Better Late than Never

So I just realized that I wrote this two weeks ago and never posted it. I still want to share it with everyone.

The Better Tomorrow center has had many visitors in the past week. On Friday, a traveling circus of children stopped by the center. There were from Paris and all very young, less than 28 probably. Before arriving in Tuzla, they had spent several days in Kladanj and after their time in BiH they will be heading to Kosovo for two weeks.

All of them wore clown like make up, which was weird for the children. The children didn’t know what to do with the person on stilts or the “old man” clown who hid behind things, peak out, and then tumble around. Some of the performers were very talented at gymnastics while others were good at juggling.

After performing their acts for 20 or 30 minutes, the members of the circus invited the children to join in. Soon it was truely a three ring circus. There was a group learning juggling, another learning dance with ribbons, more balancing on a large ball, some giving a try to the unicycle, while others balanced spinning plates. Even parents and the animators were joining in on the action. It was a wonderful activity for the whole neighborhood. When the traveling band of performers left, they gave the center many of the props needed to juggle, balance plates, and ribbon dance. It was a wonderful experience that then children won’t forget anytime soon. They have been drawing pictures already this week of their experience at the circus.

On Saturday a couple from Central France arrived to provide some much needed information on dental hygiene. They distributed tooth brushes, children’s tooth paste, and sun screen. Fabrice and Delphine also explained why to brush, when to brush, and how to brush your teeth. The children were a little timid to brush their teeth. I think that it isn’t something that they are used to doing very often, but in the end they enjoyed brushing their teeth with their friends and showing off their pearly whites after they were finished. In addition to the oral hygiene, they explained the importance of putting sun screen on birth marks and instructed the children on ways to identify changes in their birth marks that could be dangerous.

Fabrice and Delphine were very interesting and wonderful people. They have been traveling for the past 6 months in Morocco, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and BiH. They are a dentist and a technical dentist by training. All their supplies had been donated to them by various companies to be distributed to children in need. http://culturetube.top-depart.com/
Their little mobile home with suicide doors was great. With the vintage 1970’s convey, they said they attracted attention everywhere they travelled. Apparently groups of people just stop and watch as they travel through neighborhoods. They enjoy the freedom such a way of traveling provides, and I agree. Anywhere they are able to find a place to park, they have a place to sleep. That could be in a city center, on the beach, in the mountains, or in their friend’s drive way.

Fabrice and I had a great deal in common. We were able to share many of our experiences over the course of the afternoon since we went to Binasa’s home for a “Rošti”- Bosnian for BBQ. Both of us enjoyed meeting new people and learning about their way of life. He wanted to use his skills as a serviceable way to meet others and see the world. One thing I really liked about this couple was that they were trying to get their own sense of the history in the Balkans region based on conversations with people throughout the region, not just by reading a few authors’ accounts or basing it off of conversations in one city or country. From talking with them, it seems like they had a very broad concept of the conflict and knew details that are not talked about in other places. They were very sad to hear about the events of July 11, 1995. They knew of the tragedy in Srebrenica but didn’t know that it fell on Delphine’s birthday.

They were also surprised to learn that I was working for free. Apparently volunteers do not work for long periods of time without compensation in France. The concept of volunteerism which we have in the US is very different and foriegn to those in other parts of the world. Further, he was stunned when I told him about the Peace Corps program and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have served around the globe for the past 40 years. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to meet Fabrice and Delphine and learn about their service as well.