Bosnian Bulletin #24
March 27, 2001
Greetings friends and family,
Spring has sprung here in Bosnia! The trees are blooming
and leafing out, the grass is green, flowers are being planted
and the birds are singing! The temperatures the past few
days have been in the 70s!!
When I last wrote (two months ago), we were leaving for MCC
Winter Retreat in Switzerland. As always, it was wonderful
to be together with other MCCers. Though we are all in
different locations with various job descriptions, it seems this
is the group of people with whom we identify most right
now. We have become like a big family and these retreats
feel like reunions! It's always a time of
"refueling" for us.
The best news out of our time in Switzerland is that John
was able to have a doctor's appointment during our time
there. After 10 minutes, the doctor was able to figure
out what no doctor here had been able to for more than
5 months! It turns out his stomach problems have been
mostly stress-related. Having a diagnosis is a huge
stress-relief! In addition, he got an herbal medication
that helped him feel back to normal in a couple of
days. This was an answer to many prayers as it has been
hard for John to enjoy life in the past few months. He
continues to feel healthy.
We also enjoyed a little personal travel time in Vienna and
Salzburg. It was nice to have some time for just the two of
us away from our usual setting.
In February, we had what feels like a major step forward in our
work with interreligious dialogue and our interreligious choir,
Pontanima. The choir has been performing for 4 1/2 years
and has sung more than 100 times in Bosnia, but despite all of
our efforts, has not been able to sing in Republika Srpska (the
Serb-majority entity of Bosnia). Several times we have been
invited to give a public concert, but only on the condition that
we do not sing Islamic songs. We feel that is an important
part of the choir's mission and have waited until
the time is right for us to perform our program in its
entirety. We finally got the opportunity!! On
February 17th, Pontanima performed in the main concert hall
in Banja Luka (in Republika Srpska). The choir sang very
well, we had a good audience that was very receptive and we heard
wonderful comments afterwards at the reception that was held for
us. The concert is a concrete measure of the progress in the slow
healing and reconciliation process of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The other news is that we've found a woman that we're going to
try an upper level Bosnian class with! We're really excited
because I think she'll be really good. Her name is Selma
and she's married to a Canadian named David who sings with
Pontanima. She's from Sarajevo (was here during the whole
war, worked as a translator for the UN peacekeepers, etc) and
then went to the States to study. She is currently getting
her Doctorate in Islamic Law from Columbia University.
Because of her study area she has had to learn several languages
and is fluent in English, Arabic, Persian and Spanish as well as
being quite comfortable in Turkish, Russian, German, etc.
That's not to mention Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and having a very
good start on Macedonian, Bulgarian and Slovenian!! Anyway,
she knows a great deal about the process of learning language and
has taught languages for 5 years in the States and has a very
creative approach to teaching. She gave us an assessment
test and the course will deal with translation issues and
idiomatic expressions, media language, and expository writing in
Bosnian.
We both celebrated our 28th birthdays in March. John's
birthday (on the 7th) was celebrated after a Pontanima rehearsal
with a cake that everyone insisted needed to have candles.
The only candles to be found were Orthodox prayer candles!
With 28 candles, the cake looked like a ball of fire! My
birthday (on the 23rd) was celebrated at David and Selma's (new
language teacher) with Sabina and fra Ivo. Selma made
supper and we watched a local movie. It was a nice day with
lots of friends visiting the office all day long.
We also want to let you know that it appears we will be extending
our term here in Bosnia until May 2002. This is the 3rd
time we've talked about extending, but it is the last. May
2002 will definitely be the end of our term. Even though
that will be a few weeks short of a one-year extension on our
original term, MCC will give us a home leave that we will be
taking in September. For several reasons this turned out to
be the best for MCC and for us. We feel good about this
decision and thank you for your thoughts and prayers during
the whole process.
Leaving Bosnia in May 2002 will allow us to be home in time for
my brother Kenton's wedding in June 2002! Yes, Kenton
and Holly Streff are engaged! We're very happy
for them and looking forward to having her in the family.
Our dear friend, Sabina Krupic, who we often talk about, left
Sarajevo on Sunday for Berlin. She received a full stipend
to study at the University there. She will study Ethnology,
which is not available here in Bosnia. She speaks German
fluently after having been a refugee in Munich for 6 years.
We are very happy for her to have this opportunity, but will miss
her dearly. She has been one of our main sources of
support. She has helped us with everything from how to
pay the telephone bill to where to get our hair
cut! More than anything, we will miss her
friendship.
Tomorrow, John's sister and brother-in-law, Audrey and Gregg
Waltner (who live in South Dakota) will arrive in Sarajevo to
visit us! We can't wait! They will be the first of
John's family to visit. We'll have the chance to visit the
two MCC agricultural projects that John is working on -one, for
the distribution of tools and seeds, and the other for a
celebratory lamb roast! We'll also take a trip down to
the coast to see Dubrovnik, Croatia as well as show them around
Sarajevo!
**********
Frequently Asked Question:
"Macedonia is in the news right now. What is
happening there? Are you safe?"
The unrest started a few weeks ago on the border
between Macedonia and Kosovo. Ethnic Albanian
"rebels" started shooting into the town of Tetovo as
they felt it was time to take up arms to gain equal rights in
Macedonia where they are a minority. The situation has
taken a turn for the worse as Macedonian troops are on a mission
to "destroy" the ethnic Albanian
"rebels". Fighting is increasing. As of
today, 15 Macedonian troops have been wounded, 1 dead and about
16 civilians have been killed as well. There has been no
number given of how many "rebel" troops have been
wounded or killed. The "rebels" have asked
several times to negotiate but the Macedonian authorities will
not negotiate because they fear that the "rebels" will
try to seek independence. Between 8000 and 25,000
refugees have fled Macedonia and several bus loads have
come to Bosnia-Herzegovina. We are safe
here. Geographically, the fighting is
not far away from us (200 miles), but politically, it
is separated from Bosnia. Nevertheless, the situation
is very serious and a full-scale war would be devastating to the
peace process in the entire region. Please remember this
area in your prayers. This is a difficult situation
to explain briefly and if you are interested in knowing more
about it from our perspective we can send you a more detailed
explanation.
**********
I've started a VERY amateur website of our lives here in
Bosnia. It is NOT of academic quality so please don't share
it with people who are experts on this part of the world!!
It is simply an attempt to help friends and family back home
connect with our lives here in Bosnia. It's still a work in
progress. The address is: https://www.angelfire.com/sd/jandk/
So, that sums up life for us recently. It's always good to
hear from all of you! We wish you the renewal of
springtime!
In God's 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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