process, for the protection of the faithful. Roman Catholics are not required to include even approved apparitions in their devotions, although it may be a very good idea to take the messages to heart!

Međugorje is a small town. It wasn’t even on the map the first time I went looking for it back in early 1990s. At that time, it was within the borders of the Republic of Yugoslavia. During the Balkan War, if I remember correctly, it was included for a time in what was then Croatia. It is now in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I suspect the Dayton accord had something to do with that.

It is near Mostar.

We got into Međugorje in the late afternoon, pretty much on schedule, after some hair raising driving through the mountains. Dh is getting awfully good at driving in this area.

After a bit of difficulty, we found the pansion (a sort of hotel or guest house) we were looking for. This one is called ‘Angel’. It is simple and quite nice. It is run by two men from Toronto who are planning to turn it into a place Canadian pilgrims can stay and have some of the familiar things from home. As it is off season, we were almost the only people in the building this time, but a group from Saskatchewan had just left.

My contact at the pansion was a friend of friends of mine at home in Canada. We quickly became comfortable with each other and he started to tease our girls as he made sure we had what we needed. We found him very generous. Our stay was pleasant.

After we’d settled in, we set into the town on foot. We found St. James Church, where the rosary was being said in Croatian. It is broadcast outside. In the ‘on’ season, there are often far too many people to get into the Church for Masses, rosaries or adoration, so benches and speakers are set up outside.

We lit a candle for the many intentions of friends and family we carried with us.

As we started looking for somewhere to have dinner, we started looking at some of the many businesses lining the streets. It would be impossible to count the number of rosaries being offered for sale! We were somewhat surprised to find prices in almost every currency you could imagine…US$$, Canadian $$, Pound Sterling, Euros, Kuna, Konverted Mark …I think there were about 8 different prices listed. The clerks always knew what the other prices were, if they weren’t on a particular tag! I was very pleased to notice that although there were many vendors, most prices did not seem inflated.

The next morning we were going to attend Mass in English. We awoke to a very wet scene. We did go to Mass, where the baby was most uncooperative! It was not as crowded as the Mass in German, which preceded it.

We opted not to climb up to the famous cross, as the ground was slippery, even on relatively level ground.

In retrospect, I think we would have seen more if we’d been with a tour group. Must plan better next time!

That afternoon, we went to Mostar, which will be the focus of a different entry!

We were to leave the following morning, as dh had to work on Saturday. We awoke at 5 am to torrential rain outside and the sound of a waterfall down the hall…only there was no waterfall. Just a nasty leak. What was very sad is that the roofers had just been there the day before! I hope the work came with a guarantee.

Dh alerted the owners who said the damage would have been much worse if he hadn’t heard it when he did.

Well, we got on the road almost on time and had a mostly uneventful drive home. I will enter more about particulars of the trip as time allows!

God Bless

2005-10-17T13:13:00.000-04:00

Greetings to those who are still with me!

Sunday brought a couple of interesting developments…or so I thought.

There seems to be some breakthrough, linguistically speaking. I actually asked our neighbour a question in Serbian (Tvoja Kuća?) and she understood me!

Now, it wasn’t a well phrased sentence. Only my tone of voice would have indicated it as a question at all. What I’d asked was “Your house?” as I motioned toward the house which is being built next door, right behind the house she lives in.

Surprisingly, she answered “Nema”…no. Then she and the landlady said something about the village (selo). Hmmm. I am going to have to do some research. I don’t know what this means. My guess is that there is some sort of a municipal re-building project happening. As I’ve mentioned, there is a LOT of building going on.

I have to mention, if I haven’t already, that these houses are large and beautiful. Built almost entirely of large terra-cotta bricks and then stuccoed over, both inside and out, they are almost fire-proof and mold proof (or so it would seem). They all seem to sport several balconies (our apartment has three, and we only share one of them!). They have a Mediterranean appearance to them, especially with the red-tiled rooves.

What our neighbour is currently living in is a one storey red-brick (small, like the bricks at home) and stucco bungalow. It is small, and the stucco is coming off, revealing the rough brickwork underneath. It appears to have only one entrance. I don’t know what it or any of the many others like it look like inside. I’ve come to calling these ‘Tito shacks’. Some are actually well kept, but many look very rundown. Closer to the city center, some even sport bullet holes.

One thing nearly all the yards here have is a heavy fence and gate (serious security!) and enviable gardens, both flowers and vegetables. No one seems to lock the gates any more, but they give a formidable first impression.

I’ve digressed a bit…

Later on Sunday, we decided to go out for pizza. I ordered entirely in Serbian! And we got what we expected to get. Yumm!

Just a note that I’m not sure what’s happening for the rest of the week. We are leaving on Wednesday morning for Međugorje, and will not be returning until Friday. I may not be online again until then.

God Bless

2005-10-15T04:20:00.000-04:00

Shopping in Banja Luka is quite different than home.

There is the market downtown, which is a series of stalls selling everything from peppers and coffee grinders and live chickens, to underwear and name brand (or really good knock offs!) jackets, shoes and sweat shirts.

In our neighbourhood is a myriad of ‘corner stores’. Here, they don’t need corners. In fact, it seems that every second or third home has some sort of business operating out of it, whether a small grocery, an ‘auto praona’ (car wash) or even a hardware store.

The house in which we live has an auto proana operating downstairs. The house next door has…well, I’m not sure, but they are moving an enormous amount of Неkшар(hah! Finding the Cyrillic alphabet! Too bad only some letters will reproduce here.) bottles! They are also building their own, new house.

Not too far from us are also two ‘super store’ type establishments. They offer groceries, electronics, clothing, etc.

Now, at home, one usually assumes that the big stores are cheaper. Here it is not so. Often, the small corner stores are as cheap or cheaper. For instance, we bought a 20lb sack of potatoes for 3.33 KM at the big store. We could have bought it for 2 KM at a small establishment.

Wine, beer and spirits are available pretty much everywhere. As there are no taxes here, they’re cheap.

People often walk or bike to shop. This can be a bit risky. Sidewalks here are very efficient. They serve three purposes: pedestrian traffic, bicycle traffic, and car parking. I am NOT kidding.

As one is assaulted by the array of colour, the crowd and sometimes the smell, it can be a bit confusing. You’d think you could get anything at market, but in fact you cannot…so far, we have not seen celery, peanut butter (although we now know what it’s called locally, so we keep looking), baking powder (I’m beginning to think they don’t use it here), and in all the market we found only one dustpan. We bought it for about $0.75 CDN. We have not been able to find bath-sized towels, never mind bath sheets. We haven’t been able to find face cloths either.

‘Bulk buying’ as we have it in NA does not seem to exist here, unless one is buying vegetables or eggs. Quantities in packages tend to be ‘regular’ sized. Milk is packed in litres. Eggs are in 10s (unless you’re buying flats of 18 at the market. There, if you want fewer, they put them in a plastic bag!)

It is, however, possible to buy an entire wheel of cheese. Or an entire pig, if you happen to be at the market on Tuesday. Or a car on Sunday…

Happy Feast of St. Teresa of Avila!

2005-10-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

Last week, dh, the girls and I took a mine safety awareness seminar. We are talking here about landmines.

The seminar dh took was over two sessions. The one the girls and I took was one session, and it was, I sensed, greatly ‘cleaned up’ from the one given to working adults here. Drago, our instructor, was busy selecting the frames he would show us from a very full screen!

A few pictures we tried to ignore as we walked down to the hall to our ‘classroom’ were very gruesome. I think it was just as well that the girls (or I!) didn’t see more of them.

Landmines are something that the governments here are NOT overly willing to talk about. Croatia, especially, relies on tourism for its economic health. Mine awareness is not particularly good for tourism.

The immediate area where we are living is considered quite safe. It was not heavily mined during the war. Even so, riverbanks and caves are to be watched, and it’s always better to stay on worn paths.

We saw pictures of the different kinds of mines and how they work. We also saw mines in the field. They are very hard to see, which is of course, one of the biggest problems. Of course these items can also lose stability as they age, and may explode without being “set off”.

People have been killed quite recently by land mines.

A great deal of mine sweeping has been done, but there is a lot more that needs doing. It is very slow work, and it is not terribly accurate. Areas chosen for demining are often done according to local records or memory. These are not always the most accurate records. It is entirely possible that records of mined areas were not always done by those laying the mines, or that records that were done were not turned in after the war.

Just after crossing the border from Croatia into Serbia, there is a village which has mine hazard signs in the streets and on buildings!

When we mentioned to our instructor that we were planning at some point to visit Međugorje, we were warned that there is a wooden cross on a hill that people like to walk up to. It was strongly suggested to us that we take a picture from a distance!

While we were waiting for dh to finish his program, I had a great chat with our instructor as to some of the sights to see in the area, particularly those of historical interest. There is some VERY old history around here!

We left our course with shoulder flashes and stickers. Dh left his with the same as well as a T-shirt and mug promoting mine awareness.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the funny looking character in the name Međugorje. This gives a soft ‘g’ sound. I have found a way to add the ‘extra’ letters from the Serbian alphabet! I will try hard to use them correctly!

God Bless!

2005-10-12T13:24:00.000-04:00

We have begun our Serbian lessons. Our tutor is a young woman awaiting her certification as a doctor of ophthalmology. She speaks English quite well.

She will be teaching our two daughters who are hear, as well as myself. My husband started lessons a few weeks before we arrived.

Here are some generalities as I currently understand them.

There are, as I’ve mentioned before, two alphabets uses in the Serbian/Croatian languages.

In the Republic of Serbia, where we are living (please don’t ask me to explain why sometimes it’s Bosnia and Herzogovina and sometimes it’s Republic of Serbia. I haven’t got it figured out yet!) official documents and signs are written in Cyrillic. This is also the written language of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Serbian can also be written in Latina script. Croatian is written in the Latina script.

Serbian and Croatian are essentially the same language as spoken, with some small variations. During the existence of Jugoslavia, the two languages were treated as one language for official purposes.

If you are living in the Republic of Serbia, and/or you are Serbian Orthodox, you speak Serbian.

If you are living in Croatian or are a Roman Catholic living in Serbia, you speak Croatian.

If you are Muslim, you speak Bosniak…which is pretty much the same as above.

There are essentially no Protestants living in BiH or Croatia.

Our instructor is a Serbian of Slovenian descent.

She is quite dedicated to our lessons. As we find things about the language that make us giggle, she was quite good at getting us back on track. (the Serbian word for food is hrana. Dh joked that if you swam in the Amazon, you might become ‘piranha hrana’. That wasn’t the end of it!)

During the course of our lessons, we will be learning Serbian in both Latina and Cyrillic scripts. This should be helpful in helping us get around. We also started with an extensive vocabulary list. At least this way, we could get a start in getting what we needed when we were out. Sign language can be rather tiring!

Knowing bits of a few languages already, I am always interested in finding similarities. It seems to me that Serbian bears little resemblance to languages I already know.

There are, of course, words in Serbian which have been borrowed from other languages. Unfortunately, the entire Serbian alphabet does not reproduce well on the keyboard, even when it’s in Latina script, or I’d show you the rather interesting way they spell pajama and jumper (used in the British sense as sweater). The words are reproduced phonetically, so I didn’t recognize them until I started to get the hang of some of the ‘extra’ letters in the Serbian alphabet. They cannot use a ‘j’ where we would use it, as a ‘j’ for them makes the same sound as a ‘y’ would in English.

One of the very neat things about Serbian, is that each letter has only one sound…period. The sound will not change as it can in English or French. And one pronounces each and every letter in a Serbian word, as illogical as the combinations may appear to anglos!

Sometimes, words I ‘know’ from other languages mean something quite different in Serbian. In Latin, malo means evil. In Serbian, it means ‘small’. Vino, however, means exactly what one would expect it to mean!

We have another lesson tomorrow, and I look forward to it. Maybe I can now find out one asks for ‘baking powder’ here!

I am discovering that some email being sent to my hotmail account is bouncing back. I have no idea why this is happening. If this has been your experience, please leave a message as a comment here. I may have to set up another address!

2005-10-10T04:43:00.000-04:00

Streets (part 2)

There are a few things that I didn’t tell you when I wrote about streets a few days ago.

One of the first, and probably most important lessons one must learn here is to NEVER assume the pedestrian has the right-of-way on the streets. Cars seem to rule here, and there are a lot of them!

Sunday, youngest daughter and I were forced to dodge TWICE cars that ran red lights while we were in the (same) crosswalk. And we had the green light.

Yesterday, I actually got bumped by a car while I was crossing a street with a group. This was down in the market. I didn’t have the presence of mind to slam my hand on his nice, Mercedes, hood, but I’ll try to remember if it ever happens again. I was not hurt at all…just a little shocked.
******
Something else we’ve noticed here is little notices pinned up on trees and utility poles. They are, it seems, always in Cyrillic, and are apparently death notices. They have a picture of the deceased on them. I don’t read Cyrillic yet, but I’m told that these are notices for people who may have claims against the estate of the deceased.

Banja Luka seems to be a city under construction. There are buildings and houses been built or greatly renovated all over. Many of the houses seem to be being built by those who will live in them. The new house is often on the property of the old house. I assume that the old house will be torn down once the new house is built.

The brick structures (and it always seems to be large, red bricks) are done in stages. The bottom floor may be completed and lived in for some time before the upper storey or stories are completed. This appears to have been the case with the house in which we now live. Our apartment is much newer than the downstairs where the owners live.

God Bless you!

2005-10-09T04:41:00.000-04:00

Ahhh. Sunday. Okay, a little late.

Today was the girls’ and my first solo bus trip. We made it to Mass and back with no problems at all!

Mass in our little chapel is a bit different than at home, aside from the fact that it is in Croatian.

As it is our second Mass here, I was starting to get a feel for how things go. I was actually surprised last week how well I managed to follow their mass-book. We have missalettes from home to allow us to read the readings and Gospel in English.

For the Ordinary, some of the tunes are actually sung to the same tunes as we have at home!

The congregation is not big, but then neither is the chapel, so this week it was rather crowded. The baby was miserable, so #2 daughter and I spelled each other off walking him around to try to keep him happy.

A funny story though. The evening before, dh and I had been to the store to get a few things for the Canadian Thanksgiving get together we were having. I realized that I didn’t know how to ask for ‘sage’. So I didn’t get it.

While I was traipsing around with the baby on Sunday morning, I was examining the garden outside the church. What should I see in the garden but sage? Father Karlo was happy to have me take some home.

We arrived fairly early for Mass this week. This allowed me to enter the chapel and kneel in prayer before Mass. The practice here is to enter the chapel in silence, and stand in reverent silence/prayer before sitting down. With most people standing, it makes it impossible for one to kneel!

Pretty much everyone sings. Reception of Communion is on the tongue. Most women where skirts, but a couple wear jeans. Most men, particularly older ones, wear suit jackets. This past Sunday, our children were three of the four children present. Last week, all the children were ours.

At the end of Mass, there are prayers recited, some before the Final Blessing and some after. I asked Fr. Karlo this week what the prayers were. He said that some of the prayers were for a parishioner who had died. He said the other prayer was the “English Greeting”.

Hmmm. English Greeting. I try to be fairly “up” on liturgy and prayers, but this puzzled me, especially since the prayer was not in English, and being Anglophone myself, I’d never heard of it.

Then I realized that we had been the victim of the same confusion that struck early newcomers to what was to become Britain. Those men asked who the blond blue eyed people they were seeing were. When they were told ‘Angles’, they thought the word was ‘angels’.

They prayer being recited after Mass was The Angelus!

After Mass, those parishioners who wish gather to take coffee. This is slightly mis-leading. What is offered first is the local ‘poison’ confected from plums called rakija. As one of the English speaking parishioners says, it makes good disinfectant. This week, I passed, after having been initiated last week!

The girls drink juice and I wait for coffee and attempt to socialize. Most of the don’t speak English. The second language here is German, of which I do know a very little, so that helps. Our baby son helps too, as everyone wants to talk to him!

Last week, I saw a woman eating a fruit I couldn’t identify as we were waiting for coffee. It turns out it was a fresh fig. There is a fig tree growing on the church property! It needs to be protected in Winter, but it appears to be very healthy.

It is interesting attending Mass in a language which is not my own. I have often heard arguments made that people cannot understand the Mass if it is not in their own language. This is the old ‘chestnut’ dragged out to justify non-use of Latin in the Mass.

I’ve long held an opinion that this is nonsense. I believed that WILL (combined of course with good teaching) has a lot to do with understanding the Mass, whether it is in one’s own language or in another language. I think one must also accept that there are aspects to the Mass that, short of divine intervention, cannot be understood in ANY language.

I am now adding experience to my opinion. So far, my opinion has not changed. We’ll see how I feel about it in a couple of months!

2005-10-08T13:58:00.000-04:00

One of the larger parts of life, food, is of course different in Central Europe too.

In this area, it seems, so far anyway, that many of the things we took for granted at home aren’t available: bagels, soy sauce, peanut butter, long grain rice, decaffeinated coffee. The list grows.

That said, many things that were hard to get at home are all over here. There is a larger variety of teas, sweetners, cheeses and sausage and many other things.

One thing we have noticed is that quality of products is highly variable.

Packaging is often different. Milk is all in tetra-bricks, as are tomato products. Tins do not seem to be used as much.

Butter is not used nearly as much here. Bread is often spread, instead, with something called klijmak (and I’m not sure I’m spelling that correctly) which is a type of fresh, soft, cheese. It reminds me more of cottage cheese than cream cheese, but the texture is a bit like silken tofu.

Buying fresh meat will take some getting used to, as it is not cut the same way as at home. Of course, I’ve had to learn the Serbian names for the types of meat, too. Given that we have almost no freezer space and a very small(think ‘bar’ fridge) refrigerator, meat is only purchased a day or two ahead.

That said, it often seems hardly worth the bother to cook. Although portions are often smaller (which is not necessarily a bad thing) eating out is cheap…very cheap, at least by NA standards. But then it’s all relative.

Groceries are cheap, too, for the most part. 20 lbs of potatoes can be had for 2KM (Konverted Mark…the currency in BiH). A KM is worth about 75c Canadian. A litre (quart) of milk is about .95 KM. Meat is not quite so cheap, but it definitely pays to shop around. Yesterday, I purchased a large, fancy loaf of bread for .80 KM.

Drink-wise, beer (pivo) is the same price as pop! This makes the beer inexpensive, and the pop a little pricey. Each can be had at a restaurant for 2KM.

Local wine, which is very good, is also VERY inexpensive.

Two local favourite dishes for eating out are cevapi (pronounced with a ‘ch’ sound at the beginning. Written out, it has a little ‘v’ over the c) and pizza. Cevapi is a bit like a hamburger. There is some sort of ground meat (we haven’t discerned WHAT sort of meat) which is sometimes spiced, served in a bread that is reminiscent of a pita.

Pizza here is tasty, but not like home. There is little or no tomato sauce, although it is served with ketchup! Toppings can be almost anything, including corn and whole olives. And default mode includes an egg broken and baked right in the middle of the whole thing! So far, it seems all the crusts are thin.

Nuff of the price list. Now a little history.

The local favourite beer here is called Nektar. One sees signs for it everywhere. It is even in vending machines. In the Cyrillic alphabet, this is rendered “HEKWAP”. There is a horizontal bar over the ‘w’ that I cannot render here. Although this word is properly pronounced the same as ‘Nektar’, the anglos here often poke fun and just call it ‘hekwap’.

Nektar was originally made by the Trappist Monks who lived here. They also, at one time, made cheese, shoes, and fabric. The beer works have long since been sold to a private firm, who seems to be doing an admirable job in keeping it in circulation. There is still Trappist cheese available (also very tasty), but I doubt it is locally made.

The local Trappists now number fewer than ten. During the Balkan wars, they returned to Germany. Catholics locally did not do too well during the war. What saved the monastery from destruction during the war was its proximity to the hospital!

Now, I must wander into town to get some meat for dinner!

2005-10-07T15:35:00.000-04:00

I think today I will write about the streets I’ve seen.

We’ve been to the market a couple of times so far. At the outside edges, it resembles a flea market or very large garage sale. As you work in, it looks more like a Farmers’ Market, which is actually very much what it is.

Sweet peppers are available in abundance right now, red and yellow, with cabbage, onions, potatoes, cauliflower and apples and oranges.

There are also eggs (all brown). Some stalls offer a variety of household goods, detergents, spices, flour, pots and pans (the uses for some I have not yet determined). These stalls usually offer better prices than the same products would fetch in a store.
Barter does not seem to be an accepted practice, but the vendors aren’t above raising the prices for someone they see as a ‘mark’…like us, for instance! We don’t speak the language and we still see the prices here as very low (which they generally are compared to home, especially for food), but we are beginning to remember what we’ve paid in other places.

The other day, I went to pick up a package of tissues at a market stall. The woman said it would be one Euro (which was a clue in itself, as most locals do not wish to be paid in Euros). I didn’t understand what she’d said at all, but dh did. That price was about triple what he’d paid at the little store near our home! We didn’t buy THOSE Kleenex!

Further in to the market is clothing. Stalls sell exclusively socks! Or women’s underwear. There are some nice things, and it goes on and on. It seems to me that the further in you go the narrower the space between the stalls. At some point, it resembles a bazaar!

Certain days bring certain ‘specialties’ to the market. Tuesdays are animal days. You can buy a horse or pig on the hoof! Sundays, you can buy a car.

There’s a man who seem to get the spot right outside the entrance to the main part of the market who always has a tray of fish, from which he diligently swishes the flies. No ice is present anywhere!

In the downtown area not far from the end of the market, are shops in buildings. One is struck by the amount of marble everywhere! It is lovely.

In many areas, the streets are cobble-stone. Horse drawn carts on these and all other streets in the area are not at all uncommon.

On the way home from the downtown, as dh and I were on the bus. I looked out and saw a little girl of about 7 walking along the painted median of a very busy street. No one seemed at all concerned, least of all her.

I mentioned this to dh an he told me I’d seen my first Romany (Gypsy). This little gal would be going on to tap on the car windows and beg. From what little I know of the Romany, it seems that they have been extraordinarily successful at resisting inculturation.

Internet service is frustratingly spotty today, so I will attempt to paste this into my blog if I can five uninterrupted minutes of service!

Pax

2005-10-06T15:21:00.000-04:00

Good Afternoon.

We're all recovering from some nasty virus we came down with shortly after arriving. I'm still coughing furiously, but hope to be completely mended soon.

Medical care here is, apparently, quite good. Our soon-to-be Serbian tutor is actually waiting to become a doctor and has been telling dh about the system.

Thing is, if we get sick and need medical care, we also need an interpreter. Few people here speak English, and even those who do may not do it well enough to know the jargon related to a given situation. Fortunately, the young woman who is teaching us Serbian, is also quite willing to help us out with translation if needed.

To get medication, you just enter an Apoteka and ask for what you want...even items which are prescription only at home. I asked for pseudoephedrine. I nearly ended up with Ephedrine drops. When she was showing me the package for what I finally took home, she showed me the Cyrillic side, which means nothing to me at this point.

I am realising many things already. I have to trust those I rely on to do translation for me. I cannot tell if they're doing it correctly or not.

The first day we were in the apartment alone, as dh had gone back to work, I needed to walk into town.

Those who know me well know that I have a poor sense of direction at the best of times.

I had to rely on my 10 yo daughter to get us out and back. While actually making purchases, I had to assume that I was being charged the same price for an item that a local would be charged...and this is an assumption that is FREQUENTLY taken advantage of by vendors!

One day, I needed to buy a bottle of dish soap. I found what I thought was the correct item. My daughter looked at it and commented that it had a picture of a glass on it, so it must be right.

This little comment of hers resulted in what William Safire would (if I remember correctly) call a 'klong'. That is; a sudden rush of crud to the heart.

Several years ago, dh and I had a corner store in a poor neighbourhood in Ontario. There were many illiterate people in the neighbourhood and we sometimes muttered that they relied on the pictures on the packages to know what was inside...

Here I am, someone who takes certain pride in her ability with the language relying on the pictures to know what's in the package! This nearly resulted in my purchasing incontinence products instead of diapers for our baby!

I live in fear of getting lost. I am not sure I know my address, and most street signs are in Cyrillic, which mean nothing. Even at that, I'm not sure I'd know where they went! I think I need a card to carry: "If found wandering, please return to..."

That said, I am learning important words like "beer" and "flowers". I am quite impressed by the amount of the language dh has picked up since he's been here.

In talking with some other Canadians, it seems to be a phenomenon that when we find ourselves not being understood, we switch to French...this is quite funny, because most of us don't speak French at home at all...and locally, French is less understood than English is. I have a smattering of German, which if I could remember it in a timely fashion would be very helpful.

That's all for now. I'm still catching up on emails. God Bless

2005-10-05T20:05:00.000-04:00

2005-09-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

2005-09-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well, we're another day closer...and my nerves are getting edgier. Some sleep would be nice. I'm sure I could handle things a lot more efficiently if I could open my eyes all the way!

I'm new to international travel. Heck, I've only been on a large jet on one other trip. And now I'm doing it with three kids in tow.

I've heard stories about parents travelling alone with children and how tough it can be to get across international borders. I suppose if someone were attempting to kidnap my child, I would appreciate this diligence. As it is, it's just one more bit of bureaucracy to deal with. So dh is supplying me with a letter giving me permission to travel with our children.

And we still have one dose of Twinrix to get.

But I managed to get a number of little things out of the way today, so it was productive.

I have a small business selling Catholic books and gifts. Of course, I will be mothballing this while I'm gone, as I do not (yet...) have a website. But today was my absolute cut off for orders...so there was that last minute flurry of orders going in. I"m sure the distributor I was talking to will be glad to see me go after this past week! I am hopeful that I've left myself enough time to receive these orders and distribute to my customers...and of course to get my GST return done for this quarter!

While we're gone, our eldest son will be minding the fort. I'm not concerned about wild parties, and he's already starting to keep an eye on the utility bills, so I'm sure they'll be okay.

I am a little concerned about the house turning into a science experiment while we're gone. Ds's personal space tends to exhibit his rather relaxed view of housekeeping!

Well, this blog has already caused a reunion of sorts! I sent notice of its existence to a family related to my husband and quickly recieved an update on the family. We haven't heard from each other in several years now. Greetings to the Victoria connection!

Tomorrow I will be visiting with a friend. I am looking forward to this. We always have a good time when we're together.

And in the 'Pennies from Heaven' department...Last night I was out strolling with our three youngest children. Our baby is way too old to not be walking. Someone suggested that we get him a toy he can hang on to and 'walk' with. I was reluctant as we will be here such a short time and will not be able to take it with us.

Well, as we were going through the neighbourhood, what did we see on the curb for "garbage" pick-up but one of those little ride-em cars that can double as a walking toy? It was completely intact, if rather well-loved.

It has now been scrubbed and loving decorated by the older siblings. Now we just have to convince the baby how to use it!

Good night and God Bless!

2005-09-11T15:25:00.000-04:00

Well it's Sunday...undoubtedly my favourite day of the week.

At Mass, I am reminded that the "world" here will go one without me...for a few weeks anyway!

I still have a few loose ends to tie up with some friends in the chapel before we leave, so that transitions will be smooth.

Wow...transitions. There have been so many this year. And now I find out that another friend is moving away. It seems unceasing this Summer.

In checking my emails this morning, I received this link which I will share with you:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=
14ewp3ab.p147fdut&uy=nyvoby&ux=1

This doesn't really have anything to do with anything, except as a reminder that whatever frustrations I've been dealing with could have been much worse. This is a photo diary of someone from New Orleans. It is quite an insight.

I think I'm rambling. I'll stop now. Please check out the link above, and say a prayer for those in New Orleans.

2005-09-10T16:45:00.000-04:00

Well this has been quite a Summer. With the flurry of activity which has surrounded my husband's departure for Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), our eldest daughter's graduation from highschool and the resultant, albeit welcome guests, eldest daughter's departure for points West, yet more guests, and travel plans for our three youngest children and me to join my husband in BiH, I feel like my head is spinning...

It has gone so fast.

In two weeks, we will be leaving for Banja Luka. We now all have passports, the tickets for the second leg of our journey and sensible shoes for all the walking we will probably be doing in the time we are there.

We're now in the process of deciding what to pack. 20kg each isn't a lot, and actually our youngest, as an infant, has no luggage allowance at all except the diaper bag.

Our perceptions of the country to which we are going for something like three months are pretty much solely formed by what my husband (dh) has told us and the pictures he has sent. We also have friends and aquaintances who have served over there during military service.

The 'reviews' are very consistent. The country is beautiful. It has suffered, along with the rest of the 'former Yugoslavia', from the war in the Balkans. The politics are confusing and inextricably linked to religious affiliation, either Serbian Orthodox, Muslim, or Roman Catholic. Interestingly, the language you speak is also linked to your religious affiliation. We will find ourselves among the small, 1% minority of Roman Catholics.

Dh tells me that he carries 4 different currencies in his wallet. There's the Euro, of course, the local km (konverted mark), the kuna, which is Croatian, and the American Dollar.

This indicates to me that the Euro has not accomplished, yet anyway, what it has set out to accomplish.

While we are in BiH, we will be homeschooling our two youngest daughters. We're going light and taking with us only English, Math and Religion. We will be learning Serbian over there, and will likely be having voice lessons for one of our daughters. We expect to absorb history while we're there, and everything else we will pick up when we return to Canada.

I'm also told that the shopping is very good!

So, this is my first 'blog post! I hope this helps those who are interested in our meanderings keep up with us. We definitely won't have as much access to the 'net once we're over there as we do now, so keeping up otherwise might be a problem.

God's Blessings be with you!