I wasn't prepared for what I saw. The people all died in the same two year period. Grave sites were everywhere throughout the city of Sarajevo. Even while strolling through a public park I found several graveyards. I read they didn't have space left to bury the dead so they started burying them in the city parks. They are still resting in peace in the city center 15 years later.
I remember thinking during the war in Bosnia how ridiculous it seemed to me that the people were killing each other. All of them basically the same ethnically and when the Croats turned on the Serbs, fighting with the same religious beliefs. The Christians and Catholics going to war with each other is very confusing? They believe in the same god and pray with the same book for crying out load.
The country was a mix of Catholics Croats , Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Slavs living side by side. In 1990 Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia. In 1992 Bosnia also passed a referendum for independence. I guess the Serbs saw things a little differently.
It's a long story about either civil war or just a war of aggression but the Serbs wanted Sarajevo for themselves and turned on the Croats and Muslims and started bombing the city. Reports began of ''ethnic cleansing'' where the Serbs were killing Muslim Slavs or driving them away in order to create an ethnically pure region. There were also reports of concentration camps and mass rapes. The Croats then turned on the Serbs and Muslims and everyone was killing everyone. I realize my historical recap isn't exactly detailed and probably not very accurate. The point is that it was a crazy war that destroyed so much life and for what?
The city was scarred. Like I said, I wasn't prepared to see all of the bullet and mortar holes and the graves and the overall energy of the city felt broken. It takes a long time to heal the kind of deep wounds inflicted on a city like Sarajevo.
Kenna and I heard many stories from different people about the war. Surprisingly, they had no problem talking about the horrors. There were so many horrors to tell.
While riding the tram in 100 degree heat, Kenna opened the window closest to our seat. A woman behind us started yelling at us. We couldn't understand a word so a young girl explained to us she was angry we had opened the window. Every single other window on the tram was open, even the window next to this woman. She wouldn't stop yelling and carried on for at least 10 minutes. We asked the girl to apologize for us and she said not to worry. She said the war had made a lot of people crazy and it was just part of life in Sarajevo. It was very sad.
We met a woman who ran a hostel across the alley from the apartment we rented. Her hostel was two blocks from the river surrounding the city which during the war was literally the front line. She spent three years hiding in her basement. A man would come to her home to deliver her food so she didn't have to leave. Sniper fire was constant. Her main mission during the war was hiding her teenage boys so they wouldn't be called to fight. She told us that she loves America. She said if it hadn't been for Clinton she would have died. She said that she waited for months hoping that a European country would come save them but no one did until Clinton stepped in and helped with the Dayton Peace Accord. I'm not sure how true that is because I thought it was an EU treaty but in her mind it was all because of Clinton. I miss Clinton.
I'm not sure how to explain what it's been like to travel this year as an American. Overall, I'd say that the world still loves the US and thinks of it as a paradise they can only dream about. But people from all over the world have something to say about George Bush. They may not speak a single word of English but they know how to say George Bush and they know the international sign for ''he sucks.'' It's been a relief not to be in the US during the election year. I can barely stand to hear the bits and pieces I get from other tourists. I'll hope for the best in the next year but I've honestly lost most of my hope after the last eight years. Now Iran...now Russia and Georgia and then the next war and the next...
I've talked before about the effort is takes to grow and evolve personally. It's a lot of work and maybe takes a lifetime, maybe many. It's no wonder that our collective evolution is slower than the slowest slow boat to China. There's too many of us and George Bush is the President of the world. What the hell are we doing? You can tell by this post that I'm staying really positive about the future :) Yay future!