I am back in Zambia and my whole Bosnian trip seems like a distant dream. It all went by so quickly and I am now here going over the events that occurred in Bosnia. I remember, it was in the first few days of me being in Tuzla, the Eurocup was going on and Croatia was playing against Turkey; I had gone for coffee with another AP Fellow who was also based in Tuzla, and had come back home before the end of the game. I was just about to go to bed when I heard a loud sound, similar to a gunshot. I heard another and then another. My heart started pounding, I called Antigona, the AP Peace Fellow, and asked her what was going on, hoping she would have more insight than I did since she had a week more than I did on her plate...making her a seasoned inhabitant of Tuzla. It was just fireworks since Turkey won the game. That was one of my first experiences there and looking back, I came to Bosnia knowing far less than I do now. I am extremely grateful for the experience and plan on keeping in touch with Bosfam and the lovely people I met in Tuzla. Hopefully, we will find new avenues for Bosfam to explore and find more people to support their amicable cause.

Bosnia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, ironically, with one of the harshest realities. I truly hope that eventually, people will get justice, those who committed these crimes will be punished for them and the new generations will be wiser.

I am grateful for this experience and wish Bosfam all the best, because that is exactly what each and every woman there deserves.

Take care...

I will be leaving in a few days and before I do, I wanted to make sure everyone knew who I interacted with on a daily basis when I was at Bosfam. These women have amazing backgrounds and stories, and are still so jovial even though they have been through times I could never imagine surviving. A big thanks goes to Alison Morse who compiled some of the background information during her internship here.

Beba Osmanović

Beba, or Mala Beba (i.e. “Small Beba”) as we all call her since the founder of the organization is also Beba, is one of the women who keeps Bosfam alive and happy. When she laughs, you can be two or three rooms away but still hear her throwing her head back, clapping her hand, and having a good hearty laugh – at least once a day. She has a great sense of humor and thoroughly enjoys pulling my leg. A very patient woman, Beba always takes time to repeat herself, in another language nonetheless, until I understand what she is saying…or else, she smiles, shakes her head and says “nema vezi” (never mind, or its okay).

She was born in Srebrenica in 1969 and got married when she was 21. She had a son, Allen, in 1993 when she was 23. He was one of the first people I met here (besides my host, Beba) who could speak English. We both like ice-cream as well which added to me enjoying his company. In July 1995, Beba was forced to leave Srebrenica and she came to Tuzla. This was when she was separated from her husband. He was identified in 2004 and buried on the July 11th anniversary of the following year.

Now, when she finishes her work at Bosfam, she darkens her eyeliner and goes off to work for the piece-meal jobs she finds, such as cleaning. She returns home 2-3 hours later and does this every day. I ask her how she manages and she says she doesn’t know. She is one of the loveliest people I have met here and my stay in Bosnia would not have been the same without her.

Sajma Avdić

Everyone has a phrase they say over and over again; for Sajma (pronounced Sa-i-ma) its chuk-a chuk-a…which basically means hold on or just a minute. She’s got one of the kindest faces here at Bosfam and her personality fits the mold. We just visited her house yesterday – she lives with her two children, her mother and a few relatives in her brother-in-laws home that is currently being constructed. We visited her garden which was the size of a tennis court – and filled with strawberries, maize, paprika (peppers) and potatoes. I remembered Zambia when I saw the strawberry patch since we used to visit my friend’s house every day after kindergarten and pick strawberries while we waited for our parents to come get us. Beba translated the story to her and she made sure I ate and took as many strawberries as I could. She also filled a bag with paprika and told Beba and I to take it home. This wasn’t the end of the hospitality – we were fed plenty in the 20 minutes we stayed at her house before returning to Tuzla (she commutes an hour everyday to Tuzla from Srebrenik on a bus that leaves at 6.30am).

Sajma was born in 1962 in Pobuđe, which is in Northeastern Bosnia. She got married very young, at the age of 18 and had a son and a daughter soon after. Unfortunately, her husband died in a work accident in 1990. When the war started, Sajma left Bosnia and took refuge in Slovenia with her two children. In 1996, Sajma returned to Srebrenik with her children. Her daughter is currently in university, studying Pharmacy, and her son just got a job in Srebrenik.

Sadeta Dizareciv

Sadeta is one of the comical characters at Bosfam. She is always cracking jokes and has a very authoritative air about her, which makes her all the more respected. Her life at Bosfam, which she began in 1995, is very different from that at home – she has two daughters, who are both married and have children, but live in different countries. One lives in Germany and the other in the Netherlands (who she is actually visiting right now). Bosnian culture is definitely one of joint families where everyone lives in the same building, if you can afford it, each family on a separate floor. So, going home to an empty house is definitely a trying experience each time she returns home after work. She was one of the first ladies I saw crying right before July 11th, which really hit me as she is a person who tries to show that she is happy all the time.

Sadeta was born in 1956, in Luka, a town in the Srebrenica Municipality. She went to school for only four years. She moved to Stedra later when she got married, and had one son and two daughters. Her husband was killed in 1993 (and Sadeta and the children managed to take his body out of the besieged area and give him a respectable burial) and she fled to Tuzla with her daughters, while her son tried to get to safety through the forest. He is still missing.

Tima Avdić

Is by far, the best baker I have come across! She makes these delicious apple and custard/biscuit cakes, that are heavenly. She lives with her daughter in a home she was given by the municipality. Her younger daughter is on scholarship and studying in Sarajevo, and her oldest child, a boy, is working in Srebrenica. His story is fascinating. He was shot twice, and was wounded on his foot – he still, managed to stay alive and was brought to Tuzla by the only other person who survived the shooting. When I visited their home, her older daughter showed me a huge picture in a frame – it was Tima’s son standing beside Bill Clinton. Because of his experience and first-hand information, he was a crucial link for the criminal tribunal in the Hague.

Her husband, Alija, was killed while escaping through the woods from Srebrenica. He was identified and buried in Potocari in 2004.

She is such a loving person and absolutely adores children.

Nura Suljić

Is such a great character! I have learned quite a bit about her – she does not like George Bush, she makes everyone laugh with her witty comments, she is a very direct person who won’t hesitate to tell you what she thinks, she hates the dentist, she can weave like a machine (!) and she loves to sleep. She has three children, all of whom she made sure finished their education, and they all have jobs right now. This is extremely commendable in a time of chaos and lack of money. She has worked at Bosfam since 1995 and this has been her only source of income since then.

Before she came to Tuzla, in 1996, she lived in a small village in the Srebrenica Municipality. She moved within collective centers in Dubrave, Sicki, and Simin Han for a year. Many other members of her family did not make it out of Srebrenica and are still missing. She still has no news of her husband, Bajro, who was working in Serbia when the war began.

Zifa Bumbulović

Zifa, a truly talented woman, is one of the very best weaver’s Bosfam has. She was away for a large portion of the time I was there but definitely made an impression. Her son was buried in Potocari last year and she was one of the only women who was curious to know what I felt when I had gone to see a mass grave. Besides the inability on my part to speak with her in Bosnian, and although Tima’s daughter was there to translate, it was difficult for me to explain that once you go to a mass grave with people whose aim is to systematically excavate remains and objectively tend to their task in order to do a thorough job, it is difficult to think of how all this happened. It was even more difficult to explain to her as she started to cry. Before I went to the mass grave, I was telling a friend who works with the ICMP and who was there that day at the excavation site that although I understand quite a bit of what happened theoretically, it would only sink in when I saw something so devastating…even when I visited the mass grave, understanding the events wasn’t any clearer – it was all very surreal. Maybe it is because I had seen pictures of mass graves beforehand, but I was still unable to fathom how people had the motivation to do such things – especially the fact that this was a secondary mass grave and had been exhumed and transported from a primary site – and still live with themselves years later. While at the site, I wondered briefly about how all this happened and what it must have been like more than a decade ago when all this was happening, but my thoughts were quickly replaced with how the ICMP staff were carefully removing the soil off the bones, digging the earth with their hand shovels, and piecing together bones in a very systematic manner.

Zifa was born in 1952 and lived near a lake when she was young. She married in 1971 and lived in Pec with her husband and two children – a girl and a boy. In July 1995, with the fall of Srebrenica, Zifa fled with her daughter and grandchild to Tuzla. Her son fled through the woods. Her husband was working in Serbia but went to Tuzla when the war broke out. Zifa and her husband met in Tuzla and waited for their son to arrive. Since her arrival in Tuzla, Zifa spends her spare time in Bosfam as it helps her cope.

Raiza Zahirović

Raiza is one of the women I spent the most time with, and who fed me so much, during my stay at Bosfam. She made a great effort to communicate with me, through all these hand signals and sounds that helped a whole lot! Funnily enough, we understood each other very well a few weeks into my internship, her speaking Bosnian (and adding to this with her animated character) and me speaking in English. She is one of the women who does not weave carpets, but knits, makes the carpets presentable and labeled once they are off the loom, sews surnames onto the Memorial Quilt Project, and helps keep Bosfam in order. She is 42, single, lives with her mother and both of them live on her mother’s pension and Raiza’s income from Bosfam. Before the war, she worked in Croatia, and went through several hardships during the war, until she came to Tuzla. She also has health problems, medication for which needs to be covered in the combined income of her mother and herself.

Rasema Germic

Rasema was initially near Vlasenica, in a town called Novacasaba, and when the war started, she moved to Tuzla. She married her husband in Tuzla and has two children, one boy and a girl, who are both quite young. Her husband works in Tuzla. She is also a very talented woman and weaves beautiful designs, one of which I tried copying and made several mistakes in the process. She left Bosfam a few weeks before I left, and it was really sad to see her go. She was one of the women who began the goodbye’s and made it real to me that my time in Bosnia was ending very soon.

Iain and Magbula Divovic

A very hardworking and independent woman, Magbula lives a few hundred meters away from the Potocari Memorial Cemetery. Until recently, because she lost her fifteen year old son and her husband due to the Srebrenica massacre, she lived alone in her home that was renovated by an EU-funded project. Twice a day, she trekked over the hill behind her home to meet her parents. She also took care of her chickens and vegetables when she wasn’t with her parents. Both her parents died of old age last year and she is now completely alone in Potocari. She has a son in Tuzla who has a family of his own, a wife and a daughter, but because of finances they are unable to support Magbula as well. Living alone, and near the main road has several effects on her mental well-being. Not only is she lonely, but recently, as a result of Karadzic’s arrest, a few young people drove by waving the three finger sign that’s representative of Karadzic. Things like this make it difficult for her to feel like she belongs there and that she is safe in a place that once used to be her home.

Behija Hamzić

Originally from Bijeljina, Behija is extremely creative and makes sure her work is done in an impeccable and swift manner. She lives with her daughter and husband in Tuzla. She is also one of the few women I have met who can read coffee grinds to tell your future. At different times, after one of our two daily coffee sessions, one of the women would finish her coffee, flip over her coffee cup and wait for it to dry before asking Behija what their future said. Apparently there was a picture of a dog in my coffee grinds one day…I couldn’t see it. She’s a lovely person, very kind and was truly a pleasure to be around.

Hanija Salihović

Although I didn’t spend too much time with Hanija, the few times I met her, she was very patient with me. We communicated through making signs a few times. She has a limp in her walk which she got in an accident before the war. She used to live in Srebrenica until it fell in 1995 and now she lives outside of Tuzla with her husband. She lost many male relatives in the Srebrenica massacre and came to Tuzla as she was forced to leave her home in Srebrenica in 1995. Her income is a big portion of the families total earnings.

Munira "Beba" Hadzic

None of these ladies would have been here without Beba. She has taught me a lot in the little time I have been here. She is a person who will stick by her principles and the ones she loves at all times, and it has been extremely refreshing to meet her. She handles everything in Bosfam by herself, i.e. admin, sales, PR, etc., and is always willing to try new things to bring more success to the organization and its beneficiaries. A very laid back person, who’s favorite lines in English are “that’s life” and “what’s goin’ on”, Beba really showed me that however hard it is, giving is so important. She has supported these women through the hardest of times and knows them in and out – so much so that she creates work where necessary if she knows that it’ll benefit their emotional wellbeing. This benefits them immensely, especially as the characters and personalities at Bosfam are so diverse, and if you’re there, it is difficult not to get distracted. She is definitely a person who has made me realize things about myself as well. She was chased from Srebrenica herself, in house slippers, and had nothing when she left. From her entire life, she has 6 photos. If she were able to get anything back, it would be her pictures. Through all this, she tells me it’s important to be flexible, because we never know what will happen to us. War was the last thing she expected, and it happened, and now, she says anything’s possible. At the end of the day, she always repeated, we need to be able to live with ourselves.

I am very grateful for having spent time with each one of these women. I know I will remember them and the kindness and acceptance they showed me wherever I go.

Over 60 women, 190 carpets, 8 stationary looms, a gallery full of beautiful handicrafts and an atmosphere of support and acceptance – this is just a glimpse of what the Bosnian Family, aka Bosanska Familija, aka Bosfam, really is.

The project started out in 1994 as a form of occupational therapy for women during the war. It provided some relief to women who had lost their homes, belongings and loved ones. Initially a knitting project between Serb, Bosniak and Croat women, it grew to become an organization where several women now weave traditional Bosnian carpets, knit sweaters and scarves, crochet clothing and house décor items, and create handicrafts such as stained glass souvenirs and earrings. Throughout this time, Beba has welcomed women from all nationalities and ethnicities to work together, talk and every so often, have a cup of coffee. Many of the women here are the sole breadwinners of their families, and so, although Bosfam is an enjoyable place to be, it is an important support mechanism, both emotionally and financially for many women.

One of the projects that has recently had much attention is the Memorial Quilt Project. It began last year, with the help of the Advocacy Project, as a way to commemorate victims who perished in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. Thus far, there are 4 quilts, each of which is made up of 20-25 panels. Each panel, whose material costs are sponsored by a donor, has a motif and the first name of the victim – all hand-woven. Their surname is sewn onto the carpet panels once the carpet has been finished and been taken off the loom. Three of the quilts are in the U.S. and one is in Bosnia. Not only do these quilts remember individuals, but they act as a tool for keeping the memory of the massacre alive and achieving social change in the form of arrests, regeneration of Srebrenica and empowerment of women returnees. Until now, there have been seven showings of the quilts in North America (e.g. Toronto, New York, Boston, St.Louis, Washington D.C. to name a few) and our hope is to raise awareness of the massacre, its effects and Bosfam, at many more events in the coming years. Although the Memorial Quilt Project, as sensitive as it is, is not a way for Bosfam to make any profit or income, we tried selling souvenir carpets at the event to sustain Bosfam’s efforts at keeping this project ongoing. We were shown much support and hope that the audiences continue to do this.

Efforts are being made to collaborate with other local organizations in Bosnia and the region, such as Women in Black which is based in Belgrade, Serbia, to bring people together to understand what happened and to overcome the consequences of such an event.

As of now, a training project is being planned to expand Bosfam’s capacity in order to give more attention to the Memorial Quilt Project. We hope to create 10-12 new quilts by the end of next year, and circulate these within the Balkans and globally, especially in places where there are large Bosnian diasporas. Through this, not only is awareness being created of what happened in Bosnia, but several more women (many of whom are in great need) will have a way to support their families. They will be trained in carpet weaving and will support the creation of souvenir carpets, and eventually, with practice, the Memorial Quilts.

One of the Memorial Quilts currently in the United States

Besides this, during my time in Bosnia, we sought new markets for Bosfam’s carpets. Due to their high quality materials –cotton warps and 100% wool – and their intensive method of weaving, it is difficult for the women to be competitive in an increasingly globalized world where machines are making carpets in a fraction of the time. A carpet that is 2x3metres could take one woman about one and a half to two months to complete. I have tried weaving and it to sit at a loom for 6-8 hours per day for about 2 months is strenuous and taxing physically and mentally…especially with the inevitable “greškas” (mistakes). Nonetheless, with little success, we tried contacting a few international free trade handicraft markets. We also contacted embassies within Bosnia and invited them to Bosfam. We got a few favorable responses which was very encouraging. Besides Bosfam’s webshop, which can be found through their website (www.bosfam.ba), they are now putting products up on eBay to see how things fare. If any of you know any organizations that would be willing to partner with Bosfam, please let us know as both Beba and I are more than happy to give it a try.

It’s a phenomenal organization, with lovely people behind it, and it would be great if there were other opportunities for them to sell their products.

Its amazing how quickly time flies. I have already been here for over 2 months, and I am set to leave next week. So much has happened in the past few weeks and it has been increasingly difficult to sit down and write about everything.

Once July 11th came around, although I had already been to Srebrenica once before, I wanted to go back to see what it would be like with others around and with the intensity of emotions of the ceremony. One of the Bosnian estimates was that there would be about 40,000 people there. Although there was no way I would have known if this was accurate, I can definitely say that the cemetery grounds were overflowing with people who waited for the ceremony to begin. Many others went across the road to the old battery factory where the UN Dutch Troops were stationed between 1992 and 1995, and where many women were separated from the men in their families. The factory, dusty and ruined, is now a memorial and has two black box-like structures in the main area - in one they show the movie, a cry from the grave (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-DUsQyklUM) which is a documentary about how the events unraveled during the genocide. In the other black structure, they have personal belongings and stories of about 20 people who perished in the Srebrenica massacre, one of them an 11 yr old boy.

One of the memorial structures in the old battery factory which was used by the Dutch UN troops

Engraved pocket watch with a bullet hole belonging to Sead Hadic. Found with his body at the Hodzici-Zvornik mass grave in 1998

Many people showed up and were scattered all over the memorial grounds; the heaps of soil are where the graves had been dug for the 307 newly identified victims of the Srebrenica massacre

In Islamic burials, the white headstone is only put there a year later. So, for the people just buried this July 11th, a green wooden board is placed at the head of the grave, which will be changed around July 11th 2009

Family members paying their respects on July 11th; the green cloth on each of the coffins symbolizes peace

Recently, we visited Srebrenica again, this time, staying there for a night. Urlike, a well-wisher and supporter of Bosfam who comes to Bosnia once a year, initially told me that the best way to see how many people were still living in Srebrenica is to stay there overnight and observe the number of lights switched on in buildings…she wasn’t joking. During the daytime there were many cars and several people all over town, which became a façade of progress and the return of the cities original inhabitants. As soon as it started getting dark, everyone left, and very few lights were on in the buildings. Even fewer people were at restaurants or having kafa – something I am definitely not used to coming from Tuzla.

During the day, we visited a few people in and around the town. Magbula, a Bosfam weaver who lives alone and about five minutes away from the Potoćari Memorial, lost her fifteen year old son and her husband as a result of the Srebrenica massacre. Last year, both her parents who were in their mid-eighties died due to old age. They were a very large part of her life as she used to trek, twice a day, over the hill behind her home to see them and take care of them. She has one son who lives with his wife and daughter in Tuzla. That is her only family. She does not live with them as it is not financially possible for all of them to live together. She showed us one photo, carefully covered in a wrinkled and cloudy plastic bag – the only one she has - of her son and daughter-in-law who are in Tuzla. She told us of the insecurity and loneliness she experienced living alone. With Karadžić’s arrest, young Serb boys drove past her house waving the three finger sign representative of Karadžić in the air. Things like this made it difficult for her to live in Srebrenica, and for others to return…leaving the town with less than a fourth of the population it had thirteen years ago.

Our second visit was to a lovely family of nine in the Srebrenica municipality: an old mother, her two sons, their wives, and her four grandchildren – one of whom I fell in love with and wanted to take home with me. All these people were supported by the pension of the woman’s husband who died during the war. If anything were to happen to her, there would be no income for the family. Their home was destroyed during the war and they now lived in a house reconstructed by an organization supported by Margaret Thatcher, about 10 meters away from the foundation of their ruined house. Because of this, they were not allowed access to electricity, because it was too expensive for the electricity company to extend their service 10 meters away.

Mustafa, one of the most adorable children I have ever met, enjoying the candy Beba brought for him on our visit to their family in the Srebrenica municipality

Karadžić’s arrest did not seem to bring about as many visible reactions as I had expected. Although it was very noticeable in Sarajevo and Belgrade, Tuzla and Srebrenica were fairly quiet about it. On the news though, one individual was asked what he hoped for Karadzic. He replied that he wanted him to have a very long life, and for two hours each day, be shown graphic videos of all the destruction and killing his decisions and leadership had on Bosnia. It is interesting how people react. Milorad Dodik, the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, on the other hand pleaded that Karadzic and his family be allowed to meet and that their travel documents be returned. Others in Belgrade, Serbia protested Karadzic’s arrest as they felt he was a hero and was being mistreated. In Tuzla, because it is a very unique mix of people, when we got news of Karadžić’s arrest, there were no signs of large support or protest. Many of the women at Bosfam were happy at hearing the news but through all the information lost in translation, it seemed that the happiness was shortlived. They went back to work and commented about how Mladic and others needed to be caught as well for the current and future generations to understand the repercussions of such inhumane acts.

I don’t really have too much to say this time ‘round…but been taking lots of pictures. Hope you enjoy them…

Beba posing next to one of our special orders – ‘Gianluca’

Lake Modratz just outside Tuzla –besides the many fishing houseboats that pepper the lake, in the distance, you can see the pulley system that takes coal from one side of the lake to the other

Bosfam goodies being displayed

Preparations for the official opening of the second man-made lake in Tuzla

Lake - numero uno!

On the way to Srebrenica, brutal reminders of the war: a staircase with no home in front of it

The Potocari Memorial – lines and lines of names of people who were lost during the war – 8372 known of thus far

The Potocari Cemetary, right beside the memorial. Each victim has the same tombstone.

…and each tombstone has 1995 on it.

The remains of what used to be a restaurant and a hotel near the Veliki Gubber – a natural spring of water rich in iron that was used for medicinal purposes

The Veliki Gubber – nature’s taking its own course without drains and places for the spring to flow, making everything in its path look rusted

In Srebrenica...

Serbia, across River Drina

Behija, reading my fortune – it was actually pretty accurate!

Bosfam ladies doing what they do best!! From left to right – Beba mala, Sajma (pronounced sa-i-ma) and Behija (behiya)

Beba mala’s niece trying to contribute

Rajza (Ra-i-za) finishing off the 4th memorial quilt which is currently en route to DC!

A bit blurry but a very cute picture – Sadeta and Beba after we took a picture of a carpet

take care..

Signs that we are getting closer to the July 11th anniversary for the Srebrenica Massacre are slowly surfacing – today, in the 85⁰F humid air, as there is always time and the weather for it, we sat down for a cup of kafa. One of the women, usually the one who teases everyone and seems to be very playful and young at heart, carefully took out several pictures of her two small granddaughters from her bag. Included in the abundance of pink, there was a faded picture of her 17 year old son standing near the entrance of a house with a red brick building behind him. He has been missing since the massacre. As I find myself doing very often, I sat there and tried to understand what was being said. Beba, the founder of BOSFAM, tries to keep me in the conversation every once in a while by translating (at which time everyone else tends to stop talking), but as two of the women were getting teary-eyed, now was not the right time to break the conversation…just as quickly as this came up, the women soon started talking about other things, put the coffee cups away and started teaching me to weave. I had been warned several times of the change in atmosphere that comes up whenever July gets closer. The weavers may be going to Srebrenica, or they take time off to mourn. Some think that having loved ones identified will create closure; on the contrary, Beba was telling me of someone who was very knowledgeable about the mass graves and issues related to this; even then, when it came to her relative, she always had hope that he had gone away somewhere and would eventually come home. A body being identified in a mass grave stops any hope that these women could have, even if it is unlikely that their relatives are alive. It amazes me how much faith and hope allows a person to live with their circumstances.

Pages and pages that officially document the victims from Srebrenica

See: http://www.potocarimc.ba/memorijalni_eng/index.htm

I was able to visit the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) last week and learnt a great deal about the process of the identification of people who were buried in mass graves. There are three types of mass graves – primary, secondary and tertiary – which refer to the systematic reinterment (or re-burial) of bodies by Bosnian Serb troops in other mass graves so that these bodies could not be found. With the movement of bodies from primary to secondary and tertiary graves, the bodies are sometimes more difficult to identify due to incomplete remains. Currently, 100 mass graves have been excavated in Bosnia (BiH), and there are still 15 mass graves known of in the area, but have not yet been exhumed. These are mostly a result of the massacres in both Srebrenica in 1995 and Zvornik in 1992.

Personal effects of the victims which ICMP has saved

As of now, over 3,600 official identifications have been completed, and another 1,500 (of incomplete remains) are in process. There are still more than 3,000 open cases in the storage facility, most of which are awaiting results. Many times, there are body parts that are not identifiable and these are buried together in a grave, imitating a mass grave, but done in a much more respectful manner. This year, they hope to identify about 300 people by July 11th, which is when most victims’ remains are buried. If families choose to do so, they can bury their loved ones earlier, but many choose to wait until July 11th, making it a symbolic process. This year, for the Srebrenica massacre anniversary, an estimate of the expected crowd in Srebrenica is approximately 40,000. I will be going to Srebrenica tomorrow for a day, to get a feel for the area, and will return there on July 11th.

ICMP Cold Storage

Boxes of personal belongings at ICMP

So much has happened and the fact that so many people are still missing keeps wounds fresh and makes it an excruciating process for anyone to move on here. Many of the traditional songs speak of the war. July 11th is commemorated every year…with the same amount of pain and tears shed. Every so often, bulletins are posted outside the mosque to mention people who have been identified. Children grow up without male influences in their families. Others are born with birth defects because of war shelling. Many more die because of all the mines that still litter the earth here. All these make it impossible for any society to move on. Yet, there is still faith and the belief that things will be better…although more than 10 years have passed and everyone is still skeptical and suspicious about life and what happens from here, there is always some hope that keeps people striving for a better future.

Sladoled, hvala and dobro…these were my first few words in Bosanske! I should survive considering they mean ice-cream, thank you and good. They should change the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina to 'Sladoledland' – there’s ice-cream after every 20 steps here…which is fantastic! I was able to go with another one of AP’s peace fellows, Antigona, to Sarajevo last weekend. There were enough signs of the war and of much construction to make up for the lost infrastructure. I have never seen so many buildings riddled with bullets – yet, people continue their usual business in those very buildings. Some tried to cover up the holes making the buildings look like they were going through puberty. In Tuzla on the other hand, much of the building collapses are because salt has been extracted from the ground and has left spaces in the ground which tend to weaken the foundations of buildings.

In Sarajevo, several buildings looked like this

In Tuzla, buildings were as damaged but because of different reasons

It’s interesting how societies try to overcome their past – “that’s life” as Beba, the Bosfam founder says often. Here, people are jolly, hospitable, giving and always make time for coffee (“kafa”) breaks. Apparently, you learn to move on and because you’ve seen so much during the war, it becomes normal…even the remnants of buildings and the reminders of lost relatives. In my time of being in Bosnia, I have met people who ran after being buried under bricks when a missile was shot at a building they were hiding behind, and others whose children survived solely because they were shot and thought to be dead. More than 10 years after the war, many more still don’t know where their family members are. Some, possibly considered fortunate, have received closure by being able to give their loved ones a respectable burial in the many graveyards that pepper the landscape here.

The number of cafes in Bosnia speaks for the fact that there’s always time for kafa here

Us at the Park Prinčeva Restoran with a fantastic view of Sarajevo…and coke which tastes exactly like Zambian coke! Woot woot!

A part of the 1984 winter Olympics bobsled track covered with skilled graffiti….ya man! (Cool Runnings reference)

For 1,400 days, bullets pierced walls and lives as Serbian forces surrounded Sarajevo and took aim. Being in Sarajevo and being able to understand the geography made the vulnerability of the city much easier to understand. The forces left with the blood of more than 11,000 people on their hands. The UN kept watching and is now despised by many for not providing any sort of protection. The airport was under UN control and this area was the only path to free Bosnian territory. VIPs were given importance and allowed to use this path, but for the thousands of people living in Sarajevo, there was no such luck. Because there was no other way that ammunition, food or the wounded could be transported, a tunnel (pronounced toon-el in Bosnian), 800 meters long, was created under the Sarajevo runway to connect the city to free Bosnian territory. It began from the garage of a house which still stands. Today, they allow tourists to walk through a small section of the tunnel, starting from a different building, which I’m certain is an entirely different experience than what thousands of people went through 15 years ago. As one of the guides told us, the tunnel took 2 years to dig. It was started at the same time on both sides of the airport and they met in the middle. Apparently, 400,000 people went through it at some point of the 3.5 years. Some said that the Serbs knew about this but did not do anything to stop the people passing, but I personally find this difficult to believe.

Sarajevo under siege

An unexploded hand grenade in the tunnel’s tourist center

Remnants of UNHCR plastic sheeting are common in Sarajevo (although, this is in the tunnel museum and solely for tourist purposes)

The house where the tunnel was actually created from

Sarajevo airport – where the UN troops once were – to the right, the tunnel resurfaced near an apartment building

I am already into my second week here…and time is flying. The stories I hear of the war are so intriguing and the similarities between Bosnian, Indian and African cultures are fascinating. Not only do elders force you to eat more and more as soon as a morsel of food is taken away from your plate, but families ensure that their hosts eat first and then they help themselves, and all three societies (at least once) insist that they pay the bill if you eat out. These similarities, so far all to do with food and hospitality, seemed more evident since we were discussing these mannerisms with a German lady who currently lives in France…where things are fairly different.

Chess in Sarajevo

Baščaršija in Sarajevo – pronounced Baash-char-shee-ya

Much more to come…hope you keep reading and enjoying the pictures…

I’m sitting here in Washington, thinking of my hectic schedule ahead of me: tomorrow back to New York, the day after on my way to Zambia and a week later I’ll be headed to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such is the life of an AP Peace Fellow! I went to the Bosnian Embassy this morning and was welcomed into the temporary dilemma they were having: no phone, no internet and no fax services at a time when the Bosnian President was in town. Nevertheless, the visa had been previously printed, was pasted on my passport and stamped within five minutes – the process was the quickest, most unusual, yet efficient embassy experience I have ever had. I can only hope my 12 weeks in Bosnia is just as smooth and unique.

BOSFAM, aka the Bosnian Family, is the Advocacy Project’s partner organization in Bosnia with whom I will be working with. It caters to women who were greatly affected by the Srebrenica Massacre that took place in 1995. Through the weaving of traditional Bosnian carpets these women create awareness, engage people in discussions of the massacre and generate income for their livelihoods. One of my main projects will be the Memorial Quilt which is made by these very women and honors those who were killed during the massacre. Several groups and individuals, including those from the Bosnian diaspora, sponsor panels of the quilt. This enables the display of their work and thus becomes indicative of their hardships. The finances are used to engage other younger weavers in the advocacy efforts and also work as a method of income generation. Although the later is not the sole mission of the project, I hope it will be an issue that we give significant attention to as well.

I am extremely excited for the opportunities I will have this summer. An open mind, a camera in my hand and the expectation to see beautiful sceneries is how I plan on starting my long journey…starting tomorrow…