Photos of Our Friends in Bosnia

Here is our partner, mentor and friend, fra Ivo Markovic standing in front of his childhood home which is now occupied by Bosnian Muslim refugees. During the war, fra Ivo's father, 9 of his relatives, 36 neighbors and 86 people from his home parish were killed.  The rest were forced to leave and their homes were settled by other refugees.  Fra Ivo has chosen to forgive those who killed his loved ones and visits those who have moved into his village as a sign of reconciliation.
.		Dzevad (JEH-vahd) and Lida (LEE-dah) Avdagic (AHV-dah-geech) are two of our dearest friends. Dzevad works for Church World Service and has worked with us on distributing  MCC Humanitarian Aid.   In spring of 2001, Dzevad and John began  working together on some humanitarian projects (seeds, tools and small machinery) to villages where refugees are returning to  their pre-war homes and have no means of  supporting themselves.
Sabina Krupic is our very dear friend who works for a local peace organization that is currently based in our office. We spend a lot of time together in and out of the office. Here she is making "American cookies" for the first time!
		Zeljko Paukovic (ZHEL-koh POW-koh-veech) and Vera Kelava (VEH-rah KEH-lah-vah) are good friends from Banja Luka. They lead a local organization called OKC (which stands for Youth Communication Center) that is very active in conflict resolution and peacemaking activities.
Our interreligious choir, Pontanima, is a group of people with whom we spend a lot of time. They have become very good friends to us.  Click here to see Pontanima's April 2000 performance in the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
		We met Arna Pijalovic (AR-nah pee-YAH-loh-veech) through a mutual friend. She knows everyone in and everything about Sarajevo!
This is the Sablijica family.  Nijaz (NEE-yahz) (everyone calls him Niki) and Tidza (TEE-jah) own a Bosnian carpet shop in the old city which we spend a lot of time in -as a place to spend time with our friends and learn about the craft of the carpets.  They have two sons, Kerim (KE-reem) and Tarik (TAH-reek).  Here we were invited to their home for supper to celebrate Tidza'a 30th birthday.
.....Plus many more that we don't have photos of!!

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