Construction

I've been woken up in the morning by construction near my house. I don't mind that much, I get plenty of sleep as it is, and I'm glad that things are still getting rebuilt around here. What scares me, is what these guy are doing. They are standing on this overhang, bashing away at it with hammers and a pick axe. It makes me think of taking a tree down by climbing to the top and swinging back and forth until the base snaps.
As I watched they kicked the rubble off the side, the rubble of the structure which is keeping them from falling to the ground at 9.8 m/s*2. I'm sure they know what they're doing, I've never worked on an overhang, so how would I know how to do it properly? Still, it seemed like a small leap of the imagination to see their support crumbling to the ground with them on top of it. 

Travnik

We went to Travnik on the Weekend, it was a fun trip. These are some photos. We had some sketchy taxi rides and stomach-upsetting bus trips. There was an awesome castle there, although It was quite small. If you noticed, I have a new header, a photo taken by lindsey. (For the 4 of you who have visited the site in 800x600 resolution, you might have problems seeing it.) There was a goat guarding the bridge, which means there's a troll underneith. I didn't go down to find out, but the water did look inviting, it was cool and clear.

We also went shoping at a giant big box store, I bought peanut butter, strings for the guitar here and a new shirt. Money goes a long way here, I spent 100Km this past week, on peanut butter, good face wash, three shirts, a hair cut, bus fare to and from a far off city and admission into a castle. I think that's a pretty good deal.


 

Week-end Wrap up!

We met a good guy yesterday, Second Lieutenant Petkov of the Bulgarian army, serving in EUFOR. We talked about plenty of unimportant things, like weather and Bulgaria's impending admittance to the EU. He said that EUFOR didn't know we were here until yesterday, we didn't know it was an issue. I figure that if the local police or the Canadian embassy don't think it's an issue to tell EUFOR, we shouldn't either. I think the only reason why it was important was so that the Canadian soldiers in Bihać would know we're here. We're planning on visiting them, by chance they are stationed near the whitewater rafting, certainly a bonus.

In other news, Croatia got kicked out of the World Cup last night. A lot of people here are sad about that, on both sides of the town (though all of Uskoplje is upset). I watched a bit of the game in Uskoplje, at the cafe that Lindsey's host family owns. After Croatia's second goal against Australia, everyone was standing up clapping and chanting the striker's name, it was quite the festivity. I left with about 20 minutes in the game so that I wouldn't get any hastle crossing back over into Gornji Vakuf. I didn't see any EUFOR soldiers that night, and except for the the copious amounts of firecrackers and fireworks going off all over the place, things seemed pretty quiet.

We have plans to travel to Travnik tomorrow, which is the capital of our canton (province). There's a castle there, the house of some famous writer and most importantly of all, lots of shopping. I'm excited to get some new strings for the guitar here, and hopefully more peanut butter.

As for everything else, things are good, some reps from an NGO coalition are outside gathering signatures for a petition. The have some objectives they want the new government (elections are in the fall) to follow. They aren't favouring any party, they just want a quicker improvement of the state's administrative capacity, more jobs, more money for pensioners and things of this nature. The government will have to make big strides in their four year term if they want to bring BiH into the European Union. The petitioners have been playing music all day in the centre of town, last time they only had one song, now they have lots. Even if they for the most part are terrible, we are appreciative of the variety.

One last thing of note, the Privredna Banka a.d. Srpsko Sarajevo has been involved in some nasty stuff. It seems the the High Representative (OHR) has absolute power over the country, and has found it within his mandate to liquidate the bank. I can assume this might cause some controversy, though I haven't heard of anything yet. I'm not sure what is involved in liquidating a bank, but I hope that in keeping with the OHR mandate, it improves financial accountability and democratic institutions in the country. The OHR is maintained by the EU primarily and is set to expire in the near future, so I hope that a proper state begins to emerge by then.

Till Monday then. Send pictures of me you think should be in an e-scrapbook to Jmikelittle@gmail.com

My E-Scrapbook

I have to make an E-scrapbook for UW as I am working as a Don in the fall. I have big plans for this scrapbook. What I need from you people is a reminder of things I should include about me. What kind of symbols should I included that describe my personality? Also on a technical side, can images in PDF files be used as hyperlinks? That is crucial to one of my current ideas.

We're getting a visit from EUFOR today, or so I hear. I'm not sure why they are coming, but I've heard it has something to do with the Centar, which means it's likely good news. In fact, their here right now, I'm gonna go.

The 90th Minute!!!!!

There I was, watching the England Sweden Game, wearing my England jersey, and hoping England would somehow get better at handling corner kicks. I knew that Cole's goal was a really good shot and unlikely, while the first Swedish goal was really good. Sweden basically dominated after their first goal, it was really pathetic for England. The second English goal, at the 81st minute was awesome, just about everything was done perfectly. I was happy that Gerard scored it, he certainly did well replacing Rooney, saving a goal then later scoring one. I thought that it would be easy to hold a one goal lead for 10 minutes, but I was wrong. England started scrambling in their own end, allowing the Swedes to have one shot after another. At the crucial moment, when Sweden had the throw in, Bosnian TV decided to show a replay of the last English game, when they were scored upon. when they cut back, the announcer was yelling goooooaaaaalllllll Dva-Dva!!! I missed the entire play. I couldn't believe that the English let in a goal on the 90th minute, I was so disappointed. I can't be too upset though, England was outplayed for almost the whole game, Sweden deserved the win, so I guess I'm happy with a tie.

In other news, I got a hair cut yesterday. I was going to post a picture, but I look the same as when I left. The greatest thing is that it only cost 4KM, that's like $3 Canadian.

Google Calender

This is a little update, but I'm pleased with it. At the bottom of the page should be a calender with events that I've planned on it. For the most part during the week I'm working at the centar, as you can see. When I go places or do something interesting, you'll be able to see on the calender. I'm sure this will be much more interesting in the fall, when I have a varying schedual. at that time, you'll have to my normal blog, which deals with non-Bosnian events in my life. Of course, it's never too late to get a google calender so that I can see what you're doing. Go ahead and add my email so that you can see my calender without going to this blog.

On the state of physical activity in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje

As I was complaining of in a previous post, there is a lack of grass soccer fields. I see this as a problem, though there are more pressing concerns for physical activity here.
Nevertheless, as you can see from this picture, a rare patch of flat land in this mountainous region remains undevelopable because of mines. There are other fields just like this on the way to Bugojno. Sadly, even with a high level of de-mining, it would take 30 years to clear BiH of mines. It's a shame that the town is so closely packed together without room for a decent park or sports field. They can't expand up the mountains or into minefields. Maybe I just miss Canada's urban sprawl (Cambridge for GTA in 2027?)
Taking a mine out of the ground is a huge and timely job. I saw some demining efforts on TV last night, I guessed that it would have taken several hours to clear the infield of a baseball diamond. Not to mention, all the deminers had the best equiptment, including trained dogs. I have a difficult time thinking such ideal situations exist elsewhere in the county. I hate to think of what will happen when those power lines fail, no one will be able to repair them.
It's a shame that the unemployed people (or those who don't seem to have much to do) don't have the skills to demine the areas around their town. At the very least it could be a Make-Work plan, at best it would give people some job experience while usefully opening up land and making their village safer. I think a week or two of training with experts as well as a small group of experts who would stay and supervise would enable the local team to begin finding the mines. They don't need to defuse them, they would simply mark them for later defusal. I don't know how possible any of this would be. I don't think it very possible, when considering a lack of resources within the state. I also get the feeling that people would disagree with doing a large amount of dangerous work so that someone else would get land to build on or plant crops. I have romantic thoughts of the phrase ''how does this help me?'' not occuring in Tito's Yugoslavia.
I figured I would think of some kinds of solutions to problems that I see, in the hope that the people here can do the same. Thankfully the Centar is community-active, which is sadly an exception to the rule. It's hard to care about community when you aren't involved in half of your town.

Speaking of play spaces for youth, there is currently discussion about building a sports complex somewhere in the town. A proposal has been drafted up and sent to local administrators, though there is uncertainty as to how far it can go. One of the more touchy issues is finding a spot for the building. It has to be accessible (both physically and socially) for each side of town. There's a bombed out hotel in the centre of town, I think it should go there. I'll get a picture for you. For right now, please leave a comment or two.

 

Our Pilgrimage

On Saturday Lindsey, Amanda and I went for a walk in the country. The girls apparently went this way last week when Uskoplje went on a big pilgrimage. They had to walk in pouring rain, we got to walk in lovely sunlight. It was very warm, but who really likes hydration anyways?. I took these pictures from a big field on a hill. I felt like I was in the sound of music, even though I've never seen it.

Alright, we have three consecutive shots here, as I pan across the valley.









Wiseguy, when you read this, feel free to take these three pictures and post them together in Photoshop for me. Please.




















This is a chapel, near the apex of where we climbed. There was a small graveyard along with the chapel, but nothing of real significance. We didn't finish the pilgrimage, in fact we only went 1/4th of the way there. It was really hot, and we were too burdened with weeks worth of greasy Bosnian food.

Week-end Wrap-up

I wanted to give a wrap-up to this week, especially including stats from google analytics. This was the first full week of the World Cup, which brought with it many great football games, even though it also brings problems. As I recently found out, EUFOR visited the town the night before, night of, and day after the Croatia Brasil soccer match. I didn't see any problems, except for the massive amount of firecrackers that were set off near the centre of town.

School ended for the primary grades this week, so we've had more kids come into the centre. It's too bad that we don't have the facilities to keep them, but there are only four of us and two rooms. There isn't much else to do in town. I know i didn't have a youth centre to go to when I was a kid, but I had parks and fields, I could play street hockey or go biking through the country with my friends. These kinds of things don't really exist. Flat land is a premium here, and all the football pitches are made of asphalt. I haven't seen a lot of decent bikes, and riding in the country isn't exactly safe. Also, these kids are disadvantaged in terms of Hockey availability.

The weather is finally really nice, and though we don't have specific plans for the weekend, I'm sure we'll soak up the sun. I hope everything is going well in the rest of the world, make sure to leave comments.

3008, I left you some easter eggs in the pic, enjoy.

(Sports) Crazy

The other night, Croatia and Brasil played each other in the World Cup. A couple of the girls and I were walking around town, and we took in some of the sights. Walking around Gornji vakuf, it seemed like a normal night. The bars all had the game on, and a fair amount of people were sitting and watching, much like any other night. Crossing into Uskopjle the world changed. On the patio of one of the usually tame bars came cheers and screams, people were honking horns and generally going nuts. They all had Croatia jerseys on, they all were staring at the TV, they all were the same. We walked further down the street, more of the same. Bars were crowded with men and young boys, all looked the same, all wore the same clothes. I was so struck by the homogeneity of it all. The streets were empty, nothing was happening outside of the game, the world didn't exist, the world existed for the game. I think everything revolves about cheering for a team, about having a team to cheer for. I think the actual game isn't that important, it's second to the spectacle built up around it.

Apparently after the game (Croatia lost), a fight broke out in Mostar. I don't really know what happened, but I think it reflects the intensity that such events bring with it.

I thought that I would be able to say that it resembled a team Canada hockey game, but it doesn't. I wanted to say, 'Imagine if', but I realize that that would be a waste. Those of us lucky to live in North America will have incredible difficulties understanding this at all. Our society has ill-prepared us for this kind of situation, I would say that this is where the myth of 'age old ethnic hatred' emerges. We can't imagine why these conflicts exist, so we say that they must always have existed. I'm still trying to figure this topic out.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, the post was deleted by a restarting computer. I am now writing every message in GMail, as it has auto-save and spell checker.

How to eat like Muharem

First, get some bread. Then, get some Margarine (I prefer the Margo brand of Bosnian margarine). Then, get a spoon.

After all those things are done, break the bread into small, bite-size pieces. After that is done, get your spoon. You're going to want to spoon out a healthy helping of Margarine (It's almost as good for you as Calcium, see the medical update). Now apply that healthy amount to your piece of bread, till you more or less cannot see any more bread and have doubled the weight of your bread. It's important not to skip this step, you're eating margarine here, the bread is just a platform. After all these things are done, eat the finished product and give a big smile to Mike, he'll be smiling too, most likely laughing.

World Cup

Okay, because there is nothing else to do here other than watch soccer (futbol) and avoid minefields, I've watched more than a few World cup games. I'm generally cheering for England and Germany, though because of where I live in Cambridge, I'm cheering for Portugal too.

I watched the Italy/Ghana game last night. I was cheering for Italy, but then Vincenzo Iaquinta tried to burst past two defenders. He was rightfully dumped from behind on his face, where he proceeded to cry like a little girl. He clenched his knee is huge pain while I called him a baby. While they where bringing in a stretcher and carrying him away, I thought to myself that maybe he was really hurt. What if I was playing hockey and got checked into the boards, what if something random happened and I lost a ligament. I would hate to have a bunch of fans in audience calling me a wimp because the hit didn't look like much. After thinking about this I decided to pity the poor guy. There was no call against Ghana, as Iaquinta was offside and play resumed. [rant]About a minute later, the camera cut to Iaquinta standing up off the stretcher and running back onto the field. He later got a goal and a Yellow card. This is part of the reason why I can't stand football, because of stupid babies like this loser, and their diving.[/rant]

Nevertheless, I think I've watched around 5 or 6 games. I think I'll like football more when I get home, but hardly more than other sports. I cant wait for the day when ultimate Frisbee is popular, that will be a great day indeed. I've also found some kids who like Baseball and hockey here. They were quite amazed when I told them I've seen the Red Soxs play live (they don't know much about the much better Jays, who only need a decent bullpen to bring them near the top). Strangely, no one here understands why Walter Gretzky is famous in Canada. I told them that in Canada, aristocracy works in reverse.

My 'Hood

I saw this site one day on my way home from work (I work late) and knew that I had to take a picture of it, I think for the same reason that there were so many pictures of flowers in The Thin Red Line. At any rate, we haven't had that many nice sunsets recently, as the weather has been terribly dour.
No, I guess it isn't, this is for my brother Kevin.
These are some battered apartments. The river in front of them is the Vrbas, and I am standing near the elementary school. I don't think you can gather from these photos just how many holes there are in these buildings. Nevertheless, families live here, i don't think you can understand the resilience of people here, especially the old women. I think there's a feeling in the West that communist buildings are just morter put together to please Party bosses and to hide the proletariat. Whatever the case, these buildings are strong enough to survive a war. They seem like the kind of buildings that are always crumbling yet are never destroyed. On Wednesdays the market starts a little behind these buildings and followes the river around them. On every other day, they look like this. 

Google Analytics

A ha! It works. Thanks especially to the person in Rotterdam who checked out the site, and the person in Canton, Ohio. I don't know who you people are, but I'm guessing it has something to do with Empires. I was so happy when I got Analytics and when I checked this morning. I don't think anyone here cares at all about this, I think they are incapable of coolness.

UPDATE!!!
The majority of the people coming to my site use Firefox, though I'm sure that my own visits affect these results. If I get it to work, you'll be able to see a lot of the data, that I can update daily. I hope it works, I'm trying to mix javascript into HTML and I don't really know what i'm doing.

Further Update...I don't know what I'm doing, anyone help?

Watching you, Watching me.

Two massive joys overlapped last night. First, I found out that someone put The Strokes new CD on this computer, so as I was playing Vision of Division, a completely amazing song, I opened my e-mail to find an email from Google Analytics saying that I've been invited for an account. I've been waiting for this email for over a week, so as you can imagine, I was overjoyed. Google Analytics allows me to know who comes to the site, where they came from and where they went. I get to see where in the world their IP address is based and fun stuff like this. The software was designed for businesses, so I'm just really having fun with it. Nevertheless I find this kind of stuff entertaining, so i'm quite excited to see how many people actually check the site each day and where they come from. Don't worry about safety or anything, all I can see is who comes to the site and what their IP address is, not who they are or anything like that. This is extreme!

On other notes, I think the internet turns off at the Centar at a certain time on Friday, so I won't be able to check email or anything like that on the weekend. The girls are going to Sarajevo this weekend. I'm going to stay back, the weather isn't very good and I don't feel much like travelling. My host family on the other hand, are quite the travellers. They are the most unlikely of mountaineers, but from what I can gather, they hike up mountains almost every weekend, leaving me to fend for myself, which I don't mind too much. My family doesn't have any kids, as in, never has had any kids. I guess they've always been free to travel around and go mountain climbing. I'm jealous of them, they got to see snow one cold weekend.

The girls and I are going with Mirela to Bugoinja today, I'm not sure why. It seems that there's a good jewlery store there. I don't know how I will get over this sudden overwhelming sense of joy. As it stands, we have an arts and crafts class to teach now. In music class last night I tried to teach them the beginning to 'Keep on rocking in the free world' by Neil Young. I don't say 'outstanding success' much, mostly because it rarely happens, and this case was no different. I think that people with hands that cannot grip a softball should learn a different instrument. Also, how much schooling do I need to legally administer tranqualizers at my own discretion?

Sorry for this long post, you have an entire weekend to read it.

Pastoral Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje

Here are some pictures I took while on a walk into the country aound our little town. As you can see, it's a lovely country and the weather was quite nice that day. Sadly it's been cold and rainy here for the last little while. In part, these pictures are to help me remember that blue skies do exist.

This is some farmland to the northwest of the town. There's a logging camp around here, on the side of a mountain. Vanessa has some sort of social allergy to them and became quite venemous, we left the area soon.

As you can see, we are in a position slightly elevated from the town. Last night when I got home, I realized that because of cloud and fog cover I couldn't see the mountains around me. It kinda felt like home, as if the reason I couldn't see anything above the trees was because there was only sky. It's a freeing feeling, thinking that you're not surrounded by things you can't get over.

Gornji Vakuf is laid out like a J with this picture taken on the right of the top part of the letter. I live in the bottom centre of the letter. Uskoplje completes the U. Running along the centre of that U is the Vrbas river. This is the third Mosque in the village, I can hear the other two from my bedroom.


This picture was taken from in front of the Centar. the front courtyard is sporatically maintained by some old men with sickles. Further than the courtyard is the main commercial street, where almost all the cafe/bars are located. Further than the street is a park. The park isn't very well populated except for on its parimeter by old men. The park grows increasingly unkept as you get closer to the gray house in the midground. That house is quite uninhabited and lies on the main highway through the town, the road I live on. The mountains in the background are nice to look at too.

The Funding Meeting

I had the treat of sitting in on what I'll call a funding meeting. UMCOR, the United Methodist Commitee on Relief, is one of the main funding sources for the Centar. I'm not sure exactly what happenend in the meeting, who was represented, and why some questions were asked, but it was cool. From what I can gather though, UMCOR had a bunch of people travel around Bosnia and they stopped by the Centar. The UMCOR reps were simply a group of people from assorted churches, kinda like a missions trip, but with more of a development/relief aspect. There was a few people my age or slightly older, some middle aged people, and a few elderly people. I add that so that no one thinks that the UMCOR people were a bunch of middle-aged beaurocrates

Their questions centred around what the centar does, what it knows of the surrounding area, how it chooses curriculum and responds to local needs. I got a lot out of the meeting, especially a new appreciation for the Centar and how it operates. They aim to make sure people in the community know why they exist and try to be responsive to what the community needs. The UMCOR people had some good questions, and they seemed generally impressed with our centar. I guess that means that there will likely be more volunteers and such coming to Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje, which I think is great.

There are American volunteers coming in 6 weeks, which I think will be cool. Sadly that will mean that our time here is nearly done. It's weird to think that two months today we'll be on a plane leaving Bosnia. I'm kinda sad by the thought, but after the last couple of meals I've had, I wouldn't mind some good Canadian food.

At any rate, it's cold and rainy here, some kids were particularily bad today, and I have supper waiting for me (hope it's good!) . The first post I wrote yesterday didn't send for some reason, and this one wouldn't send until today, sorry for the delay.

The Old City Walls.

One of the protective fortresses guarding the North end of the old city










This is the south end of the city, beside the south fortress, looking north at the old city










From the same position as the above, but looking east, I hope to connect the two photos for a nice panoramic view








At the top of the north entrance to the city walls, this photo was shot looking west at the hill

Gornji-Vakuf Uskoplje, Celebrity hub.

So our fair town got a visit from Tito's granddaughter and the norwegian ambassidor yesterday. There are some municiple elections going on in the fall, and the parties are starting up now. I heard her speak, which was cool, even if I couldn't understand her. Tito is still regarded as a hero, especially by the Bosnians. Think about how popular Justin Trudeau is now, now expand his fathers role. Imagine Pierre Trudeau freed Canada from the Nazis in WW2 and led our country for almost 40 years. Tito's granddaughter is almost like royalty with her symbolic power. She doesn't formally endorse any political party, so i would have loved to hear the discussion the Social Democratic party had with her yesterday.

And in other news, not much is going on. Montenagro divorced from Serbia, with basically no concern. The Serb part of BiH (Republik Srpska) has been denied a referrendum as to whether or not to join Serbia or stay in Bosnia. No one is coming close to allowing that to happen. i'm going to a city called Bugoinja (sic) tomorrow, not sure why or how, but it should be a bit bigger than our little town. I hope that there are some pictures from Dubrovnik on this site by the time you read this, they are taking forever to send to the main server.

*Oh Bonus! you can now find this site on Google. I had to register it and fool around with the HTML a bit, but it works. If anyone has access to large corporate servers, add a link to my website and watch my page rank soar. Also if anyone has a Google Analytics invite to give me, I would love it. JMikelittle@gmail.com

The nature of Dubrovnik and Area

This here is what they call a Palm Tree. It was furry and had scales. the weather was certainly warm enough to support them. Still, I was surprised when I saw them, I hardly thought I was so near such a warm climate.
These roses were growing out-doors in the courtyard of a Fransican monastery. The Monastery has opened this courtyard and a small museum to the public, it was quite the exhibit. This monastery seems to have been targeted more than any other building during the war.
These cacti and massive Aloe plants were seen in the botanical gardens on the island of Lokrum. It was so weird seeing Cacti, and the aloe looked like it was from the little shop of horrors. There where plenty of plants from all over the world, though my guess is that if they have plants from canada, they grow them during the winter. I saw what looked like full grown stocks of corn with no husks, they looked so weird.
This is the path on the way to Fort Royal, it reminded me of Muskoka. after we cleared this small forest, we came across a long road going up a hill to the fort. It was completely straight and seemingly climbed forever up this hill. It had been hit by artillery in several places, and we walked on loose rock for 100 or so metres. The sun was angry that day, I got a mighty burn (I wore sunscreen) and mighty blisters.