Hello! I haven't been writing in a long while because I haven't had a computer or consistent internet... but a lot has happened. Most importantly - I AM AN AUNTIE!!! My brother welcomed his first child into the world on July 3. Her name is Alice Juliet Kinyon Minor. Though I am having a wonderful time traveling I really can't wait to get home and meet my newest loved one.
The program is over! strange whirlwind of a finish! As always with these things.
This is a group shot of Copenhagen 2012 in the Christianshavn meeting room :) Wonderful group of people.
Bosnia.... it was one of the most powerful weeks of my life. After the HIA conference in Sarajevo I stuck around and saw the city for a day. We (five friends from my program last year plus an HIA fellow from France) took a trip around the outskirts of Sarajevo. Amazing views from the hills, local watering holes, and of course the tunnel of hope. The 800 meter long, 1.5 meter high tunnel through which military personnel, civilians, food, supplies, medicines... everything... came in and out of Sarajevo during the four year siege. The entrance is strangely anonymous. A family allowed the tunnel to emerge in the basement - taking enormous risks in doing so of course. Like many areas of Sarajevo there are still bullet holes all over that home.
This is me and my friend Una (she works for HIA doing office and book keeping stuff) along the river that runs through Sarajevo. That is a cultural center behind us. Una is so amazing! Blessed to have her as a new friend. Una, and Sara and I spent an afternoon wandering at the end of the conference. It was a welcome change of pace to be in a smaller group and without a particular agenda of things to see and do. I'm so glad I'll get to live in the same place as the two of them soon.
(side note: my friend, who is Bosnian, opined that the bullet holes left behind in Sarajevo are a complicated mixture of not having the funds to repair and not wanting to cover up the conflict. Sarajevo is majority Bosniak. The war can be somewhat considered a civil war - but it was also largely a war of aggression from the Bosnian Serbs against the Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats.... but I hesitate to categorize too much. If I've learned anything in Bosnia it is that you cannot say anything about the war or ethnic groups without several caveats. Ethnicity doesn't equal religion and vice versa... but often they stand in for each other politically. which leads to more tension.)
While in Sarajevo we also visited Srebrenica, the site of Europe's worst genocidal crime since World War Two. Obviously a difficult visit. An over three hour bus ride from Sarajevo, extremely hot - the Balkans are HOT. We met with a man who survived Srebrenica, Hasan Nuhanovic. He was a translator for the Dutch peacekeepers who turned 6,000 Bosniaks over to the Serb army. He was forced to turn over his parents and brother to the Serbs but held back himself to translate. Over the past 9 years he has been engaged in a law suit against the government of the Netherlands... but the trouble is, UN troops can't be prosecuted on the national level.
Here is a video of him: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/nuhanovic
It was a powerful presentation. Hard to say much more about it. We all sat in a large hall and he began to talk. A few minutes in he told us that we were sitting in the large containment area where the Bosniaks were gathered before they were slaughtered. Where he had said goodbye to his family 17 years ago.
Another thing Bosnia has taught me - 17 years is an EXTREMELY SHORT TIME.
Sarajevo is filled with this tumultuous cascade of lightness and weight. Young people carry the stories and prejudices of their parents, the elderly remember a time when everyone coexisted, and ethnicity is never far from the surface although everyone looks the same. Seriously. They are all Yugoslavians. There are different religious roots but no one is "purely" Croat or Bosniak or Serb. And Muslims are not "new". In Mostar, Muslims and Catholics coexisted peacefully for five hundred years before the war.
The HIA conference was really fantastic. I saw presentations on Internally Displaced People in Bosnia from the war - there are still thousands. The shifting political landscape and national economy makes it hard for them to return home - either members of a different ethnic group have moved into the area or there is no longer a home where they lived... etc. I also learned about segregated schools in Bosnia. A MAJOR issue.
As always meeting new amazing people was a highlight of the conference. So we did some fun / upbeat stuff too. Here we are at the Eurocup semifinal, Italy vs. Germany. That's Kasper, Margrethe, me, Pierre-Anthony, and Una.
And here I am at the conference closing reception in a building overlooking part of the city. Bosnia is GORGEOUS. absolutely beautiful. the beautiful photos are coming soon.... That's Ogi and Tara behind me.
Outside our hotel which was in the hills of Sarajevo overlooking the city center, etc. Gorgeous, gorgeous place.
Marija and me in Sarajevo Old Town. FANS are such a good thing. Marija had one in Copenhagen last year and I thought it was a fashion statement type situation... No. So much more than that.
When we went on our tour of Sarajevo was stopped at an ancient Roman bridge on the outskirts of town (after looking at the tunnel of hope). I made 'friends' with two little girls... they taught me some Bosnian. "Volim vas!" We love each other! and of course: "Vi volim Bosnia!" We love Bosnia. Dang I love children... I have been wanting to snatch them all up - especially since I'm about to meet my newborn little niece when I come home! Every kid is a major reminder of her for me.
More later.... I am in Belgrade now and want to see a little something... we took an overnight bus here from Montenegro and are all a bit drowsy but I think I'm fresher than most. I'm a solid bus sleeper.
The next post will be a bit more upbeat - abotu our visit to Marija's place - my friend from Southern Bosnia, and Mostar and Dubrovnik. And buses in between... transit is always amusing....
All my love,
Alice
The program is over! strange whirlwind of a finish! As always with these things.
This is a group shot of Copenhagen 2012 in the Christianshavn meeting room :) Wonderful group of people.
Bosnia.... it was one of the most powerful weeks of my life. After the HIA conference in Sarajevo I stuck around and saw the city for a day. We (five friends from my program last year plus an HIA fellow from France) took a trip around the outskirts of Sarajevo. Amazing views from the hills, local watering holes, and of course the tunnel of hope. The 800 meter long, 1.5 meter high tunnel through which military personnel, civilians, food, supplies, medicines... everything... came in and out of Sarajevo during the four year siege. The entrance is strangely anonymous. A family allowed the tunnel to emerge in the basement - taking enormous risks in doing so of course. Like many areas of Sarajevo there are still bullet holes all over that home.
This is me and my friend Una (she works for HIA doing office and book keeping stuff) along the river that runs through Sarajevo. That is a cultural center behind us. Una is so amazing! Blessed to have her as a new friend. Una, and Sara and I spent an afternoon wandering at the end of the conference. It was a welcome change of pace to be in a smaller group and without a particular agenda of things to see and do. I'm so glad I'll get to live in the same place as the two of them soon.
While in Sarajevo we also visited Srebrenica, the site of Europe's worst genocidal crime since World War Two. Obviously a difficult visit. An over three hour bus ride from Sarajevo, extremely hot - the Balkans are HOT. We met with a man who survived Srebrenica, Hasan Nuhanovic. He was a translator for the Dutch peacekeepers who turned 6,000 Bosniaks over to the Serb army. He was forced to turn over his parents and brother to the Serbs but held back himself to translate. Over the past 9 years he has been engaged in a law suit against the government of the Netherlands... but the trouble is, UN troops can't be prosecuted on the national level.
Here is a video of him: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/nuhanovic
It was a powerful presentation. Hard to say much more about it. We all sat in a large hall and he began to talk. A few minutes in he told us that we were sitting in the large containment area where the Bosniaks were gathered before they were slaughtered. Where he had said goodbye to his family 17 years ago.
Another thing Bosnia has taught me - 17 years is an EXTREMELY SHORT TIME.
Sarajevo is filled with this tumultuous cascade of lightness and weight. Young people carry the stories and prejudices of their parents, the elderly remember a time when everyone coexisted, and ethnicity is never far from the surface although everyone looks the same. Seriously. They are all Yugoslavians. There are different religious roots but no one is "purely" Croat or Bosniak or Serb. And Muslims are not "new". In Mostar, Muslims and Catholics coexisted peacefully for five hundred years before the war.
The HIA conference was really fantastic. I saw presentations on Internally Displaced People in Bosnia from the war - there are still thousands. The shifting political landscape and national economy makes it hard for them to return home - either members of a different ethnic group have moved into the area or there is no longer a home where they lived... etc. I also learned about segregated schools in Bosnia. A MAJOR issue.
And here I am at the conference closing reception in a building overlooking part of the city. Bosnia is GORGEOUS. absolutely beautiful. the beautiful photos are coming soon.... That's Ogi and Tara behind me.
Outside our hotel which was in the hills of Sarajevo overlooking the city center, etc. Gorgeous, gorgeous place.
Marija and me in Sarajevo Old Town. FANS are such a good thing. Marija had one in Copenhagen last year and I thought it was a fashion statement type situation... No. So much more than that.
When we went on our tour of Sarajevo was stopped at an ancient Roman bridge on the outskirts of town (after looking at the tunnel of hope). I made 'friends' with two little girls... they taught me some Bosnian. "Volim vas!" We love each other! and of course: "Vi volim Bosnia!" We love Bosnia. Dang I love children... I have been wanting to snatch them all up - especially since I'm about to meet my newborn little niece when I come home! Every kid is a major reminder of her for me.
More later.... I am in Belgrade now and want to see a little something... we took an overnight bus here from Montenegro and are all a bit drowsy but I think I'm fresher than most. I'm a solid bus sleeper.
The next post will be a bit more upbeat - abotu our visit to Marija's place - my friend from Southern Bosnia, and Mostar and Dubrovnik. And buses in between... transit is always amusing....
All my love,
Alice
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