Grace in Bosnia & Herzegovina 2019

For the past three weeks, I have been taking an intensive Bosnian language course for 3 hours everyday. I decided to take this course so I could 1) speak more with my colleagues in their native language, 2) speak more with the beneficiaries at the organization, 3) and for general communication needs while in Bosnia. The first week, we started with an hour of watching Bosnian movies and practicing acting out some of the scenes. After the hour of "cultural class" we had 2 hours of Bosnian grammar and language with our beginner's teacher Amina. The first week was difficult at first because I knew nothing, but by the end of the first week it was incredible how much we had learned. One girl in our class was Czech and her language is very similar to that of Bosnian, thus she decided to move the advanced class, while a girl in the advanced class decided to move down. There was only this small fan in our room and it was HOT so Abby and Ayaho kindly offered to fan me :) This ...

These past two days have been incredible because we had the chance to work directly with the beneficiaries of Zene za Zene through our Democracy Academy for Young Women. Zene za Zene created the Democracy Academy for Young Women (DAYW) in order to provide young women with the tools and skills necessary to become more civically engaged individuals in their local communities. The ultimate goal of the 6 month program is for each woman to identify a pressing issue in their community, develop a project to address that issue, then implement their project with the help of another participant through a NGO in their community. The first training was exciting because the women had the opportunity to meet one another, and because they started learning about what the process will look like in the coming months. While I could not understand most of the modules and workshops, I had the opportunity to speak with the participants during lunch and during coffee breaks. One participant, Esma, is o...

Usually, I am the girl with all of the guy friends; it just happens to be that way. However, while traveling I have found several women who I love and tonight I had such an amazing time with them all. I heard about the annual Beer Festival from a friend from my university who was in Sarajevo last summer and so I decided to attend this year. I texted all of my girlfriends living in the city and invited them to come to the Festival. I met three girls through Facebook, one through couch surfer, one from Bosnian class, and one from Blind Tiger. We got to see Frenkie the Rapper perform who I didn't love, but he seemed like a crowd music. Honestly, the music got worse from there, but the company made it the best. We tried a variety of beers, then danced to a Bosnian rock band pretending we knew the songs. Following that, we went to a dance club called Sloga where I enjoy going to dance. It was fun to dance with my girlfriends and just enjoy myself. Afterwards we went to Pengvin f...

Blind Tiger Wednesdays are an exchange of cultures, languages, drinks, and stories. I found this group through the Facebook Sarajevo Expats Group and I am so glad that I did. This Wednesday when I went, I met American diplomats, interns at the Norwegian embassy, an American German translator, Bosnians, and more! It was so much fun to talk to such a diverse group of people and to listen to the stories that they have accumulated throughout their time in Sarajevo. This group of Bosnians and ExPats meet every Wednesday and are constantly inviting new people to their group :) This gathering of people reminded me how interesting it has been to meet people here. As I previously mentioned, Couch Surfing has been an interesting platform for meeting people in this city, and I have found people very eager to make new friends which is helpful when one is new in a city. I have also found community among my coworkers; I have come to see my coworkers as sisters and sometimes mother who I love so...

We piled into the car at 10am and drove for hours. My coworker Nermana had told me about Konijc but I hadn't seen pictures so I had no idea what to expect. Despite the heat that cooked us inside the car, we had a great time singing to Bosnian and American music on the radio. Upon our arrival, I was stunned by the beauty of the landscape around me. The water was so clear and blue. There were families all around with their kids running around. Six young men were all sitting on a log in the water. I couldn't wait to get into the water because I love swimming with a passion. Nermana and I swam out far and swam to a different shore. Along the way she taught me some great Bosnian phrases I remember still. After lounging around a bit longer, we decided to walk to a nearby cafe for a drink and food. We walked through this outdoor cafe until we found a table close to the lake. As I mentioned, I LOVE swimming, so I dropped my things at the table and dived into the freezing cold la...

After hours of me talking about how much I miss Mexican food at work, my boss said, "Why don't you teach us how to make Mexican food some time?" Initially I thought, wow that would be fun; s econdly, I thought, do I know how to make Mexican food really ? Lastly, I thought - I wonder if Bosnia & Herzegovina has tortillas? Tonight, I had my five coworkers over for Mexican food, and they wanted to come and make the meal with me so that they could learn. Truly I did not think it would be as amazing as the evening was - I was stressed and nervous that the food would not turn out well. Before the meal itself, I went grocery shopping, which was quite a process. Thank God most things have pictures on them, but for items I needed to buy that did not have pictures and just their name in Bosnian, I was stuck. I found out that avocados are extremely expensive compared to other produce here, and of course I chose to make guacamole! While I say that I am good at asking for help...

I am still learning the best ways of traveling alone in a new place, and tonight I found an amazing tool: Couch Surfing, the app. While I originally thought it was just good for staying at locals' homes for free, there is a social feature in which you can meet up with people living or traveling in the area. Recently I saw an event on the app for someone's birthday party. A couch surfing member organized an event for her birthday at a local restaurant/ old cinema and opened it to any travelers or locals interested in attending. I decided to give it a try last night, so I brought a girlfriend that I actually met through the Facebook Sarajevo Young Ex-patriots Group with me. We found a table of 10 people from Couch Surfing that consisted of people from the following countries: Wales, Argentina, Chile, Spain, England, Turkey, Finland, America (only me), and Bosnia! What lively conversations we had. Not only did I get to check out this restaurant/ old cinema, Kino Bosna , but I ...

An important part of understanding the city of Sarajevo and more broadly, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is learning about the war in 1992-1995. Today, I visited the  War Childhood Museum  and the  Genocide Museum  to gain a better understanding of the context of the country. I could not more highly recommend the War Childhood Museum - the curation of the exhibit is exceptional. The creator's idea was to collect short stories or memories from now adults who were children during the war, but he ended up collecting one item that meant something to each individual and that further told their stories. I don't want to share the details because I genuinely feel it is something you have to fully experience. The Genocide Museum was disturbing, as it should be, in order to show the importance of remembering the war so that it will not happen again; however, I did not enjoy the curation of the museum. Perhaps it was intentional, but it was overwhelming. In my opinion there w...

I cannot believe that it has already been a week since I arrived in Sarajevo, to mark this anniversary, I decided to take myself on some adventures this weekend. This morning I went on a free walking tour by a local hostel, and while the tour itself was not great, I enjoyed the people that I met from it. Another wonderful thing is that I happen to go out when it rains, and when I'm inside at work or at home the weather is nice and sunny. When I went on the aforementioned walking tour, it was pouring rain, and poor me decided to wear leather sandals that morning . . . I have learned my lesson. We walked around Old Town Sarajevo looking at the artisan crafts and coffee sets since coffee-drinking is such a huge part of the culture here. One thing I did learn from the tour is the process by which you should drink Bosnian coffee - as a warning to my readers, this is just what the tour guide said, so it could all be a lie:  When drinking Bosnian coffee, you must do the following ...