May 19, 2002

 

Greetings friends and family,

 

It's a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon in Sarajevo.  Our door and windows are open to let the fresh air (and a few flies) in.  Outside I can hear the many sounds of our neighborhood.  The songbirds that left Sarajevo during the war, have slowly returned during the past four years and are now chirping happily in our backyard.  This spring's batch of neighborhood kittens are romping around on the humanitarian aid tarp that covers the flat roof of an old shed in our backyard.  During the past four years we have watched several generations of neighborhood kittens grow up!  Our neighbors up the hill, a Roma family, are outside playing, singing, yelling and enjoying the nice weather.  Through the front door I can hear many cars and an occasional trolleybus on Terezija street.

 

We will leave Sarajevo four weeks from today.

 

Anthony Brown & Mory Ortman concerts

 

Just to note that the week of Tony & Mory's concerts here in Bosnia was a great success.  The concerts received so much attention from the press that by the final concert in Sarajevo, the concert hall was packed with people standing in the lobby and down the staircase and many others were turned away. The audiences really enjoyed the music and we definitely felt like the concerts we opportunities to learn about another culture and religious tradition.  Educational exchanges like these help to increase understanding, tolerance and respect.

 

Keziah Conrad's arrival

 

Four days ago we welcomed Keziah Conrad, our MCC replacement, to Sarajevo.   In the next four weeks we will be very busy orienting her to work at Face to Face Interreligious Service,  our friends, colleagues and donors, the city of Sarajevo and life in Bosnia!  We've already started working on the logistics -opening a bank account, finding an apartment, getting an e-mail account, etc.  I've also started giving her Bosnian language lessons to get her started until her language tutor arrives in June.  We have so much information to try to transfer to her in a very short month.   We can already tell that she'll learn the language quickly and be a great contribution to the Interreligious Service.   We're glad to finally have her here, even though it means that our nearing departure is that much more real.    

 

Our plans for life after Bosnia

 

As we work on wrapping up our time in Bosnia, we also have to work on making preparations for our lives back in North America.  Working on these two ends simultaneously has been difficult and often confusing!  But, we feel strongly that as hard as this transition is going to be, it is the right thing to do and the right time to do it.  We feel God's presence guiding us through it!

 

The great news is we have both found meaningful employment!  At the beginning of April, I accepted a position as the Peace & Justice Education Staff Associate in the MCC Central States office in North Newton.  My job will be to coordinate MCC peace and justice initiatives within the region and to work as a team member with other MCC U.S. and regional peace and justice staff.  The goal is to raise awareness and encourage action within the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ constituency.  Some of the issues that I will be focusing on include racism, farming issues (genetic engineering, chemical use, migrant labor, etc.), domestic violence, Native American issues (specifically through the MCC unit in South Dakota) and immigration & border issues (through the MCC unit in South Texas). 

 

As a result, I flew to the States the first week in May to have a week of orientation from Rachel Stutzman who is currently in the position but will be leaving before the month is over.   It was great to have a chance to talk over what she's done, who her contacts are, different
dynamics that she works with, plans/ideas for the future, etc.  I will at least have an idea where to start in July!

 

Then, at the beginning of May, John accepted the Director of Grounds position at Bethel College!  He so much enjoyed his work as the Grounds Supervisor at Hesston College before we came to Bosnia and is really looking forward to returning to grounds work.  He loves to care for plants and get his hands in the dirt and is excited about the challenge of more administrative responsibilities.  As an additional bonus, Virgil Schmidt, the current Director of Grounds, will stay on part-time for one year to help John "learn the ropes".

While in Newton, I did some house shopping and found a good possibility for us!  Nothing is final, but we are hoping that it will work out.  We'll let you know!

 

We are extremely thankful for all of these good things coming into our lives.  It is a relief to have many of the logistical unknowns resolved before arriving -if only the cultural adjustment would go as smoothly!  Nevertheless, we are humbled to have so many blessings and opportunities that our Bosnian friends do not.  When people ask us how we are feeling about the upcoming transition, the best we can say to describe our feelings is that we are really looking forward to living in Newton again, but we are really dreading not living in Sarajevo anymore.  A real mix of emotions.

 

Further learning

 

If you're interested in seeing a great movie about the war in Bosnia, we highly recommend "No Man's Land" which recently won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film along with several other awards.  The film shows the complexity of the war while incorporating typical Bosnian dark humor.  We think it's the best film we have seen about the war here. 

 

Also, some of you have asked questions about landmines and the demining process.  We've had the opportunity to interact with an inspiring group of Swiss engineers that have been working on a volunteer basis to develop a machine to aid in the demining process.  We have met them on a couple of occasions while visiting the MCC Europe office in Switzerland.  The motivation for doing this work came out of a faith conviction while participating in one of the local Mennonite churches.  Their story is inspiring and their work is fascinating.  The group is called DIGGER Demining Technologies Research and their website is www.digger.ch, but unfortunately is still mostly in French and German.  Keep checking back -they hope to have it all translated into English, soon.

 

*****

 

That's all for now.  These last four weeks will be very intense and will require a lot of energy.  Once again, we appreciate your thoughts and prayers.