Bosnia Trip Report #1
I got a call from Gina earlier this afternoon (about 11:00pm Bosnian time). All is well. She sounded really good (not tired and almost energetic). I even heard her say goodnight to their hosts in Croatian! Not bad for just over 24-hours on the ground. Their luggage had arrived, so they were relieved (and freshly clothed).
They had their first English class today and she said it went really well. The students were a little more advanced, so they were changing up their lesson plans for the rest of the week. They had four people with no affiliation to the church come to the class. This is a huge deal for a small-town church considered by many to be a cult.
She also had a couple of telling cultural experiences related to World Cup soccer. First of all, if you've ever been to Europe, or any other part of the world for that matter, you know how insanely popular soccer is...and World Cup is a notch above that. Capljina is on the boarder of Croatia, so it feels as much like Croatia as Bosnia. In fact, they speak Croatian and it's pretty common to see the Croatian flag flying around town. Well, while they were in town this evening, Croatia was playing the premier team of world soccer, Brazil. The town was electric. She said people everywhere were cheering and blowing car horns. Croatia lost 0-1 but scored a bit of a moral victory in playing Brazil, the last World Cup winner, and the holders of an 8-game World Cup win streak, to a goal.
On the flip side of the excitement, in one of their classroom discussions they asked about favorite soccer teams. She said a heated debate/almost argument broke out between two guys. One said he could cheer for any of the teams in the region: Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The other, an ethnic Muslim, couldn't understand how a Bosnian could be for any team other than Bosnia. Context: just over 10 years ago the Muslims in this part of Bosnia were under siege from both Serbian and Croatian Orthodox Christians and Catholics. Thousands of Muslims were killed and tens of thousands were forced to leave Bosnia...not too hard to see why someone wouldn't be excited about Serbian Soccer. Gina said you could sense that this was about more than soccer. She quickly changed the subject.
I can't help but smile when I think of Gina realizing she's got to defuse the situation, knowing how nervous she was about leading classes. I know she's doing awesome.
Gina said she could definitely feel all of our prayers and that they were excited about the rest of the week.
Her teammates, Roger and Gayle, are also doing great.
I'll post another update when I get one.
Jason
Oh, and the weather is great...cool nights and warm days. They're also resting well.
They had their first English class today and she said it went really well. The students were a little more advanced, so they were changing up their lesson plans for the rest of the week. They had four people with no affiliation to the church come to the class. This is a huge deal for a small-town church considered by many to be a cult.
She also had a couple of telling cultural experiences related to World Cup soccer. First of all, if you've ever been to Europe, or any other part of the world for that matter, you know how insanely popular soccer is...and World Cup is a notch above that. Capljina is on the boarder of Croatia, so it feels as much like Croatia as Bosnia. In fact, they speak Croatian and it's pretty common to see the Croatian flag flying around town. Well, while they were in town this evening, Croatia was playing the premier team of world soccer, Brazil. The town was electric. She said people everywhere were cheering and blowing car horns. Croatia lost 0-1 but scored a bit of a moral victory in playing Brazil, the last World Cup winner, and the holders of an 8-game World Cup win streak, to a goal.
On the flip side of the excitement, in one of their classroom discussions they asked about favorite soccer teams. She said a heated debate/almost argument broke out between two guys. One said he could cheer for any of the teams in the region: Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The other, an ethnic Muslim, couldn't understand how a Bosnian could be for any team other than Bosnia. Context: just over 10 years ago the Muslims in this part of Bosnia were under siege from both Serbian and Croatian Orthodox Christians and Catholics. Thousands of Muslims were killed and tens of thousands were forced to leave Bosnia...not too hard to see why someone wouldn't be excited about Serbian Soccer. Gina said you could sense that this was about more than soccer. She quickly changed the subject.
I can't help but smile when I think of Gina realizing she's got to defuse the situation, knowing how nervous she was about leading classes. I know she's doing awesome.
Gina said she could definitely feel all of our prayers and that they were excited about the rest of the week.
Her teammates, Roger and Gayle, are also doing great.
I'll post another update when I get one.
Jason
Oh, and the weather is great...cool nights and warm days. They're also resting well.
posted by atlantaclimber at 5:58 PM
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