Bosnian Bulletin # 5

January 31, 1999

Greetings Friends and Family,

I guess because it's January we should begin with some line like "We can't believe it's 1999 already" or "As we look back over 1998..." but, hopefully we have kept you all informed enough that we don't hav e to go into too much detail about the past year, but instead, update you on our lives right now.

Our first Christmas away from home was full of new experiences. As planned, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Katie & Gerhard Neufeld in Ivanicgrad, Croatia near Zagreb. Our celebration included borscht and roll kuchen, making peppernuts, attending the Zagreb Baptist children's program, midnight mass in the local Catholic church, traditional after-midnight-mass celebration with some local friends, and many games of Yahtzee filled with laughs.

From Croatia, we went via train to Switzerland, to the MCC Europe Office in Tramelan. Our time there was filled with meals, games and laughter with the Martin-Koop family, a day of skiing (John) and hiking (Karin) in the Alps, a 15-minute drive and a walk across the French border, a simple New Year's Eve celebration in the Martin-Koop home, and many meetings with director, Hansuli Gerber, and Debby and Robert (Martin-Koop). Our meetings focused on re-evaluation of our assignment -particularly discussing the relationship with MCC's partner organization, IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities). While our meetings were productive, the discussions continue as we try to find the best use of our time and abilities during our time in Bosnia. Our time in Switzerland lasted longer than planned, but after a week and a half, we were on our way back "home".

On our trip home we drove a car that belongs to a Bosnian Serb family that returned to Celanic (near Banja Luka) in December after 6 years as refugees in Tramelan, Switzerland. They had not been able to take their car back, so we were doing them a favor by bringing their car. At the same time, it allowed us to take a different route home. After a day of driving through the Alps we spent the night just outside of Venice. The next morning we spent in Venice (taking a boat to St. Mark's square and walking our way back through the labyrinth of "streets" and passages). It is an amazing city -really, everything they say it is! We continued on through Croatia, stopping at the port city, Rijeka, and on the the Neufeld's in Ivanic Grad before heading home the next day. Maybe more details than you wanted!! At any rate, we're back in BL with a different schedule than we had before Christmas. As decided by MCC and IOCC, we will be out of the office until March, focusing on language study. We are very happy with this arrangement!

Our language study, which seemed to have come to a halt, has had a boost with the help of our first language teacher, Sandra, who has been back home in BL (on break from classes at the University of Belgrade). In the last couple of weeks we've been having a 4 hour lesson every day! They're very intense and truly exhausting!!

The other most exciting event of recent days, was the arrival of our first visitors from the States! Tim and Mary Waltner (of Freeman, SD!!) arrived in Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday, January 26 for a few action-packed days in Bosnia before we returned them to Zagreb on Friday, the 29th. Wednesday was a driving trip (in a car rented from an unemployed refugee family) to Zelenkovac (a "village" created entirely by an artist -it reminds us of an Ewok Village) and back through Prijedor (an area very heavily damaged during the war). Tim & Mary took lots of photos and asked many questions (to which our answer usually began, "That is a very difficult question to answer..."!!). Thursday was spent walking all over the city of BL -the Kastel (fortress), the market, the walking street, the Orthodox and Catholic churches, a women's organization selling traditional handicrafts, a small mountain overlooking BL, etc. In the end, we think they got a small taste of the history and conflict, the culture and life today in Bosnia. They are willing to give a recommendation to anyone considering a trip!! We hope some of you will consider it!! Tim & Mary's visit was a good time of re-evaluation for us. Explaining things to them, again clarifies things for us. We realized that admitting how difficult it is to live here (with the hostilities toward foreigners, etc), has allowed us to embrace Bosnia at a deeper level. Slowly, our hearts are connecting with this troubled but always interesting part of the world. And, even as we speak, our neighbors to the southeast, in Kosovo, tear each others' lives apart. Once again, there are no "good guys" and "bad guys" as US news often reports. Both the Serb police and the KLA are at fault, and we pray that a peace agreement can be reached without NATO's military strikes.  Violence is never the way to peace.

Overall, we hope we are now coming out of what has been the most difficult time of our term so far. We want to thank all of you who sent Christmas e-mails, cards and packages!! We especially want to thank those of you who have been in close contact with us during this difficult time and have showed your support with letters/e-mails and prayers. We hope to hear from all of you again, soon!

Love and peace, Karin & John


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