Bosnian Bulletin #23
January 25, 2001
Greetings friends and family,
Another month has passed since we sent our last update and I find
myself trying to catch up on correspondence again.
First let me say we had a wonderful Christmas in Sarajevo
with our friends, Ryan Loewer and Suzanne Classen visiting from
the U.S. We took in all of the Christmas events here
(as I mentioned in our last update). We even took a
couple of day trips to see other areas of Bosnia and
overdose on Bosnian specialties -dried, smoked meats, cheeses,
pickled vegetables, etc! We spent a lot of time enjoying
the sights of Sarajevo, experiencing the local culture
and meeting our Bosnian friends. John
and I most appreciated our time spent talking and
laughing together. It is a wonderful gift to us to have
friends and family come and partake in our lives here.
When Ryan and Suzanne arrived home, we received news from them
that they are engaged!! I don't know if we can take credit
for this, but we'd sure like to! :) We're very happy
for them and would love to be able to be home for the wedding,
but we'll have to see about that!
The very day that Ryan and Suzanne left Sarajevo, fellow MCCers,
Mike and Val Smith, arrived from Belgrade where they are studying
language. We had a nice time catching up with them and
playing games (which Mike always supplies). We celebrated
New Year's Eve by running out to the oldest part of Sarajevo a
few minutes before midnight -just in time for the fireworks.
Debby Martin-Koop, from the MCC Europe office, arrived on the
13th of January to check in on us and our programming
here in Bosnia. (Is anyone keeping track of how
many guests we've had in recent months??) She was
just in time to hear the second concert in Pontanima's 4-part
concert series. Our concert of Orthodox music was on
January 14. Once again, we were extremely pleased with
the way the concert went. The choir sang very well, the
concert hall was packed and we had very good press
coverage. Media is a very important part of
spreading our message of understanding and reconciliation.
In addition to our MCC assignment here in Sarajevo as
Program Managers of Face to Face Interreligious Service, John and
I also "put on our MCC hat" sometimes to
work with material aid projects in various places throughout
Bosnia. For example, in spring of 1999, during the Kosovo
crisis, when there were many refugees coming into
Bosnia, we partnered with local organizations to get MCC
material aid into Bosnia and distributed. Now, we are
starting some new projects in Bosnia with people who were
refugees (from the 1992-95 war in Bosnia) and have returned to
their homes. As we've explained before, when these people
return to their pre-war homes, they have nothing. At best,
an international organization has funded the reconstruction of at
least part of their homes. The worst and most common
problem is lack of employment or means to sustain their
lives. In light of that, we have partnered with our friend,
Dzevad Avdagic, who works for Church World Service (the service
organization of National Council of Churches) to take on a
project. Together, we selected a village named Lokve in
southern Bosnia (near Mostar) where about 100 Muslim and Serb
families have returned to their homes. This area, once the
"breadbasket" of (former)
Yugoslavia, has four growing seasons (one in
greenhouses). After several visits to the village and
careful assessment we have purchased (with funds from MCC and
CWS) 4 rotor tillers, 2 water pumps, seeds (potato, onion,
carrot, etc), fertilizer and hand tools. Over the next two
years, the people will "repay this loan" by giving a
specified amount of their produce to a soup kitchen in the city
of Mostar. In that way, they will have earned their
equipment and are giving back to their community at the same
time. The people are eager to work again, but have no means
to get started. "We could feed all of Bosnia!"
one man proudly proclaimed to us on a recent
visit. The equipment will be distributed at the end of
January.
We are now exploring the possibility of doing a similar project
in central Bosnia where almost 200 Croat families have returned
near a village called Brajkovic (near Zenica).
(Coincidentally, it is the home parish of fra Ivo Markovic, our
partner at Face to Face Interreligious Service) There, the
project might include livestock, as that was the people's
livelihood before the war. It is possible that MCC will
take this on as a "Cash Project" which would allow all
of you a chance to participate. We'll let you know as
things develop.
Tomorrow we leave for MCC Europe Winter Retreat near Tramelan,
Switzerland. We'll spend a couple nights in Vienna on the
way and a couple nights in Salzburg on the way back. The
retreat itself is in a pension in the Jura Mountains -surrounded
my mountains and cows (with bells!) grazing in the
grass. Most importantly, we'll be together with our
MCC colleagues who have become like a family to us.
Our time at retreats has become very precious to us -a chance to
process our experiences with people who can most relate to us
right now. We are saddened to know that we will only
attend one more MCC retreat (summer retreat in Barcelona,
Spain!). We're looking forward to this break and a little
personal travel time for the two of us.
And now another "Frequently Asked Question":
**********
Do you like the local music? Do you listen more to local
music or music from home?
Yes, we like the local music, with the huge exception of a genre
of music called "turbo folk". It's absolutely
atrocious and it all sounds the same! The local TV
stations show turbo folk music videos almost round the
clock. They consist of the singer standing in the
middle of the screen lip-synching the song while barely dancing
back and forth (step-together-step-together). Truly
impossible to watch.
We have learned lots of music from the region (by famous bands
from former Yugoslavia, etc). Some of the best music comes
from Macedonia and incorporates traditional instruments and
tonalities into popular music forms.
Of course, through Pontanima, we've become familiar with a lot of
the traditional religious choral music. We love those
songs.
But, when we're home together in the
evening, we often listen to the comforting music
of home -mostly folk or classical.
**********
We want to thank those of you who sent cards and photos over the
holidays. The photos are up on our fridge!
We hope this message finds all of you happy and healthy.
Love and Peace,
Karin & John
Face to Face Interreligious Service
Splitska 39
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
home tel: 387 33 207 860
office tel/fax: 387 33 442 468
home: jandk@bih.net.ba
office: ociuoci@bih.net.ba
http://www.progressive-bih.com/ociuoci
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