Ajvar for Everyone

I visited all the Balkan + Budapest BVSers in the past 2 weeks and we gathered in Novi Sad, Serbia, in the OIKOS center for our annual Thanksgiving regional weekend retreat. Here's proof ... also of Rachael's addiction to ajvar!
Cheers,
Kristin

Memories

While at the BVS Europe retreat in Berlin this past week, I heard for the first time about the death of a long time Quaker Cottage "teen group" staff worker. I met John while volunteering for a summer at Quaker Cottage. (I have relatives in Northern Ireland and found QC on google-- it was actually through Quaker Cottage that I heard about BVS rather than the other way around! Long term BVS volunteers at the time told me about the BVS Balkans placements; I'm now in Mostar through BVS.)

Anyway, I had fallen out of touch with the people at Quakers and thus it was only this past week that I heard about John's death this winter. He had left his job at Quakers with the dream of moving to Latin America. I remember bus runs (to pick up kids) with conversations about his dream of doing ecological work in Latin America, learning Spanish and being in a new culture. Sadly, he didn't live to carry out those dreams, but he will be remembered by all who knew him as a warm, wise and witty man with an amazing gift for connecting with teens. The summer I worked with him, I wrote down things he said (to me or to the teens) in my journal to record what I was learning from him. I wanted to write some of them down here as a tribute to John.

Ya ever met a ragin' hippie? That's me! It's my world and I can't have people messing it up. That rubbish you threw out window just made your community look a wee bit worse.

If you can get more than a syllable out of a teenager, that's a victory.

Stolen any cars? Done any drugs lately? (That's what I always say to teenagers I haven'tseen in a while!)

You're going to come out of that movie ['when the wind shakes the barley'] hating the English, but don't worry. We all do.

No fighting. Sort it out like.

Have an opinion, and be prepared to defend it. You need to challenge them. Ask open-ended questions-- who what when where. If a kid's not self confident, he won't be able to justify himself in response to a "why?" question because he'll assume the adult's right.

I'd rather eat my legs!

Hmm, whatever could be confusing about a BVS retreat in Europe, Solomon??

...

Here's a photo from the week in Berlin, 17-23 August.

...

I just spent the weekend looking at almost 20 years of (real, old-fashioned) slides of European BVSers and projects... To see my results (270 so far!) come to the 60th BVS anniversary in Maryland the last weekend in September.

Well, I just found the packet that Kristin sent out before the retreat. No wonder some things seemed confusing...

Anyway, thought I'd include a few pictures of where I have lived for the past month.

Life and whatnot

Well Hello,

I've been meaning to post on the blog for some time. So here goes.

Last week marked my, and many other's, 7 month celebration of being in N. Ireland. Time, as the old adage goes, sure does fly when you're having fun. So far my BVS time has been great. The conventional BVS wisdom is that the volunteer will learn and change more than the environment in which they are placed. It's true.

What have I done with my time in Northern Ireland? I've been to prison--through work--and heard stories of Ex-British Soldiers and a Republican(Hard-line Catholic) becoming friends and act in a drama together. I've seen Noble Laureate, John Hume, speak and see him walking around town. I saw former IRA-man, turned politician, Martin McGuinness, Deputy First-minister (equivalent of NI deputy prime-minister) speak. I've learned how to spell words correctly that Americans habitually misspell: globalise, neighbourhood, defence and the list goes on. I've seen transformation. I've seen people not wanting to change in the slightest.

What is my favourite thing about NI? With out a doubt, the people. Life is slower. As my boss says, "I work to live. I don't live to work." Life is meant to be enjoyed. Relationships are much more important that productivity (yet it is still crucial that there is a level of getting work done).

I've changed. I've grown. I sure have learned more in this seven months about the world, America and myself than I ever could have imagined. The life of a full-time volunteer is something that I am truly grateful to have experienced. BVS has truly ruined me for life. But I would never go back.

I just returned from two weeks and two days of project/volunteer visits in Northern Ireland and Ireland. The BVSers there and I retreated for a weekend at Corrymeela's Knocklayd house; the photo's the proof, I guess.

Last Sunday I heard on local radio in Belfast that that day (20 April) held two interesting anniversaries... The first was the 40th anniversary of MP Enoch Powell's infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech in 1968, in which he warned that rivers of blood would flow in the streets of the United Kingdom if laws were to continue allowing immigration from the Commonwealth; he was also opposed to new race relations' legislation. Quite a racist speech.

Ironically for us in BVS-Europe, Powell was the MP a few years later for an area of Northern Ireland in which one of our early BVS projects was located (Glebe House). With Powell's support, the BVSer there and BVSers in Northern Ireland thereafter were able to stay for a two-year term of service (instead of the usual 1-year-only for volunteers from the USA); this lasted from the 1980's until 2004. (We've been sending BVSers to N.Ireland since 1972. ) Then four years ago, UK Immigration rules tightened up and Enoch Powell's 2-year-BVS-legacy no longer sufficed for us.

But, I find it quite ironic that we got our privilege due to Mr Powell...

The second item on the 20th of April was the 400th anniversary of the 1608 licensing of the Bushmill's Whiskey Distillery, also in Northern Ireland. (No, we did not visit that during our retreat weekend! Not that I didn't suggest it...)

On that note... Cheers!

Fifteen years since the crimes in Štrpci

On February 27, 2008 I joined a group of Women in Black activists on a bus from Belgrade to Štrpci to commemorate the crimes committed there fifteen years ago. There were Women in Black activists from Leskovac, Velika Plana, Belgrade, and Niš on the bus. We were joined by activists from other human rights organizations including the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the Humanitarian Law Center, and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. We were also accompanied by journalists from print, electronic, and televised media.

We were all travelling to visit the site of the crime committed on February 27, 1993. Fifteen years ago 19 people were kidnapped from a train at the Štrpci Station and subsequently murdered. According to documentation of the Belgrade office of Serbian Railways (formerly Yugoslav Railways), representatives of Serbia, Yugoslavia, and Yugoslav Railways knew of the plan to kidnap non-Serb travelers who were citizens of Yugoslavia.

Republika Srpska soldiers stopped train number 671 which was traveling from Belgrade. There was an armed group with Chetnik insignias aboard. In the Štrpci train station, 25 masked men entered the train and, with the help of the Chetniks already on the train, took some travelers. They tied them up with wire, took them off the train, and led them to a garage in Sasa, not far from the banks of the Drina. Many shots were heard, enough to kill every person in the garage.

This was my first trip with Women in Black to visit a site where crimes were committed. As we sat on the bus, I wondered what it would be like. I tried to prepare myself for the onslaught of emotions I was sure to feel. First, we stopped along the way at the town square where we were joined by family members of the victims. Many of the family members and activists warmly greeted each other – it was obvious that a relationship of trust and solidarity existed between them. We stood at the town square with the signs we had brought. Among the signs were ones proclaiming that “We will not forget” and a sign in which the names and ages of the victims were written. I read the names on the sign letting them wash over me as I tried to grasp the enormity of the events that took place fifteen years ago: Esad Kapetanović, Ilijaz Ličina, Fehim Bakija, Šećo Softić, Rifet Husović, Sead Đečević, Ismet Babačić, Hail Zupčević, Adem Alomerović, Rasim Ćorić, Fikret Memetović, Favzija Zeković, Nijaz Kajević, Muhedin Hanić, Safet Preljević, Džafer Topuzović, Jusuf Rastoder, Zvjezdan Zuličić and Tomo Buzov. The youngest person killed was only 16 years old.

After the vigil in the town square, we went to place a flower wreath at the construction site of the monument being built for the victims. We then headed to the Štrpci train station. We got off the bus before reaching the train station so that we could walk the 2 kilometers up the mountainside on a winding dirt road leading us to the train station. We made the walk in silence carrying our signs and the second commemorative flower wreath. When we arrived at the train station, we began to assemble ourselves and distribute the signs. We waited for the train to pass by at 3:58 pm just as it had 15 years ago. Today it passed by the train station without stopping. The Štrpci train station is now abandoned; it is rarely used.

The emotions of the day were overpowering. As we stood on the mountainside, I couldn’t help but be struck by the natural beauty that surrounded us. It seemed wrong for there to be so much natural beauty in a place where such tragedy occurred. The contrast between the beauty and the tragedy was overwhelming. The beautiful day and scenery did not fit the occasion. My first experience visiting a site where crimes were committed with Women in Black was a powerful one. It is something that will never leave me. The experience only cemented my belief in the importance of these trips and Women in Black’s mission. The media coverage brought by Women in Black’s vigil and commemoration service served as a reminder to the general public of the crimes committed amongst a society eager to forget. However, I felt the most important impact of this event existed in the support and solidarity Women in Black offered to the victims’ families. The relationships established and cultivated gave me hope amidst the current turmoil in Serbia.

-- Katie M. (Belgrade)