Lukomir Mostar Srebrenica

The last couple of weekends have been filled with mini trips out to various parts of Bosnia so that I can get a bit of an idea of what the country looks like along the way, and to see other cities. I don't think I really need to explain!

The first location was the highest and most isolated village in Bosnia, called Lukomir. It's about an hour's drive out of Sarajevo and on the way you pass the Olympic ski fields of '84. It was a beautiful misty drive up on a Sunday morning. I went with my friend Juliet, her boss' dad and sister, their neighbour (affectionately named Dedo) and a French traveller and friend. Dzevad and Nedzla (the dad and sister of Haris, who is Juliet's boss and friend) were going to go visit and old lady in the village who has lost all her family. They were taking winter supplies to her because they had heard that she was living in the isolated village all on her own over winter, with no access to or from the nearest town. She is over 80 years old. I was honored to be able to go on such a trip, and be part of the delivery.

The village itself is nestled in amongst beautiful mountains and has a certain clear sparseness. The vegetation consists mostly of grasses and a few shrubs, and the animals that were visible to us were mostly birds and insects. The people in the village are shepherds, mostly sheep, but also have cows for milk. They also have cats and chickens - all of which seemed fairly well looked after. The houses are almost indescribable. They are made mostly of a cool grey stone, and have iron rooves. Their shape is mostly square and all but a few are single storey. They have been there for hundreds of years, and the people that own them live there over summer, and have other homes in Sarajevo for winter (or in a town closer to Sarajevo where they have better access to food and other products).

The people of Lukomir are used to the travellers that come to see their way of secluded life, and understand modern technology even if they don't have access to their own. They are warm, welcoming (though I've heard being Bosnian helps), and full of stories. The striking aspect of the whole trip was the honesty of the place. There were no facades, no masks, just people and this vast nothingness in all directions. We ate sirnica (a pastry filled with cheese) and grah (beans) and drank coffee with the locals, and had a look around the village. We bought a few locally made products and drove away. It was an enlightening experience.

The second trip that I have done was a day trip to Mostar, the largest city in Hercegovina (sort of the southern state). I went with two good friends, and we met up with one of the locals for a walk around town and lunch. Mostar is completely different to Sarajevo. It is a city in a valley and is largely and fiercely separated into two ethnic halves - one for the Bosnian Muslims and the other for the Bosnian Catholics (originating from the bordering Croatia). During the last war, the Croatian forces (or people)that were fighting in Mostar were fighting for the Bosnian Muslim side, but at a point throughout the war they changed sides. The Bosnian Muslims were then fighting against a much bigger force. I don't really know enough about this specific battle and region because I have yet to do a formal tour of the city, but all I know is that there is a very clear divide.

The city itself is beautiful, and well worth visiting. The train trip between Sarajevo and Mostar alone is worth the trip. Mostar is famous for it's old bridge that was built by the Ottomans about 427 years ago. 'Most' in Bosnian means bridge, and a 'mostar' is a keeper of the bridge, so that is how the city got it's name. During the war, this bridge was blown up for no other reason than cruelty and for the sake of destroying culture and history. The Bosnian Croat forces broke the city's heart. However, it was reconstructed and now stands as a symbol of peace. The bridge is also famous for diving off. There are a number of diving schools in Mostar, who perform for tourists during the warmer months. They jump the 24m from the bridge's peak into the Neretva River below. It looks like an exhilarating jump, but one I would be terrified to do considering the many whirlpools in the river. We saw two divers do it while we were there - all I can say is WOW!

The third place that I visited was Srebrenica, which was a couple of days ago. This place was by far the most traumatic and raw place that I've been to in Bosnia. It is the location of the biggest act of genocide that was committed since WW2, in July of 1995. I won't go into details here because I've found it incredibly difficult to unwind since the weekend, but basically - in a span of days, it has been estimated that over 8,500 men and boys were slaughtered by the Bosnian Serb forces purely because of their ethnic and religious background. They were herded like sheep, shot in the back in various locations around Bosnia and then buried in mass graves all over what is now Republika Srpska (or the Republic of Serbia, a supposed separate entity from actual Serbia itself). The graves were then dug up months later (and bodies were torn apart and seperated) and then reburied in other locations. This was done using large mechanical equipment, in order to attempt to cover up the genocide. The whole world watched this happen, and the whole world allowed it. The bodies are still being identified (painfully slow process), and mass burial ceremonies are held every year since it happened. This year over 720 bodies were laid to rest.

Potocari (the location of where it all started, which is just outside of Srebrenica) now has a memorial centre and harem (Muslim graveyard) for the fallen. We visited this place, and it was chilling.

I cannot begin to describe my tears, fear, frustration, anger, sadness, terror, and angst last Sunday. It was an awful yet important experience.

The peace agreement that was signed by the military forces of former Yugoslavia is called the Dayton Agreement, and was signed in the US after Srebrenica happened. This agreement has allowed the Bosnian Serb forces to have pretty much half of Bosnia and they renamed this half the Republika Srpska. So not only did the international community allow for the genocide, they also actively participated in handing over exactly what the Serbian forces wanted.

I've been avoiding writing this blog for a couple of days, but felt I should before some of the feelings and experiences become less raw.

Sorry to leave it on a bit of a low note, but the key factor here is that I walked away feeling extremely lucky and grateful for what I have, and how lucky my family was. I'm very positive about having come on this journey, but am looking forward to leaving in a lot of ways. It has been intense, to say the least.

Thanks for reading, the next blog will most likely be a final one from Bosnia!

Sej xx

A seasonal change and a Bajram on the horizon

The seasons are starting to shift, both here and in Melbourne and I feel a bit of a change in tone. The next month or so will be an interesting mix of the familiar and the new.

Hello to my loyal followers...and a warm welcome to those who only just clicked on. When I say warm..I mean literally! We're all currently sharing the amazing warmth of autumn/spring weather, where you wake up to that amazing crisp morning air, and take in the afternoon sunshine.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting. I've started to develop the green curriculum that I've been mentioning. Basically, what it consists of at the moment is a 'Contents' page full of themes around the environment and sustainability. The aim is to develop each of these themes into something tangible and something that can be presented to a room full of hormonal Bosnian teenagers. What a task it's become! In the last week I've been doing a bit of research for the first major theme (and one that appears to be the biggest mountain in the world right now): water. So, what have I found out?

The water and wastewater systems here in Sarajevo are relatively complex - as far as I was aware to this point, there was no water authority and the water management systems were lacking from all directions. But it has come to my attention that it's not quite that simple. The authority (maybe not exactly the same in the way that the system is run in Australia, but still an authoritative organisation that's funded by the government) is called 'Vodovod i Kanalizacija d.o.o Sarajevo'. They are responsible for providing clean drinking water and sanitation for Sarajevo - but I wasn't really able to get too much information out of their website. What I'm surprised by is the amount of water that's lost through leakage and other losses annually - a figure greater than what I expected, and comparable to that what is used by people annually.

I've also realised that there's a significant ratio of text that I struggle with in terms of technical language..something that is hindering my ability to gather informative data about the various green topics. Bosnian is a bit enigmatic sometimes!

The lessons or workshops that we're looking at developing once we have the basic information together is going to be a mix of theory and practice to make it more interesting. The practice will hopefully include games an activities that allow the kids to stay interested for one thing, but also imprint some of the important points for each of the themes. I had this view that each theme would be presented as a stand alone lesson, but my friend Adis (the guy that I'm working with) seems to think that it would be better to do it all as a one time thing and hit the kids with a massive weekend of green learning instead. Unfortunately I won't be here to implement the workshops and see how our ideas go in practice, but I'm going to stay in touch with Adis and hopefully keep on helping from a distance.

One over-riding feeling at the moment - I want to tell the kids everything I know...I want to do a massive brain dump and just blast them with the information overload and share with them the complexities of true sustainability and climate change. Thrill them with the concept - and blow their minds at how epically we seem to have globalised everything - almost to the point of no return. But I guess that's something I have to contain, and just keep it as stagnant potential energy that will keep my passion for the environment going. Scare them a bit at a time!

In between the bits of information gathering, I've been doing a teeny bit of translation work and a lot of hanging out with friends that are leaving Sarajevo pretty soon. I've managed to see a few hills that I haven't really seen before - but have mostly been keeping it pretty low key. It's been good!

Next on the agenda - disco fever dancing tomorrow night (ah yeah) and then going back to Gradiska early next week. My grandma Hanifa is leaving the country to go back to her winter home in Sweden and this will be the last (and I'm sure emotional) time I'll see her for this trip. It's also Bajram next week, which is the big celebration at the end of Ramadan, the fasting month of Islam. This will be the first time I spend Bajram with the grandparents in I can't even remember how long. Pretty excited.

When I come back, it's a couple of weeks of hanging in Sarajevo and then Dane arrives - I can't even begin to put my excitement and anticipation for seeing this man into words.

That's it for now!

Thank you for reading.

Sej xx