Sarajevo - 1st-29th August 1997

MCA was invited to carry out a project in Ilidza, a suburb of Sarajevo, by a Bosnian amateur theatre group called “Farsa”. Ilidza had been a predominantly Orthodox area before the war, and remained part of Republika Srpska (RS), the Bosnian Serb entity, until early last summer. Consequences of this are that there is a large population of returnees (ex-displaced people) and there are comparatively few foreign agencies working in the area.

Farsa had worked in Ilidza before the war, providing theatre and a cultural identity to a place very much overshadowed by the grander facilities available in the centre of Sarajevo, 5 km away. Farsa were not, at the time of our visit, carrying out any activities in Ilidza, as they were waiting for funds to help decorate and furnish their new premises. They introduced us to an American organisation called Conflict Resolution Catalysts (CRC), who run a drop in centre in Ilidza.

CRC were originally set up to train trainers in conciliation and mediation in Russia and Eastern Europe after the break up of the Soviet Union. The organisation of seminars and workshops for these trainers continues to be the main focus of their work. They run two drop in centres in Bosnia - the one we visited in Ilidza, and one in Banja Luka (in RS) - which have grown from this programme. These centres offer informal classes in a multitude of activities including languages (English, German, Spanish), dancing and guitar playing, given by the expatriate CRC staff as well as by local volunteers. It also provides a place for young people to “hang out” away from the tensions and problems at home. CRC provided us with indoor and outdoor spaces for our activities, computer and photocopying facilities and a natural constituency of children who already knew of the centre, as well as the invaluable help of their two interpreters.

Accommodation:
We were accommodated with members of Farsa and their families. There were a few problems initially with one of our hosts not being in his flat at sociable hours and refusing to give us a key, but those affected were moved to a flat where three of us were already staying. We negotiated donations towards living costs, and these were met by the individual members of MCA. We got on very well with our hosts, and cooked meals (using up a lot of scorned UNESCO hand-out food, including lentils, which they held in very low regard) for them, and looked after children during the day.

Programme:
We planned a two week long series of workshops and activities, preparing for and leading up to a big event. We decided to culminate with a parade rather than a theatrical performance (as originally envisaged), enabling wider participation and involving a larger audience. So we planned workshops to provide items for the parade (masks, lanterns, rattles, shakers and drums) and give it some structure and themes (story-telling, rhythm and dance) as well as simple painting and drawing activities for the younger children. To introduce ourselves and as a warm up to the other activities we used trust exercises and name games. As a focus to the parade, we created a giant goldfish puppet, which the children helped to decorate. In all of the creative workshops we attempted to get the children to think beforehand about design (e.g. what colours, where to put them) and to give them as much input into the final product as possible. A second theme was the use of materials recovered from the enormous wheeled bins that stand on every street corner - Bosnia has a problem with waste disposal. Alongside these workshops we planned and executed a mural with help from the local children in a square in Ilidza town centre. In addition to these structured activities, we played football and volleyball almost every day.

During the first week of our stay in Sarajevo we were occupied with setting up the project in Ilidza - meetings with Farsa and CRC to agree and arrange our programme, then publicity (leafleting and word of mouth) to encourage children to turn up for our first two days of activities. These were introductory and attempted to give a taster of all the things that would be on offer for the next two weeks.

The second week began with two storytelling workshops. The children were invited to add episodes to a story in turn, and to paint their bit onto a large picture which would then depict the entire story. The images from these stories were subsequently used in the mask-making workshops and provided the idea for the giant goldfish (the goldfish is a symbol of good luck). The masks were made by plastering balloons with papier-maché, and painted and decorated before being hardened with varnish. Lanterns were made by gluing tissue paper over a wire frame, and then painting with varnish, which made the paper stiffer and translucent.

During the third week, the masks and lanterns were finished. Shakers and drums, made from empty oil cans and other containers were used in rhythm workshops: the children divided up into competing “choirs” each with a different pattern of beats. We got the mural underway this week too: first the wall had to be poly-filled (shrapnel and bullet scars), and then painted white. Posters by the wall advertised for painters and artists, and by the end of the week we had a devoted if small band of budding graffitists. These dreamt up and painted a multitude of animals, birds, exotic fish and mermaids onto the background provided. Our giant goldfish took shape in the last few days of this week - wood and wire framed, with cardboard fins and tail. Unfortunately, the children could not be involved properly until the last stage of decoration, although we endeavoured to use the designs painted for us. We printed up a series of posters, leaflets and take-home notes, all of which were decorated by a team of children, working production-line style, each with their own colour pen.

As well as working on our own programme, MCA helped CRC with some of its classes - guitar playing and computing - when the tutors for these were away on holiday.

A “typical” day (other MCA participants had similar schedules):

• 8.00 get up, cook porridge, tea, coffee
• 9.15 leave flat, tram from Dolac Malta to Ilidza
• 10.00 arrive CRC, meet briefly, split up and start work
• 12:45 break for lunch (bread, cheese, chocolate spread and sardines)
• 3.00 resume activities
• 5.45 - 6.30 leave CRC, swim, return home
• 7.30 rucak (supper)
• later socialising, singing etc.

We took Sundays and Mondays off (CRC was also closed on Mondays) to rest, see more of Sarajevo and learn more of Bosnian culture.

The parade:
Sunday 24th August, 4pm - MCA meet at CRC to add the finishing touches to the goldfish, and to prepare for handing out costumes, lanterns and masks, and painting faces (our own as well as the children’s). The cellar windows are locked and barred, and we position bouncers on the door to let only manageable numbers of children in. By 5 o’clock, which was the time on the note home to their parents, there is already a crowd gathering on the street. Children keep turning up, and it is all we can do to paint all the faces and distribute all the masks before 7, when the parade is scheduled to begin. Nearly 120 children are lining up in the street outside CRC, when typical attendance on a normal weekday was scarcely 20.

No-one really knows what route we will take to the bridge, and the goldfish at the front of the column wavers indecisively before setting off. All along the length of the column, children are banging tins, clapping and making noise; we run up and down, juggling and trying to involve the police escort. A rabble-rouser from Farsa dances and urges children on at the front. Passing houses and blocks of flats, attracting smiles and waves, the parade eventually arrives at the bridge, where the police halt one lane of traffic to allow it to pass over safely.

The sun nears the horizon to the north of Mount Igman as we approach our destination, the square where the mural is painted, just behind the tram station. We pause in front of the mural, and then, chanting “ovo je Bosna, ovo je nas” (this is Bosnia, this is ours) wind round the square again. Then the dances begin on a raised area in the square’s centre, and the event, already with a life of its own, continues under its own impetus. The lanterns are lit, and parents and spectators gather and chat, while the children dash round madly. The goldfish gives up the ghost, and is scooped up and ambulanced home, but the dances (now congas and waltzes) continue for a long time, until it is too dark to see the colours of the paint on peoples faces.

Other activities: (a subjective account)

Trip to Konjic:
This was a purely sight-seeing visit, along the picturesque and precipitous railway line from Sarajevo to Mostar. At the moment, the trains only go as far as Konjic, which is about 20 km from the eastern end of Lake Jablenica. We left Sarajevo at 7:30, and I (for one) felt a great sense of release as it receded into haziness in the morning mist. The line winds up into gently rolling hills on the Sarajevo side, before plunging through the centre of a dramatically rocky peak and emerging on the steep mountainsides above Konjic. From the top level, one can see at least four loops of the line lower down in the valley, and all the bridges and tunnels provoked excitement (engineering and otherwise) that the other passengers on the train found somewhat baffling. There isn’t much to do in Konjic, so we followed some entirely inaccurate local directions to a non-existent lake, and had a picnic lunch on the river half-way there. It thunderstormed dramatically in the afternoon, but fortunately we had had the sense to return to the station far too early for our train home and were sitting in a nearby cafe.

Trip to Gracanica:
There were in fact two trips to Gracanica, one made by Nick and Michelle, and one I made on my own in the last two days of our stay in Bosnia. I arranged to stay with the same family that I had stayed with last year, the Maglajlijas, who live conveniently close to the bus station (de-regulation and the Dayton Peace Accord have combined to endow Bosnia with an efficient and comprehensive bus transport system - there were buses between Tuzla and Sarajevo every half hour). Gracanica has become even smarter since we were there last, and the Tuzla region seems to be prospering and rebuilding in a way that Sarajevo is not. The Hasan Kikic school has been repaired (all the broken glass replaced) and painted in lurid shades of yellow, pink, blue and green, complete with a large mural indicating who paid for it. Tifa, the famous Bosnian-Croat pop-singer, was playing a gig in the basketball court the night after my visit. It was good to renew acquaintances and talk to people outside of the frenzy of Sarajevo, although one night was not long enough.

Whom we met:
The children who came to CRC, and who were involved in the parade, were all from the Ilidza region. Some were recognisably Romany, and there was a family of American Jehovah’s Witnesses, but otherwise we were unaware of their backgrounds, and unable and unwilling to ask. We failed to attract children older than thirteen or fourteen, with whom that sort of conversation would have been more likely. Some of the children brought their very young siblings with them, and it was difficult to arrange activities suitable for both. Mostly the children were between 5 and 11 years old. Evidently one or two of the children were very well-off: arriving at CRC by car, and wearing their own costumes for the parade.

A few older teenagers helped us with the workshops, and were enthusiastic interpreters and goldfish builders, but they were not interested in the activities we had planned to hold for them.

The staff of CRC, Jamie Spektor, Kate, and Isela, put up with the mess we made of their cellar (a pile of reclaimed “art materials” in the corner for 2 weeks) and only asked that we replenish the toilet paper, computer paper and tea supplies. Their two part-time interpreters were very keen to join in when they had free time, and helped to design the posters for the parade. CRC also provided the venue for two of the parties, and introduced us to the delights of beer from Bihac.

Mirsad Imamovic, president of Farsa, was very helpful in persuading the authorities (police and town council) in Ilidza to allow us to paint the mural and to hold our parade. He organised an extremely useful press conference to advertise our presence on the local radio stations and in local newspapers. Mirsad was also responsible for the longest, most drunken and most Bosnian party, which was held on the night before our return to Britain. He was keen to be involved in making decisions about the project. However, since Farsa is an amateur theatre group and its members of necessity have day-time jobs, they were unable to spend much time with us and the children in Ilidza. We are grateful to Farsa’s interpreter, Alisa, for her help.

The Anglican and Episcopal congregation in Sarajevo deserve a mention here too. They meet in the Church of St. Anthony’s, a (Catholic) Franciscan monastery in the centre of Sarajevo. The celebrant is usually an Anglican Franciscan monk, on attachment to St. Anthony’s, but while we were there he was on holiday, and Morning Prayer was said instead. It was wonderful to meet with other aid workers from a similar background to our own, and to share our perspectives on the Bosnian situation.

Aid:
Farsa, in their invitation fax to MCA, requested fabrics and costumes for their next production. We collected two suitcases full of different materials, sequins, elastic and cotton. For our own activities, we took tools - hammer, hacksaw, stapler, scissors - as well as sports equipment that we could use and leave behind. Although we did buy and collect a few vital items whose availability in Sarajevo could not be guaranteed, we left the purchase of most basic craft materials - paper, glue, string, paint - until we arrived.

We took travellers cheques in excess of what we could reasonably expect to spend so that we might make a donation to any project that seemed worthwhile. We chose to make a donation of 1000 DM to CRC. Their work in Ilidza is exceptional, and in their size, aims and ideals they are very similar to MCA. Our summer project fitted well with the work that they are carrying out. The money that we gave will go towards, amongst other things, the costs of exchange trips with children at their other centre in Banja Luka and the purchase of new computers and equipment to cater for larger computer classes.

Objectives met:

• Did we achieve what we set out to achieve?

MCA has recently been unable to define many objectives in advance of a trip. This is not just because of bad planning, but also arises from the transitory nature of the organisation - the people who participate and the work that it does change from year to year. This affects the achievements of any particular trip in two ways. Firstly, the lack of continuity means that the procedures of organising and setting up the project are not refined and each year the trip seems to start from a blank sheet (although I was given much help and advice by Sabina Alkire). Secondly, the objectives and aims of the organisation change. This occurs on many levels: for example, last year one of our aims restricting the location of our activities to the former Yugoslavia changed to allow us to work in many other parts of the world. At a more specific level, the objectives depend upon the type of project being planned. Because the projects have been so varied, and because the participants change frequently, there is no bank of experience that would enable a prediction of what MCA might expect to achieve.

• Did we reach the right people?

In Ilidza those who turned up did so because of the advertising. Predominantly younger children came, while teenagers were reluctant. We had planned to work with both groups, and tried to encourage those people that already came to other classes at CRC to come to see us. A more personal approach is required to meet teenagers, which takes more time, and deciding upon and advertising activities for them is difficult (EFL is an exception).

As mentioned above, we have little information about the backgrounds of the children who came, both as regards “ethnic” origin and wealth. The right people may not be the poorest of the poor and the most needy, especially where children are concerned. We are unskilled and ill-equipped to cope with the most disturbed children - we might be able to offer them a day or two in love, but could not build a month long programme of activities for them.

• Did we bring the right things?

The costumes and fabric for Farsa seemed to meet a real need. It is important to organise “aid” delivery in advance of the trip, and not to arrive in Bosnia with a selection of the items we have been given in the hope we might find a home for them. We left the paint, brushes and sports equipment we bought in Sarajevo with CRC: hopefully they will be used.

• Did we alleviate suffering?

None of the materials we took or the activities we organised directly reduced human suffering.

• Did we raise awareness?

MCA is well placed to raise awareness of the situation in Bosnia. New members increase the number of people with experience of the country’s people and culture who can carry out this work. The trips provide an introduction to the world of emergency relief and development, and a more informed view of the activities of international aid agencies.

• What have the children we met gained?

Perhaps an ability to juggle, or the steps to a simple dance routine. The activities may inspire some to further creativity - painting or mask making. They have met people from the “international community”, and discovered how ordinary we are.

Thank you
I would like to thank all who support the work of Magdalen College Aid, and everyone who came to Ilidza. We have had a good summer project, hard work but very rewarding, and have learnt and received much from our hosts in Sarajevo and the children of Ilidza.

Last updated: February 25th, 2008