Hello from Tuzla

I arrived in Tuzla in the afternoon of Tuesday, May 22nd. I was so excited to finally arrive. The day started out with me leaving Belgrade, Serbia via bus. The first bus brought me into Bosnia but into the Republic of Srpska, the Serb controlled portion of the country. The Bosnian boarder agent looked at me quite strangly, and my passport was the only one he took off the bus. Obviously not many Americans take this route into the country. Once in the Republic of Srpska, I had to change buses so I could arrive in Tuzla which is part of the Bosnian Federation.

When I arrived in Tuzla, I couldn’t find a kisok that sold phone cards to the pay phones, only pre-paid cell phone cards, so I couldn’t give Semir- the translator at Bolje Sutra (Better Tomorrow) a call. Semir had given me instructions to give a taxi driver in case I couldn’t get a hold of him. I approached a taxi driver and asked him to take me to “Osnovna škola Solina”- the Solina Elementary School, where Bolje Sutra’s center is.

When I got out of the taxi in Solina, with my big bag, I had many eyes staring at me. Kids stopped playing soccer and adults waiting for the bus paused mid-conversation to watch me pass by. Apparently travelers with large bags in the small village suburb is not normal.
I walked toward the small building that is Better Tomorrow on the side of the school which I had seen in pictures. A million thoughts were racing through my mind. Most importantly was “What am I going to say.” I caught a woman’s eye as I walked past the window and by the time I was reaching for the door knob she was opening it.

“Are you Patrick?” Maurveta asked in Bosnian. Shoot, that was my first line. I answered that I was Patrick. She rushed me into the office to meet Binasa, the director of Bolje Sutra and my new boss. After less than 2 minutes I used up all the Bosnian I could remember. So the three of us sat. In silence. Smiling at each other.

Sitting in silence is becoming one of my new favorite past times. Most of the time I am thinking what I would say, if I were to say something. One begins to really measure the importance of what they would like to say. We sat for about 5 minutes until Mirza, one of the volunteers who speaks English, arrived. I was given a little orientation to Tuzla and the center.

Then it was time to go home. I am currently staying with Binasa, so her husband came to pick us up. Mirza said, “This will be interesting since Binasa does not speak English.” I couldn’t agree with him more. He said that he would pick me up from Binasa’s home at 7 since we were going to a basketball game in the city. That left we me with just 2 1/2 hours of silence and difficult communication, I thought.

Shortly after we got to Binasa’s home, a 3 minutes drive away, dinner was ready. A meal of cold roasted lamb, sheep’s cheese, lots of tomatoes, and bread was served. It was amazing. For dessert we had baklava Binasa had made for her daughter’s wedding the weekend before. Binasa also spoke much more English than she led me to believe. She definitely had an intermediate level of understanding and speaking, but she wants to get better as the summer goes on. We became a little more acquainted with one another.

The basketball game was a lot of fun. It was a playoff game against Sarajevo. The Sarajevo team was far better with players who had played all over Europe and in the NBA. The crowd was mostly composed of football (soccer) fans that were getting ready for the final football match the next day. The arena was the size of the Chiles Center at UP, about 5 or 6,000 fans could be seated inside, if that, and the seats were folding wooden chairs. The entire game people were throwing streamers onto the court. People whistled to boo every time Sarajevo had the ball. They had loud football chants every time Sloboda had possession. The teams from Tuzla, both football and basketball, were called Sloboda which means “Freedom”. The best part of the game was when the ref’s mad a bad call, people would throw nuts and beer at the refs and players. Everything at the game was cheap. Tickets were only 4 km and beers were only 1 km (or $3 and $.75).

Wednesday morning I walked with Binasa to Bolje Sutra and arrived at 9am. I studied Bosnian for an hour and then another volunteer came in from the center at Sički Brod. We had coffee while they talked business. The coffee is quite strong here. Starbucks doesn’t have anything on this stuff. As kids began coming into the center, they were asking to meet me. After a few minutes of watching, laughing and speaking in Bosnian, they began showing off their English to me. It was basic, but very good. Some had much more confidence than others. I noticed the kids signing up for something on the wall. I found out it was a sign up list for my English class. After one day, 40 of the 80 slots were filled. Apparently there will be a class for the parents too!

The first three days were exhausting trying to acclimate to Tuzla. I go into the center each morning with Binasa. The first hour or two are quiet before the kids arrive. It is fun when the kids come in because they want to show off what they know and what they are learning. At the same time they are trying to teach me Bosnian. They certainly learn much more quickly than I do. The good news is that there are a few groups of children who are working with me so I can try to learn things multiple times.

It is difficult to understand the kids sometimes, especially when they get excited and begin shouting. It doesn’t help me if they speak louder, but it makes them feel better. This is something I will remember for when I begin teaching- “Speaking louder does not help comprehension.” The pre-schoolers are also difficult to understand and they just talk at me thinking that I understand. The hardest thing is that I don’t understand pre-schoolers at home. The fact that they speak a foreign language makes it that much more difficult.

Over the weekend, I went with Mirza twice to the Korzo- downtown Tuzla. Friday was a very solemn day. It was the 12th anniversary of the bombing that killed 72 people in Tuzla. Most of them were young people. The bombing happened in 1995, as the war was coming to an end. The young people ofTuzla began going out on weekends. The Serb army sent a grenade into the center on one of those evenings and killed many and hurt even more. There were flowers laid at the site of the attack and at the memorial where most of the victims were laid to rest and a big remembrance ceremony was held.

Saturday evening was much livelier. The streets were filled with young people, strolling through the downtown pedestrian zone. Everyone was dressed up. There were so many people walking through the street it was difficult to walk two people wide. Some people sat and had juice, pop, or beer. It was very lively until about 11pm when most of the people have their curfew. There were some café’s that were open later playing loud techno or hip-hop music.

Sunday evening, Binasa took me over to the neighbors home who were on the second day of a wedding celebration. The party had dwindled to about 35 close friends and neighbors, but the music was still lively and the food and drinks were still going down. There was a wide variety of meats and cheese to choose from. I had some roasted chicken and salami. The hosts made sure I always had a full glass of beer. The people were very hospitable and I felt honored that they had me over on such a special occasion. Some of the men wanted to teach me how to dance the to accordion and violin music so I tried my best. One man said they celebrate a wedding for two days and 10 hours each day. That is definitely a great way to celebrate a marriage.

I am excited to begin my first full week at the center. My Bosnian is getting better by the day. I am still looking for an apartment. It is difficult to find something on the right side of town that is furnished, but we have some leads into some possibilities. Tomorrow, there are some supporters coming to see the center from France and I am excited to meet them. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and I will post pictures when I'm not using a dial up internet connection.

Take Care.