Bee in Bosnia

Last day in Cape Town for a while...

2012-01-18T08:13:00.003+01:00

I leave the 30 degree weather to go back to the 30 degree weather in Bosnia... (that is 30C to 30F!) But I am not complaining, I have had a FANTASTIC time while I have been here. Every now and again it hits me that Dad and Mama are not around and I take a moment to remember them (and shed a tear at times)...Also, I have spent most of my time with family and haven't actually seen many people (as I usually do), so I apologise to those of you I didn't get to see at all.

I did get to do a lot of things for the first time: I attended the fantastic Johnny Clegg concert at Kirstenbosch for my aunt's birthday. She also took us up to the revolving restaurant at the top of the Ritz in Seapoint, which was great fun! I attended the Phantom of the Opera with my mom (who has seen it countless times) for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Another first time for me was to go to St James beach (well since I was a kid...) I have been to the beach walking from Muizenberg along the pathway, but not sat on the beach or swam in the tidal pool for about 30 years. It was so nice to do that, and mom and I went a few times together - almost becoming regular features on the beach. It was only after reflecting that I realised that of course 30 years ago it would just have been white people on the apartheid "whites only" beach and so it was nice to enjoy the beach with all of the colours of the rainbow nation that is South Africa...

As usual when going between two places - I go from one "home" to another, and once again realise that I am not going to be HOME until I enter into the eternal rest that is to come...

Cape Town summer...

2012-01-06T10:37:00.000+01:00

The definite emphasis of my stay in Cape Town has been having a HOLIDAY and as a result I haven't felt like blogging much: being lazy on a holiday fancy that! I have managed to catch up with some friends which has been nice, but I have spent most of my time hanging with my family.

Here we are on Christmas eve (my niece Amy and nephew James in front, then Mom, me, my sister Astrid, aunt Jan and cousin Lauren):

Then it was Christmas: time for lots of presents under the tree:

Followed by a scrumptious meal. We were joined by David's parents:Colleen and Don.

Otherwise, this week my tooth started hurting and I had to have it extracted. It was a baby tooth (I had 3 adult teeth that didn't come in) and so it was mostly filling, and she was afraid it would just fall apart if she started working on it. So, out it came :-( I was wondering whether the tooth fairy would visit me or not. And guess what, she came! My sister even managed to get a picture of her running out of the house:-) and I got R5!! {Yes, I have a whacky family:-)}

Yesterday, with everyone else at the Cricket (South Africa is playing a five day test against Sri Lanka), Mom and I took Amy and her friend Erin to Boulders beach. We used up my free entries (I bought a temporary 12-entry Wild card last year when I was here and it had entries left) to get on and despite a very high tide meaning our towels and everything got wet, we had a lovely day there. The girls enjoyed swimming in the little waves (because of the rocks it is quite protected) and much to the delight of everyone, so did a family of Egyptian geese: (Amy and Erin are on the right in the water):

The geese even came over to say hello:

But there were also loads of the usual suspects at Boulders: the African "Jackass" Penguins:

I am so glad I could be here for the holidays and spend quality time with my Mom and family! And of course getting to enjoy a summer in the middle of a Bosnian winter is a bonus as well :-)

Out and about at Green Point park

2011-12-22T13:09:00.001+01:00

I have been in Cape Town since Sunday, hanging out mostly with family... On Monday, Mom, my nephew, James, niece, Amy and I went to the lovely Green Point Park to see what it was all about.

There are lovely water features, and even a nice view of the Cape Town stadium (built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup):

There are also some lovely displays, including this one showing how the original inhabitants of the Cape, the Khoi Khoi or San people (think "bushmen"):

But the most important part is the PLAYGROUND! And it has a lot of very unusual equipment:

And as you can see, the kids had FUN!

Vlasic Mountain

2011-12-15T14:56:00.000+01:00

We just spent two days on Vlasic Mountain about 2 hours from Banja Luka, with others from all over Bosnia attending a seminar on "Organisational Sustainability". We also got to enjoy the beautiful surroundings (but there is still no snow ;-( ):

In the hotel where we stayed there was a friendly bear in the lobby, and Ljilja and Natalija took the opportunity to have their picture taken with him:

It is amazing how much new building has gone on since I was there in 2002 - there was maybe 2 hotels and a few cabins, now there is so many cabins all built right on top of each other - and 6 or 7 hotels! And it is getting quite well known - in fact while we were there John Travolta stopped by for lunch in one of the hotels (but we were inside in our hotel enjoying our seminar, so we missed him totally! Oh well). He was busy travelling to Sarajevo to check it out for a film he will be doing...see here for details!

Natalija is visiting!

2011-12-12T19:24:00.000+01:00

Our friend, Natalija, from the lovely Croatian island of Hvar has finally come to visit us in Banja Luka. Ljilja and I visited her in 2007 with my friend Cath from South Africa and again last year with Dragana. She asked us whether we wanted to come again this year, and we said we wouldn't come to visit again until she paid us a visit, so we can repay her wonderful hospitality... And so, after many years of saying she will come, it is great that she has finally made it to visit us here!

Yesterday, after picking her up from the bus station, we took her to a lovely lunch at what has become our favourite restaurant to take our guests to in Banja Luka: Stara Ada. During the summer it has a beautiful garden right on the river, but even in winter it is a good bet. It has good food, at fairly reasonable prices and on Saturdays and Sundays during the day, they have live "tamburasi" -which is a local traditional music band, and creates a fantastic atmosphere. Here is Natalija and I with the great pile of meat on the "Ognjiste" plata for TWO (and after 3 of us tried valiantly we still took half of it home ;-):

Today, as I had a lot of errands to run around town, I took Natalija along for a little tour, which she enjoyed despite the mist... Kastel Fortress:

And the main Orthodox church "Christ the Saviour":

I forgot my camera, so the last two are on my phone camera- not too shabby!

Tomorrow we all three go to a seminar on Vlasic mountain (where we are hoping for some snow, but not too sure we will get it) and then we have Friday in Banja Luka, before she goes with me to Zagreb on Saturday when I leave to go to South Africa!

Christmas is coming...

2011-12-11T09:46:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I was in the kitchen making "Christmas cookies" with Finnish spices sent to me be Lea Raittila, wearing a Dutch apron giving to me by the van Stuijvenbergs when they were in SA for Christmas last year, listening to Christmas music giving to me by my American friend Deb McConnell, and I realised that my Christmas experience has been influenced by so many different cultures...

Before I came to Bosnia, I was only vaguely aware of the fact that they celebrate on a completely different day, but I now also celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January along with my Serb brothers and sisters. And of course it is no longer strange for me to have a "cold" or even "white" Christmas, whereas growing up in South Africa that was something I didn't experience until I was in my late 20s!

I have celebrated "my" Christmas with friends here over the years, and enjoy sharing some of my traditions with them. Things like Christmas crackers and silly hats... And I also try to inject some of my "African" Christmas into my life here: Here are some "Corn husk" dolls I found on sale while I was in South Africa last year, aren't they cute? Though Ljilja does say that it is still a shock every time she sees that the baby Jesus is black...

And I never want to forget that it is CHRISTmas: take away everything else and HE is all that matters. It is great to be with family or friends, sing carols, light Christmas lamps and put up a tree, but in the middle of all that, don't forget to celebrate the fact that all those years ago, HE, the LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS, came to earth as a little baby... so that He could one day give up even His life on the cross to save me and all mankind... Joy to the world indeed!!!

6 months...

2011-12-10T08:47:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it has been 6 months since my dad passed away in June. It seems like yesterday that I was flying back to Cape Town to be with my mom and my siblings, but yes, 6 months have already passed.

Even though we lived far apart, we were in constant contact via email and so I catch myself thinking "Oh Dad would have loved that" or "I wish I could have shared that with him". Silly emails, jokes, and even books that he would have loved. So, I have decided to do a little blog entry about some of the things I will remember my Dad by:

The first would definitely be his ability to put great captions to photographs: He also had a computer program which allowed him to add things to photos, and he LOVED to do that to any photos we would send him. Here is a photo of him as a young man, with a fish that he caught: (he was a legend among Cape Town fisherman!):

And on Ljilja and Sina's trip to Cape Town in January 2011, Dad took us on his tour of the Peninsula. Here they are on the Sea Point promenade:

And with a few more friends (carefully added by Dad!):

And here is another example of his photo-changing abilities - what models look like with make-up on:)

He also had a bar and a love for all things that go along with that... Here is the first bar in the house where we lived when I was born until age 5: (and by the way he did all the woodwork)

And the one in the house where we lived from my age 5 (and where Mom still lives)... it got a bit out of hand!!! ;-) (and again all the woodwork is his!)

But the main thing I will remember my Dad by are the gadgets that he brought into our lives. He loved anything gadgety, so much so that a roommate of my brother's called him "the Gadget geezer"!

One of his favourite things to do would be to find a unsuspecting person and ask them if they knew what this was:

When they finally figured it out, he would say "and you can keep it" (He used to buy them at the fleamarket for cheap, just so he could do that...). And for those who haven't figured it out: it is a device for slicing apples, and I use mine all the time!

This next gadget was one of my Dad's favourite party tricks: After dinner he would bring out the penguin toothpick dispenser and offer the guests a toothpick. The penguin bends over and takes the toothpick out of the dispenser below... It is one of the things that I took from Cape Town to bring here so he is now sitting on my fridge here in Bosnia:

Lastly, he gave me this nifty keylight that fits over your door key and is a led torch which you conveniently carry with you on your bunch of keys. It has come in handy on many occasions and is now a constant reminder of my dad on my set of house-keys here in Bosnia:

In talking with other people who have lost a parent already, I know that I will never stop missing him. There will always be things that remind me of him and the fact that he is no longer here. I am comforted by the fact that Mom is doing ok, and that I am going soon to South Africa to be with my family for Christmas...

English Graduations...

2011-12-09T21:56:00.001+01:00

End of the year, and coming to the end of my English classes...
Last night, we ended the Beginner's group with a test...

Well, at least that was the plan... Actually, in these photos, they were just filling out the course evaluation: fooled you! ;-) Instead they begged me to let them write the test at the beginning of the next term (in February) as it would give them a reason to have to study until then... I saw the logic and had mercy!

And then I got a kick out of the fact that Aleksandar had a "cheat sheet" on his arm. He had written "are" and "aren't" on his arm: needless to say when we write the test next time, I will definitely be checking his arm! And hopefully he won't need a cheat sheet!

Here are some of the class with their diplomas - the pretty young girl part ;-)
Zeljka, Natasa, Nada, Jelena and Danijela:

We also have guys: two of them, both Aleksandar!

And here are some of our best students: And the most fun as well! Duska, Dragica and Sonja:

And then tonight was the end of the Conversation Class:
Here we all are discussing about "snow" with our partners:

This was followed by their "test" talking about a topic for one minute (without practicing) everyone did well and as they didn't know it was coming until it came, it worked out well...

And then it was time for our diplomas as well: Left with Danijela and right with Alen and Dijana.

Afterwards, we had a little party and hung out together, which was great fun. As I mentioned already, the beginner's all want to continue with the second level in February, and I will also have another "Conversation Course" starting in March. It has been great with these two groups of people, and it will be strange not to have classes with them until next year...

Orphanage Book Club prizes...

2011-12-07T22:27:00.001+01:00

We had the last Reading Club at the Children's Home on Monday night, and had a great time as usual. I had wanted to give them their "prizes" for reading then, but for various reasons we decided it was better to go tonight. We give them prizes in December and May to keep them interested in reading and this time we even had books to give them, which is of course, appropriate!! Tanja and I took them each a Children's Bible, which were a donation from Mission without Borders; each with a dedication written to the individual child. And as you can see from the photos, they liked their prizes very much!

We went first to Family 2 (which is 12 kids from grade 5-8) as they had all come down to the hallway and wanted their prizes: I did try to get a nice group picture, but they never work!

Giving out the prizes in family 2

Dijana

Me with Stana

And then they already had to start reading!!

Maja, Dijana and Stana

Brana and Simo

And then we went to Family 1 (which is also 12 children, grade 1-4):
And again they couldn't wait to start reading:

Dragana reading to Sara

Jelena, Dragana and Mira

Mira reading aloud!

Mira with her bible

And the last picture showing why it is difficult getting group shots! In Family 1:

Fun Saturday...

2011-12-03T20:24:00.001+01:00

I was supposed to be going to do Business training in another city this weekend, but it was cancelled :-( So, I suddenly had a "free" weekend! But of course I had to fill it up with people whom Ljilja and I have been meaning to have over... And Ljilja's sister, Sladjana is here visiting as well so it has been a fun Saturday for everyone: I was getting the food ready for the guests while Ljilja and Sladja went shopping...

The first guests, for lunch, were our teammates, Sanna and Miika and their two children Eni-Maria and Eelis. I forgot to get a picture of the food, but I took the opportunity to make lasagne :-) I did get some photos: Here is Ljilja playing with the kids on the floor... aw cute!

And Sanna reading to Eelis...

Miika, in the meantime, was making a new hanging thing for our coats (if you remember Belinda in the land of OBI, I was actually trying to get all the things for this, and got most of it, but didn't manage to get the right piece of wood - Miika offered to get it and paint it and put it up, so of course we took him up on it!!!). Now we have a really nice place to hang our coats! (and we didn't invite them over just to do this, it just happened to be a convenient time for Miika to do it!):

After they left it was a quick clean up and get ready for our next guests: our other teammates David and Irena, along with our mutual friends from Zenica: Sladjan and Tiffany and their baby, Evan. I didn't get pictures of everyone: but isn't this the cutest pic of Evan eating one of my "healthy" muffins:

And then I got a pictures of him and his dad showing that they are definitely related:

Like father...

Like son!

Laura and how to know when you have been in Bosnia too long!

2011-12-01T21:18:00.001+01:00

Last week, Laura, one of our Finnish volunteers, was in intense pain on her left side. We took turns taking her to the different doctors while they tried to figured out what was causing the pain. They were able to exclude certain things (she had already had her appendix out!), but weren't able to figure out what was going on... It was my turn when she had to go to the Gynaecologist on Saturday and it was then I realised that I had been in Bosnia for a long time...

She, being a good Finn, who has only been here 3 months, wasn't wearing an undershirt. This is a no-no in Bosnia. You cannot have a bare belly or back, especially the back. Anyway, of course the doctor told me to tell her that she should be wearing one... Now, I must admit that when I first came here, I also pooh-poohed the whole idea and for years went around without an undershirt. And it was on Saturday that I realised that I have been here too long: when I had to explain the undershirt to Laura, the easiest way was to pick up my shirt and show her mine!!! (but seriously, they do make a huge difference. But I am not like the Bosnians who think it is almost sacrilege to not wear one!)

In the end, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her while here, so the insurance company paid for her to be escorted (a doctor came from Finland) back to Finland on Tuesday. She was supposed to leave mid-December, so it was just 3 weeks early. And luckily they did that, because yhere, they did a definitive test and found she did have kidney stones (which they suspected here, but couldn't find with the test they used) and so she is on lots of medicine and hopefully will be fine soon!

Theology and the Princess Bride

2011-11-27T08:56:00.001+01:00

After a ridiculously hectic week, I was glad when I could use my favourite film for "Movie Night" after English Conversation Class on Friday night. I decided that I wanted to share with my friends and others here the joy that is "The Princess Bride". It really is a cultural phenomenon in the English speaking world that most people around the world have seen it, enjoyed it, and love to quote from it!

I guess it is also something that connects me to my oldest friends. It was something we watched together as teenagers and now still, every time I am in South Africa, we try to do a "Princess Bride" night! Good times...

It was fun watching it with people who had never seen it before, athough I was worried maybe wouldn't understand the humour - especially as we just used the English subtitles (do it sometime: it is actually quite funny: "ominous popping" in the fire swamp!). Luckily I think they mostly "got" it and seemed to enjoy it! Or they were being polite...

Anyway: while we were watching it on Friday night (I can't even tell you how many times I have seen this movie - seriously, countless!) I was this time struck by one quote in particular:

Buttercup: You mock my pain.
Man in Black: Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

And I just thought how sad it would be to live a life where one believed that to be true. And there are probably many people in this world for whom it is seemingly true (at least for now). Because God didn't promise us a pain free existence. Instead He tells us "For I consider that the sufferings of this present timeare not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18) As CS Lewis said: our lives here are just the front cover when compared to the book we will live in glory.

And yet, life is NOT pain! Because we know that this is just temporary, we can be full of hope and joy and longing for the day that we will be living a life where there will be no more tears or pain.

I lost my Dad and my Gran this year. It hasn't been an easy year in other ways as well. And yet each day I am reminded of how faithful God is. How He is carrying me. How I couldn't be here and do what I am doing if He was not with me.

And I just feel sad, sad for people who live their lives believing that "Life is pain" when it doesn't have to be. When there is sooooooooo much more to life than that!!

And there you have my little piece of theology from The Princess Bride. I hope you enjoyed it!

The whirlwind trip...

2011-11-18T16:11:00.001+01:00

Rick came, he saw and he made risotto... and a dang fine one (chicken and leek with a lemon and wine sauce... mmmm) at that. He also experienced for the first time the wonderful movie that is "The Princess Bride". It was good to educate him on one of the best movies of all time (every time I am in South Africa my friends and I try to organise a Princess Bride watching session together). And luckily he really liked it.

We also went on a road trip to the waterfalls and monastery at Krupa na Vrbas and to the town of Jajce and back over the mountain Manjaca. It was very pretty and we had a great time. I think Rick's impression of me knowing people all over the place (wherever we go I seemed to bump into someone I know) was completely confirmed by the following: Now to set the scene: We are at Krupa na Vrbas (about 1/2 an hour from Banja Luka) where I always buy flour from the Water-Mill guy. They have mills on the waterfalls and so it is completely natural flour! I always chat with him a little, but I didn't even realise that I had left such an impression on him. I went to buy some flour from him... And he said to me (I am translating our conversation into English!):
"Hey, where have you been? You haven't been here for a long time".
I replied: "No, I haven't had many guests. I think I haven't been here for at least two years".
He responded: "No, actually you were here last year in the spring."
Not only did he recognise me, he REMEMBERED when I had been there last...

We also had a funny conversation with the Monk at the Krupa Monastery. I had never seen a Monk there and so when we spotted one we got really excited. He looked particularly Rasputin-like and so Rick really wanted his photo taken with him. So I asked him, but he really was having nothing of it: because he was too dirty and his jacket was torn... Who would have thought a Monk would be vain? Sorry Rick, no photo. I tried...

Otherwise I think he had a really good time here... as did we, having him around!

Teaching English in the dark...

2011-11-18T10:51:00.001+01:00

I have been teaching this Beginner's English Class since mid-September. It is a fantastic class. We have LOTS of fun (and learn a little English along the way...) On Tuesday Rick came in and took some photos:

Now last night, we were half way going through the homework when the electricity went out... I remembered when that happened to my friend, Mary - she got her students to take out their mobile phones and carried on... And so that is what we did! I wish I had a photo of that, but of course it wouldn't come out. After getting through the homework I used one of the student's mobile phones with a "torch app" and we just did some revision of numbers, days of the week, etc... hoping the electricity would come back on, but it didn't... so we continued English in the dark!

Czech Concert at Ihtus...

2011-11-16T09:33:00.001+01:00

Last night the team that is here from Prague gave us a lovely concert of Czech Christian music and shared some of their life stories with us: Here are some pictures:

David translating...

The music was good, the atmosphere was relaxed and it was a great evening. Part-way through the evening, I realised that, of course, Rick didn't understand anything: neither Czech nor Bosnian! He said it all sounded the same to him ;-) I had mercy and did some translation so he could understand them...And while we were listening Rick took a lovely picture of me with Ljilja, in the Ihtus Library:

latest triplet...

2011-11-15T15:06:00.001+01:00

I just returned from a lovely trip to Zenica, Budapest and Zagreb. I went to two conferences/retreats in Budapest and they were completely different, but both wonderfully uplifting, encouraging and restful.

I started off with good friends in Zenica because I could catch a ride from there to Budapest. It was so fun catching up with old friends and playing with their growing kids... Then Budapest: the first conference was in a four-star hotel complete with spa/sauna/steam baths and I made good use of them! I did manage to get out and see some of Margit Island where the retreat was held - but didn't get out much more than that into Budapest or beyond... Here are some of the lovely autumn colours:

The second conference was in Csomor outside of Budapest and the only bad part of the whole trip was on my way to Csomor:

I had to catch a bus there and get off at the last stop and then someone would come get me there. As I was getting off the bus, the bus driver started to shut the door on me: I thought I would make it all the way out or manage to push the door open, but unfortunately all that happened was the door shut on my foot (so the foot was in the door and the rest of me was outside the bus). This probably wouldn't have been a problem if he had realised and opened the door, except he didn't and he started to drive off! So, with my foot stuck in the door I was kind of pulled while hopping and then as I fell to the ground, dragged along for about 10 metres... all I could think of to do was scream at the top of my lungs (which is quite a loud scream actually... luckily for me!) and the driver either heard me or the people milling around managed to wave him down... but whatever, he stopped and opened the door and came running towards me. Now the screaming was out of proportion to the pain, so it sounded as if I had broken every bone in my body (which PTL, I hadn't!) so he was looking very worried as this could mean his job... I managed to get up slowly while all around me people were jabbering and asking me stuff in Hungarian. Eventually one lady came up who spoke English and I managed to convey that I was ok, and that someone was coming to get me and I didn't need an ambulance... And out of all that I have a coin sized bruise on my leg and it feels like it has been stretched out, but other than that I am mainly ok!!! I did rest up and ice stuff and that has helped, but seriously the only explanation I have that I didn't get more injured is that God had His angels protecting me!

After a wonderful time in Csomor, I then travelled to Zagreb by train and stayed the night with some other good friends. In the morning I met up with a good friend, Richard Asher, who had flown in to Zagreb to come visit me in Banja Luka and just lucked out that I happened to be in Zagreb when he arrived, so he had a tour guide there and escort back to Banja Luka... He is staying until Friday and is fun to have around. Here are some photos from yesterday in Zagreb:

Fawlty tower's moustache with statue dude

So excited about the weather station

And another excitement is that we actually found a Biggie Best outlet in Zagreb! It is a South African brand - and we went into ask and the stuff comes all the way from South Africa...how cool is that... And I had to get a photo as I kind of matched the Santa in my red jacket:

I am sorry I didn't have more photos, especially of all the people, but suffice it to say it was a good time of catch up with a load of people, and I came back with my love tank completely filled...

Alice in Wonderland... or Belinda in the land of OBI:

2011-11-03T16:39:00.003+01:00

So, today I went to get a few things for some home improvements. We have a very good friend who will do it for us, and has told us what to buy, but it fell on me to go and do it: I volunteered even! Oh boy...

I was a woman, blonde AND foreign in a man's world and did I feel silly! I had to get a certain measurement of wood, hooks, screws, the things screws go into: you see I don't even know the vocab even in English, let alone in this language! So you can imagine the looks I got from the guys at OBI (a HUGE hardware store here in Banja Luka)...

I really did feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland: completely and utterly out of my element, but thankfully I did manage to get everything we needed (at least I hope) and I feel quite happy that I managed to get my point across: I did tell them I was foreign so they wouldn't think I was retarded!!

Out of the mouths of babes...

2011-10-27T15:19:00.000+02:00

On Monday, we went to the Children's Home to run the Book Club. A group of 5 volunteers was working with the younger kids, while Jovana (below right) and I worked with 5 of the older children. In between reading aloud from the books, and making bookmarks, some of the girls were asking me how old we are. When Jovana said she was 18, I told them they had to double her age and add 1 to get my age... make them work for it!

Once they managed to figure it out, Bozana (below left) asked "so are you married?". When I said "no" She said "You're thirty-seven and you are not married! That is a disgrace!" Out of the mouths of babes...and it shows you what the culture is like here too: she is just repeating what she has heard! But it is a very good thing that I don't have a problem with being single!!

End of Business Training...

2011-10-26T13:24:00.000+02:00

One of the places I did take my camera in the last while was to the last two sessions of the business training course which we started two weeks before (see here for more details)...

Here are the three groups again, in action: Lavanda (Lavender): making hats:

Crveni (Reds) making a decision...

And Originali (in negotiations with Sinisa from the Reds)

For the last two sessions I let Tanja do all the work (she is busy learning how to do this by herself, so it was necessary!) and she did a fantastic job:

Setting up the session:

And working out prices of products:

In between the two blocks of training all took part in the practical using a mini-loan of 10KM (5euro or R50) to make as much money as they could. Monika managed to make almost 500KM (250euro or R2500) selling jewelry! (she did admittedly sell mostly to family at an exorbitant price, so in the long term won't be able to keep it up!! But in the time frame she made the most money. 15 of the 19 who started managed to finish the course. All 15 of them got certificates. Here are Monika (left) and Radmila with theirs:

Now many of them are writing their own business plans in order to get one of the three mini-loans available through our project. It will be interesting to see what they come up with!

Light and reflections...

2011-10-25T09:45:00.000+02:00

So, I have been pretty busy lately, hence the non-blogging. And I keep forgetting to take my camera with me, or when I do, I forget to take pictures! Oh well...

I did get to take a break at the Brela Women's Conference (which is in Brela, Croatia - on the coast!) for 4 days, which was wonderful! I was so blessed by the ladies who came to help run the conference (from Pennsylvania) and also getting to hang out with some old friends was so much fun! (but no photos - sorry!)...

One of the great gifts we were given by the ladies was this painting by the artist (who is in their church) Richard Bollinger. It is a print, but a limited edition and I just happen to have print 123/450 which is quite sweet! It is based on Mathew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

I got back from the conference, and last week was a blur of activity: finishing up the business training course, continuing with Beginner's English Classes, taking the Children's home children to the library, starting up my English Conversation Classes. Besides coffees and hanging out with friends...:-) And I realised by the end of the week, how many people I had been in touch with. How many people I was shining for... And I know that it is not me, but only God who is shining through me! And I need to be constantly in touch with Him in order to shine His light and not my own.

I was having my quiet time of reading my bible and praying yesterday morning with my cup of tea. As I was holding it in my hands the light was being reflected in the surface of the tea: I got a picture of it:

I was just reminded once again that as Christians, we are all reflecting God's light into the lives of other people, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. What are you reflecting? Do people actually get to see the light in you, or is it shadowed by other things? I am challenged once again to be a good reflector of God. And to be His light and peace and HOPE to the people here.

Norwegian Cultural Evening

2011-10-08T09:35:00.001+02:00

A team of four arrived from Norway yesterday in time to run a cultural night at EKC Ihtus. Literally, just in time! They took 8 hours to drive from Belgrade to Banja Luka (it usually takes 4-5 hours) as there were a lot of roadworks and different things which kept slowing them down. So, we were ordering Bosnian pie for dinner and frantically making waffle mixture in the hour before the program started:

Despite the torrential rain outside, there was still a nice turnout. The team put together a lovely program: including a drama about Norway and a power-point presentation. They also touched on the tragedy of the 22nd of July and shared how the Norwegians have responded. They shared how a young woman who survived the massacre on Utøya, in an interview said: ”If one man can show so much hate, think howmuch love we could show together”. And this has become the response of many Norwegians: showing love instead of hate.

Then it was time to enjoy the waffles with Norwegian brown cheese. Not everyone was convinced of the merits of brown cheese (including me!), but we did have a good time hanging out and enjoying the waffles at least.

Lastly, I got a picture of Suzana with one of the team (with the Norwegian flag on his shirt)...

...to show that she had painted a Norwegian flag on her nails: that is commitment!

Business Training at Ihtus

2011-10-05T09:06:00.000+02:00

This is the first BEST Business Training that I am doing at the Education Cultural Centre "Ihtus". It started last night and has three more sessions over two weeks (with a practical in between). There are 16 people participating and they got through the first session without much problem: Here I am summing up at the end:

I have help for the sessions from the lovely Tanja, here she is playing "Harry" and selling raw materials:

As usual, there are three groups: but I only got pictures of two of them, sorry: Lavanda

And Originali:

After the training, everyone has the opportunity to write a business plan and apply for one of our interest-free micro-loans and actually start a business!

Finnish night at the Emergency Room

2011-09-30T09:09:00.000+02:00

Yesterday afternoon, Mom and I took a leisurely stroll via "Slavica's" ice cream (the best ice cream in town!) to Ihtus, so that I could teach my Beginner's English Class. I had a great class, and then we were waiting for Ljilja to finish her shift at the Ihtus cafe so that we could go home at 9. While I was in class little Eelis, the two year old son of Sanna and Miika (who are Finns working with us here for a year) had thrown up on himself and his pram outside.

They all went home, but at 8pm Ljilja gets a phone-call from Sanna and Miika to say that Eelis was very very cold. Not a fever, but hypothermia! Not good. So Ljilja went off with them to the Emergency Room while Mom, Laura (a Finnish volunteer with us for 4 months) and I cleaned up the cafe and waited to see what would happen...

I cleaned the floor, and Laura went outside to get the cushions in and when she came back she slid on the still-wet floor and stood funny on her foot... At first I thought oh well she has just twisted her ankle it isn't anything too bad, but then unfortunately she couldn't put it back!! The end of the tibia was literally twisted out of her ankle and her ankle was stuck in the twisted position. Not good. Luckily, Rami (our Finnish colleague) was in the office and so he could take us to the Emergency Room... And little Eelis was still there with Miika and Ljilja, so it really became Finnish night at the Emergency Room!

They quickly dealt with us and sent us to the surgical hospital (around the corner) as they had to x-ray it (no x-ray in the ER) and maybe do surgery... At the same time we were taking Laura out, Miika came out with Eelis and they went by ambulance to the other main hospital (with Ljilja following in the car)! {in the end they gave him a drip and he improved almost immediately - it looks like he ate something funny, but they suspected meningitis, hence the ambulance, pretty scary.}

At the surgery department, the doctor spoke fantastic English and was wonderful with her. He did everything he could to make her comfortable while she waited for their opinion - because it looked like she would have to go under general anesthetic to move it back into place so he couldn't give her pain medicine... The good part was she hadn't eaten since lunch (other than a banana) so they could take her in straight away. He was also amazed at the injury and said that he had even written a paper about this particular injury as it happens in only about 2% of cases!

And don't forget, my mom is still with us, finding out first hand about the Banja Luka medical services!

Eelis and Miika were on his way home with Ljilja just as Laura went into surgery, so Ljilja picked me and Mom up and we went home. Later on Ljilja went back to see how Laura was doing and she was all done and they even let her come home! So at 1am Mom and I were making a bed up for her in the lounge... (she is living in her own apartment, so couldn't go back there!)

What a crazy night: and Mom got to experience first hand what my life looks like sometimes!! {luckily this was my FIRST experience of the emergency room and surgical department in Banja Luka - here's hoping I won't have to experience them again!}

Mom is here...

2011-09-27T19:01:00.001+02:00

So, I went yesterday to get Mom (and Mary!) in Zagreb. Mom will be here for a week, Mary for a month. I am enjoying having Mom here so far!! Today, Ljilja and I took Mom to the "Stara Ada" restaurant for lunch. It has recently been refurbished and it is very beautiful and the food is good!

Afterwards Ljilja and Mom went to our hairdresser, Sanela, for haircuts. Here is Mom's new look: No crazy high hair like last time!

She is standing in front of our angel collection: Ljilja loves angels and somehow we have managed to collect over 10 of them!

And this is what Mom is up to now! A puzzle she started last time she was here, but didn't get to finish (as she was only here 3 days)... hopefully she will finish it this time!

I have lots of fun stuff planned for this week...in between the worky bits...and puzzle doing...

Child Protection Seminar

2011-09-23T21:11:00.001+02:00

This week we have been hosting a Fida seminar on their Child Sponsorship program and Child Protection at EKC Ihtus. We had Fida workers from Tuzla and Prijedor join us, and the seminar was run by 3 Fida staff from Finland. Sina, who is the Child Sponsorship Coordinator and our good friend (she visited me with my roommate, Ljilja, in South Africa in January) along with Päivi and Nelli who both have lots of experience with children at risk and child protection. We really learnt a lot from all 3 of them. And now we are working towards forming a proper Child Protection Policy for our organisation.

Here are most of us who were in the seminar on the last day:

It is sad that we even have to have such a policy, but nowadays it is better to be safe rather than sorry. And partly this workshop was helping us to get motivated to make such a policy, so we can protect the children in our work at the Children's Home and sponsorship project.

Bookie Club...

2011-09-20T22:05:00.000+02:00

With the start of the new school year, we started up the Book Club at the Children's Home. I know they have been missing us and this was confirmed when one of the kids came running up as we arrived and asked excitedly "are you here to have bookie club?" :-)

We have a great group of volunteers that help - including the lovely Tanja who helps a LOT (especially when I am not around). As usual we spent time with kids going through books that they had read. Tonight we drew pictures of the start, middle and end of the books they had read. Although we haven't been coming to do the book club, we have been making sure they go to the library so they can be reading... Once we got them settled down and working with them, I got some really cute pictures: Here is Tanja with Zlatko:

Suzana with little Dasa:

And these two look made for each other! Jovana with little Gaga:

I was mostly working with the older boys (who HATE having their photo taken), so once they were done I took the opportunity to work a bit with the younger girls and have my photo taken with them... Dasa, Jelena, Mira and Danijela...

And I love this photo of Mira and Danijela - with their books!

The kids are all reading and enjoying their books... making what we do worthwhile!

Training in Prijedor...

2011-09-15T22:38:00.000+02:00

I spent this week in Prijedor (about an hour away from Banja Luka) doing a Business Training workshop in cooperation with Humanitarian Aid Organisation "Hljeb Zivota" (Bread of Life) and the Agency for Economic Development "Preda". Here is Danko from Hljeb Zivota introducing me on the first day: (He and his wife, Ljilja, are also the proud parents to 10 lovely children - the latest, Filip, born just over two weeks ago... here is an article - in Serbian - about them and the baby's birth. I did try to get a pic of him when I was over at their house, but none of them are worth publishing...)

The participants of this BEST training were all from one of the technical high schools - and are learning how to do fine carpentry. So more working with their hands than their heads... so this training was perfect for them. They were my youngest group yet and also ALL BOYS!! But we got on okay and they definitely learnt a LOT! I am thinking this may be the age group to target in the future as it definitely hit a chord with many of them. Some of them were missing school to participate, but as one said "we are learning so much more here than we would in school".

Here is one group toasting to their success:

And my favourite group, the "wolves": They kept such good records that I stopped having to check up on them... and were very good businessmen too: getting good prices and deals.

I didn't get a good pic of the last group, so here is one of them during (tough!) negotiations with one of the other groups: This is one thing that they all learnt a LOT about... how to think on their feet and how to not make stupid decisions: one team negotiated a buying price from the other teams of 350 and then sold them on to me at 220. Yes, they went bankrupt.... but that was a GOOD lesson for everyone in how to price your products.

Here is the whole group altogether: along with Goran from Preda on the left and Danko right.

Now each group will work together to write a business plan and the best plan will get a prize...

I also enjoyed spending time outside of the training in nearby Sanski Most and Prijedor itself with the lovely people who live and work there. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that :-( But we did enjoy the unseasonably warm weather: it got up to 35 most days, which is really really unheard of for what should be autumn!!

40 days...

2011-09-12T09:03:00.001+02:00

As I shared here about my Dad, there is a special ceremony and marking 40 days after the death of a loved one here. It shows time has passed, you are hopefully healing and brings to mind that person once again. It is 40 days today since my gran, Ula Zaremba, passed away - see here for the original post on her passing.

My aunt was clearing out some of her stuff and asked me what I would like for her to keep for me: the only thing that I really wanted was the letters that I had written to her in the 10 years since I was in Bosnia. I have all her letters to me (although she hadn't written much the last 2-3 years since her sight got bad, we had been writing back and forth regularly for 6-7 years!) and I think one day I could even make a book out of the correspondence. She had a way with words and descriptions of things that made it fascinating to see into her world. I also think it would be great to have a kind of diary of what I was going through all those years... Hardly anyone writes letters anymore and email is kind of boring: so this interaction was kind of special.

Everyone keeps asking me how I am doing (and how Mom is doing): and on the whole I am doing ok. Every now and again something hits me and reminds me of the loss, but I think that will be ongoing for a while. My mom is visiting my sister right now and doing ok, and arrives in two weeks to visit me, which I am REALLY looking forward to!

Marking of the 40 days since my gran passed away also helps me put things in perspective. She (and my Dad) are gone but not forgotten. Their memory will live on in those of us left behind. Their legacy and lives will live on in us as we remember them... And we slowly, but surely, begin to heal.

Concert "Rock Against Drugs"

2011-09-10T10:49:00.001+02:00

At EKC "IHTUS" we had a concert "Rock Against Drugs" in co-operation with local anti-drug organisation "Viktorija". Here is one of their banners: ("Say no to drugs! Choose life!")

Luka and Andreja with two of Viktorija's posters explaining the dangers of drugs:

Here is Ljilja with three of their staff: Ivan, Srdan and Tamara, and their information-stand in front of Ihtus: During the concert, Tamara said a few words about their organisation while the bands were changing over. We are very happy to work with this organisation which not only does "anti-drug" propaganda in schools, and has a advice-call centre for people who need help, but also has two communes where people can go to get off drugs.

There were 3 bands at the concert: "The High End" from Banja Luka: Contemporary Pop covers in English and the local language:

"Gilgal" which is partly English (Matt, the singer-guitarist and his wife, Rowan) and part Bosnian (the drummer, Budo) and they are all from Jajce. They sing English pop-punk with a bit of rock on the side. Covers and original songs. Extremely good band and we all enjoyed listening to them...

And last but not least, our Finnish band "The Relief" who sang a few songs for us in Finnish: Laura, Rami and Miika: Rami sang one of his original songs as did Miika, very well I might add!

There were over 70 people who came to the concert, which was less than we had hoped for, but as there was a concert at the Kastel of a famous band "Yu-grupa" we were happy with that number.

Budo is a phenomenal drummer and it was worth it just to listen to him: He did, however, attract some unwanted attention: two neighbourhood ladies came over to see what all the "noise" was about. I started talking to them about the reason for the concert and showed them around the centre. In the end they stayed and watched some of the concert, and are even going to donate some books for the library!

I did manage to get this fantastic shot of Lauri (the Fida regional coordinator) who was pretending to play along with Gilgal while they were jamming outside! (He and his wife Anne were visiting us to meet with the new Finns who have arrived to work with Fida).

It was a really great night, hanging out with old friends and contacts and making new ones, and enjoying a variety of music styles at the same time... all with the aim of promoting awareness of the dangers of drugs! Well done to Rami and Ljilja and everyone for organising a great evening!

New Finns...Tervetuloa!

2011-09-03T06:43:00.001+02:00

There are 5 new Finns who have joined our team. Laura on the left for 4 months and Miika, Sanna with kids Ellis and Ena-maria for at least a year. Unlike last year when we didn't do anything really official to welcome our new families, Rami helped us realise that this was quite important in Finnish culture... so we had a little party to welcome them! On the cake it says "Dobrodosli" which means "Welcome" or "Tervetuloa" in Finnish!! It is great to have them here, and we look forward to working with them!!

Outing to the Aquarium...

2011-09-03T06:35:00.000+02:00

The Children's Home asked us to organise an outing for the pre-school kids as there are only 5 of them, and they don't get to go out like as much as the bigger kids. So, we thought of the Aquarium which is in the Science Faculty's building which happens to be right next to the BIG park so we could go there afterwards.

Here we all are (some of our volunteers brought their kids, so there were 9 children in total) before going into the "Akvarijum":

The kids really enjoyed the variety of fish and turtles and the one SNAKE (that definitely made an impression!)

After the aquarium, we went to the park: We broke up our time into different activities. First a little snack and drink as it was HOT! And then we played the game "pass the parcel"!

eating our popcorn

Pass the parcel!

I had been given little stuffed toys to give to the Children's Home kids, and I thought that giving them to them using the game "pass the parcel" was the best idea. I made the "parcel" with different layers and each layer had a soft toy. Then the music played and they passed the parcel around until the music stopped and then they had to open one layer and get their present! They had never played it before and they LOVED it!! Soooooo cute! (And it meant each child received a toy randomly, so there was no fighting over whose was better! They were just happy with what they got! )

What have you got Miki?

And let's see what Kristina has?!

Then it was time to go on the little train at the park (they gave it to us for free!)

And then it was time to hang out some more (and have another little snack and a drink!) before heading back to the Children's Home:

Marina and Miki

Gaga with Suzana

Opening a bank account...

2011-08-31T12:56:00.000+02:00

After 7 years of living here without a bank account of my own, this year I needed one. I have a credit card from South Africa and get my money out that way, so I never needed one before. And now I even have two!

In order to open a bank account, I first had to register with the Tax Office and get a "JIB" or special unique number for me (kind of like an identity number). This luckily wasn't too hard, but required filling out a form and having a certified copy of my passport. At the bank I also had to fill out a form and also have a certified copy of my passport. (which was a bit of a bummer because I could have certified two copies at once if I had known. Oh well). Luckily the bank people were very friendly and I managed to get the original bank account etc sorted out quite easily.

Now, I needed to get a bank account in Euros so people can send into that account, and so went today to go sort that out. Again I needed the certified copy of my passport... once I had that, I really caused some problems! It was the bank worker's last day on the job, and he was training someone else and the two of them couldn't figure out what was going on on their system, so they had to phone for help. He even said that I was the first foreigner opening that kind of bank account that he had had in 18 months of working in that position!

It got me thinking, I tend to make problems for banks: it started in childhood when my dad wanted to open a savings account for us children which had a Autobank (ATM) card. The banks in those days had no provision for children to get those kind of cards... But, my dad insisted and we were the first children to get that kind of card! And now the banks in South Africa (and I guess elsewhere in the world) actually have special bank accounts targeted at children!!

I also was the first Std Bank customer to have a credit card linked to a E-plan account (the lowest form of account). They hadn't made provision for people who had a credit card (which I got while I was working and had more money and then needed for traveling) to only have a simple E-plan account (the cheapest option!). But boy did it cause headaches!

In the end they managed to get the bank account sorted out, and I am now the proud owner of not one, but two bank accounts in Bosnia!!

It is HOT!

2011-08-23T20:34:00.000+02:00

So, what has been going on in Banja Luka the last little while? My BIG news is that I got my "rjesenje" or 'approval' which means my visa was renewed for another year! YAY!

In other news, it has been hot here and will continue to be so for the next week or so... For Americans: the temps are all over 100°F except for Sunday...fun, fun, fun!

Otherwise nothing much else to report - hanging out at EKC Ihtus (we are open 4 days a week), keeping myself out of mischief (and the heat!) with a LOT of admin stuff: setting up things for the coming busy season which starts in September... so busy, but nothing really blog-worthy!

Booksneeze Review: Life Everlasting by Robert Whitlow

2011-08-14T15:15:00.000+02:00

This is a legal thriller set in South Carolina. Baxter Richardson lies in a coma, after falling from a waterfall, his wife, Rena, faithfully by his side: but there is more to this story. Ted Morgan, the local music minister, plays for Baxter, hoping that the music will help bring healing. He finds that sharing the gift that God has given him increases his own faith as he sees God using the music to touch Baxter.

Once Baxter starts waking up, Rena's difficulties start as she is accused of pushing Baxter off the cliff. Alexia Lindale is representing Rena and finds herself falling in love with Ted...

I enjoyed the story which had many twists and turns, but also intertwined were hints of the "Life Everlasting". I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good tale with lots of twists, legal intrigue and love!

I received this book free from Booksneeze.com, but the opinion is my own.

Banja Luka walking tour...

2011-08-13T12:03:00.006+02:00

Last night I walked home from the IHTUS Centre and happened to have my camera with me, so I decided to take pics of Banja Luka on my way home, and show you all a little bit of this wonderful city! Here is the IHTUS Centre to start:

And a picture taken from the same spot so you can see how close we are to the river ;-)

And again from the same spot, showing a typical Banja Luka sight: the 'dajak' (or 'punt'): And just like in English the 'dajak' refers to the pole and not the boat! I was just lucky that at the moment I was taking photos this man happened to punt by!!

As I walked over the bridge into town, and see this new Orthodox church still being completed, but almost done...

The next sight is the 'Kastel' Fortress: so beautiful!

And then I discovered that they have put signage up at Safikada's 'grave':

Here is the legend in English:

Up the street and to the reconstruction site of the 400 year old Ferhadija Mosque which was blown up during the 1992-1995 war, but is being faithfully reconstructed using as far as possible the original stones.

And then onto the main road and past our tourist information office: proof that we have quite a lot of tourists ;-)

I like this shot - Boska (our newly refurbished shopping mall) and one of the better city buses...

And taken from the same spot in the other direction - the Music Pavilion and the lovely Park dedicated to the poet "Petar Kocic".

On the Boska side of the road: the 'krivi sat' ('crooked clock') which commemorates the 1969 earthquake which destroyed much of Banja Luka and killed 15 people. There were a couple of quakes, but the biggest one took place at 9.11 in the morning on the 27 of October 1969.

And then from the same spot in the other direction is "Gospodka Ulica" or "Lord's street". It is a walking street only and is always full of people walking - especially in the evening!

Halfway down Gospodska is the newly rebuilt Orthodox Church (opened in 2006). The church that was here before was destroyed in the II World War by the Germans.

To the left is the Municipal building (City Hall):

And to the right is the "Banski Dvor" (Mayor's Palace) which is now a Cultural Centre:

Across from the Banski Dvor is the Presidential Palace:

And on the other side of the main road is the memorial to fallen II World War soldiers. The sign says "Glory to the fallen soldiers, for the freedom of the fatherland, for brotherhood and a better life for our peoples": Good Communist propaganda: The motto of Yugoslavia "Brotherhood, Unity" brought all the different peoples together as one nation. Only with the breakdown of Communism did the nation completely fall apart and the fighting that happened during the II World War amongst the people reignited!

As we continue down the main road, we see another little city park:

And the National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska:

And the Catholic Cathedral:

And finally, the new Government Buildings, finished in 2008: very fancy shmancy...don't ask how much they cost, my mind doesn't comprehend the figures... but the idea is to build a business park behind and attract businesses to the region thereby growing the economy: but unfortunately the world recession started just after these were finished, so not sure what is going to happen now!

And then to end off, one of my favourite signs: BEWARE OF EXPLODING CHILDREN!!

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Banja Luka!!

Creative Workshop at the Children's Home

2011-08-10T15:03:00.000+02:00

The children at the Home are now all back from Italy or the sea and don't have much to do to keep them busy. So, we took some materials and held a little workshop for the younger kids: Here are half of them - sitting so nicely (well for now!) and doing what??

They were making fish out of tissue paper!! And I learnt a new word "krljušt" - now you try and pronounce that! It needs a couple more vowels in there somewhere... It means "fish scale" and that is what we were making with the tissue paper!

Zlatko

Mira

And if you can't do it yourself, there is always a helping hand:

Eliska helping Luka

Tanja helping Danijela

Showing our finished results: Every fish completely different!

Dijana and Dragana:

We then made butterflies using our hands for the wings... And so happy with the results...

Jelena

Mladen


Dragana

Zlatko

CABO+AHA?

2011-08-09T15:49:00.000+02:00

I was walking in my neighbourhood the other day and spotted a lover's heart and then realised that it made sense in Latin script as "CABO and AHA". For those of you who haven't guessed yet, this is actually "SAVO and ANA" in the Cyrillic script, which makes more sense...

I still remember when I saw signs saying "PECTOPAH" and thought that was just a Bosnian word I hadn't learnt yet... it was a while before I realised that it was "RESTORAN" in Cyrillic! It is more tricky when there isn't an obvious "Cyrillic" letter like "Ш" оr "Ж" in the word. So, my colleagues in Zenica when visiting Banja Luka for the first time were wondering where "CAPAJEBO" was... (Sarajevo!)

Luckily I do ok in Cyrillic- I can read it, but just not majorly fast, like at a 2nd or 3rd grade level! I still have to spell out letter by letter at times. I have been reading with the 2nd graders in the Book Club at the orphanage, so I know that I am at least a little better than them!! ;-)

Finn's last day...

2011-08-06T10:04:00.000+02:00

In the morning, while the rest of the team were treating the camp volunteers to back-rubs and hand and foot massages, I took the younger members to the orphanage. They did a half an hour "presentation" with dances, and dramas. The kids really enjoyed it:

We followed that up with games outside with the bigger kids and indoor crafts for the younger ones. I was so busy translating inside for them that I didn't manage to get any pictures of the activities!! The kids really enjoyed themselves, as did the volunteers. The Finns also left me some more craft materials so we can go next week with local volunteers and have a craft time with the kids again. It is still school holidays for another month and now that they are back from Italy (they go there for a month through another organisation) they have nothing going on and get bored easily, so it is a great time for us to go and give them something to do...

In the evening we held a "Finnish Cultural night" at the Ihtus Centre. Here is the team singing a traditional Finnish song to start off the evening:

They did other dances and talked outside about cultural stuff before we headed indoors for a slideshow on Finland. I learnt a lot of new things about this country! Here is Timo with Ljilja translating for him:

And everyone listening very carefully!

We then returned outside for Finnish food: which included "salmiakki" - which they can keep in Finland as far as I am concerned ;-) It is salty liquorice for those who don't know!! Luckily they also have Finnish pancakes with Finnish jam, which was delicious, so that made up for the salmiakki!

They then treated us to a very traditional Finnish dance which includes them sneezing during it!:

Atishooooo....

And then a dance we could all join in...

Then it was time to say a very sad "hyvä matka" (bon voyage) to our old and new friends...

Me with Noomi, Krista, Ljilja, Kesia, Eliska and Joona

The team left very early this morning to catch their flight back to Finland, and even though they were with us only one week, they definitely left an impression on our hearts, and I think we on theirs...

Kid's Camp 2011

2011-08-05T16:13:00.005+02:00

From 1-4 August we were at Kid's Camp with the team from Finland. The camp was held in the Bird Sanctuary/Wetlands of Bardača: here is a picture of one of the stunning sunsets and a beautiful flock of birds (and if you look carefully a ball and some campers playing in the foreground!).

There were 78 of us altogether: the team of 26 from Finland, 2 foreign (me and Eliska) and 8 local volunteers and 40 Bosnian children mostly from our Sponsorship project (the sponsored children and their siblings). The age ranged from 6 to 13 (the two kids under 8 came with their moms). We had the camp at the Natural Mathematics Faculty's facilities for fieldwork... so only the Finns were actually in tents - the rest of us got to be inside in dormitories or rooms.

Here are the Bosnian kids and the Finns thanking one of the many sponsors for their donations for the camp (Ljilja worked really hard on getting donations for the camp!!). They are standing in front of our "meeting tent" which is where we had the morning and afternoon meetings with the kids.

One of the fun things with this group of Finns is that it includes Kesia and Noomi who were here for almost 6 years with their parents, Miika and Mirjam (and sisters Jiska and Dina) and left last year to go back to Finland. Beside the fact that it is great to see them again, they can speak the local language fluently, so they were a BIG help with translation! Here are Kesia, Ljilja and Noomi:

We each had a group of children to look after and my task was made easier because unfortunately two of my girls didn't make it as they got sick. So I only had Snjezana (in the middle) and Jasmina (right) in my group. Andjela on the left was in my dorm along with 3 other girls and two more volunteers. I meant to get a group picture of us, but it didn't happen... We had a great time in our room, even having a pyjama party (with all the girls on the camp) on the last night... will have to post pics from that separately as I didn't have my camera with me!

So, what did we do with the kids for four days? Besides having a lot of games and competitions there was lots of other fun stuff that the Finnish team organised for us... I didn't get a picture of the two trampolines - but during free time there was always a long line of kids waiting for their turn!

Here is Ljilja with little Snjeza and the "camp flag" which we made on the first day:

Here we are singing (I am leading with Rami) at the "campfire" one evening - I think this is them singing the part of the song which goes: "say to the Lord I love you" (in Serbian of course) and making a heart sign...

Here we are singing "if I were an elephant" from the song "thank-you Lord for making me me":

We had lots of dramas: here Neven and I are acting out the Bible story of the "Good Samaritan" who helped his neighbour - I am a busy politician who has no time for the injured man...

...while Ljilja was the "Samaritan" (in our story a Roma "Gypsy") who actually stopped to help him:

We learnt a lot of new things - including how to take care of our teeth: Here is Noomi helping Katja Maaria to tell the children how to make sure they have strong and healthy teeth.

Sword fighting with BIG foam swords was a big favourite with the boys:

The food was FANTASTIC! Well done to Ankica (one of the moms who was the one responsible for the cooking) and others in the kitchen! Here is Neven with his crew eating lunch:

We also had workshops each afternoon: here is the handcraft workshop showing some of their stuff:

And the dance workshop showing us how it is done:

And last but not least... we had a fashion creation show on the last night. Competing against two of the Finns (sorry I don't have a picture!), Drazen and Ljilja had to put together a creation with what they could find: Here is what they came up with: :-)

This is just a taste of all that happened at camp - we had a phenomenal time: thanks to all who made it all happen!!!

In Memoriam: Ula (Walker) Zaremba

2011-08-05T06:36:00.005+02:00

I got back from camp last night to the news that my grandmother (my mom's mom), known to us grandkids as "Mama", had passed away on Wednesday morning. She was 90 years old and very frail, so it wasn't a surprise, but it is still very sad.

She was born in Walthamstow in NE London, England in 1921. When I was in London, I actually visited the place where she was born (above a pub) and took a photo for her - she said it was still exactly the way she remembered it! She grew up in London and at the age of 20 met my grandfather, Bronek, who was Polish, during the second World War. She was working at the Air-force base where he was stationed (he having escaped from Nazi POW camp and fled to England, but that is another whole story). After the war, he wasn't able to stay in England, and didn't want to go back to Poland, so they applied to go to South Africa and Australia... And South Africa accepted them first - otherwise I might have ended up being Australian!!

They travelled in 1949 with my 3-year Mother, Susan, to South Africa and my grandfather found work as a lift engineer. They subsequently had a son, my uncle, Richard and another daughter, my aunt, Janet. They stayed in Plumstead, and had the same house all those years, which is where my gran was until 5 weeks ago (living alone after my grandfather's death in March 2004). I have such fond memories of that house and spending time with my grandparents there. Mama used to spoil us rotten - making each of us our favourite foods whenever we stayed there. They also lived opposite a park (with swings and roundabouts, etc), so we always had a great time there!

I decided to look through my photos to see if I could find some "normal" ones of her, but there were very few :-) Here is one of us "girls" when I was in South Africa in January: me, Mama, my niece, Amy and my sister, Astrid.

And one from her birthday in 2007 with my Dad "helping" her blow out the candles without having to get up!

Here she is at Christmas 2010 with Amy and my nephew, James:

And one of my favourite photos: with James' cool glasses also at Christmas 2010:

I am so glad that I got to see her now when I was in South Africa in June, and spend some time with her. I will miss her and am sad that I can't be with my family at this time. For those who pray, please pray for my mom, Sue, uncle, Richard and aunt, Janet during this time.

The Finns are here...

2011-07-31T22:01:00.000+02:00

A team of 26 Finns have arrived to help us with a camp for our sponsorship children. We leave tomorrow for 4 days of camp - 80 of us altogether! I will report on that when we get back!

They will also be doing other things while they are here, including a Finnish Cultural night at the Ihtus Centre on Friday night. Tonight we went to the big park and the team did some dances and dramas, and then handed out flyers advertising the Finnish Cultural night:

Taste of Australia...

2011-07-27T13:28:00.000+02:00

Elisabeth is with us from Melbourne, Australia, for 10 days. She was coming for a friend's wedding in Switzerland and as she was already coming so far decided to stay on and travel a bit. She had always wanted to see Bosnia, so she found me online and asked if we could use her help...and so here she is! One of the things we had her do is make "heaps" of food (with me helping a little bit!) and have a "Taste of Australia" night at the Ihtus Centre.

With a little bit of ingenuity and blue balloons and printed out flags, we even managed to make things quite festive: Here she is before everyone arrived!

We started off with some "pinwheel pizzas" and "sausage rolls" and just hanging out...

This was followed by a fun Australian "musical statues" type game. We don't have any photos of that: which is probably just as well as you had to make poses of different Australian animals (like Wombat, Kangaroo, Crocodile, etc) and so it was very fun, but not really wanting to embarrass people for posterity on my blog :-)

After the game we got into groups and had a quiz on Aussie slang (do you know what a "chook" is for instance?) and geography... (what is the population of Australia?)

The last question was "What dessert is made out of meringue, cream and fruit?" and the options were "Cream Fruit pie", "Pavlova" and "Kasaloopa" and only one team got it right - the others thought it was "Kasaloopa" (which is something I made up for that purpose, but now inventive Liz wants to make a desert to go with the name ;-) )

And then we got to watch her finishing off the PAVLOVA...

And we all enjoyed it very much:)

Ljilja with Maks and his mom, Natasha

Alen enjoying the "Pav"

Visa Extension Application = DONE!

2011-07-22T13:20:00.000+02:00

This morning I went and handed in all the papers needed to extend my visa (at least I hope so - they said they would call if I need to bring anything else!!) . Last year I took a picture of all the papers involved: which you can see here. I got away with "only" paying 160KM (R800 or $120) in total this year as I didn't have to do some of the medical tests (HIV test and chest x-ray as I did them last year) and they don't make you certify all the copies of everything anymore...

One fun story from this year happened when I went to get my doctor's check. The nurse filling out the form asked me "what is your date of birth" and I said "3.6.1974" and she wrote down "3.6.1984"!!!! What a nice compliment! And actually that is about how old I feel, so she wasn't too far wrong :-) But I think she had a problem with her hearing as she wrote my dad's name as "Roland" not "Ronald"... ok, here 'Ronald' is unusual, but still!

(why do they need my dad's name you ask? It is because here on forms they write "your name (your dad's name) your surname" like "Jelena (Milan) Grbic" so you know which "Jelena Grbic" it is...)

40 days

2011-07-19T09:15:00.000+02:00

Today it is 40 days since my father passed away. Here in this part of the world, they have a special ceremony on the 40th day (or the nearest Saturday). The tradition is based partly on the belief that the spirit of the person remains on this earth for 40 days and then goes to heaven or hell on the 40th day. They base this on the fact that Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after his death. Not that I believe this. Jesus said to the thief beside him on the cross "tonight you will be with me in paradise", and if the spirit goes around for another 40 days, why would he say that...

That said, I think it is lovely tradition to have a special marking of the 40th day. It shows that time has passed, but the person hasn't been forgotten. Life is starting to get back to normal, but it will never be the same again without that person.

That is me on the "throne", with my whole family in our "porter pool" in 1974/5

Here, showing respect to the dead and to their families is quite a big thing. One of my first sentences that I learnt was "primi moje saučešće" (accept my condolences) because even if it is an aunt or a second cousin, people here say this to the family members and if it is a close family member even more so... Another friend whom I hadn't seen yet said it to me again today and even though it is hard, it is nice to have people acknowledge his passing.

Even though I am far away from my family, I still feel the loss of my Dad. He was a constant in my life until now. My friends keep telling me to stop talking about him in the present tense... And I keep thinking "oh Dad would like that...I can send an email with that in..." and then it hits me again. He is no longer with us.

And now as I write this blog post to mark the 40th day, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and prayers for me and my family during this hard time...It means a lot.

European Championship in Kayak and Canoe

2011-07-18T09:43:00.003+02:00

This past week we had the European Championship in Kayak and Canoe in the "Kanjon" outside Banja Luka, this is the same place where some of the World Rafting Championships were held in 2009. Here is pic of the river during the competition (thanks to Mara from whom I "borrowed" the photos!)

Some of our friends are part of the Bosnian women's rafting team and they asked if some of the Serbian rafting team would be able to stay over at our house. They weren't taking part, just coming to meet up with people in the rafting/kayak/canoe world. Everything was so booked up in Banja Luka as there were over 1000 people taking part or coming to watch. The four girls stayed over on Wednesday night and then went and stayed nearer the competition, but didn't have a place to stay last night, so came to stay over here again. It was just lucky that Ljilja is in Finland so that we had space for all of them... They are so sweet and now I have four places to stay in Belgrade!

Mara, Mila, me, Mirna, Milica and Suza at the opening ceremony/concert

Yesterday, I went with Mirna (who is one of the Bosnian rafting team) and some others to try and see some of the competition, but it finished early, so I missed it! But not to worry, we hung out at the river and made a day of it anyway... and it was actually maybe nicer, getting to relax and hang out and have a great afternoon with fun people!

The Americans are here...

2011-07-12T14:27:00.007+02:00

My colleagues, David and Eliska, are hosting a team of four students from the US at the moment. They are here for a month, but I missed the first two weeks of their stay. On Friday they had a American Evening at Ihtus. I didn't get a picture of the Jeopardy quiz that happened (which my cool team happened to win!) but I did get a couple of pics of the dancing that happened after that... See if you can figure out what each of the dances are...

Then we were treated to the American National Anthem by Scott. He has a really amazing voice and I must admit that I even teared up a bit and it isn't even my Anthem!

While they have been here they have been having English Conversation Classes with students and will be helping on a camp near Sarajevo starting on Saturday. Yesterday, I took over the "facilitating" of the classes from the previous teacher, Deron, who had to return to Sarajevo to prepare for the camp. It is a great group of American and Bosnian students and it will be fun working with them this week!

One lovely blog

2011-07-10T18:24:00.010+02:00

My friend Nicole gave me this lovely award a couple of weeks ago on her blog. Thanks Nicole! It is lovely to be appreciated...And I really appreciate your and Graeme's friendship over the years. It was great to see you 2 weeks ago in Cape Town, despite the circumstances. And who will forget the lovely trip you had to visit me here in Bosnia with 9 month old, Janel, in 2006

Now in order to participate in this, I have to

1) Choose five other people who deserve it and pass the awards along

2) Regale you all with seven random facts about me
3) Let the people that I give the awards to know
4) Thank the person who gave me the award (done!)

So, 5 other people: My friend Shilo in the US, who is usually in Paraguay, but is back in the US on medical leave; Miranda usually in SA, but returned recently for a year in the UK; Barbara who is from the UK, but is working in Spain; my friend Taryn in South Africa, who writes wonderfully about her lovely family and amongst other things her homeschooling endeavours and Bronwen a new transplant from SA in Holland. So, a wide varied bunch of people and places, but all of them writing "lovely blogs" worthy of this award!

Now, seven random facts about me:

1) I just defrosted the freezer because it is 38°C (100°F) outside today and I figured it would cool me down. And it did! And it REALLY needed doing, so am glad I had the motivation to get it done to cool me down ;-) What you do when you don't have air-con!

2) As you will know if you read my blog, I recently went back to South Africa as my father passed away. It was the first time I was in South Africa in winter since 2000 as I usually go in summer (which is winter here). It was fun to enjoy a few lovely winter's days: clear, crisp, windless... beautiful. It wasn't as fun 'enjoying' the storms that came through and the cold without heating, but I guess the good made up for the bad!

3) I play the guitar, having taught myself in high school. I also play the piano (a lot less well) - after a couple of years of lessons in primary school.

4) I am reading a great book right now called "God knows my name" by Beth Redman (wife of Matt) who wrote "Blessed be your name" with Matt. And right now I am enjoying that song as well: It is true that in the good times and the bad, the best thing to do is to bless the Lord. During sad times, looking inward makes you pity yourself, looking upwards means you have hope that things will get better and gets the focus off of yourself...

5) I have been playing scrabble over the internet with my friend, Nils, in South Africa, since 1999. We used to do it by email, but then the program we used got to old and we couldn't use it. Now we play it on Facebook.

6) I am one quarter Polish - my mom's dad was from Poland and he and my gran travelled to South Africa from England (where they met during the Second World War) with my 3-year-old mom in 1949. I wonder if my success in learning this Slavic language is because somewhere my brain is wired in the right way? Who knows??

7) I love butternut. It is one of the things I miss from South Africa. So, the past few years I have had some of my friends grow it into their gardens for me (I would do it myself, but I think my landlady would have a conniption!).

Ok, folks that's it... hope you enjoyed this One Lovely Blog post...

Booksneeze review: The Seraph Seal

2011-07-08T13:11:00.002+02:00

"The Seraph Seal" by Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner is one of the few books from Booksneeze that I haven't enjoyed at all. I do have to confess that I don't really like end times books in general and so this one was no exception. I think I was expecting it to be an easier read, but there were a lot of places and people involved and it was just really hard work to read it. And it was just too long... after trying really hard, I must admit I got bored about half-way through and didn't even make it to the end. I know people who like end time books will probably love it, but it really wasn't my scene at all.

Back in Banja Luka

2011-07-01T02:58:00.000+02:00

I can’t believe I am already back in Banja Luka. These last two and a half weeks have passed by in a whir of activity. It was so good to be with my family during this time. We were able to grieve and laugh and remember together. Dad’s Memorial service was memorable: despite the sadness and the obvious loss that we all feel in our lives, it was a celebration of all that he was and the legacy that will live on in all of us.

My Dad had an extensive collection of beer mugs – over 200 of them. So, we decided to distribute them to people at the funeral. It took some aback, but most realised that it was great to be able to leave with a reminder: and for us, it was a good way to get them to people who would appreciate them.
My brother, Kevin, did a fantastic job with the eulogy. He wasn’t able to get through it without choking up with emotions, but I think that made it even more special. Here are some of my favourite parts:

“My Dad taught me that in order to survive in life you need to have a sense of humour. It’s one of the earliest pieces of fatherly advice I can even remember him telling me. And he was right. He had the best sense of humour of anyone I have ever met. I think if you had to pick one defining characteristic about Ron Chaplin, his sense of humour would be it. Whether it was the singing fish, the endless jokes, the silly toys he collected, or those joke emails he would spend hours putting together, dad always like to make people laugh. Nearly everyone that has written to us about dad in the last few weeks has mentioned his jovial nature, his sense of humour, and his fun attitude to life. He always enjoyed himself, but more important than that, he liked to make other people laugh. It was one of his greatest pleasures in life to entertain someone with a funny story, a new gizmo, or a funny movie. He never took himself, or life too seriously.

He taught me that many of the greatest pleasures in life are the simple things. Having a cold ginger beer after mowing the lawn. Jumping in the pool after you had finished cleaning it. Walking beside the ocean and watching the waves crash. Catching a fish. Finishing a crossword puzzle. Eating an ice cream cone after supper. Hiking in the mountains and finding a good walking stick. Finding a treasure at the flea market. Fixing a broken toy. Having a nap on the garden bench. Winning the feet-first swimming race. Some of my happiest memories of my dad are of him just soaking up one of the simple pleasures of life.

He taught me to be hospitable, as any visitor to our house would know. Over the years he and my mom hosted hundreds of guests at their house. Starting with the fantastic birthday parties we had as kids, to the youth group events we had at our house with hundreds of teenagers. My dad was always excited to have people over enjoying our house and as kids, ours was always the fun house that people wanted to come over and hang out at. As our family became more international, we had a steady stream of visitors to our house, from all over the world. My parents have always been such generous and hospitable hosts, and my Dad loved to take visitors all over Cape Town, on his “Ron Chaplin tours”. He was so proud to show people around and take them to all his favourite places in Cape Town.

He taught me that love is not just something you say, it is something you do. He constantly showed his love for us by all of the things he would do for us. He was not a man of many words when it come to love, but through his actions he more than told us how much he loved us.

Dad, we will all miss you now that you are gone. Thank you for everything you taught us through your life, whether you meant to or not. You lived life to the fullest, and were a great example to us in many ways. You will be remembered fondly, happily, often and always with much laughter.”

I think that sums up my Dad really well...

I mostly spent time with my family, but did manage to see a few friends. Including some school friends – I realised that we hadn’t got together, the 4 of us, in about 20 years. Scary.

Hel, Bel, Mel and Tink aka Helen, Belinda, Melinda and Justine (and Justine's daughter, Kai)

It was fantastic to see them and catch up (even with their - between them - 6 children!). I also realised through their recollections how unusual the situation was that I grew up in. For me it was normal that Mom and Dad were always home and our house was always always the one to whom people came and how available they were for lifting or whatever. I realise now that isn’t necessarily the norm for everyone. I think I understood for the first time how special my parents made my growing up and how privileged I was then.

It was so good that we were all able to be there for Mom and help her with a LOT of stuff that needed to be done or decided. It is hard now not being there, but I know that she will be fine. She has already booked tickets to come visit us children in August and September. And now I will try to figure out how to get back to my life here, while still processing my Dad's passing.

In Memorium: Ronald Allan Chaplin

2011-06-11T17:51:00.001+02:00

My dad passed away on Thursday the 9th of June at the age of 72 after a short illness, while my mom and aunt were by his side. He was already in a coma for a week before his death and the doctors fought a valiant fight against the pneumonia, but Dad has a condition called scleroderma which weakens the connecting tissues and many people with his condition die of lung problems.

Even though he was in a coma, the doctors still held out hope for a recovery and it wasn't until Wednesday that we were told he wouldn't make it, and that we needed to come asap. My brother (from Canada) and my sister (from England) will both arrive this morning, just too late to see him before he died. I will be getting on a plane later today and arrive tomorrow afternoon. At least we will all be there to help my mom through the funeral and the aftermath of his passing.

Born in Cape Town in 1938, Dad didn't have an easy life. His father died just after he married my mom and so my gran lived with them. He often said that his dad left him a watch, a raincoat, and a mother to look after and nothing more. Determined not to do the same to his children, he gave us all a University Education and bought two houses so that we would have a bigger inheritance: the second house is already in a trust for us children.

It has been amazing in the past few days as I have let people know that he is so ill, how many people have replied with "Oh I remember when..." about my dad. He was the kind of dad other people wanted for their dad... he was a really fun guy to have around. And he loved to entertain people with his stories and jokes and amongst other things, plastic bottle rockets!

He was always creating: he made us girls a "Wendy House" (playhouse) when we were small, and another one, complete with appliances and a slide into the pool for his grandchildren. He made us kids a pool table and a air-hockey table when were all teenagers. He got the idea for the air-hockey table when were on holiday in Durban as he saw how much we liked it. Despite having to drill over 5000 holes and it taking forever, he never gave up, and used over 11 drill bits to complete the job.

Even now he was always creating - you know those funny emails that you get sometimes with fun pictures and captions? Ever wondered what kind of person makes them? Well, one of them was my dad. He enjoyed entertaining people so much that when he couldn't make stuff physically anymore, he used his creativity to create those funny emails.

He loved Cape Town and loved showing people around the city. He had his own tour route which he would do with people - many of my foreign friends remember him for this reason.

Even despite some of the problems in our relationship over the years: especially when he couldn't understand how I would "waste" my University training and wanted me to get a "real job", I had a really great time with him this last time I was home. He seemed to have made peace with my life choice and was happy that I was happy. It was also great that he got to meet Ljilja, my roommate, when she came to visit in January, and see part of my world here.

Dad, I will miss you so much. It is a very different world without you in it. I wish I could have hugged you just one more time, but instead I will be placing this inadequate tribute to you and your life on my blog as a virtual hug from me to you. Rest in Peace, Dad. I love you. Goodbye.

Bowling...

2011-06-06T09:01:00.000+02:00

On Saturday, after playing with all of the younger kids at the orphanage, the team and I went bowling with 7 of the older boys. I didn't even know there was bowling in Banja Luka, until the team asked if they could go with the older kids...and I did a bit of investigation and found out about this place. It isn't the game I am used to, which is the American 10-pin, but instead is a game that is played primarily here in Europe with 9-pins and a smaller bowling ball. It was still really fun! This is what it looks like:

Here is the whole group afterwards:

One of the kids that came with is one of my old-timers, Momir: He is now 13, but I got to know him when he was 9! Here he is showing us how it is done:

And here he is 3 years ago when we with the Dutch Go team at the orphanage in 2008:

Still just as cute!!

Fun week with the team...

2011-06-03T08:59:00.000+02:00

It has been a good week with the team from YWAM Constanta. We have done a lot of different things... Some I have pictures of and others not so much. But here is a taster:

We went to a Roma ("gypsy") Village where we played with the kids and had a good time. The team did a drama and also talked to the people: Their language is originally Romanian and so they could understand a lot of what the Romanians were saying! It was really fun!

At the village, we also gave out some humanitarian aid, including some toys that we had: Here is little Lejla with her new Barney: Totally matches her outfit!

We also had a lot of fun at the English Class this week: one of the activities was the blindfold obstacle race: We who were blind folded had to listen for our partner's voice as they all directed at the same time: chaos but also good fun!

For the orphanage book club this week I read Max Lucado's "You are Special" in the local language while the team acted out the story...

Afterwards I tried to take a decent photo with the 3 boys from the club, and even after trying over 10 times and eventually bribing them, I only got a decent one with two of them: Simo and David! But I love these kids anyway!!

Team at the orphanage...

2011-05-30T12:09:00.000+02:00

Saturday and Sunday we went to the orphanage to play with the kids and have a little "program" with them... First we introduced outselves and the kids had to show which was the flag of that particular country. Here is Brane showing where Adi is from: Romania!

Then it was time for games... I this is my favourite photo: just look at the joy on the faces ;-) and not just of the kids!

I gave the team a whole lot of tennis balls, and then managed to make up quite a few games using them: Here is pass the ball like a hot potato. If the music stops while you have the ball you are out!

Pass the ball backwards over under... I love Tanja's face on the left ;-)

Then the team did four little skits and talked about how we need to love each other and what is love: We then made hearts to remind us to be loving...

Then Sunday we went again and as it wasn't raining, we were able to play outside and it was great fun! We also had a program and a craft inside afterwards while the bigger boys played football, but I don't have any photos of that. So this is it from today:

We had a few local volunteers come with us (thanks guys!) who helped with the translation, so I wasn't the only one having to translate all the time. But another advantage of this team is that two of them speak Italian. Why is that an advantage? Because many of the children go to Italy for a month in the summer and a month in the winter to stay with families there (it is organised by another organisation) so they speak Italian pretty well! And it is great for them to be able to communicate with those who can speak Italian without having to go through an interpreter!!

International Cultural Evening in Ihtus

2011-05-28T10:21:00.000+02:00

There is a YWAM team from Constanta, Romania here at the moment. To use the fact that they are from 6 different nations (Romania, USA, England, Germany, Hong Kong and Slovakia) we decided to have an International Cultural night at EKC Ihtus. Here I am introducing the team:

We were treated to poetry and songs from each of the countries. Here is Andrew singing Michael Finnegan (which I suspect is actually Irish, but as he grew up singing it in England he sang it for us)

And as you can see, we really enjoyed it!

After a few songs, poems and explanations about varying aspects of the different cultures, we had a quiz: Here is Hazel with a question about Hong Kong: See if you can guess it :-)

This is a photo of the team who came in second, but I don't have a pic of the winning team... sorry... Drazen, Sofija, Suzana and Sandra: Their prizes were two Romanian flags!

After the quiz we were treated to more cultural facts and a song from the Romanians:

As well as a dance:

Which the people were eager to learn how to do:

And then it was time to show them one of the local dances: Uzicko Kolo

And after all that dancing we certainly deserved the food from all over: (Tanja, Milica, Milana, Drazen, Ljilja, Sofia and Adi):

It was a fantastic evening... and we had a great time hanging out with the team until late! (and the answer to the quiz question is B - don't worry we didn't get it right either!)

Ratko Mladic arrested...

2011-05-26T16:29:00.000+02:00

The last big fish from the Bosnian war was caught today in Serbia. Ratko Mladic was the Chief of the Republic of Srpska Army during the 1992-1995 war and was indicted for war crimes by the International Tribunal in The Hague in 1995 for his alleged role in the siege against Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide. His name kind of means "warring youngster" so it is interesting that is the life that he ended up with...

His arrest has been expected since the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in July 2008, but it has been a long time coming. He was hiding out under another identity and this morning was captured by Serbian Special Forces and his identity confirmed through DNA analysis. It is definitely him! He will now be sent to The Hague to stand trial.

This will help Serbia to finally enter into talks to join the European Union, as this was one of the preconditions to those talks: that the war criminals be found and arrested. Interestingly enough, Serbia has always officially denied that Karadzic and Mladic were still in Serbia, but in the end both of them were found to be living there under different identities. Although I believe that this is good news, in the long run his arrest is just the beginning of a long and very drawn out trial...so not much to rejoice about really...

Saturday fun...

2011-05-22T21:24:00.000+02:00

In the morning, walking around town I encountered the annual gathering of Veterans /"Oldtimers" on the main square... My Dad would say "my dad owned one of those": Despite the crowds, I managed to take a few pictures:
A Mercedes and an Oldsmobile:

And the one I like the best is a Beetle made entirely out of wood! I have seen it before, and it has even made it onto TV. Yesterday, I overheard him tell someone else that it took him a year and a half to make! Amazing:

After such a beautiful morning, we were fooled into thinking that the predicted rain wouldn't happen and headed to Damjan and Tanja's plot to have a braai/barbecue... It was fine for the first hour or so, but then the heavens openned. Here is proof that nothing will stop us enjoying ourselves!!! (especially me from the "comfort" of the little shed!)

Booksneeze review: Max on LIfe

2011-05-17T07:30:00.000+02:00

Max Lucado's latest offering "Max on Life" finally arrived for me to review. I was supposed to review it on the 19th of April, so this is almost a month late, but what can I do when the post to Bosnia is slow?

The book is something unique: Max has taken questions that he has received either from his readers or from members of his church in San Antonio, Texas. With collected wisdom from his 5 year stint as a missionary in Brazil, and his preaching, teaching and writing ministry of over 20 years, he answers each question in his inimical style. Ranging from questions on "Why am I here?" to sex and romance, he covers a wide-range of questions about life in general and Christian life in particular. Touching on forgiveness, why God allows suffering, money and how to talk to children about sex, this format gives Max the opportunity to share his wisdom with us on many areas of life.

As he receives a lot of questions on writing, he also includes a section on that, which has been an encouragement to me to be more deliberate in my writing and in trying to bless people through what I write. Not just say "I would like to be a writer" or "I like writing", but to actually get off my behind and write stuff!

This is a book which can be read fast and reread slowly, and kept as a resource for when the tough questions come at you personally. It helps us remember why we believe what we believe, and also gives wise answers to frequent questions that people may not understand about the Christian faith.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in return for my honest review.
All opinions are my own.

Outing with the Book Club kids

2011-05-14T18:40:00.000+02:00

Today we took the 11 children that have been regular members of our Book Club to the Banja Luka Zoo as a reward for all the reading that they have done. The zoo was fantastic, giving us all free entry (including the volunteers) and giving all the children free rides on the merry-go-round and little train. Kudos to them!

When we arrived, we went around and looked at the animals. If I think of this more as a petting zoo, with some extras, and then it is not so bad. They do have a bear and two wolves:

Stana with the bear "Momcilo"

Simo and Brane with the wolves

But mostly the animals are more for children to interact with:

Stana and Ana watch Dijana feed the goat

Jelena, Simo, Brane, and Bojan watch Dragana feed the deer

After we had tired ourselves by walking around, it was time for lunch: sandwiches which Ljilja and I made this morning:

Nooa from Finland enjoying his!

Then it was time to play cards or hang out on the swings:

who says it is only for the kids :-)

After we got bored of that, it was off to the merry-go-round and the train :-)

Then it was time to eat again and listen to a story from the Children's bible: about Noah and all the animals on the ark! We then had a chance to colour in different pictures of animals and Noah and his ark...

And one more picture of all of us before we go home:

I don't know who had a better time: the kids or us volunteers :-) Even though it was tiring, it was so great hanging out with the kids and giving them a day that they won't forget in a hurry... Thanks to everyone who made this day possible!

Library... with the Orphanage Book Club

2011-05-13T22:35:00.000+02:00

The Book Club children get their books at Banja Luka's Children's Library. The library is fantastic and is a great resource for children in this city. The children go every second week to get their books and every other week we have the book club at the orphanage to talk about those books, which they were supposed to have read...

I realised that the children weren't really choosing books that were appropriate (too hard or too easy) and so I asked if I would be able to come with them to the library to see how it works. I then decided to also become a member of the library so that I could check out some books and be able to recommend them to the children. I have discovered that they have some up-to-date books that are translated into the local language which are really enjoyable... The boys have started reading one set of books, and they now can't wait to get another one! (before it was like pulling teeth to get them to read anything! So yay!)

This morning I remembered to take my camera with me so you can see what a trip to the library is all about...Here is Vesna, one of the librarians, checking out books for Brane and Simo: (on another note, we are using the same system that they have here for our library at Ihtus! My colleagues came and found out how they do it...)

The choosing of the books usually takes place very quickly...

Bozana choosing herself a book

Darja and Dragana choosing a picture book each

As the major feature of the library trips is the internet! The older kids either take turns or share:

Brane and Cvijan

Dijana and Bozana

While the little ones watch cartoons:

And we older people get to hang out and have coffee with the great librarians! (sorry-forgot to get a picture of that!)

Then Sings My Soul: Booksneeze review

2011-05-11T10:52:00.000+02:00

I wrote the review for "The Final Summit" yesterday and soon after, the doorbell rang. I asked "who is it" and when a man's voice said "Postar" (postman) I thought it was someone joking with me: as our postman usually comes at the crack of dawn. So I shouted out "ma daj!" (come on!). So, of course, I was very embarressed when I opened the door and it was the postman!! But I was very excited when I saw that he this book for me... especially as the first one that booksneeze sent last year went astray.

150 hymns are represented in this book, each with the music and words, and then the story of how each was written. It is presented in a special paperback with "parchment" pages: it is so beautiful, you almost don't want to read it! It is perfect as a present for any Christian musician or even pastor: as besides being beautiful, it is a very useful resource for musicians and also for sermon writing.

I started reading it last night, thinking that I would just read one or two of the stories, but they are so interesting, that I got almost half-way through the book... and I am looking forward to reading the rest. I also look forward to re-reading it more slowly and being reminded of the heritage of Christian worship music that is ours.

I received this book for free from booksneeze to review. This opinion is all mine!

Just Do It! Booksneeze Review: The Final Summit

2011-05-10T09:10:00.000+02:00

Having not read the first book "The Traveler's Gift", I didn't really know what to expect in this sequel. The author, Andy Andrews, does go through the principles that the traveler, David Ponder, learnt in the first book, so it was easy to read this book without reading the first part.

I must admit, however, that I was a little disappointed. It is a good, motivational book, with a great message - one which I will be using - but it reminded me of Nike's campaign "Just Do It". The whole premise and outline with many famous brains of the past coming together to figure out the one thing that will save mankind was just a bit much for me: it doesn't fit in with the God that I know, and the Bible that I read. Maybe I missed the point, but for me it just didn't hit home.

The message itself is fantastic: restore hope, seek wisdom, have courage, exert self-discipline but most importantly: "Do something": don't just wait and wait and wait and wait a minute: where is patience? Where is seeking God? Where is waiting on the Lord? I understand that we do need to be proactive and do something, but for that to be the one thing that God is wanting us to do to save mankind? I am not so sure.

So, go into the book with eyes wide open, realising that Andy Andrews is a great motivational speaker, who will help you get off your butt and do something: but remember that that doing something may well be prayer, seeking the Lord, and not doing anything for now!!!

Victory Day Holiday...

2011-05-09T14:33:00.000+02:00

Today we celebrate "Dan pobjeda nad fasizmom" (Victory over Fascism Day), i.e. celebrating the end of the 2nd World War in Europe. It is a non-working day, making this the 4th 4-day working week in a row!

I was taught in school that VE (Victory in Europe) Day was the 8th of May. And it only occurred to me today after all these years of having a public holiday to celebrate "Victory over Fascism" here on the 9th of May, that it isn't actually VE Day as I was taught. In fact, in some countries it is celebrated on the 7th...so what is the difference?

After a little bit of research, I think I have found the answer...the German forces signed the agreement in France, capitulating to the Allied forces, on the 7th of May. It was only ratified in Berlin on the 8th of May. And when the Soviets signed the ratification late on the 8th in Berlin it was (because of the time difference) already the 9th in Moscow, so their Victory Day is on the 9th! Isn't it funny how these things come about?!

Now, interestingly enough this is a public holiday here in the Republic of Srpska, but not in the Federation part of Bosnia Hercegovina, where "se proslavlja radno" (it is celebrated while still working). Now if someone could tell me why the Republic of Srpska celebrates it by not working and the Federation celebrate while still working, I would be interested to find out!!

Dubrovnik...

2011-05-06T18:06:00.000+02:00

This past week I have been at a Fida training conference in Dubrovnik. It was for all their partners in the Western Balkans and there were over 50 of us from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina. The first 2 days were rainy and we were inside involved in training all day anyway, but on the third day, the planned afternnon trip to the old town coincided with some lovely sunny weather:-)

Ljilja and I at the entrance to the old city's harbour

At the one city gate looking back at the city walls

Dubrovnik is a very beautiful city, and after walking around for a while, Dragana, Ljilja and I sat and had coffee on the main street "Stradun": enjoying sitting outside in the sun... and soaking up the sights:

Last Advanced English Class

2011-04-30T11:22:00.001+02:00

After 6 weeks, we ended this round of classes last night. In honour of the end of the class and the Royal Wedding, I made my late Gran's special "peppermint crisp pudding" (I have to import some of the ingredients, so this is only for very special occasions!). It was a nice way to end off the classes until we have the next set in the autumn.

There were 12 people who finished the course and received Certificates. It was quite a mixed group - ranging from high school scholars and students to married mothers and one policeman!

Here we are: Back row: Alen, Boris, Alen, Miroslav, me and Eliska; Middle: Una and Sofija; Front: Tanja, Tanja, Suzanna, Svjetlana, Drazen and Sandra

We had a great time in the classes: learning a lot of new words and some grammar, but mostly just having a chance to talk English and practice that which they already knew. I think everyone really enjoyed the classes... especially me!

Easter at the Orphanage...part two: egg painting!

2011-04-21T16:47:00.000+02:00

After our trip to the Orphanage on Monday (see here) we organised to come back and help them with the egg-painting for Easter. We brought paint and brushes and the home organised the cooking of the eggs, so all of the eggs were hard boiled by the time we got there... luckily! With 7 of us and lots of the home's employees, we had a great morning painting eggs with about 30 of the younger kids... and enjoyed the start of the Easter Holiday with them:

Here is Simo showing how it is done: lots of concentration!

And here is Luka trying to get Dasha to "lupati" (knock/hit) his egg to see whose is stronger: and Dasha just ignoring him and carrying on... go Dasha!

Stefan with his namesake little Stefan:

Who says the volunteers can't get creative too? Here is Tanja showing us how it is done:

Bojana decided to paint her egg like Suzana's nails: love it!

And this is possibly my favourite photo: Jovana with little Dragana:

And I even got some photos of me with the kids. I usually don't remember to take photos of myself, so enjoy proof that I was actually there...
Here I am with Bozana:

And with Dragana: she is showing her egg in the "basket" which we coloured on Monday: each of the children got theirs back today to put their egg in:

Here is the "Vrtic" group (pre-school) with their eggs:

And little Vaso showing all of their eggs: I can just eat him up!

Some of the older kids were also working on dyeing the eggs (red) while we painted and so here is all of the eggs that survived (being eaten or beaten!):

And while we were painting the eggs, a TV production crew from one of Banja Luka's local stations came to do a report on another donation which was given to the Home for Easter. When they saw the egg painting they took some shots of us, and then the Home's Director suggested that I should also give them an interview...aaargh... My first sentence was "I am a foreigner" so they wouldn't think that I was retarded...but even without preparation, I think I did ok...

Czech evening in Ihtus

2011-04-19T22:07:00.000+02:00

The Czech team that is here held an evening about Easter/Passover at the Ihtus Club. It included a presentation on the connection between the Jewish Passover and our Easter including some Hebrew songs:

It was very interesting to see the connection between the two and everyone who came seems to have enjoyed the presentation and songs:

After the presentation and a great drama outside (the pics were too dark, sorry!), it was time to try out some Czech eats:

And I think everyone enjoyed that as well!!

Easter at the Orphanage...

2011-04-18T21:08:00.000+02:00

This year the Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant Easter is the same weekend (it doesn't happen every year!) This week the school holidays are this week, ending with the Easter weekend. The last two years we have organised something at Easter for the kids: see here - 2009, 2010. This year they asked us when we were coming :-)

We also have a team from the Czech Republic here at the moment, so we asked them if they would like to help us make a nice program for the children during their school holidays: They helped us with the story of passover and Easter (with some acting out by the rest of the team which I didn't photograph):

Then we had an "Easter Egg Hunt" for paper Easter Eggs which we had hidden around the room beforehand. This was something very new for the kids and they LOVED it! We then coloured in those Easter eggs (and some other Easter related activities):

And at the end we gave out chocolate Easter eggs to each of the children...
The Czech team, the children, teachers, and our great team of volunteers all had a really lovely time, as did I!

Red Letter Day

2011-04-11T12:32:00.000+02:00

A "red letter day" to me means having something significant happen, something usually good. Since coming to Bosnia, the origin of the word has become clear: it is the days in the Orthodox (and Catholic I hear) calendar marked in red ink: they are more significant, more special and need to be respected more. Here, you are supposed to fast and not do any significant work on that day. Putting on your washing machine is a complete no-no for instance...

And even after so many years I don't really know when they are going to happen, and even when I had a calendar in my house, I would still forget to look and yip, put the machine on! Last week, I was reminded again of this facility of mine to use the washing machine on days that are marked with red ink: Thursday was "Blagovjesti" (Blessed news): the day when the Angel Gabriel came to tell Mary she was going to give birth to Jesus. And I was busy all day except for 2 hours in which I fatally decided to put the washing machine on.

When I went onto the balcony to hang out the washing, my landlady was quite nice about it, but in no uncertain terms let me know what I had done... she even pointed that I was probably the only person in Banja Luka who had put my machine on, as it really was a special "red letter day": more special than most.

It is mostly a superstition - i.e. if you put the machine on, something bad will happen - and as I don't believe it, I don't stress about it like other people! But I hope one day I will learn when not to put the washing machine on and not mess up on a red letter day!

In other news... this week has been a red letter week in the Chaplin family around the world: my brother (in Canada) managed to separate his shoulder, and my mom (in South Africa) broke her leg! I am hoping that the third thing is that my parents' kombi broke down... otherwise who knows what could happen. (good thing I am not superstitious!)

News on my nephew...

2011-04-09T16:48:00.000+02:00

I have blogged before here about my nephew Luke's battle with a rare genetic disease. Here is a fantastic news piece which was done on the story: I am one proud sister and aunt!
CTV British Columbia - Brother's donation could help boy with rare disease - CTV News

Spring is sprung...

2011-04-06T13:37:00.000+02:00

I was walking on the big local park this morning, and there is only one tree that has really blossomed to show that spring has really sprung. As I walked around I came at it from different angles...

I liked this one, as it looks the other trees (which represent winter) are trying to hold back the inevitable!

And here she is in all her glory:

The other trees will catch up with her soon... Spring in Banja Luka is so beautiful... so full of hope and sights and sounds and smells of new life. Granted, it is rainy and there can be floods with the snow melt, but it is still a lovely time of the year!

Three things I can't do without...

2011-04-02T15:00:00.000+02:00

So, I am talking about three things that I can't do without...

The first thing I do when I get up every morning is take my thyroid hormone tablet... I have to take one every day for the rest of my life in order to replace the hormone my thyroid is not producing. Now that they have figured out the right level I just have to keep taking the tablet and get my levels checked every 6 months or so. But this is something that I really cannot do without...

Another thing that I have found that I really cannot do without is a good cup of 'English' tea: ie black/indian/ceylon tea: medium strong with sugar and milk! I even bring teabags from England or South Africa as the ones that are here aren't any good, and are quite expensive - so, you end up paying more for a bad cup of tea...hence the need to import my own teabags! (and I also carry them around with me so I can have it wherever I go: as people here do not have any black tea in their homes and as I don't drink coffee, this often presents a problem... but at certain people's homes - those I know well enough - I bring out my teabag and have them make me a 'cuppa' instead of the obligatory coffee).

And the third thing that I cannot do without on a daily basis is a good time reading my bible, praying and spending time with the Lord. I really feel it on the days when I don't make the time to do this!! And now that spring is springing I will soon be able to go out on my balcony in the morning and have my "quiet time" out there - and maybe even enjoying a good cup of tea while I am at it!!

Family comes to town...

2011-03-30T22:30:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned in my last post, Ljilja's sister, Sladja, has been staying with us this last week while their aunt was in hospital for some tests (and everything is ok except for her thyroid, which is showing the signs of the same condition that I have -Hashimoto's thyroiditus). As the aunt was supposed to get out today, their uncle came back yesterday to sleep over and then take her back today. He brought his middle daughter (they have three), Saska, who is 3 1/2 and as cute as a button. Here is a great photo of the three "sisters" (here in Banja Luka they call cousins "sisters" as well):

Sladja, Ljilja and Saska

And here is Saska pretending to sleep with our "promiscuous" bear (he sleeps with all our guests, so someone once said that makes him "promiscuous"! So that is now his name...This is actually model number two as the other one got shrunk in the wash...):

The uncle also brought his nephew, Marko (ie another cousin), and so the three of them were sleeping in the above bed last night. Saska has a cough and in the middle of the night she coughed so much that she threw up. The resulting ruckus even woke up my landlady upstairs, but I managed to sleep through it all!! (I also managed to sleep through the 3.6 earthquake that woke up all the rest of Banja Luka last week!).

Here is the happy family at Ihtus after the aunt got out of the hospital this afternoon:

Behind: Sladja and Rada, in front: Marko, Ljilja and Miroslav

Rada didn't get out early enough for them to make the 6 hour trip back to Bileci (which is near Trebinje where Ljilja is from), so Marko and Sladja are with us for one more night and Miroslav, Rada and little Saska will be staying with friends. It has been fun having the family, especially Sladjana, around and it will be very strange when they leave!

Language mistakes...

2011-03-28T08:50:00.000+02:00

Many people ask me how long it took me to learn the language - and I always say "well, I am still learning!". Although I am fluent and able to do a lot in the language, there are so many nuances that I still find myself making a lot of mistakes. But the worst part is when I make a mistake repeatedly (unknowingly!) and no one corrects me:

Ljilja's sister is staying with us at the moment, while their aunt is here in Banja Luka in the hospital for some tests on her thyroid. Here they go into the hospital and do all the tests over a week to 10 days. I was telling people that she was here to do some "istrage". I told at least 3 people this. The FOURTH person was the only one brave enough to say that it isn't "istrage" (which is like a police investigation), but "pretraga"! Oh so close...

Over the weekend we "kidnapped" the aunt (who is younger than Ljilja as her uncle is only 3 years older than her) from the hospital during the day so she wouldn't be bored, and I told her about the "istage/pretrage" mistake. This prompted Ljilja to recall all of my other confusions of words, many I had forgotten. They say laughter is the best medicine, and Ljilja and her sister and aunt definitely got enough medicine at my expense!

I confused "preliv" (topping or sauce for icecream) and "proljev" (diarrhea)...I never wanted to ask for icecream sauce because of this... I couldn't remember the difference between "baksis" (tip for the waiter) and "baksuz" (unlucky person/bad luck), so I would leave the waiter "bad luck" and sometimes think that I was a "tip". And just yesterday I tried to say "patishpan" and it came out "pashtipan" (it is a kind of cake)... causing great hilarity!

Anyone who has learnt a new language in adulthood will know the joy and pain that comes along with getting something right, or getting something horribly wrong! I look at it this way: I get more right than I get wrong and in order to get it right sometimes I need to get it wrong... I will never forget "pretrage" for instance... but I wish that one of those first 3 people would have told me, so I could have learnt sooner!

English Conversation Classes 2011...

2011-03-26T17:41:00.000+01:00

We started last night with our Advanced English Classes: It started smallish with 8 people, but many people tell me that they will come next week. We who made it, had a good time. We had discussions, games, role plays, the full gambit! The funny thing is that out of the 8 people, we had 2 Tanjas and 2 Alens!

Game

Discussion


The two Tanjas

The two Alens

I usually end off the class with some lateral thinking puzzles and riddles: Here is my favourite - see if you can get it! What is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it you die?

Reading Club - Klub Citalaca

2011-03-25T13:37:00.000+01:00

We went last night to start up the Club at the Children's Home after an almost two month break. The volunteers went a couple of times while I have been gone, but then the Children's Home didn't want outsiders coming in during the flu season for fear of the kids getting swine flu. It was so great to see the kids again and they were all so happy to see us as well. We had a great group - 10 kids and 9 volunteers: so almost one-on-one attention for each child, which is something they crave. Before having a chance to share about the book that they read, each of the children must fill out a form showing what book they read and telling us a little bit about it. Here are the volunteers helping them do that:

Tanja with big Dragana

Jovana with little Dragana

Another Jovana with Jelena, Eliska with Brane

Sofija with Danijela

British Night at EKC Ihtus

2011-03-19T08:41:00.000+01:00

A group of 5 young people came from England and Wales to visit us in Banja Luka. While they were here, they helped us put on a "British Evening" at the Educational/Cultural Centre "Ihtus". Here I am introducing the team:

Jon, Jess, Nat, Jonny, Ester and myself

The evening was kicked off with a "Pub quiz" about Great Britain: Here are the different groups writing down their answers:

And the team that won were the "Chubby Bunnies":

Suzana, Jovana, Sandra and Damjan

The quiz was followed by scrumptious eats which we had spent most of the day making :-) Beside the below sausage rolls and cheese and pineapple sticks, they also had scones with jam and cream, and trifle! Everyone was also treated to a cup of tea with milk (very unusual here!)

And to end off, Ester sang us some lovely songs:

It was great to have the team, and the evening was a great success!

Last week in South Africa

2011-03-12T16:12:00.000+01:00

I spent the last week of my time in South Africa at a retreat on the Hartbeespoort dam near Johannesburg - the views from the retreat centre were magnificent:

The retreat was run by two lovely ladies, Jan and Mintie, and a wonderful staff from all over. This is the 3rd one of these retreats that I have been on and the first time I actually managed to get my picture with them:

The lovely mural which was in our meeting room and depicts Jesus on the shores of the Galilee was painted by Estelle and Elma (left):

There were 30 singles on the retreat (all ladies!) and we had plenary sessions in the morning and then free time in the afternoons.The theme of the week was the Beatitudes (from Matthew 5) and Jan who was the main speaker got those of us with different languages of the Bible to read it out in our language - either our mother tongue, or the language of the country where we are working. I didn't have my Serbian Bible with me, but I did have the Serbian translation on my computer so I copied that out so I could read it out (below). It was so nice to be able to hear God's word in languages from all over the world - including Cantonese!

We also had small group times in the evenings. I was in a great small group as is evident from the below photo :-)

Me, Isobel, Sonnika, Caroline and Janna

It was such a great way to transition from Cape Town to Banja Luka, and I am so glad that I ended up my time in South Africa in this way!

My heart is in two places...

2011-03-02T21:50:00.000+01:00

This is my last night in Cape Town before I start heading back to Bosnia. I can't believe that almost 3 months has passed since I arrived! I will be at a retreat near Johannesburg for a week and get back to Banja Luka next Friday. This week has been about saying goodbye again to all my friends and family whom I won't get to see again for almost 2 years... I have even started saying "so, see you in two years" which is kind of weird really, but that is my life!

Me with my good friend Keren

I am blessed by the fact that I do still have a lot of friends in Cape Town and that they do want to see me and spend time with me when I come. It has been so nice reconnecting with them and with my family that it, of course, makes it harder to leave again... but leave I must and I have good friends and "family" on that side which help me look forward to going back: but the reality is that my heart is in two places - once again I am neither here nor there

Bosnian Evening 2011

2011-02-23T07:06:00.000+01:00

Starting with food, fun, fellowship and followed by a quiz and dancing, this year's Bosnian evening was a great success. I got a LOT of help, as usual, and I love that it is something that people can all enjoy by helping out as well!

Me with the boys!

My mom (right) with some of her cell group

Getting friendly at the tables

Enjoying the food!

The food this year was "Krompirusa" (Potato Pie): below centre, "Carska slana pita" (Emperor's savoury pie): below right, and "Svekrve Oci" (Mother-in-law's eyes): below left. The Mother-in-law's eyes are a dessert made with figs and walnuts and it is delicious despite the name!

The Quiz this year was a "Pub Quiz" format with teams of 5 competing to answer 10 questions correctly. Thanks to Nils for doing the "Quizmastering"!! The questions were about me and my ministry and Bosnia and Banja Luka. The winning team included many in my prayer-team, so it would have been embarrassing if they had lost. Although my mom's team was a close run 2nd!

Me with the winning team (and baby Talyah in the background!)

After the fun and frivolity (I am going with the "f" theme on this blog it seems) we had a time of prayer in groups:

And then it was time for the DANCING:

The brave giving it a go!

Before cleaning up and heading home...

A great big thank-you to Keren - pictured above with her husband Nils (centre) and Andre - who did the kitchen for me and a whole lot more besides... and thank-you to everyone else who helped with everything: you know who you are!!

Ihtus opened!

2011-02-22T06:45:00.000+01:00

As I couldn't be there, here is what my colleague from the Czech Republic, David Symon, has to say about the opening:

"The Educational Cultural Centre 'Ihtus' was opened in Banja Luka on Saturday night. About 50 people including us workers attended the opening ceremony and the introduction concert of a local rock band "Važno obavještenje"=Important Notice. The Centre will serve as an atypical café with a library and place to study. We will hold seminars, English classes, movie nights, etc. in here."

"When I was introducing the band I said "welcome guys" and I completely forgot the female member of the group, a small embarrassment:) The other picture shows Neven, Jakub from Brno (visiting for one week) and Irena [who is David's fiance!]."

-taken from David's blog, thanks David!!

Other pictures from the opening:

Ljilja translating for Rami at the opening

And of the club:

Outside view

Inside view of one of the rooms

Even though I missed all of the really hard work, and am grateful to a wonderful team who pulled this all together, I do look forward to getting back and hosting teams, teaching English and doing Business Training at the Centre, amongst other things...

Johannesburg - Joburg - Jozi

2011-02-16T16:12:00.000+01:00

I went up for the weekend to Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, to stay with my friend Kirsten. I managed to catch up with quite a few people as well and also see a lot of the sights... I was taken to places ranging from the bohemian Arts on Main near Joburg downtown to the cheesy, italian-style Montecasino Mall in the north, where I met up with friends: Rina and her children, Cloe and David in front of the authentic Italian police car:

And David, Carol and little Angie in the Italian "street" complete with fake pigeons...

Besides spending time with other friends, including the Stacks (my former minister, John and his wife, Nora), Kirsten and I also went to the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto township: For those that don't know, Hector Pieterson was the boy killed in the 1976 Youth uprising, depicted in the iconic photograph, being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo and mourned by his sister, Antoinette Sithole. The picture became a symbol of white oppression under apartheid and the museum deals with not just the death of Hector, but is a memorial to all the youth - over 600 - killed in the struggle.

We also saw lots of other "lovely" parts of Johannesburg... And I must admit that despite my Cape Town prejudices, there are quite a few lovely parts - Joburg is actually part of the largest man-made forest in the world...
Here we are in front of a "pretty" mine dump - for those of you that don't know, Jozi, as it is affectionately called, was first populated because of mining...

And for Football/Soccer fans: here we are (in a self time photo) in front of the Soccer City Calabash: made especially for the 2010 World Cup!

I bought the tickets to fly to Joburg on a "special" last April (even before I bought my Cape Town tickets!) and thought it would never arrive, and now I am already on the other side...that is how fast time flies when you are having fun :-)

Methodist Covenant Service

2011-02-07T10:18:00.000+01:00

Here in Cape Town, I attend a Methodist Church. I started at the church, attending Sunday School, in 1981: so I have been going now to the same church for 30 years! When people ask, I always say that I am a Christ-follower who happens to attend a Methodist Church: not really a "Methodist". I have never really known what being a Methodist was all about, but one of the things that I enjoy about Methodism is that once a year (since 1755 when John Wesley instituted it) we pray through the "Covenant Prayer" as a way to dedicate or re-dedicate ourselves to God.

The prayer is simple, but powerful, and each year I have a renewed sense of how awesome it is to be a Christian who happens to go to a Methodist church. Here is the prayer (updated from John Wesley's time a little bit):

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside by you,
enabled for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Wow, powerful stuff. And I thank God that even as I am praying it, I am fully aware that I do not have the power within to be able to fulfil the prayer - it is only as God works in me and gives me the strength and grace that I am able to give myself over to God in this way.

I had an awesome illustration of this this morning. I was sitting out by the pool reading my bible. It is so great to be able to do that while I am at my folks' place that I am taking advantage of it as much as I can! I noticed that the leaf cleaner sunction thingie was working, which meant that the pool pump was working. However, the automatic pool cleaner wasn't going at all. I knew this meant that it had come loose from the pool pump, so I got up and attached it again and off it went cleaning away. And it just struck me that is how it is often with God: we come loose from His awesome power (usually through something we do!) and are unable to function the way that He has designed and purposed for us to function. We need to stay connected to the power in order to produce the fruit that He has for us...

And that is something that the Covenant service reminds us every year: to whom we are attached. To whom we are connected. And as we dedicate our lives again to staying connected, He will come through and give us all the power we need in our lives to carry out His purpose in them.

Neither here nor there...

2011-01-29T21:28:00.000+01:00

I remember the first time I came back to South Africa for furlough/holiday/vacation/sabbatical/whatever you want to call it... I felt like I was neither here nor there. I wanted to even write a book called "neither here nor there" about the experience (and still may one day!). This strange "reverse culture shock" is still the case, although I find myself being better at adjusting between the two: it is like a switch in my head goes on here and I act more South African: go barefoot, not stress about going out with wet hair, put my handbag on the floor amongst other things. And the same goes when I go back...

But, when I am here I miss there and when I am there I miss here... it is hard. Luckily, part of what I am doing while I am in South Africa is sharing my life in Bosnia to people here*, and so I get to share and talk about what goes on there, so it is a part of me here. (and of course in Bosnia people ask me all the time about my life in SA so the same goes there).

Also, people usually ask me where is "home": well, I say I am going "home" to South Africa when I am in Bosnia, and now I find myself thinking that I will be going "home" to Bosnia in 5 weeks... so both are "home" and neither...I am neither here nor there... I guess the best answer is that home is ultimately not here in this life, on this earth... And actually we are all neither here nor there...

*If you are in Cape Town and interested in finding out more about what I am doing: there will be a Bosnian Evening at Claremont Methodist Church on the 22nd of February at 7pm...

Lijlja and Sina part 2: the BIG 6 of Cape Town...

2011-01-22T11:14:00.000+01:00

We did such a lot with Ljilja and Sina while they were here (see part 1 for more) for two weeks: and after a week we discovered that there was actually a Cape Town Big 6 and we had only done one of them: the Waterfront:
Here with Table Mountain (and its tablecloth!) in the background:

We discovered this when we went up Table Mountain on Saturday night, as Table Mountain is also one of the Big 6. My aunt, Jan, took us to the top to celebrate her birthday with a sunset picnic and it was more than perfect. No wind (for those of you who don't know Cape Town - this is unusual!) and the sunset was the so breath-taking: pictures just don't do it justice:
Happy Birthday Jan!!

Robben Island was number 3 on the list: this was where Nelson Mandela (and many others) were imprisoned during the apartheid years and it is a sober reminder of the not-so-good stuff that went on in South Africa in the past...
But not for us to get too serious: Here we are hamming it up near Nelson's cell:

Another feature of the Island (which is in Table Bay) is that it has stunning views of Table Mountain:

We then had a beach day (yay!) and waited for the wind to die down for my dad to take us to number 4: Cape Point. Most people think it is the southernmost tip of Africa, which is actually Cape Agulhas about 200km East: and in fact we even heard some guy confidently telling his wife "this is the southernmost tip of Africa", but were too scared to disillusion him! This picture is actually of us and Cape Maclear and the Cape of Good Hope: but we didn't have any group pics in front of the actual "Cape Point": but you get the idea of the beauty of the place!!

And here we are at the southwestern most tip of Africa: Cape of Good Hope:

And dad took us for a picnic lunch at Buffelsbay which is stunning:

And luckily we had already encountered these guys on the road above Buffelsbay going away from the beach: they can be quite dangerous. Signs everywhere saying "Beware of the Baboons" didn't make an impact on our foreign guests: Ljilja wanted to take a better picture and so tells Sina "put down the window" and Sina starts doing it until Dad and I both scream in unison "no, no no nononoooooooo"!!! Luckily they didn't get in the car, but they can be quite aggressive as tourists have fed them and so they associate cars with food...

Next on the list was Kirstenbosch: our beautiful Botanical Gardens: Mom took us there and we wandered around before having brunch at the Tea garden.

And to round off the Big 6 of Cape Town and so Sina could experience some winelands: we went to the Constantia Winelands. More specifically Groot Constantia and Buitenverwachting: Here they are at Groot Constantia: so pretty!

We did spend one day visiting Khayalitsha, one of the townships (poorer suburbs), so they could also see that side of Cape Town: thanks Heather for the tour!

We also did fun South African stuff, like a braai (barbecue) with friends, "sundowners" on Llandudno with friends, Spur (a South African restaurant chain) outings and family pizza nights...

We all had such a wonderful time with them, and I know they both left with fantastic memories of their Cape Town adventure!

Ljilja and Sina in South Africa part 1

2011-01-12T09:50:00.000+01:00

Ljilja (my roommate from Bosnia) and Sina (our friend from Finland) arrived on Orthodox Christmas (which is what Ljilja celebrates: the 7th of January) and so we celebrated with a lovely "summery" Christmas meal... and they got to see where I got my crazy side from... Christmas is not Christmas without silly hats!

In the 5 days since they arrived, we have done an amazing amount of sight-seeing and also managed to do some shopping and relaxing by the pool...

Houtbay and Chapman's Peak:

Milnerton/Table Mountain: we will have to go back on a clear day!

Muizenberg-St James walk:

Boulders beach with the penguins:

There are many more pictures and experiences, but we are having such a great time, that I don't have enough time to catch-up with my blog! But I hope you enjoy this little taste of their visit so far...

Tea at Mama's

2011-01-02T17:21:00.000+01:00

With the boys enjoying the cricket, my mom, sister, niece and I went to have tea at my grandmother's house today. Four generations: (the fourth one, my mom, is taking the photo!)

One of the attractions of my gran's house is that it is right opposite a PARK! So, Amy and I took advantage of this and spent time enjoying all the different things the park has to offer... Sammy the seal joined us (he is her "class seal" and the idea is to take pictures of him travelling around the world with the different pupils in the class: so he came with Amy from England to South Africa). Amy loves having her photo taken: can you tell?

Iris and Justin do Cape Town...

2010-12-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

I first met Iris and Justin when they came to Bosnia with the GO Team in 2008. They returned this year with a Bless team and the news that they were planning on coming to SA in December for a wedding... After conferring with my parents, they were invited to stay with us while in Cape Town and as it was over Christmas to have Christmas with us!! Here we are in our garden:

They sent this pic out as their Christmas Card to people in cold, snowy Holland:

While they were here, they learnt about Cricket through watching it on TV with us, and not only that, but at my friends' house learnt how to play pool cricket! Their only comment was that the bat is heavy and it isn't as easy as it looks!

They returned to Holland today after what I think was a really nice stay! They got to do a lot of cool stuff while they were here, and also had a relaxing much- needed holiday. They are planning on bringing more teams to Bosnia, and I look forward to working with them again!

The true meaning of Christmas...

2010-12-27T18:40:00.000+01:00

Let us not forget that the real gift at Christmas is that Jesus came to this earth to be our Saviour... forget about all the other trappings and keep focussing on that! (The photo is featuring my niece, Amy, and was taken by my dad during the Christmas present opening time... love it!)

South African Christmas...

2010-12-25T20:09:00.000+01:00

I haven't been in South Africa for Christmas since 2002... I usually come in January every other year, and so miss the warm Christmas I grew up with...
So, it has been really special to be here with my family to celebrate our Saviour's birth. I have immersing myself in Christmas concerts and carol singing, and it has been really fun! And of course being able to swim and be in warm weather when it is literally freezing in Bosnia is not too shabby either!

Today there was 14 of us for dinner at my parents' house, including my friends, Justin and Iris, who are here visiting from Holland. When everyone arrived, it was time to open the piles of presents:

Here is my (almost) 90-year-old gran with Santa's helpers (aka my niece and nephew), James and Amy:

After the presents were open, it was time for lunch, complete with Christmas crackers and silly hats!

And if you were wondering where I get my whacky sense of life from, you don't have to look further than my gran :-) Pictured here with James' flashy glasses!

Graeme's 40th Marima Braai...

2010-12-17T08:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to a braai (a barbecue in South Africa is called a "braai") for my friend Graeme's 40th birthday. I have been friends with Graeme for over 20 years, which is quite scary! It was great to spend time with him and his wife Nicole, celebrating his special anniversary. They organised for a marimba band (from the school where Nicole teaches) to come and help us have a fun evening... They played (very well) for us, and then we could have a go: Here are the first group of brave tryers: (Graeme is on the left):

Graeme

Nicole

I had to give it a go too: although I was only brave enough to do the base part, and it isn't as easy as it looks!

Where the streets have my name...

2010-12-13T20:40:00.000+01:00

So, my luggage finally arrived and of course the had broken the zip on my suitcase!!! I wrote to them and hopefully they will get back to me soon...

I went tonight with my Dad to go buy something off Gumtree (the equivalent of Craig's list) in a suburb of Cape Town I have never been to - Kirstenhof - and discovered two streets with both my names on them! And they are within two hundred metres of each other!!! How cool is that?

I am in South Africa, but my luggage is in Germany...

2010-12-11T15:35:00.000+01:00

So, I made it safely to South Africa, but my luggage didn't... But it was kind of inevitable really... the whole trip was a bit of a nightmare: the first time I have been delayed ever, and so having it also be the first time I lost my luggage was kind of par for the course!

It took me 48 hours to get from door to door: I caught the bus to Zagreb on Wednesday morning and had lunch with my friend Juliana, before heading to the airport. Then the nightmare began...my flight from Zagreb to Frankfurt was diverted to Munich because of heavy snow. We all stood for 3 hours from 9.45pm-12.45am waiting to get rebooked and hopefully a hotel of some sort... No such luck. I got almost to the front of the queue and they told us that they were shutting down and would open up at 5am again... no hotel and by the time I got to the beds (camp cots in the airport) I almost didn't get one...(I am sorry to the person whose stuff I moved off the bed - you not snoozing, you loozing)... Eventually the next morning after about two hours of sleep, I got rebooked on a flight direct (with another airline) from Munich to Cape Town which got me here Friday morning (sans luggage!)

One of the things that fascinated me was the fact that there was a whole group of us who bonded in the queue, people from Slovakia, Australia, Croatia, the US: all stuck in the same situation and making the time go faster by talking to each other about everything and anything. And we didn't even know each others' names: and yet we were all excited when we all finally got rebooked or found another way, etc... I know I will never see any of them ever again, but for those few hours we felt like family. A kind weird estranged family maybe, but family nonetheless...

Now I am catching up on sleep and just getting used to being in this strange, warm, windy weather, trying to figure out what to wear (luckily I have some clothes here!) and praying that my luggage (which was pretty much 80% presents) does eventually get here!

And next time I will go via Istanbul... no snow!

Last Advanced Class...

2010-12-06T22:07:00.000+01:00

After 6 weeks of Advanced Classes, we had our "graduation" tonight. We decided to have 6 weeks of classes, not "Club" and at the end to give an actual Certificate. 8 students out of the 15 that started, came each week and received their "Certificates". Over the 6 weeks, we have worked through a lot of good stuff: from discussions about the Chilean miners, to blonde jokes, and similes and idioms... we also played some fun games and just generally found ways that we could have fun while talking in English! David and Eliska have been faithful helpers, and it has been a really great group, as the below photo shows!!!

This group was a trial run to see how this format will work in the future, and it has shown to be successful. With the English Club I was never sure how many people would show up, and it made it hard to plan. With the classes, I knew that I would have a nice group of people and so was able to plan a lot better, and have more interesting activities... at least I hope so! We also did some of the fun games and activities that we did at the Club: "lateral thinking", for instance, is a firm favourite... I look forward to starting up another Advanced Class next year!

Klub Citalaca - Reading Club

2010-12-03T14:40:00.000+01:00

Here is a really goofy pic from last night. I so enjoy these kids and the volunteers who come along to help us with the club:

Over the weeks that we have been running the club, besides going over the books they have read and reading a bit to them, we have been doing little activities each time in order to make this poster:

It is trying to get other kids to come along and read with us. It says things like "I love reading books and fairy-tales", "A book-my best friend", "when I am angry, a book is my best friend" and "let's read". Also some of their favourite books are on there "Snow white and the 7 dwarfs" and "Alibaba" among them. We also gave out some prizes last night (each time they read 5 books, they get a prize!) and that may be an even bigger incentive... but whatever way we do it, we are trying to get the kids at the Children's Home to fall in love with reading and make it a lifelong habit!

Barbies and Lego...

2010-11-30T22:41:00.000+01:00

On Sunday afternoon, Ljilja and Enisa (who was visiting from Sarajevo) and I went with Tanja and her two kids, Snjezana and Bojan to see the international Barbie and Lego exhibition that is in Banja Luka until tomorrow. It was pretty amazing - although I was disappointed there wasn't more Lego (there was much more Barbie than Lego). The kids (and adults) did have a fun time, as besides the displays they had games and a BIG slide... Thanks to Tanja for the photos as I didn't have my camera with me...

Here is Snjeza in front of "Wedding Barbie":

The Harley Davidson Barbie and Ken: I am not making this stuff up - that was what it said on the label! Who knew there was a dark side to the Barbster?

There really were all kinds of Barbies...

And then the Legos: Boki in front of Lego Sponge Bob and Robin Hood:

And this one is for Dragana, who loves Penguins... isn't it cute?

As I said, I was a bit disappointed with the Legos, as there weren't that many of them: but there were plenty of Barbies, including ones from different countries: Here are Ljilja and Enisa in front of some country, not sure which one :-)

And me with the "South African Barbie":

While Boki was going on the slide a hundred times, Snjeza, Enisa and I played with some of the available Barbies:

And Tanja decided that she is actually the ultimate Barbie :-)

All in all, it was a fun way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon...