Bosnian Bulletin #9
July 7, 1999
Hello again, everyone!
Time seems to be flying by! It's already been more than a month
since our last bulletin (we aim for writing monthly) and summer
is upon us in Sarajevo with an abundance of sunshine (in other
words, it's hot!!).
It' s now been three months since our move to Sarajevo and we can
definitely say we feel "at home" here. We feel
comfortable out and about in "our" city, but still stop
to marvel at the uniqueness of the views -the architecture, the
skyline, the landscape, the people.
We're becoming more engaged with the work at the Interreligious
Service which includes a great deal of variety. Our time in the
office is filled with communicating with different contacts via
phone, e-mail or fax, receiving guests, plus other activities
both in and out of the office. Here are a few of the highlights
from the past month:
******
We took a short trip back to Banja Luka to visit some of our
contacts there and see some of the people we didn't have time to
say "good-bye" to during evacuation. We visited IOCC,
and the women's organization, Duga, as well as the evangelical
church plant, Christian Fellowship. One day was spent in the
nearby town of Prijedor visiting a branch office of Bread of Life
(MCC's partner in Belgrade). We discovered that the needs are
still great four years after the end of the Bosnian war. Many
international organizations have "phased out" their
projects in Bosnia and moved on to the latest hot spots -like
Kosovo.
The effects of the Kosovo conflict were not visible in Banja
Luka, though a good (Serb) friend of ours from the Krajina (part
of Croatia from which more than 200,000 Serbs were forced out of
in 1995), has relatives who fled from the Krajina to Kosovo in
1995 and are again fleeing from their homes only 4 years later.
Her family's home in Banja Luka has been a refuge for many of
these relatives who have been living in Kosovo -very taxing on a
family who is barely making ends meet.
We felt very good about our short time there and were happy to
reconnect with many of the relationships we had established
during our 10 months living there. We have extended invitations
to many of our friends there to come visit us in Sarajevo. When
we met them, almost all of them were quite clear that they would
not consider going anywhere in the Federation (Croat/Muslim
dominated half of Bosnia). Now, some of them told us they would
work on planning a trip. That would be a great step toward
building some little bridges. We see that as part of our role now
-having spent 10 months in Banja Luka, and now living in
Sarajevo. Our being able to cross that border, bringing good
words and giving a human face to the "other side", will
help to build connections that may open up future peace-building.
We commit ourselves to building re lationships on both sides and
to these small, relational peacemaking efforts.
******
Gerald and Sara Wenger Shenk, former MCCers in Zagreb and
Sarajevo from 1977-83, were our guests for a few days in
mid-June. Though Gerald has been back in the region for almost
yearly visits, this was Sara's first time in Sarajevo since
before the war. We were fascinated to walk through the city with
them as they talked about the city "before the war" and
we talked about it "after". It was so nice to meet them
and we thoroughly enjoyed their perspective, their support and
their company.
******
Ivo sometimes introduces us to people who he believes are in need
of friendship or support for one reason or another. We
occasionally meet with one such woman, named Vildana, and her
4-year-old daughter, Hana. Vildana lived in the part of Sarajevo
that was most heavily hit during the war. After her mother was
shot by a sniper and taken away to be buried in a mass grave,
Vildana, a single mother, escaped Sarajevo. Now, she has returned
and is struggling to make a life for herself and her daughter.
The damage of the war is evident in her nervous mannerisms and
choppy speech. Recently, she shared with us that she was going
through a difficult time. The mass grave where her mother was
believed to be buried was being exhumed and she was called to
identify her mother. Somehow, she did. Now, after 4 years, they
held a funeral for her mother. It's difficult to know what to do
with these stories of such horror and pain, but for now we see
our role as just listening and being present with these people.
******
We were delighted to participate with more than 20 people from
both entities of BiH in a 4-day seminar in Porec, Croatia. The
group, Mirovna Radionica (Peace Workshop), is a grassroots
initiative focusing on building long-term peace in
Bosnia-Herzegovina by creating a peace institute in Sarajevo
-including a center for peace research, center for peace studies
and center for peace action. Fra Ivo Markovic (our partner and
"boss") offe red both his personal support to the
group, and the support of our Interreligious Service. As program
managers of the Service, we were invited to attend.
The four days consisted of input from the Center for Peace
Studies in Zagreb, interactive games, "roundtable"
discussions, small group brainstorming, and decision-making as a
large group. Afternoons were free for everyone to enjoy the
beautiful coastline of Croatia's Istran peninsula, which many of
them had not been able to visit since before the war. The free
time also allowed for relationship building to happen across all
the ethnic lines represented within the group.
On a personal note, it was a great challenge for our language
skills (which improved!) and a wonderful opportunity to get to
know not only the members of Mirovna Radionica, but the people
from Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb. Fra Ivo was delighted
that we participated and sees us continuing to be involved with
the peace institute in one way or another. We look forward to
building on the se relationships and being involved in this great
peace-building opportunity.
******
We also have been able to do little bits of personal travel
including one-day outings with fra Ivo. We spent one day with him
near Prozor, BiH as he spoke to a group of Franciscans. The
monastery there is on a small island in the middle of a large
lake surrounded by mountains. Truly one of the most beautiful
spots in Bosnia that we've seen. He also took us to his home
parish near Zenica where 9 members of his family including his
father were killed during the war. Fra Ivo has since then
developed relationships with the Muslim family responsible for
the killings and who moved into his family's home. It's an
unbelievable story of forgiveness and peacemaking. (Fra Ivo's
homepage address is: "http://users.aol.com/bosfranc/rodjo.htm")
We also took a short weekend to Dubrovnik, Croatia on the
Dalmatian coast. It is an ancient port city that was put on
UNESCO's Register of World Cultural Heritage in 1979. The old
city is still surrounded by a giant wall built in the late 14th
century. We walked around the city on the top of the wall and
took in all of the views. The sea is a very therapeutic place to
get away from stress!
******
John has been spending a lot of his time coordinating the
delivery, storage and distribution of material aid from Swiss
Mennonites for refugees in this area. The truckload of 700 pails
arrived yesterday in Sarajevo and are now in storage waiting to
be distributed over the next couple of weeks. The pails, filled
with hygiene products, have been called "Balkan
Buckets". Some pails will go to the refugees (from the
Kosovo cri s is) who are living with families here in Sarajevo.
Some might go to refugees from Bosnia's conflict that haven't
been receiving any aid and who are still in a desperate
situation. We will also keep a few at the office, as we often
receive people who are looking for humanitarian aid.
******
We are looking forward to our MCC Summer Retreat in the
Netherlands July 30-Aug 6. It will be held on a small island
(Texel) with a day or two outing to Amsterdam for a Mennonite
& Anabaptist historical tour of the city and other
sightseeing. We look forward to seeing our MCC colleagues both
from across Europe and Former Soviet Union. We haven't seen the
group from FSU since last August. Since our first summer retreat
was clouded in jet lag, and our first winter retreat was focused
on the struggles with our assignment in Banja Luka, we can't wait
for an enjoyable retreat full of fellowship and inspiration. We
hope to take a bit of personal vacation after retreat to maybe
see a bit of the Netherlands and visit some friends in northern
Germany before returning to Bosnia.
We must not conclude this e-mail without mentioning something
about the people of Bosnia whom we continue to learn about and
love. We want to tell you about them as people to help you
understand our life here. In order to understand Bosnians you
must understand their particular brand of "home remedies and
healthcare". Bosnians are terrified of draughts. Did you
know that you can get spinal meningitis, facial paralysis and
other horrible diseases from sit ting in a draught? As a result,
they often sit in very stuffy, smoky rooms and ride in hot
vehicles with the windows rolled up! Drinking cold beverages can
give you a sore throat or a stomach ache, but they eat ice cream
with pleasure! If you have gotten a cold (mostly likely from a
draught or cold beverage) you should eat kiwi. Or bacon. And for
all purposes -cold, stomach ache, head ache, sore muscles, even
sunburn - the homemade brandy, rakija, can be poured on cloths
and applied to the body or, of course, directly ingested! Our
"book" of "Bosnian medicine" continues to
grow!!
So, yes, life is very interesting and challenging for us. I hope
these Bulletins help to give you a sense of what our life here is
like. As we said, time is passing quickly. Today (the 7th), John
and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary! I think this
evening, as the day cools off, we'll go for a walk in the oldest
part of the city, listen to some live music which is part of the
nightly summer music festival and certainly drink some Bosnian
(Turkish) coffee!
We hope all is well with all of you. We love to hear from you!
God's love and peace,
Karin & John
John & Karin Kaufman Wall
Interreligious Service
Splitska 39
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Office tel/fax: 387 71 442 468
Home tel: 387 71 207 860
P.S. If you would like to be removed from our mass mailing list,
please feel free to let us know. If you know someone who would
like to be added, please let us know that, too.
P.P.S I'm including a photo of our beautiful Sarajevo. I hope
you're able to see it on your computer! We live on the left side
of the river, past the point where the river is no longer visible
on the photo.
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