Bosnia Project

Better late than never

2004-08-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

For this whole trip, I shunned the blog and posted on my own special livejournal (so sorry James). But now I'm making a late appearance to give you the link to my pics:

http://members6.clubphoto.com/kelly893420/guest-1.phtml

Enjoy. I think they tell the story better than any of my online musing.

Live from Okoboji...

2004-08-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

So this is Erin, the long-lost sixth member of the Bosnia team. I've been meaning to post on here for ages, but as I'm sure you can imagine, life back in Iowa is simply too fast-paced and I haven't had time (insert Iowa jokes here).

Anyway, since I've been home for awhile longer than everyone else, I've definitely had some time to reflect on my all-too-short time in Bosnia and Croatia, and here's the thing: it's so hard to describe to people who ask about it. There's just so much that I want to fit in to my descriptions, but I still feel like I can't really paint an accurate picture with words. Nevertheless, here's my best shot at it, for the good of well, whoever it is that is reading this.

Bosnia is an intense place. It's obvious on the surface before anything else; it was such a strange feeling flying into Sarajevo and seeing the still-untouched shelled out buildings in the hills around the city. Before I'd left for the trip, I'd been trying to read everything I could about the war and I found every movie I could about it, so suddenly seeing it for myself was really surreal.

Beyond the obvious damage, though, are the really serious scars of the war, in the lives and the memory of the people who live in Bosnia. It's impossible to go a full day without being a part of some kind of conversation about the war, no matter what that conversation starts out with. Listening to people talk about their experiences was the most difficult and most rewarding part of my time in Bosnia. A couple of days before I left, the conversation at the dinner table between myself, Kelly, and my host mother, Naira, shifted to the war. Naira told us about how scared she was on her older daughter's first day of school--how she was scared to leave her there because of the constant shelling from the hills. This fall will be the first day of first grade for her second daughter, Emina, and Naira worries that she'll have flashbacks to the experience of her older daughter.

At the same time, though, life in Bosnia just moves on. Emina acts like a typical spoiled five-year old and demands her mothers attention and does ridiculous things like bringing a live chicken in the house and bathing her stuffed animals in the bathroom sink. Naira goes about her busy life, taking classes at a college in Sarajevo, laughing as she practices the accordian, and having long conversations with her parents and grandmother who live downstairs.

So there we were, in Bosnia, trying to fit in, not fitting in, speaking very poor Bosnian (with the exception of Kent, who actually got pretty good at it, if not fluent like everyone assumed), trying to teach kids a foreign language, trying to teach ourselves how to teach, eating copious amounts of ice cream and kiefla, and trying to soak it all in. Or at least that's what I was doing.

I have so many great memories of the trip that I can put into words...Kelly and I trying to deal with our bratty little sister and our food Nazi mother and having great late-night conversations while we tried to plan for the next day. How Jamie kept buying food that was most definitely not what he thought it was, from "Tang" vitamin drink to Barpy to the lemon syrup. And then there's the kid in our first grade class who asked Jamie if he was a big baby, or when we tried for fifteen minutes to pronounce names. The entire missing Pete debacle in Dubrovnik is plenty of stories on its own, leading to the triumphant conclusion when he was found sleeping on a bench at the pier. Dubrovnik was also the place where we were universally hated by all the neighbors, including one who tried to dump a full bucket of water on us after Kent decided to sing show tunes on the way home after a night at the Irish pub and some impressive cartwheels, against my advice. Meag had great stories, many of which involved monks related to her, that got us laughing while we sat on the balcony, looking at the city...which eventually lead to our threatened arrest by the Croatian police for a broken bottle that didn't belong to us...

Of course, that's not all, but I could go on for days, and no one really wants that. Besides, I have to go scoop ice cream for minimal pay. For the most part, I had a great time, and learned so much about myself and about a part of the world that few people will ever get to visit. I have a great respect for the people I met and the group I traveled with, and I feel so fortunate to have been a part of it all.

Okay, so that's it from the Iowa (soon to be Ireland!) girl who hates cats. Carry on.

HEY, remember the Bosnia Project?

2004-08-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Remember that time Emina tried to hit every single kid in the class, including the other 3 Eminas.

And remember that time we climbed the mountain only to end up at a Rave where the DJ had not gotten to page two of his "How to be a DJ" book. He really had mastered the idea of a beat though.

And and remember I bought lemon sirup? Well guess what I bought in Hungary? Lemon Juice!

Ah the memories, any more?

FIN - or is it?

2004-08-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Bosnia Project 2004 sadly came to a comclusion last week, but we will always have the memories. This post is to encourage all BP/Sezam graduates, from all years, to share their memories with us all. A post or comment can range from suggestions to horror stories to where to get the best ice cream('Zizis' hands down). Every one of your posts will encourage more posts. Thank you.

Yo Bosnian Raps!!!

2004-07-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

For the last day of class I am attempting to learn a Bosnain song. In fact, a bosnian rap song about small peanuts and the problems of Bosnian and Hercegovina. Here is a short sample:

Sve probleme kad pogledas su mali ko kikiriki
Our problems are nothing but small peanuts

Negativne emocije 103 porcije
Negative emotions, 103 potions

Chorus:
NO SIKIRIKI SIKIRIKI NO NO
S bedovima problemima sad je gotovo
Za sva vremena sunce sija zivot ponovo je lijep
Edo Maajka roka NO SIKIRIKI rep

Hopefully this will all work out. I can not say I have ever rapped in English, but I am sure it will be fine.

Loose Ends

2004-07-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

There´s a miniature train outside the shopping center in Zenica similar to the ones inside U.S. malls where kids´ parents pay and their kids turn right for 3 minutes. There were only two kids on this particular train when it slammed into a stray dog who tried to gap the track. The kids started crying, the muslim mum waved her arms and the attendent laughed but stopped the ride. The dog wimpered and limped into a nearby grove to chew a discarded coke bottle. The kids cried because they thought they had steered to hit the dog while the mum nearly tripped on the chain surrounding the train in trying to rescue her children.

In the adult conversation class tonight, Fuad told us he thinks it is ridiculous that the U.S. soldiers who abused and photographed naked iraqi prisoners won´t be tried in the international criminal court. Jamie and Kent agreed. I think it is ridiculous that the United States isn´t even a state member of this court which "promotes the rule of law and ensure(s) that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished." The 120 members include Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and France. Check out the site and the mission statement here:

http://www.icc-cpi.int/

Emir and Fara are computer scientists and engineers, respectively; fara said the only difference between the two is the Hardness of their ware. Fara also mentioned this equation tonight:

{x+(x+1)}/2

It can be used to save time in times like these: 7+6+5+4+3+2+1=28 vs. 7x8=56/2= 28

MyVeryEducatedMumJustServedUsNinePizzas

2004-07-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Meag, Jamie, KellBell, Emir, Belma and I just chaperoned one
Kent Fogg to have his hair cut and styled. He had been
sporting the combover for five years and was lookking for
something more sheek. We played MASH in the corner and Meag will
soon marry francis of a cici and eat chicken everynight for
dinner. Please discuss the irony of that situation. (Refer to Francis of a Cici: Saint and Protector of all Animals by Dr. M.K. Deloge for further reading)

today was geography day and we blew up balloons for each
plantet according to scale, tied yarn to each according to
their distance from the sun and went outside ready to orbit.
it was at this time that our translator decided to leave to
buy house paint, a small chocolate pastry and a diet coca-
cola. the fifteen kids were soon crisscrossed and tangled,
uninterested in english instruction and fighting to hold big,
red Jupiter. Planets popped and it started to rain so we went
inside without the kids understanding the goal of the
activity. It wasnt until 15 minutes later that our translator
returned with his house paint, a small chocolate pastry and a
diet coca cola. Why did he run personal errands during our
class? why is the sun so big and the earth so small? fuzzy wuzzy wasnt fuzzy was he?

translators must commit to the activites on hand in order to expect full and active participation from the students. if kids notice an authority figure uniterested and indifferent to what is going on, the instructors lose credibility and the class' focus. Meag and I have had 3 different translators and it seems that the success of the day depends more on the quality of the translator than the quality of the translation or even the activity at hand. I am just now recognizing this delicate balance in the classroom and appreciating the excellent teachers ive had in the past.

thoughts and love for mr. galm, ms. costelloe-crampsie, mila de madrid, mrs. connie cole, prof. d royster, prof. marshall, mrs. janet hassler, mr. labach, mr. stehman, senor pail, woody, mr. burker and good old ronny D.

QED

can i see the pozadi?

2004-07-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

so for whatever reason, everyone managed to convince me that it was a good idea to get a new bosnian haircut while i was here. for those of you who might not have met me, i used to have a really traditional, 1940s-looking haircut. so today we all went to the haircut place with emir (my host brother) and belma, a girl from our 7th grade class. since i couldn't really say anything to the stylists except thank you and how much does it cost, emir pretty much made all my decisions for me. so it looks... interesting. i feel like i look more european. i've never had a haircut by someone i couldn't talk to before, so this is a big step.

other than that, not too many new and exciting things have happened. last weekend emir drove us to jajce and travnik, but unfortunately he can only fit 5 people in his car (including himself) so jamie volunteered to stay behind. it was fun, we saw the waterfall in jajce and hung out by a lake for a while. in travnik we toured the old fortress and then spent some time with a bunch of emir's friends. i liked travnik a lot, it was small but there seemed like a lot to do.

back in zenica we've been hanging out a lot with the kids from mine and kelly's 7th grade class. we usually just meet at zizi's (a place to get ice cream in the center of town, just 35 cents!) or the VF (a grocery store with a cafe). also, there's some kind of movie festival going on here where they show movies from all year for just 1 mark (about 65 cents), so we've definitely been taking advantage of that. other than that we just hang out together at cafes or sometimes people from our adult conversation class take us out somewhere. such is life in zenica. we're all having a great time, and i can't believe we only have one more week! i feel like i could stay for another month and it wouldn't be enough.

i hope everyone at home is doing well!

Names

2004-07-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last week, I let each kid choose for themselves a new name, an American name, from a list of my friends and family. If you were one of the lucky choosen few, I hope you may find some little bit of joy in knowing that cute kids in Bosnia like your name.

In the first grade class, four girls choose the name Britnay, although I think the girls may have had another Britnay in mind (Spears perhaps?). But who knows, one named herself Britnay Jackson and another Britnay Meaghan, I dont really know what was going on there. One first grader took the name Polly as did another in fourth grade. Owen was choosen by one kid from each class as well. Other names choosen: Sarah, Christina, Michelle, Abby, Jane, Amy, Jake, Ben, Matt, Tim, Timmy, and Jeff. I apologize to those of you not choosen, but some wee ones who were absent last week and have yet to choose names.

Let me add that one boy choose the name Jamie, which I had intentionally left off the list. It was adorable.

Soccer with Gypsies

2004-07-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

After getting a small tour from some small 7th graders, Pete and I played soccer with our two tour guides. As we played, a group of gypsy children, who remembered Pete, arrived and tried to play. Pete said hello and we played together. Worried they would steal his ball, one students did not want them to play. Since Pete and I were around we felt there was no reason to be concerned. We had seen these boys every typically begging for money in the street, so I wondered if his concern might be justified. Although, the 7th grader was a bit bitter towards them at first, gradually, he felt more relaxed as the game went on. Unfortunately he was not as good at soccer as the gypsies, but Pete and I passed to him so he did not feel left out. At the end of the game Pete and I gave the young gypies high fives and smiles. Hopefully, since nothing went wrong the young 7th grader might not feel such a strong prejudice towards these other children. If nothing else, we lead by example and brought some positive Ideals to Bosnia.

Keep it simple

2004-07-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today I learned to focus my games and activities. Directions are the hardest part, so I think it is best if everything can be explained without words. Now, of course, they do not learn any english this way, but the games themselves are what should be teaching the words. A simple game of -Name That Color- gave the kids a chance to practice the colors they had just learned. The games were short and focused.

Another good activity has been making them sing the alphabet forwards and backwards. They can do both by themselves now. I am impressed.

Any ideas from past groups or teachers?

--jrnort atsign wmalumni period com--

New Pictures by jamie

2004-07-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

http://members28.clubphoto.com/bosnia871109/guest-1.phtml

The link is, as always, just to the right of the text under clubphoto as well.

the grandfather chronicles

2004-07-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

alright, so as you all probably know, each of us here is living with a different bosnian host family. my particular family lives in an apartment with the parents, two college-age sons who come and go, and the grandfather. most of the time it's just me and the grandfather hanging out in the apartment. since he doesn't speak a word of english, sometimes things get interesting. take, for example, yesterday...

so i came home from teaching and i wanted to go to the post office to mail some postcards during the afternoon because i wasn't sure what time they closed. i didn't want to try going by myself because i thought i might have trouble with the language barrier. so i thought it would be best to wait for emir (my host brother) to help me out. emir had been in sarajevo for a while, so i wanted to ask the grandfather if he was back in town or not. so here's the conversation (in bosnian):

me - i need to go to the post office to send something to america. when is emir coming back?
the grandfather - emir? he's here in zenica. i'll call him.
me - no, it's not a big problem. we don't need to call him.

so of course he calls emir anyways, but emir's cell phone was turned off. apparently the grandfather thought i had a post office emergency and proceeded to call everyone in the family who spoke any english, including the mother who was at work and larisa (emir's cousin) who lives in sarajevo. with larisa's help i finally managed to convince the grandfather that it was ok and i could just wait for emir to come back. now every time i see a member of the family they ask me if i got everything i needed at the post office. i just wanted to send a postcard!

so the moral of the story is, if you live with someone's bosnian grandfather, just don't ask for things. life is more simple that way.

Medjugorje and Mostar

2004-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

We took a trip south of Sarejavo to two important, but quiet towns, Medjugorje and Mostar. Mostar was described by Venira, the director of SEZAM, as a microcosm of the rest of Bosnia. The city is split by a small green colored(like the Crim Dell at William and Mary) and is populated Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The narods(ethnic groups, basically) are heavily segragated and isolated from each other by one main bridge. During the war the city suffered heavy losses from every side as it was shelled from all sides. As a result, most of the original population has moved or died during the battles. The town today, at least the district we saw, was like any other tourist district. Visitors who let their eyes wander will notice chunks of the buildings missing. Entire buidings were crumbling to the ground because money for repairs simply was not available.

The night before we celebrated Meaghan´s 22nd birthday at party with Kent´s host brother, Emir. I wonder if the topics of discussion at parties are always so heavy or if, as hosts to Americans, Bosnians feel drawn to talk about the war in depth. A man at the party was from Mostar and he described in graphic detail what happened to friends of his who were unable to leave during the early nineties. He talked about a boy at his university who had his whole family killed and, because the town was so small, he knew the man who had commited the offense. In fact the son of the perpetrator was in his class. ˝What would you do if that were you?˝ he repeated to me. ˝You see your families murders in a big house and fancy car and you are struggling with food and shelter. What would you do? What would you do?˝

Mission Statement

2004-07-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

I am mocked daily for my practice of insisting upon mission statements for teaching, conversation groups, and coffee drinking, but, since this week was tough and I want to post before the ˝American Room˝ of the library closes for the weekend, I will present my Mission Statement as a teacher in Bosnia and Hercegovina:

My mission as a teacher is to use my creativity, talent, intelligence, and postive attitude as tools to create a safe, comfortable environment for learning. In this way, I expect the children will be more confident in their abilities to speak English, be creative, achieve their goals, and simply learn.

More specifically, through games and teaching I hope to combine a postive attitude with fun games mix in a confident teaching style and a healthy environment. If I am able to do this, then I will have achieved my goals.

Any Questions/Comments/Wise Cracks?

sarajevo and robijaši

2004-07-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

this weekend we had our first bosnian roadtrip (well, aside from our rides to and from dubrovnik). pete decided not to join us since he had spent some time in sarajevo earlier while the rest of us were in dubrovnik. so the five of us got up ridiculously early in the morning to be on the van to sarajevo by 7:30. it only takes one hour to get from zenica to sarajevo, so we had plenty of time to see the city. we started out with a pseudo-tour from one of naira's friends who had been a journalist during the war (naira works at sezam and is hosting kelly and erin). we saw practically every religious building in the city, including two incredibly beautiful mosques, and two impressive churches (one orthodox, one catholic). we also got to spend some time in the historical part of the city where they sell really cool souvenirs. sarajevo is clearly a much more international city than zenica, and i definitely noticed a lot of other americans there. after we shopped for a while, we went to the war museum and then another museum over the entrance to the tunnel that had been the only way in and out of sarajevo during it's three year siege by the chetniks. they were both pretty intense places. all in all it was a great trip, and i hope we get a chance to make it back to sarajevo before we head back to the states.

sunday we went to our first football match (or soccer game, either way). there was a 4-team tournament here in zenica this weekend and the local team (the čelik) had lost it's first game and was playing for third place. unfortunately, they lost in a shoot-out. we had heard a lot about how crazy the čelik fans are (called the robijaši, or convicts) but they didn't seem to get too out of hand during this game. maybe it's because their team lost. the kids told us that now isn't part of their regular season, but i'm still hoping that we can make it to a more exciting game before we leave.

so that's pretty much all the news from bosnia, i hope everyone's doing well back home.

The Name Game

2004-07-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

I feel I must make a note on the tone of the blog. Right now it is light-hearted and pseudohillarious, but from posts might appear, from time to time, of utmost seriousness. The real goal of this blog is to provide a record for the students who work for Sezam next summer, but it is a little too soon for many serious reflections. So on with the blog.

Our first week is over and finally some of the children´s names are settling into my memory. One name is for sure, Amina/Emima. Five girls in my first class and two in my second class go by that name. It does make guessing names easy though. Three Kenans sitting in a row in the second class also simplifies daily teaching.

Every day so far has had a theme so we can organize our daily events in a focused way. So far we´ve had Animal day, Calander/Seasons day, Weather day, and Summer day. If anyone has any great suggestions(serious or not) for a theme they can post it in the comments section(or email me at ˝jrnort atsign wm period edu˝). Here is a list of rejected themes, my collegues(over used word in Bosnia) may have more to add:

Hair Do Day
Swear Word Day
Monday Day
Pay Check Day
Doris Day
The Day After Tomorrow Day
Fried Chicken Day

The tale of the Disgusting Drink

2004-07-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

If you have yet to read Pete´s version of the limon sirup story please advance to the next entry before reading this post.

I have a number of objections with Pete´s tall tale. First of all, it is all second hand knowledge. Pete was outside during the turning of events. Second of all, first I tried speaking Bosnian before shouting in English about my degree in Mathmagic. Finally, I have now tried the ˝sirup˝ and it is delicious. Certainly worth the fuss.

limon sirup

2004-07-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

jamie doesnt like change. especially in his pocket. so when the cash register flashed 2.30 KM, he paid with 5.50 KM to minimize the amount of potential change in his front jeans´ pocket. the lady gave him an even 20 cents. jamie waited patiently, knowing that math is an international language and he was to recEIve 3 marky marks more. to his surprise, well not really because like disneyland, anything can happen in bosnia (and will!), the cashier began to scan the next customers´items. jamie said no. dammit. and "no" again.

lady: read the receipt.
jamie: no, five. no. i gave you five.
lady: dskfjkčsdjfčalk.... read the receipt.
jamie: math is an internati.....
lady: ačlkdsfjčskaldj.....minor case of cerebal palsy (cue nods of recognition by surrounding customers)

-intervention by next customer-

customer1: klasdjfčklasdjfč
lady: ćasdklfasčdlf
customer1:ačskdfjasčdfjka
jamie: five no. (security guard comes closer)

thanks be to god, proper change was finally awarded to one proper cherryfaced jamie and all six of us basked in glorios victory. however, allow me to digress:

Jamie´s Integrity

if jamie was interested in the least amount of change in his pocket, would it not have made sense to accept the first 20 cents offered? when proper change was distributed, he had 4 coins rather than two and subsequenty more jinglejangle in his front jeans´ pocket. Discuss.

An interesting footnote here is that jamie unknowingly had bought limon sirup (that´s lemon syrup for those that don´t speak bosnian.) that lemon paste was thicker than the english accent of the adult bosnians in our evening conversation class and equally as disagreeable to jamie´s stomach. he finally bought a bottle of water and went swig for swig, sirup - vader, sirup - vader until he grew tired of this combo.

A page from the Kent Diaries

2004-07-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

so today was our second day of classes. we decided to have themes for the day for both groups, and today was numbers-calendar-time day. things went pretty well i guess, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves which is the most important thing. our younger class this morning was a little stressful because some of the games were hard to translate or explain so they weren´t quite as successful as they might have been, but the kids all got it by the end. the older group already seemed to know numbers and dates and times really well, so we just played a lot of cooperation games and got to know each other better. they taught kelly and i a bosnian cheer too. that was interesting. it feels like everyone is kind of getting more used to things here in zenica and we don´t have to be shown around everywhere anymore. i say that, but at the same time i definitely almost got lost coming to the library a minute ago. oh well, i´m sure pretty soon it will all seem more like home.

-kent

Boys will be boys and so will girls

2004-07-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Fourth graders in Bosnia remind me of fourth graders in America, which makes sense, but was unexpected considering the differences of circumstances.

Today, we played a game called ˝the human knot.˝ In this game everyone forms a tight circle, reaches across from them, and, with each hand, grabs someone elses hand. The game is played as the students attempt to untie the knot of arms by twisting, and going under and other arms. Ten-year-old boys, however, could not even think about touching the hands of ten-year-old girls, and vice versa. This truism soon became apparent as the knot was untied and the boys were together holding hands(because they had only held other boys hands) and the girls were holding hands in a circle.

First day of school

2004-07-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

So today we started teaching. It went pretty well, as far as I can tell. Each team (me & Kelly, Jamie & Erin, and Pete & Meagan) each have two classes, one from 9-10:30 and one from 11-12:30. The first group is 7 and 8 year old kids in 1st grade. None of the kids in my class spoke any english at all, so Kelly and I were glad that Fuad, a local university student, was helping us out. We played lots of games and tried to learn names, and all the kids seemed really enthusiastic about being there. For the second class each group had different ages, and Kelly and I ended up with 12-15 year olds in middle school. We were surprised how well they all spoke english, and we spent most of the class taking questions from them about America, and asking them what they liked to do in Zenica. It was tiring, but a lot of fun. After school, we all came to the public library (where I am now) and got library cards for the whole month for 10 marks (~$6) with unlimited internet! Pretty soon Meagan, Jamie, and I will have our first conversation class with older teenagers here in the library. We´ll see how that goes. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

-Kent

The Police, almost

2004-07-02T03:46:00.000-07:00

Late one night, we sat in our apartment talking about sitcoms that we watched as kids. From "Saved by the Bell" to "Small Wonder." As the discuss grew weirder and weirder Pete and I went upstairs to do anything else. Pete walked on to the balcony and we heard a glass bottle break in the alley three floors below. I was worried that Pete may have bumped a glass over the edge, but he explained that he had not so much as touched a table. No one could figure out exactly what had happened, but we would soon find out. We heard voices talking and then a pounding on our front door. The man living the floor below us, who we would often see in his underwear playing cards, began yelling.

"Are you crazy? This is Croatia, you can't throw bottles. Are you drunk? You are drunk"
"No sir, we aren't drunk," said Pete
"You are on drugs. Are you crazy? This is Croatia. I call police."
"Sir, we were down stairs talking and we heard the bottle."
"This is Croatia. You bastards."

A minute later another knock came from our door. Was it the police? No, it was another old man with pieces of a broken Jack Daniels bottle in his hands.

"This is yours," he said as he threw the pieces on the floor of the front hall.

Not having touched a drop of alcohol in over 5 hours, and certainly not Tennessee whiskey, we breathed a sigh of relief that we were not to blame. Nonetheless, the group all sat around for the next hour worried if the police would come, would speak English, or even would want to hear our side. They never did show up, but it would have been an even better story if they had, don't you think?

The next day we contacted our landlord and he has told us he would handle everything.

Return of the Pete

2004-06-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

We found Pete late in the afternoon sleeping on a bench near the beach, it was kind of sad but also funny. Pete brought with him a unique sense of humor that helped us break two beds his first night in Dubrovnik. We can't wait to see what else he has in store.

The official tally for the number of steps from the main road to our apartment is 148, although that does not include the steps to our room door on the second floor nor the steps to my bed one more floor up. If any of you have seen "Pumping Iron" with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger you will get a good idea of what our thigh muscles look like now.

Kelly has taken over the role as the cook and we are all thankful, except on monday night when no one could quite figure out what being served. We are still awaiting the lab results. However, she redeemed herself last night with a stupendous dinner and a fruit topped cake desert. Cheers to Kelly.

The locals in Dubrovnik are friendly. And when I saw friendly, I mean drunk. Two nights ago they performed a cappella percussion consisting mostly of loud phrases they heard from Americans: "D-D-D-Do you know that!" "Good!" "Excellent!" Last night, the same group of boys offered me drugs. Apparently they have the best stuff in town.

As they say in every European country, caio.

Day Two

2004-06-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Pete has been found and he is safely in Zenica.

Real World - Dubrovnik

2004-06-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

We are all safe in Crotia after a long trip... everyone but Pete that is. However, we got word that he caught a flight to Venice and will be figuring out a way over from there.

Dubrovnik is beautiful. For those of you who know the area we are in the ˝old town˝ with the best view of the city (A travel book picture might have been taken from our porch).

Venira and Zdana(Jana) came with us in a small, cramped, but friendly van for the 6 hour drive and are staying in a nearby basement room. Their view is not nearly as nice as ours.

The other members of the Bosnia Crew will be posting in the next few days. Just as soon as I explain what a blog is and how one goes about ˝blogging.˝

Online Photos

2004-06-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

I've been doing my job as the computer nerd of the group and going ahead and setting up an online digital photo storage website. Here's the link you should go to if you want to see the photos:

http://members28.clubphoto.com/bosnia871109/guest-1.phtml

Welcome to the Bosnia Project

2004-06-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

This weblog will serve as a record for the 2004 Bosnia Project. For more information about our group click here.