Deep Roots..

I've spent nearly a week in Sarajevo and it kind of feels pretty homey. I have to say that I'm looking forward to finding a place and unpacking my bag for a little while, getting out my bits and pieces that remind me of the people that I love and fill my fridge with the amazing seasonal summer fruit and veg.

I've been thinking a lot about what home means, and what this identity issue means to me. The time I've spent here has really put me in amongst a community that think my story is relatively normal and common compared to others. The more time I spend at this hostel, the more times I've repeated and retold my story - each time it's slightly different in level of detail and length.

What it comes down to really - my identity hasn't got much to do with where I'm from at the end of the day - it's more about where I feel comfortable investing my time and with who I choose to spend it with. I don't have to be Bosnian or Australian necessarily - it's more about how much of an understanding I have of both of those cultures that affects how I fit within them. Obvious maybe? I'm almost sure that I've come to this conclusion in one way or another at some other time, otherwise I'd be incapable of making friends in either culture.

There's a distinct difference between the Bosnian community here in Bosnia and the ones over in Australia. The youth that I've spent some time with here are all pretty clued into the politics, official and unofficial. They all seem to have a pretty good grip on why the country is still so unorganised and often in a complete administrative mess. They're all studying - and studying hard, so have this amazing understanding of the world. I heard a statistic the other day that nearly 70% of annual government expenses go towards administration - since there are 3 presidents at any one time and each needs their own office and team. I'll get onto what that means in a minute, but my point here is that people of all ages have evolved within this society since the war. No one appreciates the atrocities in the 90's in any way - obviously - and everyone pretty much agrees that no one side got anything out of it. The whole thing was a complete waste...of everything, unfortunately. But the important point here is that they've grown as the city has been rebuilt, and things have changed, they've changed.

The Bosnian youth and older generations in Australia however are a bit behind - I don't have any memories of talking Bosnian politics with anyone apart from my parents back home...what the fuck's with that? I wonder if they know how the local and national governments work, and what life is actually like here. This has left the Bosnian community in Melbourne in the past a little - most people associate Bosnia with pre-war lives and any family holidays that they've gone on. It's a damn shame. This place isn't greater than what it was, it's different. I just find it a little wierd that some of the Bosnian Australians that I've known in my time can be so patriotic when they have no real idea of what Bosnia has evolved into since they left it.

This country isn't unsafe.

Sarajevo isn't a place filled with pick pockets.

Sarajevo has it's scars, but it's not a tortured city under siege any more - it's beautiful, vibrant, bubbling with life and full of mosques, cathedrals, churches, synagogues, and other temples. It's full of galleries and museums, bookshops, cafes and bars, and people who always 'know a guy' if you need something.

This place is amazing - the people here are incredible.

Every non-Bosnian speaking visitor that I've met feels a sense of anger towards the US, UN and Serbia in some ways. They've spoken to me about how they're so angry about the fact that a war that took a month to stop in 1995 was allowed to go on for 5 long years. Why was Sarajevo under siege for 4 years? It's nice to know that there is a whole generation of people coming through here and seeing Sarajevo/Bosnia for what it really is, not associating it with the images that the media portrayed in the 90's. Hopefully the bad reputation that the war has left behind will be obliterated as more people see it as an attractive tourist destination.

Today a convoy of trucks adorned with flowers and roses passed through the city on their way to Potocari, in Srebrenica, which is on the mid-east boarder with Serbia. It's a town where the biggest genocide occurred since WW2, and Sunday is the official day of recognising/mourning for all the fallen souls. The trucks were full of coffins filled with the remains of bodies that have taken this long (15 years!!)to be sorted and identified since they were found in mass graves in various locations around Bosnia. These trucks were big, and there were about 6 or 7 of them. A man standing close by told me that the trucks were transporting 700 coffins.

I cannot really begin to describe the atmosphere at the main square in the Old Town of Sarajevo for the 5 minutes that it took for these trucks to go past. And this happens every year.


On a brighter note. I went to Vrelo Bosna yesterday for my birthday, which is this amazing natural spring that is the main source of drinking water for a part of Sarajevo. It was heaven on earth! And it truly made my birthday very special - thank you Abby for coming with me and for coming into my life in such a beautiful way! I also went out last night with a bunch of locals, who took me to a place called Sloga. It was a trashy-music turbo-folk kind of nightclub. I had a great night - got to bed by 4.30am, and woke up fully clothed. Oh. Dear.

Hmm...think I may leave politics and my new volunteering position with an environmental activist group for another time - this got way longer than intended!!

Thanks for reading!

Hope you're all getting through winter :-)

Sej xo