Busy. Busy. Belgrade.

On Friday we had an extremely busy day!  In the morning we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where we spent time looking at their new exhibit on Serbian history and the history of Serbian Foreign Affairs.  After we went to the Institute of International Politics and Economics where we discussed Serbia’s main Foreign Policies objectives and the controversial issue of the recognition of Kosovo.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Typical Belgrade street.  

I thought this was interesting... instead of gargoyles there is a man in a stance ready to behead a man. (see the statues on the left side of the building)

Our meeting with the Institute of International Politics and Economics

After our political meetings we met with a fun organization called e8.  E8 works to improve gender equality, civil engagement and health awareness among youth in Serbia.  The organization is made up of fun and young employees that use creative tactics to improve key issues in Serbia.  It was really great to see an organization that is incredibly inspired and enthusiastic about creating a better social environment in Serbia.   

Our last meeting on Friday was with our energetic professor, Professor Lovely!  It was the second lecture on state building and tactics used for successful state building.  Professor Lovely is an incredibly enthusiastic lecture and I am really looking forward to taking his class next semester!

The President is leaving the Building.

This past week we have met with an array of organization and political leaders in Belgrade.  We met with Praxis, a refugee assistance organization in Serbia.  They have mainly been working with the Roma population in Serbia, who were displaced from their homes in Kosovo, as part of the Kosovo-Serbian dispute.  Many Roma people in Serbia are now currently living in conditions that are considered under the “minimal standard of living” and Praxis is working to help improve their standard of living and gain legal documents in order to attain health insurance and property rights.  A couple of students from our group who are interest in pursuing a career with refugees were able to visit one of the Roma refugee camps.  


Marie, one of the students who went to visit the Roma Refugees was kind enough to share the photos with me so that you can gain a better understanding of why there is an organization focusing on helping the Roma people.  Thank you Marie! 

They literally live in these 'containers.'

                                      

Just as we had done in BiH we were able to visit with the President’s Foreign Affairs advisor.  However, unlike last time we were not able to meet with the President of Serbia.  He was in the building when we were there but left soon after we arrived (I promise we did not smell).  The Foreign Affair’s advisor was surprisingly really young!  After our meeting our TA told us that the new government in Serbia (only elected into office 2 months ago) has had difficulty with having educated officials. The current President went from having his high school education to his Ph.D in 3 years... and he was taped making speeches when he was supposed to be in class… 

The fancy room in the Presidents Building that our meeting was in. 

The flag on the left is the EU flag (they are not a member yet but applying for membership, the center flag is the Serbian flag, and the flag on the right is the Presidents flag (specific to this president).

The Foreign Affairs advisor on the right and his and his assistant, left.

Allie and I!

We also met with the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, a think tank that focuses on different aspects of Security in and outside of Serbia.  Different employees had different areas of study ranging from gender roles in Security to the role of NATO.  They also act as a check system to corruption in Serbia’s security forces.  However, it was disappointing to find out that they have no real pull other than letting the public know when there is corruption within the government’s security forces.  After the meeting we were able to get lunch with the Serbian interns at the organization, which led to some really engaging conversations about what they were researching themselves.  

A church near the BCSP.

The hotel that we are staying in Belgrade was kind enough to give us a discount price on laundry services.  Each room was allowed one bag of laundry for $5!  My roommate Allie and I put together a bag and I brought it down to the front desk.  I told her our room number and handed her the bag and she said “Just a wash right?” and I made a funny face and she noticed and said “of course a dry too” and I was like “okay good!” and be both had a little chuckle.  The next afternoon I came home to Allie hanging up every single item that we had asked them to wash.  They were all wet.  She found them neatly folded in a pile on a bag on the floor.  So strange.  We then asked our Serbian TA if this was normal and asked around if other people got their clothes back wet and nope. They all had dry clothes when they got them back.  We are still dumbfounded as to why this happened!  Luckily, I bought camping "laundry line" rope before I left for when I had to hand wash clothes. 

End product of our solution to wet clothes... 

Our friend Ian stopped in later to see what we were up to... He was a little shocked. 

CANVAS

First off, I am sorry if you read my last post yesterday or this morning... I meant to save it as a draft but it accidentally posted and there were so many mistakes because I was still working on it... Sorry!  It is all fixed now!

In the beginning of the week we visited with the Zoran Dindic Foundation.  The Zoran Dindic Foundation is a foundation dedicated to Zoran Dindic who started the Democratic Party in Serbia was the Prime Minister from 2001 until 2003 when he was assassinated.  He was a pretty astounding person and virtually gave up his life to create a more democratic Serbia.  The foundation promotes greater economic advancements through international internship programs for college graduates.  During the meeting with the Zoran Dindic Foundation the woman asked if we had hear for Zoran prior to arriving in Serbia and sadly most of us had not.  Then she asked if we had heard of Slobadon Milosevic (I explain him below if you do not know who he is but in short he is a dictator) and many of us had.  She then made the point… It is sad to see how much emphasis is put on the “bad guys” yet the good guys are not recognized nearly as much, which is true and really disappointing.

After the meeting with the Zoran Dindic Foundation a group of us took a trip to Ada Lake to go swimming!   The lake was fun and it was nice to swim after being in extremely hot weather for the last 3 weeks!

'Pura Vida' in Serbia?!?! ... Costa Rica keeps popping back up! 

For the last 3 days we have had 7 hour days training with a organization called CANVAS.  Canvas formed out of the OTPOR (the word for resistance in Serbian) student group.  OTPOR was a non-violent group that successfully over threw Slobadon Milosevic’s regime.  Milosevic was the President of Serbia from 1989-1997 and had a large role in the fall of Yugoslavia because of his Serbian nationalistic polities… that is the short story.  Canvas now trains other groups around the world to help them form their own non-violent movements against their government.  It is pretty inspiring to see how influential a small group of people can be and how they can make a small idea to grow.  Training our group was a little different than what the trainers were used.  Usually they train people with a strong desire to over throw their dictator and the people usually do not have beyond a high school education.  This made the training easier yet harder for them because we did not need to go over terms or concepts like they do when they train other groups.  However, when it came to finding something that we wanted to change in our government we thought of, healthcare system, college tuition, policies on illegal immigrants (in favor of immigrants) and policies on the war on drugs, which turned into the legalization of marijuana… none of which were very compelling movements.  It is not like Obama is a dictator and we were all passionate about over throwing him.  This made it harder to complete some of the parts of the training, especially because we are not experts on the types of changes that we come up with.  But over all it was a really great experience! 

Dinner at the Mexican Restaurant! ... I can't stay away from rice and beans ... and the margaritas! 

                 Stephanie and I at the Mexican Restaurant

My 'Artsy' picture of the city and our Margaritas! 

On to Belgrade, Serbia!

We made the long hall from Mostar to Sarajevo, to get our suitcases, then from Sarajevo to Belgrade, Serbia!  The whole trip took us about 11 hours via bus with a few stops along the way.  We even got a bigger bus from Sarajevo to Belgrade so that we each had our own seat… It was a pretty big deal after occupying every single seat in the bus from Mostar to Sarajevo (3 plus hour bus ride).  We did not get into Belgrade until around 11pm at night but we could already tell that it was a much bigger city than Sarajevo or Mostar.  The next day we took a 3-hour walking tour of Belgrade that ended at the old fortress from World War I!

Differing from Bosnians, Serbians do not credit the US with ending the war in 1995 and actually have a great amount of animosity towards Americans especially after the 1999 NATO bombings.  We were told that we would not be liked as much in Belgrade as we were in Sarajevo but it was nothing to be concerned about.  However, early last week a few of us experienced something that shocked us but at the same time we thought it could happen every once in a while...  A group of us were walking back to our hotel from dinner, which passes through a small park.  When we entered the park there was a group of people hanging out by a bench, they looked about our age and did not look threatening.  One of the girls in the group started to talk to us in Serbian.  We didn’t understand them so I turned to them and said “English?”… that was all I said.  Then the girl and a few others pitched in saying, “Fuck you all” etc.  We were a bit taken back by what had happened because we were simply walking back from dinner and had not even been talking really so we didn’t know how they could have known that we were Americans or why they were even saying such things.  It did not really bug us other than being confused.  The next day at breakfast we approached our TA and explained what happened… he was shocked.  He couldn’t believe that had happened to us and apologized to us (clearly it was his fault).  He said that that does not usually happen and it was probably just some punks. 

Cathedral of Saint Sava "the largest Orthodox church in Europe." They began construction in May of 1935, however, construction was halted under the communist regime in Serbia and was not resumed until 1985.  

The inside of the Cathedral.  There was still a lot of construction and work to be done. 

Damaged Building from the 1999 NATO Bombings. 

Costa Rica? What are you doing here!

Mostar

The Famous Mostar Bridge

This past weekend we took a trip to Mostar!  Mostar is primarily Bosniak and Croat with a small Serb population.  Our professor told us to pay close attention to the beer!... Not kidding.  But there is a reason for this… In Sarajevo the primary beer on tap and sold in bars is Sarajevsko (a Bosniak beer) and it is rare to find anywhere that sells the Croat beer in Sarajevo (I forget the name brand of Croat beer).  However, in Mostar they sell both Sarajevsko and the Croat brand! 

We only had two half days and one full day to explore Mostar but it is a relatively small town so we were content with the time that we had there.   On the full day we hiked up to the “big cross” (it does not have an official name) on hill Hum.  It took us a little over an hour and a half to get to the top and it was beautiful!

The tiny cross on the top of the mountain was our destination!

A few from the start of the hill!

Almost to the crossss!

Group picture at the base of the Big cross.

This is the small cross that was next to the big one.

After a long day of hiking we sat down for a nice dinner in town and then met with a Serbian, Sito, who told us about the history of Mostar.  One of the stops we made on the small tour of Mostar was an old Orthodox Church.  We were able to sit in on a church service, which was really cool!  I was sitting on a bench in the church and all the sudden I felt small droplets of water falling from the ceiling!  It was almost like a mist rather than rain.  I looked up and there was nothing there!... No air fresheners that could have misted on me and I even pulled down my sun glasses that were on the top of my head to make sure that I was not crazy but sure enough, there were little drips on my lenses!  I turned to my friend Ian sitting next to me and tried to quietly ask him if he felt a mist but he said no and looked confused.  I tired not to freak out and think that God or a Serb saint was trying to get my attention but I was still extremely freaked out!  I soon forgot about it when we gathered outside after the service and Sito let us refill our water bottles at the outside faucet.  Someone commented on how they wished they could put their head under the faucet or run through the sprinklers because it was so hot and Sito was like that’s fine Serbs are cool.  Haha  As I was running through the sprinkler I looked at the window that I was sitting by... that was open!  God was not trying to talk to me the sprinkler was just spraying into the church! 

Rebuilding the old Serbian Church.

Orthodox Church.

Outside of the Orthodox Church

                                                      Sito!

Sunset at the top of the hill near the Orthodox Church. 

Me with the Mostar Bridge. 

Tito, Tito, Tito.

 Story time!  On Friday we met with a member of the Serbian Orthodox Chruch, Dragan.  Dragan lived in Peabody, MA for a few years and happened to meet Mladen (our TA) who lives in Boston.  Dragon told us a little about the Orthodox Church then he told us a little bit about his history… 

Dragan grew up in Sarajevo and his best friend, Samir, was Muslim.  At the time this was not a problem, they were like brothers.  They went to each other’s religious and academic celebrations, everything was civil until a few months prior to the war.  The Christmas before the war in 1991 Dragan asked his Muslim friend to come over for Christmas.  Samir told him he could not because his father would not allow it.  His father said that, “Serbs were the ancient enemy of Islam.”  These types of incidents continued to occur until the war started in 1992.  Then soon after Dragon joined the Serb army and Samir joined that Bosniak army.  Dragan and Samir were around 21 years old at the start of the war.  They were essentially fighting each other.  However, they had made an agreement to not shoot at each other if the situation ever came about but they were still on opposing sides.  During the war Dragan would send Samir’s family food during the war because he knew they had less access to goods than the Serb side.  They both survived the war but Dragan had to move out of Sarajevo because Serbs were exiled from Sarajevo.  However, Dragan was still looked at as a trader in the Republic of Srpska because he did not have extreme hatred towards the Muslims and would even help Muslims.  In 1998, Dragan returned to Sarajevo with his father for the first time since the war.  They had just allowed the Serbs to reclaim their property rights in Sarajevo and Dragon and his family wished to move back home.  Upon arrival in Sarajevo Dragan was walking down the street and ran into Samir who was with 3 of his Muslim friends.  Dragan greeted them with a friendly hello, however, he shortly after found himself on the ground in severe pain after his ‘friend’ and 3 others beat him.  Dragan was so injured that his father had to drive him to a hospital in the Republic of Srpska to treat his injuries.  Dragan then waited a few years to return to Sarajevo again because he was afraid of what could happen.  When he returned to Sarajevo he crossed paths with Samir’s father and he told him that Samir went to Afghanistan as part of a radical Islamic movement.  The next time Dragan heard from Samir’s family was to invite him to Samir’s funeral for he had been killed in Afghanistan.  Dragan attended his friend’s funeral and still receives visits from Samir’s mother.  

After hearing this extremely emotional and disheartening story I was amazed at how nonchalant Dragan was about the entire thing.  I admired his determination to never give up on his childhood best friend after Samir treated him cruelly and without gratitude after all that Dragan had done for Samir and his family.  After he finished speaking he asked if we had any questions and everyone was silent, we were in awh.  When no one spoke for a minute he said, really you can ask whatever you want I will not be offended.  A few questions were asked but we were still all in shock after such an incredible story.

Mladen (Black Shirt) introducing Dragan (white/blue shirt).

On to Mostar!  This weekend we took a trip to Mostar, Southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.  On the way we stopped at Tito’s Bunker.  The 4.6 million dollar secret bunker that was built to withstand nuclear war in order to protect Tito, Yugoslavia’s communist leader, and his inside circle.  At the lowest point the bunker is 300 meters underground and is equipped with bedrooms, offices, bathrooms, etc.  The bunker was large enough to hold around 350 people.  It was started in 1953 but was not finished until 1979, only a year before Tito’s death.  Currently, it is being transformed into an art museum/cultural center for the public. 

I thought the bunker was really cool and could not believe that such efforts were made for 350 people!  It was crazy to see the well preserved “state of the art” technology during the 1970’s completely untouched and still in its original place.

The hallway connecting the different sections.  

Mladen showing us one of the art exhibit.  One artist used his helmet from the war, put it on and did this... (see next picture)

He smashed his head into the enlarged photo of him and his family... symbolic of the war?  Interpret it as you will. 

This room was initially just a room for gas tanks then an artist turned it into, rain drops falling on to the shoulders (the two gas tanks) of a man in neon light....

TITO!  There was a framed picture of Tito in at least every room, in some rooms there were multiple!... There was even one in Tito's office and bedroom, awkward.

Telephones from the 1970's!

They even had a lecture room! 

Tito's office that he never even set a foot in. 

Tito's bed... and an artist's statement.

Where Tito would have pooped. 

The view from out side of the bunker!  Why would you ever want to hid from this?

About an hour or so away from the bunker... A strategic bridge from world war I... it was rebuilt and destroyed, twice for a movie.