Saying My Good-byes

My BiH Family

(Pepa, me, Erna, Franjo, Ivo, Tata i Mama)

(Us kids in the family room Pepa. Franjo, me, Erna i Ivo)

It’s funny, I’ve moved an average of once ever two years, not counting my university moves, and I am still not good at saying good-byes.

Although I am SO proud of my sister for being picked to go with some of her classmates to the coast for two weeks, I am very sad because it means that we will have to say our goodbyes a week earlier (she is leaving on Saturday morning and I am probably leaving the following weekend). Weeks ago I prepared a care package for her travels and for my family.

(Side Note: It is crazy that I am potentially leaving in less than two weeks. The time has just blown by! My brother and I were on the balcony today and he said something that both touched my heart and broke it at the same time. After hearing that my family would receive their goodbye package a week Thursday he said, ˝Sabrina, that is puno puno puno soon!˝ I heart them!)

I am also a HUGE fan of drawing out gift exchanges. At Christmas I usually only get one or two gifts for each of my immediate family members. I try to get something that I am pretty sure they will love. Since they only receiving one thing from me and I LOVE watching people open their gifts, I like to wrap the gifts an average of 10 times. I also put packing tape around a full layer or two of the wrapped gift. Moreover, I cut short pieces of tape to trick the people into thinking that they have found the end to the tape, thus a way to unravel the package.

Since I do not have enough supplies to do that here, I have decided to do a scavenger hunt for my family and Erna, like the one Kate did on the Valentines Day episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8. I have made up clues that I will put all around the house. For instance, one says, ˝This is where I did my window/comedy act˝. Each clue will lead to where the next clue is. In the end their gift and final letter will be waiting for them. The only problem I am having is putting into words how much this summer has meant for me and how grateful I am to each of them. As well, my family does not understand why I have to leave earlier than expected. (I have a job and family waiting for me in Canada.) Hopefully the words will come to me in the next few days.

Well, I just received words from Erna that my deda in Canada is calling me at 9pm so I must get some work done and head home; I am VERY excited to speak with him and my baba. :D

~G.

My Time Here is Coming to an End... Last Wk at the Centar

This week our program was similar. Our crafts consisted of the following: port holes (using tissue paper to make seaweed and fish, and paper plates to make boat port holes); people chains out of construction paper; ceiling kites; and pop-out cards with dinosaurs in them. Yesterday we made rocket ships! We also made light houses out of plastic bottles, and ships.

Wednesday was movie day. Instead of paying 75KMs to do it outdoors at night, we opted for an indoor day of movies, costing only 1KM. :D We used white sheets of paper to make the screen, we used the centre´s projector and we used Advo´s DVD player. (Avdo was the man for movie days/nights.) In the morning we watched ´Monsters vs. Aliens´ and in the afternoon we watched ´Íce Age 3´.

All summer I have been dying to do paper mache with the kids. Although I only did it once in my life, I always thought it would be the perfect craft for kids. It´s fun, kids can be creative, and it is very time consuming. I got my wish on Thursday and Friday.

(Ryan and ´Gimpy´ helping the kids with their paper mache)

(Me being Sid from Ice Age Three)

Thursday morning we put the paste and paper on the balloons. After letting them dry on my balcony during our lunch break, we decorated them in the afternoon. Some of them even created alien creatures. (I guess they were inspired by the movie.) That night we bought candies from ´Best´, our large grocery store in town, with the remaining money we raised from Yoga. The following day we equally distributed the candy into all of the paper mache objects. Then on Friday we ended the summer with a bang!

(Chels, Brigette, and Ryan)

(Chilly (AKA Jill) looking like a child getting excited for Christmas morning!)

Friday morning we created our memory wall in the morning, which I will discuss in my next blog. In the afternoon we took the mache objects to the park and allowed the children to take turns hitting them down, blind folded of course. Then we finally got to play my favourite childhood water game: ´Over Under´. (It is a race between two teams to see who can use the water in the bucket at the front of the line to fill the water bottle at the back of the line. The catch is that the teams can only use holey water bottles and can only transfer the bottle of water over and under themselves to their team mates, hense the name.) Then we played a quick round balloon toss with partners before having th e largest water fight I have EVER had. We used the towns water fountain to get the water (it is right beside the park.) The kids, volunteers, teen group and I had a BLAST! I must have gotten drenched at least 15 times. Not to worry though, the temperature was a high of 40 degrees so it was perfect weather to get wet.

Everyone drenched after the water fight

Avdo (Teen Group Member), Chels, Jill, Bridge, Ryan and I

All in all, our last week of programs went VERY well! I think, and I hope, that we left a positive, fun impression on the children and the community.

A Little Home Sick

Today I got am e-mail from my uncle and my high school friend. Both were about the camp I have worked at for 8 years back in Canada. Gemma, my friend, was telling me about how she mentored a class that had some of my students from last summer. Apparently, they were asking why I wasn´t back this summer and they seemed a bit upset. It is funny because today I was thinking about my job back home as well and missing everyone.

I love the people here but the language barrier has been a largest struggle for me, especially at the centre. I have handled a classroom of 30 students before without a problem; however, it is completely different when I know very little of the host country’s native tongue. For instance, sometimes there is teasing, bullying, and or name-calling that are happening right under my nose. (Side note: it was no more and no less than what you would find in any other camp.) Even when I find out about the situation, it is a bit difficult to facilitate. If I see people doing something inappropriate I will try to use the minimal Bosnian I know to explain that it is wrong. If a translator is present I will try to get them to explain to the children why their actions are not appropriate. However, there is only so much I can do. Moreover, it is really frustrating to feel like I am sometimes the only ˝bad cop˝ at the centre. Thus, although I have not eliminated teaching abroad from my options, I have realised that intensive language training prior to teaching abroad would be a necessity for me to feel confident in teaching and facilitating to the best of my ability.

Don´t get me wrong, I adore the kids and I have a good bond with the other Canadians. I am SO grateful to have had this opportunity and I cant wait to come back and visit the centre and all my neighbours. I have learned an immense amount since being here. I have discovered things about myself, I have gained another family, and I have been welcomed into an amazing community and have learned about the culture, conflicts, and peace movements here.
With that said... in a way I am glad that I am starting to miss home a bit because it will make it more bearable to leave a place that has become like a second home/community to me. Plus, I have gained some amazing memories, and I have experienced things I could have never imagined experiencing!

When in BiH be Courageous!

Since coming to GVU my eating habits have changed. Besides eating everything in sight and being my little brother and sisters garbage, I have grown to love, or at least try, things I would never imagine having in Canada.

Last weekend while in Dubrovnik, I tried a dish with squid, amoung other seafood. The other day I tried a chickens heart for lunch; it was alright but without the potatoes it would be too gooshy for me.


Growing up I HATED sandwiches. Something about letting buttered bread touch the salome grossed me out! However, I have grown to not only like sandwiches, but I love them with TOMATOES! The other day I enjoyed a sandwich with cream cheese, tomatoes and salagne.


Moreover, I have learned to make some AMAZING dishes I cant want to try out at home! My family loves to make 'Fist in the Nose', which is meatballs, tomatoes and potatoes in boiled water. (mmm) My sisters favourite dish is a vegetarian dish called Sataraš. You cook onions in a pot of hot water. Then you add a variety of veggies like tomatoes, peppers, carrots, peas, etc. Then you eat it with tomato and cucumber salad, and bread, a staple in every meal. My mamas favourite is the same dish but the veggies are diced into tiny pieces, and rice is added.


Yesterday was my FAVOURITE day food wise. We had Sataraš for lunch (although I had it for 4 meals in a row after that meal ...mmm). It tasted almost like my Canadian parents freshly made pasta sauce. Then we had čevape for dinner and some baklava for dessert. In the middle of the night and in the morning I took some more baklava, not knowing it at was for the wedding my BiH parents are going to on Saturday. Whoops. I felt SO bad and apologized in the afternoon. However, my mama knew I didnt mean to so all was well. In fact that day my mama realised just how much I loved it SO ... my eyes popping out everytime I saw it probably gave it away. Thus, she asked if I wanted to learn how to make it after I was done work at the centre. Of course I said an enthusiastic ˝YES!˝

So at around 6pm today, Bridge, my little brother and sister, mama and I made Baklava. It took us about 30 minutes to prep, 30 minutes to bake, and 10 minutes to cool off (although it tastes better when it soaks in the sugary water for a long time).

The following is a recipe for Baklava:

• 1 kg sugar
• 1 litre of water
• 6 eggs
• 0.5 kg walnuts crushed
• 5 tablespoons of oil
• 0.25 cups (about 2 or 3 large tablespoons of butter)
• thin dough sheets that are used for Bosnian pitas that when heated look like spring rolls

1. Heat the sugar and water in a pot. Bring it to a boil.
2. On a heated pan put butter.
3. Meanwhile mix the eggs. Then add in 4 additional tablespoons of sugar. Mix until it looks like banana pudding.
4. Add the oil to the mixture and then mix in all of the walnuts.
5. Unroll dough from roller it is on (there are about 10 layers/sheets) onto a hand towel.
6. Grease a large pan.
7. Put batter into icing/butter device.
8. Grease the dough using the butter from the pan, and use the icing device to pour two thin lines of the batter onto the bottom/edge of the dough.
9. Use the towel to roll the dough into a spring roll/crepe shape.
10. Put the finished rolls into the pan and grease them more using the butter.
11. Put it in the oven at around 200 until it is red/brown (roughly 20-30 minutes).
12. Pour the whole pot of water and sugar on all of the rolls and let it sit so that the baklava soaks up the sugary water.
13. Enjoy!

Well I am off to watch a movie with my little brother and sister. (Tomorrow we are suprising my family, mostly our mama, by cleaning the house and making crepes, which will include our secret banana whipped cream... mmmmmmmm and peaches)

Dubrovnik

Last weekend I went with Jill and Ryan to Dubrovnik, Croatia. The bus ride was beautiful, especially the last 30 minutes when we could see the sea and all of the med. houses with red roofs and stecko.

The weekend was interesting and bittersweet. Not knowing the distance and exact location of our hostel we walked to our hostel from the new bus station, which was ~2.5 hours and more than 400 stairs later (I'm not joking!) On the upside, being near the top of the mountain did have its perks, i.e., the view of the city from our hostel was breath-taking.

However, I overworked myself at the Centar that week and was VERY sick (I had some kind of flu) during most of the weekend. Thus, walking more than 400 stairs every time I wanted to go to the beach, the hostel or get some food was ... bad news.

Once at the bottom of the mountain, we were able to see the Old Town, which had exquisite architecture. There were more ancient buildings than in Split. Jill and I walked on top of a wall that surrounded the Old Town for 2.5 hrs on Saturday and captured some amazing shots. The Harbour was a lot nicer than Split. With that said, I would go back to Split over Dubrovnik in a heartbeat! It definitely felt like a tourist hot spot, especially on Sat and Sunday when the Old Town felt like the mall on Boxing Day. Although it was cool to swim among the fish in the sea, the rocky beach was not fun! lol Jill joked that she never could understand why people were coming out of the sea with sour faces until she followed them.

With that said, we did pick a great weekend to Dubrovnik: seasonal festival was taking place. We got to see the fireworks on their opening night and I FINALLY got to see my FIRST ever opera. Although we JUST caught the tail end of it, my eyes were already starting to get watery from emotion. Oh, I can't wait to actually see a complete one!

The trip allowed Jill, Ryan and I to bond. After being more sick that I have in YEARS, I was going to stay in for the second night in a row. It was so painful because I LOVE festivals. I love seeing all the exhibits and performers, the artistic displays and smell the different spices in the air. But I barely made it up to the hostel in the afternoon and was scared, that was until I spoke with Jill and Ryan.

They were incredible friends that night! Jill said that I had to try and go, even if that meant walking down the stairs and then coming right back up again. They even said they would come back with me. I am so grateful to them. It turned out that my stomach was much better after ignoring it for a couple of hours, and we had a FABULOUS night! We bonded in an Irish pub and even got Ryan to sing a duet with Jill to a Taylor Swift song (although he liked mimicking girls in the summer so it shouldn't have been as exciting as it was for me).

On Sunday... we had the WORST luck. We missed our transit into the New Town in Dubrovnik. Then the bus home was sold out. (We weren't told to book our bus seats in advance and we never had a problem on any of our other excursions). Then we missed our third bus, got bad advice from a local employee at the station to take a cab and chase the bus, spent hundreds of dollars and ended up being stranded in a town halfway between Dubrovnik and GVU. (Oh, and the cab driver would only pass slow cars when the road became windy and there was a yellow, solid line on the road). While waiting for our neighbour who SAVED THE DAY and picked us up that night, we watched as the whole town came to the stadium beside the bus stop to watch a soccer game. It was cool to see the whole community come together to cheer on their local teams! Although the weekend was full of twists and turns, it mad for a GREAT story!

O.C. Week 7 & 8

Since the American came to GVU, we, the ICVs, have modified our program a bit. Generally, we are doing Arts and Crafts in the morning and Sports in the afternoon.

Last week we made, ˝Coody catchers˝, Canadian flags out of tissue paper, binoculars, vases with tissue paper and bottles, and tissue paper flowers to put in the vase. We also decorated cards with stamps, and created pictures around objects we pasted onto the pages. Outside we mostly played ˝footbal˝, AKA soccer, and ˝graničara˝, AKA dodgeball. One day we had some fun playing ˝drunk mokeys˝. (Side note: This is how you play Drunk Monkeys: Two teams raced each other. Each person on the team would take their turn running to a stick, spinning around it five times, running back to their team and tagging the next person to go.) It was a BLAST but we were all VERY dizzy after playing a few games. Some days the girls would not want to play outside. Thus, we did leaf painting and other crafts with them indoors.

(For some reason the kids LOVE getting our autographs. At first it was on their art work but then it started to be on their arm. 15 minutes of fame anyone?! lol Just joking.)

Pictures from Om. Centar

Typical arts and crafts day at the center (this is the main room)


Bridge with the morning kids

Jill and teen group friend, ˝Gimpy˝, while the kids played limbo after arts and crafts

Jill and I being silly before movie night (Charlie´s Angels pose)

Chelse during movie night

(I will put more up later...)