stop and smell the sarajevo roses

there's a thunderstorm a brewin' here - thunder and lightning in the sky, but it hasn't touched down yet. i think thats one of the things i miss most about the u.s. when i am away. thunderstorms. and bagels. but luckily theres one here in sarajevo today!

sarajevo is in a valley surrounded by mountains - the 1984 winter olympics took place here. the olympic stadium is close to my apartment and i can hear the fans chanting and roaring during football games.

i live on a hill. a steep steep hill. the walk to work, to the town center, is about 20 minutes downhill and 30 minutes back. great exercise! and oh so scenic - winding alleyways, people bustling around in the morning, majestic mountains peering over rustic buildings, a mosque with a wooden minaret, music floating out the windows of the music academy. i soak it all up every day and wish i could just stroll around all day long.

of course, there are remnants of the war - pockmarked and crumbling buildings. and beyond the real, beautiful roses along the street, are the 'sarajevo roses' - markings in the cement where mortar shells hit during the war. some of them are filled with red paint as a memorial.

my office is in a communist style apartment building and there is constant construction going on outside. despite all the charm that i just described, sarajevo is a polluted and dusty dirty city. i am getting adjusted at work and learning so much. dr. svetlana broz founded the sarajevo chapter of GARIWO and she is such an incredible person. she is actually the granddaughter of former yugoslavia leader Tito. she came to bosnia as a cardiologist to help during the war, and was so moved by peoples' stories, that she wrote a book. good people in an evil time: portraits of complicity and resistance in the bosnian war, about the kindness people extended to others of different ethnicities during the war, risking their own lives to do what they felt was right. its all about civil courage - standing up for humanity and the right to a life of dignity and freedom during the most oppressive times. i am reading it right now and am so moved by people putting themselves in danger to do whats right and help others. the whole NGO is based on the civil courage mentality. confronting apathy, conformism and intolerance in youth. empowering them to look beyond ethnic differences and value people as citizens of the same community, working to rebuild the country. i really admire how instead of writing a book about all the atrocities that happened during the war, dr. broz chose to highlight the goodness in people, providing hope. and by recognizing these acts of kindness across ethnic boundaries, a chance at healing.

so just some daily life ramblings...

oh, and another surprising fact about sarajevo - the tap water is safe to drink! yay for cheap living!