Laura's Bosnia Blog-Monday, September 14, 2009, 11:45 pm
The drive from Dubrovnik to Mostar was a sight to behold. We drove
along the Adriatic Sea for nearly 2 hours. Along the way, we
left Croatia, entered Bosnia, left Bosnia, entered Croatia and once
again left Croatia and entered Bosnia. Each time, our passports came
out, but only once did they actually collect and look at them.
The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and along the coast, it looks a
bit like Greece. Jasmina told us that Dubrovnik has become quite a
tourist spot for Europeans in recent years. Of course, this is
wonderful for the Croatian economy. Bosnia is as beautiful as
Croatia, but because people continue to think of it as a war-torn
country, they not only have no interest in visiting, but are afraid to
come here, most being concerned about land mines. Most all of them
have been cleared out by now, though, with the exception of very few
in some of the most remote parts of the area.
During our drive, Jasmina had the opportunity to tell bits and pieces
of her life during the war. She had 3 young children, 12, 7 and 2
years old when the war began. They had very little food, and the food
she remembers most (and can't stand to see now) is brown rice. They
were given white rice, but it was so dirty that it was brown when they
received it. They would rinse it....one, two, five, even TEN times and
still the water would be dirty. There would frequently even be worms
in the rice, but they had no choice....they had to eat it to survive.
She said that when they would finish eating, they would immediately
begin to think of the next meal, for they were still hungry.
She said that in her neighborhood, everyone looked out for one
another. One day, she heard a little girl crying to her grandmother
that she was hungry and the grandmother replied that she knew, but
there was no food. Jasmina knew that she had three pieces of bread in
her house for her children's next meal....one for each of them. But
she just couldn't stand by, so she went into her house, got one piece
of bread and gave it to the little girl. For her children's next meal,
they split two pieces of bread between the three of them. "It's just
what we did," she said.
As we got closer to Mostar, we began to see signs of war. There were
remnants of shelled structures, mostly homes, and right next to them
would be homes that have been rebuilt. One day, there were families
living in these homes, working to support themselves, many of them
quite well-off, owning their own businesses, and the next day, they
were forced to leave, the men taken off to concentration camps and the
women and children placed in gymnasiums. For the most part, the men
were killed and the women were systematically raped....the 93 year-old
women all the way down to 12 year-old girls....often 5 times a night.
Many of the girls became pregnant.
Some of the families have come back and rebuilt their homes although
they are struggling to survive. The unemployment rate is over 40% and
people are losing their jobs every day. For those homes that are still
abandoned, most of the families left Bosnia and are afraid to come
back. They have either made new lives for themselves in another
country, don't believe that they could find work and survive in
Bosnia, or are simply still afraid of war, after all they have lived
through.
Mostar was an interesting place. It is in a valley, surrounded by
mountains....Croatia on one side, Bosnia on the other. During the war,
snipers would place themselves on the mountainsides and shoot at each
other, the city of Mostar being caught in the crossfire. The entire
city was shelled, not one window left intact. Many of the buildings
burned for days.
There is a bridge, called "The Old Bridge" that was destroyed during
the war, in 1993, by the Croatian army, at the orders of the Commander
of the Croat Forces. When Angela was here in 1994, she crossed the
temporary bridge made of rope and planks. She said it was terrifying,
not only because the bridge was swinging and many of the planks were
missing, but there were snipers all around, and anyone suspicious-
looking who crossed the bridge was shot. She told us that as she
crossed the bridge, she said prayers, as well as a few other choice
words :) As we walked across the newly built bridge today, it was
quite an emotional experience.
It was raining when we first got out of the car in Mostar, then quicky
stopped and became quite warm and humid, but by the time we were
having lunch, it had cooled off and was beautiful. We spent a little
time walking the cobblestone paths on both sides of the bridge and
after a lovely lunch of soup, salad and bread on a balcony overlooking
the bridge, we were back in the van, on our way to Sarajevo. What
should have been a 2-hour drive became a 3-hour adventure as traffic
came to a standstill, all, we eventually learned, because of a 20-
foot piece of roadwork being done.
The drive to Sarajevo was beautiful! We drove along a river a good
part of the time and I was again struck by the sheer beauty of this
country. There were mountains, forests, rolling green hills and clear
water.
We saw many, many homes along the way, most of them 3-stories high.
The families had moved back into them, having replaced windows and
fixed them up. Almost without exception, though, the second and third floors were
left in ruins....windows blown out.....burned walls. In most cases,
they had simply repaired what they could afford, so they live with an unfinished second floor and an open third floor.
We were met by Sue & Maja at our hotel in Sarajevo and we quickly got
settled, then walked to dinner. We had traditional Bosnian food which
was delicious! We had Spinach Pie, Cheese Pie, Tomatoe/cucumber/onion/
sheep's cheese salad, Japrak, Dolma & Sarma (ground meat rolled in
grape leaves, onions and cabbage), french fries and wonderful bread.
Sarajevo is a beautiful, quiet and safe city to be in. We are in the
heart of it and will now be staying here until Saturday, taking day
trips throughout the week.
I'm exhausted now, so I think it's time for sleep. I WILL sleep
tonight.....
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