Project Week ...

So I have had a couple of projects in the last week.

First, was "project", a young kitten. So the story is that a few students found a very young kitten when walking to the rugby field, they decided to bring it back to the residence. The kitten, known as "project", was harboured in a suitcase. But the main problem was that the kitten had an eye infection. I seemed to have the most experience so became residence vet. Over the couple of days I was around there was a big improvement in the kittens condition but then I had to leave for project week. I came back to find out that whilst I was away that the kitten escaped from the suitcase and is found by the house mum who throws it out. So hopefully someone else has found "project" and is taking care of him.

Me and "Project"

Project



And the second project was a project week in Srebrenica. On Monday Detmer, Becky, Samia and Me, as well as our supervisor Laila set off for Srebrenica. After 9 hours on a bus we reached the town. It was not what we expected at all! We spent the day relaxing and eating and seeing a little bit of down town. Our hosts were some lovely old ladies who spoke no English so communication was ... interesting but we learnt some more words! Super, dobro, da da da, ne ne ne, chai, hvala, molim were particularly useful!We spent Tuesday we met a youth worker and then we spoke to a teacher of a university faculty. It was amazing to see the views of people today about something that happened only 15 years ago!

The next day we went to the memorial centre. It was shocking, truly horrible. You could see rows and rows of names on a marble wall that went on and on. There were rows and rows of white pillars marking graves of those found. Our guide had lost his twin brother and father, it made everything so personal. He told us his story and the general story of the war. We saw a photo gallery and visited the Dutch base. Inside the armament factory was 2 black boxes. One contained personal items and stories of victims and the other a documentary. It was difficult to watch with dry eyes!! The rest of the day we remained catatonic! It was too hard to just continue with a normal day.

On Thursday we went to the municipality and spoke to the head of education. After speaking to several authorities we noticed a trend developing, the government needs to change! We then had a 10 hour bus trip back to Mostar today!

Even though some parts of the trip was hard but it was truly important to make us realise a lot about some things in this country and about the events at Srebrenica! But we also had a lot of fun and we got a lot closer as friends! It was a great, beneficial and worth while project!


The Graves