John's Serbia journal

Seasons change

2005-04-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here it is, almost May and I've written nothing here for weeks! Hmmm... what has happened respecting the trip...

The most immediate thoughts are about the Viewfinders International Festival for Youth. It's a youth film festival, which doesn't mean all the films were made by youth (I was wondering about that).

The SFTP were part of this by having a six minute assemblage of video put together for the festival opening. The Lieutenant Governor was there and many parents and friends of the gang. The Oxford Theatre was almost full. Kelly-Lynn Russell and Harrison Jardine gave a great intro.

The video was very nicely scoped to capture the extent of the entire trip. The narration was neat. Two voices told the story and described the major events, overlapping and melding at appropriate intervals. The titles were very professional looking and the sound was balanced. The audience took it all in. Great job folks!

Heather and I are still consuming Serbian coffee, which tastes almost exactly like the hotel coffee even in a drip machine. It's neat. I still have some Serbian shnapps homemade by an older woman from Kovacica. She visited at the conference in the Hotel Stari Rast outside of NIS. Her older son died a couple of years ago and she retired but she choses to remain involved in education and youth oriented activity in order to help with positive social change. Inspiring....

Over the past couple of weeks we've been treated to sister Carolyn's Serbian Beans, a recipe devised after a converstaion with Rajka. She descibed how during the NATO bombing she and friends, unable to rely on steady electrical service, met often in the hotel and dined on beans. Some people say beans in the national dish. Carolyn's recipe is piquant, not sweet and certainly provides a nutritious and filling meal.

In other news, I have a few projects at work keeping me on my toes, but am able to travel a bit around the province and in New Brunswick, so that's good. I'll be picking up an old franklin woodstove in Quispamsis, NB on one of those trips, for the backyard.

There's also a lot of web publishing these days, catching up and setting some pages and sites up. It's almost a full time job, but besides that I also have piano lessons, barbershop chorus activities, Samba Nova once a week and backyard work to do, so life remains interesting and fun!

Peter got a spot in a Flash animation workshop for Viewfinders and created two Flash slides for a countdown shown at Empire Theatres during the festival. It was fun for him and a great way to interact with the whole project.

The Students for Teaching Peace will be presenting their final documentary in the fall at the Atlantic Film Festival, so we are all really looking forward to that.

More later,
John

Reflections and thoughts

2005-03-25T03:59:00.000-08:00

At the teen dance a young man spoke to me earnestly "Are you one of the professors?" I responded that no, I'm not a teacher but I'm with the group of Canadians. He obviously had something important to say so we stepped into a room and he began by asking if we knew about Serbia before we arrived. He was very serious about this and I paid close attention. What he needed to say "I just want you to know that we are not all savages."... this from a young teenager. What an eye opener. I suppose that for the past several years anyone from the West who arrived to examine Serbs ended up writing articles demonizing them. Thanks for speaking to me Mario.

We are home

2005-03-24T03:46:00.000-08:00

What a reception at the airport! Thanks folks.

So now it's back to daily life and the big adjustment to our homes after experiencing so much. I'm glad for many things, especially my family and friends, but could easily live out of a suitcase for much longer.

I will make a new post here later and will edit it as I recall things and comments and events, in no particular order. I'm also posting a photo album on the main Students For teaching Peace site.

More later...
Cheers!
John

Y2Y day two... last full day in Serbia ?

2005-03-20T02:29:00.000-08:00

Hey there's another connected PC in the motel - thanks Greg... 32kbs! Whoohoo :-)

The students socialized last night , and the adults minded their own business... that's how well this trip has worked out. There's a general understanding amongst the group, of the rules that need to be followed to make sure everyone remains safe. What is especially interesting and gratifying to see is how the students respect Greg and Jana's need to have control over things that can affect their well being, and that have implications vis a vis the temporary guardianship they are exercising while we are away.

There are more workshops today and we'll be doing a tour of some local attractions. Believe me; tourism is not common here and we seem to be a bit of a novelty. I see group members strolling around with recent purchases and hope that the few dinars we are spending helps the locals. We also continue to receive gifts... it will be tough to bring it all home.

I hear loud applause from one of the conference rooms and must get in there soon...

Yesterday there were some fits and starts in getting people to speak and participate, and at a certain point some of the adults led the group. Luckily it provided a focal point and today it looks like it's being led by youth.

There was some feedback from Parcents in Panchevo about how the Canadian students influenced their local students. The parents were delighted that their guests stood up after their meals and cleared dishes and helped tidy up. That's unusual here.

Another story was that in a classroom, a group of the local students stood up when their teacher entered the class and remained standing until she sat at her desk. The lesson it seems, is that it's possible to be cool and respectful at the same time.

Did you know that about your sons and daughters? They are cool and respectful :-) It feels great to type it out... The Serbians are emulating the behaviours of our students, and as you will see later this week, our youth have absorbed things and have grown since connecting here.

So anyway... in other, more immediate news... there is the potential for a delayed arrival at YHZ due to an impending strike at JAT Airlines. Check with the arrivals desk to see what is going on. We are trying our best to get back on time through our connecting flights but won't know for sure until the later whether or not we will be on schedule. Rajka is pulling some strings at JAT... we'll see what happens.

Please excuse spelling mistakes - the keyboards here are a bit different and time is tight...

Also, once we are back you should stay tuned to the SFTP website - I'll be posting photos and a lot of other materials in the coming weeks and months, especially in support of the student's film work.

More later,
Cheers!
John

Leaving Banka Palanka plus Y2Y conference

2005-03-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in the office of the manager of the Stari Hrast Motel in Nis, far south of Belgrade. Kate and I left Olja Jovicki's house in Banka Palanka at 6am today and travelled by bus picking up groups of students along the way. It was a real treat chating with them and laughing and having them laugh at my mispronounciations!

Nikola's greatest pleasure was that I officially announced my favourite football (soccer) team and Serbi and Montenegro. He was showing me off to everyone.

We met up with the entire group of maybe 100 students and various teachers and had MORE food (did I mention how they have been feeding us?) and some workshops and presentations and some very frank and open discussions.

Tonight there's a dance. An hour or so ago all Canadians were presented with hand made gifts. For example, a gift I received was a hand carved wooden plaque with Serbai's coar of arms, made by the father of a grade five student on the day she was born. She wanted to give something significant to me, simply knowing me as Hetty's brother. This is just one story... it's very moving.

Sorry not to write more but good friends await. This might be my last entry before we leave. If so thatnks for the comments, thanks for letting your children go on this trip, and I hope you are as enriched by their growth as we have been by their company and amazing insights.

Cheers!
John

Novi Sad

2005-03-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

Off to Novi Sad today where the Film Teaching Peace in a Time of War was filmed.

More later...
Cheers,
John

Here it is... later... The school is Vasa Pelagic Elementary, and we received a warm welcome, although because it was intended to be a short visit it was without formality. That being said, at a certain point as we were getting ready to leave we learned that the junior high students have been painting icons to saints, and that these were available for sale. It was madness as icons were snapped up by everyone. They really are beautiful pieces, and being painted by young hands are far nicer than those available at the shops. The proceeds are used for school improvements. Everyone wins.

The school yard was again a mass of connections and questions and laughter. Apparently, as a man of scalp I am a novelty item. Go figure. Men here retain their hair.

On the bus ride back to Belgrade the songs of choice were Doe a Deer and There Was a Great Big Moose... I am not making that up!

Three of us met later with our guide to discuss myths and truths about what happened during the NATO bombings. I won't go into too much detail here - it's not the place for it, but will relay that she waited out 78 days of bombing, night after night, sleeping poorly and working days. Some of the students are interested in these events and have begun reading. I'm sure that Mr. Albers and Mrs. Smith will challenge them to study some of these issues in the weeks to come. What a great way to learn.

People here are very tall! Men seem to average well over 6' and many are muscular and fit looking. It is extremely rare to see anyone even slightly overweight. People are generally very good looking, with some distinct groups of facial features. Maybe it's just urban chic, hard to say but overall they all seem to take care of their appearance and mode.

Tommorrow Kate and I will be picked up by the family of a girl who stayed with us for a few days last year. I think the rest of the students will travel to the Youth to Youth conference site where they check in to a motel type facility. Kate and I will meet them Saturday morning for the two day conference.

More later...
Cheers!
John

Wednesday already?

2005-03-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Looks like I missed a day... there's been so much activity. Let's see if I can fill in the main points since Monday. The problem is that I have burned my photos over to CD so don't have a reminder in front of me.

So we arrived at Pancevo and had the celebrations and interactions. On Tuesday we traveled by bus to another town and their school where the PSI membership flag was to be presented. Again, upon arrival we were greeted by a scene one would expect to be reserved for dignitaries. Various local government officials and the teachers were lined up along with students in beautiful traditional dress. As we passed the receiving line we each broke off a piece of a large wheel of the local bread, which we dipped in a small bowl of salt before passing over the threshold of the school. Upon entry the local students pinned each of us with a paper heart decorated with a delicate sprig of dried flowers.

After some meeting time with small cups of the thick black coffee and juice and mineral water we entered the cafeteria where the tables were laden with fresh bread, steaming cabbage rolls which they also prepared without meat for the vegetarians, and the adults were passed small glasses of the local plum brandy. There was much laughter and broken conversations with gesturing and scribbled notes.

A visit to the local cultural center followed where a wonderful series of small skits and musical numbers was performed to our great delight. Hetty spoke a little while presenting the PSI membership and used the famous quote about how it takes a whole village to raise a child, and she stated that obviously there was a whole village working to foster a peaceful environment for the children of the town. It was very moving. I'm afraid our "fame" from Serbia Today preceded us because once again we were required to perform Barrett's Privateers! It was actually quite a hoot. We didn't get the "hook" this time :-)

That evening the whole gang traveled by bus to the arts centre where we were enthralled by Bilja's concert-wow-it was great. I'm bringing home a CD or two and have some nice photos. After the show we attended a party with the band, local government and school officials and various others where we were presented with gifts. I have photos of all of this stuff and will put them up when we are back.

The students returned to their billets for the night. Today we picked them up with many tears and hugs and exchanged email addresses between Canadian and Serbian students. It was quite a scene!

Later we took a bus tour up a mountain for some sight seeing. Students are checking back in to the Hotel Balkan this now and most are heading off to a Rossini opera at the Belgrade Opera House this evening.

I am starving and need a coffee so will sign off for now.

More later....
Cheers!
John

Update: Opera sung in Italian, with projected cyrillic translation, is hard to follow!

Pancevo and other things...

2005-03-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

Monday morning we all left for Pancevo Elementary School.... We packed up everything and loaded up a bus for the trip to one of the PSI member schools. The students checked out for their overnight stays with local families. I can only give a point by point outline of what happened because 1) it was a very full day and 2) because it was series of overwhelmingly emotional events that can't be described acceptably in a few minutes at an Internet cafe. Luckily we have plenty of film and stills to help recreate the events later on.

In short form, we did a bus tour of Novi Belgrade and the older and heavily populated mass of apartment building and other modern structured area surrounding the old city. We viewed the subdivision where Milosevic and peers lived. We saw a Roma encampment beside the highway, and generally did a windsheild tour viewing massive concrete Soviet era style structures related to telecommunications and other facilities.

When we pulled up in front of Pancevo Elementary School we heard through the bus windows the creaming of young voices and were left speechless at the sight of hundreds of young faces waving hand made paper flags of welcome.

There was an archway constructed for is to pass through, and as we assembled in the school foyer it became increasingly difficult to contain emotions as we saw every single wall and viewable area filled with children gawking and laughing and smiling excitedly.
There was singing and speaking. There was a dance after 6pm and it was a blast. Some of the Canadian students are like Pied Pipers with a posse of local kids following them around wherever they go. Some of the billet hosts has gangs of local kids over the meet the Canadians. It's really great!

The people here gave us a welcome far exceeding anything we could have expected. There was instant bonding between Canadian and Serbian students. Various activities took place and we were able to sit and have some dialogue between adults as well, which was also very important and which opened some doors and paved the way for more discussion and interaction today when we return for workshops and an evening concert with Bilja Krstic. http://www.bilja.co.yu/

Meanwhile, in the evenings some of the adults meet to discuss the political and social past of Serbia and to undertand better what happened and what is the situation today. It's a complex subject and takes careful consideration of information from many sources. We are very privileged to be able to have open discussions with Serbians and to absorb their opinions, thoughts and experiences. What we are exposed to in Western media seems not to be an accurate picture. It's interesting, enlightening, and is a humbling experience.

Other notes:

Sarah's chair was fixed by a local mechanic late on Sunday evening- he refused payment.
We now have a boy's basketball team and a girl's volleyball team!
Through small deeds great things things are accomplished.
Serbian's love to treat guests to plum brandy.
Teachers are great all over the world.

Linda - she is having a great time:-)

More later....
Cheers! John

Hey Canadians... Come on DOWN!!!

2005-03-13T04:16:00.000-08:00

Yep - we were on "Serbia Today" this morning... It's a weekly variety/news type show and we were right after the Siberian men's quartet who performed complete with tall hats, colourful long robes and a horse whip!

It was extremely interesting. In a tradition televcision studio, the various guests were lined up and waited just off-set for their cues. The host was a sharp dressed guy with pearly whites and a firm handshake. Of course everything was in Serbian so while we could sort of follow what was happening a lot of that was just by guesswork.

There was an interview with Hetty and Teresa, with interpretation by Rajka. After a break we all congregated on the set and sang Barrett's Privateers. It's true - regretably a short DVD will be available when we return :-)

Free time for a couple of hours this afternoon and then we will have a mini-symposium in the hotel to talk about the recent political and social past of the region, and learn about what forces drove the decisions leading up to the UN bombing of sites in the country. It seems the story is a complex one, and there are many theories about it, and through our research and discussions with local people we may be developing a more complete picture of what went on. Some of the students have taken the initiative to explore these things on their own, which is tremendous.

Tomorrow they leave to visit a school that became a member of Peaceful Schools International a while ago. Students will be billeted with families of the local students.

As the week progresses there are changes taking place in the dynamics of our group, and good things are taking place. The film crews for example are developing confidence and style in shooting material and now interviews. Students are developing their own areas of curiosity and exploration, and it seems likely that some valuable learning is taking place.

PART TWO - later on - we had a meeting this afternoon between the Canadian students and some of our Serbian student hosts. What was intended to be a 15 minute overview of the recent political and military history turned into over an hour of amazing exchanges and open discussion of politics, social change and personal convictions. My sister Carolyn made some notes which I will share at some future point, or perhaps readers will be able to experience the meeting through the SFTP documentary that will be developed in the coming weeks. It was very moving and further confirms our/my belief that with our youth lies hope for the future.

More later.... Cheers!
John

Saturday arrives....

2005-03-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

Sunny and warm as predicted - I am wandering the grand pedestrian mall that extends from the Hotel Balkan area to the Kalemegdan fortress we will tour this afternoon. It's at the confuence of the rivers Danube and Sava. The site has a very long history, going back at least to Roman times. It was destroyed several times by successive waves of invaders and was rebuilt as a castle by the Byzantines in the 12th century. "Under the Serb Despot Stefan Lazarevic, son of the king Lazar, Belgrade became the capital of the Serbian kingdom; the fortress was strengthened, and the Despot's palace was built within the old castle. A medieval town grew up within the walls of the lower fort (a model is on display on one of the upper terraces). " http://copernico.dm.unipi.it/~milani/belgrado/node7.html

There's a radio interview with Kathleen and Zander this afternoon - and either today or tomorrow the students will be on National television - I think they've been asked to sing a song and have heard discussion of Barret's Privateer's. That would be a GREAT thing to do :-)

Running out of time - more later:-)
Cheers!
John

Friday March 11

2005-03-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

First full day - Today was spent learning about breakfast in Belgrade. Most people seemed to have some form of eggs; scrambled or boiled, with white bread accompanied by butter, marmalade, honey and feta cheese. They serve a small can of strong, thick coffee with an equal amount of steamed milk and also tea or juice. (I just re-read this and will point out that not everyone was drinking coffee:-) Everyone seemed to be reasonably well rested.

Today we did a long walking tour and viewed the bombed out Foreign Ministry building and a bombed former television station.

We spent some time in a large Serbian orthodox cathedral where several candles were lit by group members. It was a very contemplative environment... Then back to the hotel for some free time. Students are travelling within a prescribed area in groups of 5 and seem very mature and self reliant taking note of landmarks and sticking closely to assigned regrouping times... plenty of adults are travelling with them.

Many went off to see the Serbian national hockey team this evening and then will skate for a while. Some of us are off to a concert of world music by a Roma band this evening. We'll travel by cab.

The streets are extremely safe. People are polite, reasonably friendly and very curious. I haven't noticed any other tourists at all.

We are hoping the weather forecast of +10 degrees will unfold, as it's a bit cool to spend the day walking. I hope to figure out how to get some photos posted sometime soon, but it might have to wait until we are back.

More later....
Cheers!
John

We have landed :-)

2005-03-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

And are settling in nicely in the Hotel Balkan. All students were great travelling companions. It was a treat to be greeted by Rajka, Goran, Uros and Aleksandra at the airport, and tommorrow will be guided by some of them around the center of town on a walking tour. I'll post some photos later on... if I can find a way to get images on a server through the internet cafes.

The weather is pretty much exactly as it was in Halifax when we left.

Cheers!
John

Getting ready to go

2005-03-07T03:18:00.000-08:00

It's Monday morning before our adventure begins on Wednesday. Work will go slowly the next couple of days. I hope all the students are excited and eager to take off.
Cheers,
John