What is it like in Bosnia?
It is cold in Delmar. What is your favorite thing to do? Mine is to read. What is your favorite holiday? Mine is x-mas. I would like to be your pal. Your friend, Amber Chip replied… Dear Amber, Greetings from Bosnia, the land of dust and mud. You asked what it is like here. It is a very beautiful country. It is mountainous and has a lot of trees. I’m in the Tuzla valley, but it is still about 800 feet above sea level. It isn’t like Delmar, where it is very flat. There is a big lake near here. Bosnia is east of Italy across from the Adriatic sea. Right now it rains a lot and it gets very muddy. When it isn’t raining everything is dusty. We also had snow last monday. We’ll be getting a lot more snow and it is getting very cold. I work seven days a week and very long hours. When I’m not working I like to read and watch sports. I also like to talk to my wife and daughter on the phone. We have access to the internet. I like to read the news and get info on sports. I also like to play the
MG: Bosnia is a very mountainous country. From the villages in the valleys you look up to immense hillside areas full of grave stones from the war that ended in ’95. Many places are still mined and too dangerous to go into, and live grenades and artillery shells are still around. These symbols of the war—the atrocities and hatreds whipped up by various nationalists—surround you. The ultra-national Serbs vote for the Serbian candidates, the ultra-national Croats vote for the Croatian candidates, and the ultra-national Muslims (Bosniaks) vote for the Bosnians. We try to transcend the ethnic blocks to build democracy and civil societies. But, we are really swimming up stream against the histories of the region. PJ: Who are you working with and how large a group is it? MG: In Bosnia, I’m working with the Centers for Civic Initiative. They have offices in three cities: Banja Luka in the Serb republic, Tusla in what is called the Federation, and Mostar, also in the Federation. Collectively,
