Bosnian Bulletin #1

August 11, 1998

Greetings friends and family!!

This is our first attempt at a mass e-mail from Banja Luka, Bosnia. We hope it reaches you! First, we'll give the general update.

Arrival: We arrived in Europe after a smooth trip. We stayed a few days in Tramelan, Switzerland with the MCC Europe office. It was, of course, beautiful. We were then escorted by Harold Otto, our regional coordinator, to Banja Luka. We'll tell you more of our first impressions in a bit...

Set-up: During our time in Banja Luka we met the people of the IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) office where we will be working. We even got in on a regional meeting with those from Banja Luka and satellite offices in Doboj and Bihac. Sava Zjalic, our boss, met with us briefly. At this point, he's decided that while we are learning language (6 months?) we will be working with the Return and Rehabilitation department of IOCC. This means we will spend some time traveling to surrounding villages where refugees want to/are encouraged to/sometimes have to return. this sounds like a wonderful thing for the refugees, but is actually a complicated and often very painful process. It sounds very interesting to us.

We also found and apartment to live in. It is on the 3rd story of a house (with a cafe as the first floor). It is much nicer than we ever expected (or needed). It has a kitchen w/ dining area and small adjacent balcony, a bathroom (w/ bathtub & washing machine!), a living room (w/ TV), and two bedrooms (one with another balcony). Obviously, it's more space than needed, but it's in a good neighborhood and the landlords come with good recommendations. We can assure you that we have plenty of room to host many visitors comfortably!!!!

Finally, we found a language teacher, Sandra (a young, very intelligent student who will return to the university in Belgrade in fall). As of last night, we have had one lesson!!!

Retreat: After only 66 hours in Banja Luka, we traveled (with Harold) to Bled, Slovenia for MCC Europe Retreat where we met all the other MCCers in Europe and former Soviet Union. It was a great time of relaxation and meeting new people in a beautiful setting!! One highlight: white-water rafting down the Sava river (including swimming and body surfing in 15 degree Celsius, or 57 F, water!!)

Back in Banja Luka: John and I are enjoying settling in and wanted to try to describe for all of you what our surroundings are like. Here are things our senses are observing:

Sounds:

*LOUD vehicles -trucks, cars, and especially motorbikes with no mufflers!
*People everywhere speaking Serbian/Croatian, of course
*loud techno music from the cafes -but also more American music than we expected
*the far-off chorus of crickets at night
*mangy Bosnian dogs (most with shorter legs and longer bodies!) barking all night long
*the occasional horse and wagon trotting past

Smells:

*diesel fuel
*the occasional meeting of a person with strong body odor
*smoky grills and greasy (but tasty) meat
*the slightly stale, almost moth-ballish smell in the buildings
*cigarette smoke -everywhere!
*the overly sweet smell of bad air fresheners -meant to cover up the stale and/or cigarette smell!!

Tastes:

*Chevap! Greasy, but very tasty meat served between two pieces of very soft bread
*freshly squeezed lemonade
*soft, smooooth ice cream!
*mineral water
*good breads, cold meats and cheeses
*Very, VERY, strong coffee (Turkish) (Good Coffee!)

Touch:

*hard, scratchy toilet paper
*stiff, not absorbent dish towels
*lumpy beds
*fluffy feather pillows
*cool evening breezes after hot, humid days

Sights: (OH MY!!)

*signs in Cyrillic letters (this is seen in Serbian territory only)
*former-communist-looking buildings
*people wearing all different kinds of things -lots of high and chunky-heeled shoes, short skirts, tight shirts and pants on young women
*lots of little shops and fruit stands -especially watermelons
*big trees lining many streets
*lots of stucco houses with little fences and gates around them and lots of balconies *many cars -especially little VWs, Yugos and Ficas. People park on the sidewalks or anywhere else for that matter!!
*toilets with tanks above our heard and a pull cord. Also, most bathrooms in residences have washing machines.
*older Serbian women wearing dark skirts (over their plump bodies) and polyesterish blouses and dark head scarves
*outdoor cafes on almost every street
*tacky/gaudy decor in a lot of the buildings -wallpaper, upholstery, carpet, rugs, wall hangings, etc...
*people on the sidewalks with a chair and card table selling black market cigarettes and chocolate, etc...
*dusty, old buses (usually orange) lugging noisily up and down the streets
*beautiful tall women (with a lot of makeup) and men with very short hair
*"death notices" of people posted on the trees and poles
*red tile roof tops of houses decorating the hillsides

We hope that gives you a little better idea of where we're at -and hope you are curious enough to come visit!! We are really enjoying ourselves and hope to hear from you soon! The address at the bottom is correct (we gave it incorrectly to some of you). Sorry this was such a long e-mail (if you want to be taken off our e-mail list, we won't be hurt!!) We miss everyone.

Shalom,

Karin and John

John and Karin Kaufman Wall
c/o IOCC
Karadjordjeva 227
78000 Banja Luka
Republika Srpska
BOSNIA
Home ph: 011-381-78-13-297
jandk@inecco.net

"In Bosnia, say 'YES' to food , and 'NO' to war!" -Zoran (our landlord)


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