Bosnian Bulletin #4
December 17, 1998
It's difficult to believe that the Christmas season is upon us,
but the little street sellers' tables are now full of brightly
colored ropes of garland, lights, and all different shapes of
ornaments. No familiar Christmas tunes, but we do have
snow!
The last month and a half have been rather full of activity for
us. In addition to the usual, we made two trips to visit
our fellow MCCers and check out MCC programming in the region.
Our first trip was to Sarajevo over Thanksgiving weekend.
We fell in love with Sarajevo. I think we were surprised at
how very different it is from Banja Luka. For one thing,
while Banja Luka had no "front line battle" in it
during the war, it was extensively ethnically cleansed. All
of the 37 mosques were destroyed. Minority population
(Croats, Muslims and other) is about 4% in Banja Luka. It
is a city of the worker and still has a strong Communist feel
about it. Sarajevo on the other hand, was under siege for 4
years. Its large Muslim population contributes to the wide
variety of hand-made goods (metal work, weavings, wood carvings,
etc.) that are sold in the old Turkish part of town, Bas Carsija
(BAHSH CHAHR-shee-ah). The mountains surrounding the city,
the mosques piercing the skyline and the red-tile roofs make it a
beautiful city. It has an abundance of artists and culture
and the people we met were warm and friendly and eager to
communicate with us.
We had a wonderful time with Amy Gopp and enjoyed meeting her
friends and seeing her work at Oci U Oci (O-chee OO O-chee; Face
to Face), an inter-religious peace center. Amy sings in an
inter-religious choir, a program of Oci U Oci, composed of
Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Protestant singers!
We were able to join them for two rehearsals and fellowship that
followed. They are a wonderful group of people.
On December 4-9, we traveled to Belgrade to visit Harold Otto and
MCC's partner organization, Hleb Zivota (HLEB zhee-VO-tah; Bread
of Life). Belgrade has a real "big city" feel.
Like Banja Luka, it also has a strong former communist feel to
it. We've heard it called a "cement jungle" and
we understand why! We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the
city, browsing through bookstores(!), spending time with Sandra
(our first language teacher and good friend) and attending a
performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" in Serbian (of
course!). We enjoyed seeing Beba Varga and Jasmina Tosic
again after having met them at MCC Summer Retreat in
Slovenia. They are the co-directors of Bread of Life and
are truly inspiring women of faith. The office is a hub of
activity with a second-hand shop, a meeting room and a work area
filled with people. We found it energizing to be there.
Now back in Banja Luka, we're in our routine, again. We go
to IOCC in the mornings and try to participate in things there,
but unfortunately, have very little to do so far! We are
deep into the "what-is-our-role-here-as-MCCers"
syndrome. It's frustrating, draining and often
depressing. We are really feeling the "pioneering
pains" of this new MCC partnership with IOCC in Republika
Srpska.
We continue to study the language but are still unable to
understand people (except for small talk) or put together
thoughts to speak. We know it will be a long time before we
can really converse with people. The people from our little
church are very supportive of our learning and are eager to help
us. One woman, Boba, is going to begin tutoring us.
She is a teacher and very knowledgeable about the language AND
speaks little English so we will HAVE TO learn to communicate in
local language. (For those of you still keeping track,
we've learned 6 of the 7 cases and 3 of the 7 tenses. If
only knowing the grammar allowed us to communicate!)
Our Christmas plans include: The 23rd -26th at Katie and
Gerhard Neufeld's (MCC, Ivanic grad, Croatia). Together
we'll find a small, family-like way to celebrate to distract us
from the celebrations were missing back home. Then on the 26th we
will travel to Tramelan, Switzerland to the MCC Europe office for
a time of rest, reflection, discussion, evaluation and
fellowship. We're really looking forward to this
opportunity to process our thoughts and feelings with them.
We'll return to BL sometime around the New Year -just in time for
all the holidays here (including Orthodox Christmas on Jan
7). We're eager to see what the holidays will be like here
in BL!
While this Christmas will be quite different from what were used
to, we're thankful for the opportunity to be here in Bosnia and
experience a bit of people's lives here. This Christmas
season, our lives are filled with the joy of new friends and new
experiences. Our hearts are also with all of you and our
thoughts of home. We hope your Christmas season is filled
with the joy and wonder of Jesus' birth, and many warm and happy
moments with loved ones. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Love and peace, Karin & John
John and Karin Kaufman Wall
c/o IOCC
Karadjordjeva 227
78000 Banja Luka
Republika Srpska
BOSNIA
jandk@inecco.net
"In Bosnia we say YES to food, and NO to war!" -Zoran,
our landlord
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