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Showing posts from 2011

The final stage (shot)

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Having posted two photos of a people-free stage I thought I should end the run with this: us in action. It comes from an album of photos of the AVNOJ event uploaded by Jajceinfo.com . The album really captures the feel of the event so I'd recommend taking a few moments out to browse through them over a nice cup of tea...or similar beverage. And talking of drinks...it was only last week that Rowan was reading that Somersby Pear Cider was coming for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as their Apple Cider was apparently a huge hit over the summer. I still maintain it tastes like vaguely alcoholic Apple Tango and am concerned it might damage the image of cider to first time drinkers over here, but the announcement of the arrival of its pear counterpart is good news. I found a bottle in Croatia this summer and was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was. So it put a smile on my face when I stumbled across some in a supermarket earlier today...hopefully they'll still be stockin

Filling a stage.

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After posting yesterday's empty stage picture I thought it good to give it some context with today's image. This is how things looked late this morning before everything kicked off outside the AVNOJ Museum. We were responsible for that kick off, rocking out as the assembled Partizans, anti-fascists and other onlookers processed back across the bridge over the river, after a wreath laying ceremony at Jajce's Partizan memorial. If there was any disappointment from the crowd it was we didn't squeeze another song in, or accept suggestions as to what it might be, before we made way for the rest of the program to continue. I did, however, get a truly Bosnian busking experience, filling in on bass guitar with a local folk singer, his school music teacher keyboard player and the sound man on drums for an interesting rendition of a traditional tune. The song was in 7/8, which might not mean much to some of you, but others will understand the challenge these presen

The stage is set.

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Tomorrow, Saturday, is the big AVNOJ commemoration here in Jajce, remembering the founding of Yugoslavia on 29th November 1943. ( AVNOJ stands for Antifašističko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije or the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia.) We were asked to be part of proceedings again. Last year we gave an enthusiastic performance of some ex-Yu rock songs (plus a few international numbers) as part of the organised programme of events from the stage outside the AVNOJ Museum. And so, with a slightly-rejigged line-up, we will reprise the spirit of that performance tomorrow. The stage is set - I photographed it earlier today - it just remains for us to turn up early in the morning and hope it isn't too cold for guitar playing fingers!

Citizenship fail

Yesterday's Guardian.co.uk homepage featured an article about the Life in the UK Citizenship Test . We've been out of the country for the better part of the last three years so we thought it would be good to see how we got on with their online quiz. We failed. Embarrassingly so! For us this means nothing more than some dented pride but I can't help feel for the genuine cases that are going to come unstuck when faced with the real deal.

Yes we did!

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It's not a picture I'm proud of but I'll say I guess it had to be done to mask the clear lack of principled behaviour on display here. As someone who has enjoy living in a land beyond the reach of McDonalds and Starbucks it is unfortunate to have to confess that this weekend's trip to Sarajevo saw us not just sampling McDonalds traditional fast-food but also indulging in their take of the Starbucks formula. One of the key strengths of the McDonalds brand is that, whatever you think of it, their food tastes the same wherever in the world you eat it. I don't care much for McDonalds' ability to steam a burger to within an inch of its life, but their hot apple pies and ice cream are a special kind of plastic magic. But who would have imagined they could tackled the decent coffee and cake thing? I was genuinely surprised; I certainly won't rule out a return visit. And that's a confession I didn't expect to make.

Yesterday's news

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Yesterday's news was, quite fairly, dominated by the passing of Steve Jobs. It made for sad reading on my MacBookPro over breakfast. I for one am grateful to the man who designed a computer that does the things I want to do without requiring me to understand how the computer does it. That it does it all in a well designed package that is a pleasure to work with is an obvious advantage. But the purpose of this post is not to big up Apple or their various iProducts. It is, instead, the tale of two contrasting meal times. If breakfast was a subdued affair, lunch took on a celebratory tone as we indulged in our first wraps purchased in Jajce. Not only has the local supermarket finally decided to took some Mexican food, they have done so by stocking more varieties of wrap than we've seen in the other towns we used to secure our supplies from. Long may this continue. So what's the most appropriate to finish this post? It has to be by saying: that's a wrap!

Eviscerated?!

Most of us must have a favourite quotable movie and if not a favourite then we probably go through phases of plundering a particular popular film for our own entertainment. I remember when A Knight's Tale was the movie of the moment. It remains fantastically quotable, although these days its best lines might do little more than draw blank stares. Heath Ledger was good but I think the scriptwriters gave Paul Bettany a gift with a part they wrote for Chaucer: “I am a writer, I give the truth scope” remains an all time favourite of mine. I say this because we met a writer last night. They are visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina to research their next book. As we sat listening to them describe their journey from writing true stories to fiction I confess my mind wandered. I was back in A Knight's Tale hearing Chaucer tell the Pardoner: “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.” Eviscerate sounds so

Today's news on Twitter

Earlier this summer I saw an “article” on The Telegraph website which consisted of little more than a string of Lily Allen tweets, linked by some poor prose, masquerading as an attempt at celebrity gossip. It was the kind of sub-journalism that one hopes resulted in someone being relieved of their writing duties! I don't blame Twitter for this. The micro-blogging site delivers the weird and wonderful with surprising ease. Try searching its feeds for mentions of 'Bosnia'. You'll quickly discover there are plenty of Bosnian Beliebers desperate for Justin to visit the country. Today, however, I saw something genuinely interesting: a link to a UWC Facebook page. While we were in Mostar we knew several United World College students in the college there. We heard a lot about the UWC philosophy and we saw the opportunities it opened up for them. I was intrigued to read that a student from one of the world's more closed countries is about to enter that world. At the risk of

Thinking of a holiday...

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We're back from our holiday and back to work. While our work is based in Bosnia and this blog is for the most part dedicated to given an alternative glimpse into life in Bosnia and Herzegovina we're going to allow this post to talk about the neighbours: in this case, Croatia. After a week on the beautiful Zlatni rat beach near Bol, on the island of Brac, it seems a good time to promote a bit of regional tourism. Remembering that we once posted a video from the BiH Tourist Board I went searching on YouTube to see if I could turn up something similar for Croatia. I found this. There are too reasons to love this fancy little 30-second clip: the American voice-over and the fact that it opens with a superb we-were-there shot - enjoy!

We'll back after the break!

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Our summer activities are over; our summer holiday is just a little way ahead, around the corner. For the young people we've been working with this summer, yesterday's highlight was probably the water slide at Aquana, in Banja Luka. Either that or the opportunity to tease me, a Spurs supporter, about Dzeko's four goals for Manchester City at the weekend. In the interests of impartiality I left a bit of both in the video. We now have a month before we resume Novi Most courses and activities here in Jajce. I probably don't need to point out that is not the same as a month's holiday but, there, I did anyway! Our holiday is booked for later in the month. My only concern is that although the sunshine and the temperature yesterday spoke clearly of summer still being here the trees on the drive back had definitely decided autumn is on its way. Give it a couple of weeks and who know where we'll be. Well, we know where we'll be; we just hope the good weather w

An Unintentionally Aquatic Finale

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My last post might have made it sound like anything in Jajce involving water and tourism was experiencing something of a hiatus at the moment. Of course, that isn't the whole picture. This evening, for the first time, we rented a boat from outside Hotel Plivsko Jezero and spent a lazy hour soaking up the early evening sun on the lake. As you can see for the video, the boat had a small electric motor, running off what was basically an oversized car battery. It was slow and almost silent. Although my last experience in a boat involved a powerful engine, an exciting turn of speed and vast stretches of Finnish water I think Jajce's lakes, and this evening's excursion, benefit from their lack of the noisy elements of watersport. Tranquil would be a word well used to describe the experience. This little adventure was part of an unintentionally aquatic finale to our Novi Most summer activities with young people in Jajce. Yesterday, we had the first social gathering between

No waterfall

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Jajce really is very pretty in the summer; sitting, nestled amongst the green mountains, under a clear blue sky, its various water features sparkling in the sunlight. I could start writing things about an other-worldly beauty but I fear the 'pretentious police' might put in an appearance. Besides, some would say this would not be Bosnia if there were not some way of bringing overly romantic thoughts crashing back down to reality. For Jajce, this summer paint and pile-drivers provide the answer. The main pedestrian bridge in one of the prettiest parts of town has been undergoing noisy, if necessary, reconstruction for the past two months. That this coincides with the height of summer and has almost certainly affected the number of visitors to the AVNOJ museum - effectively stranded on the wrong side of the river - is unfortunate, to say the least. I would add that the bridge being out of action robs tourists of easy access to the best views of Jajce's waterfall. Howeve

A tune for the summer

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A couple of years ago Poppiholla, Chicane's take on a Sigur Ros track, was undoubtedly my song of the summer. This year that title is likely to be taken by something of the Hurts' album Happiness. Both of these are unfortunate confessions to make before today's big announcement for they betray a fondness for electronica and retro-styled synth pop. However, unashamed and undeterred, I will offer this suggestion for your summer fix of pop punk rock. Peace & Love is the latest recording from Gilgal, they band which Rowan and I form two-thirds of. It is one of those relentlessly energetic tracks that demands repeated plays at high volume. You could drive fast to it, dance crazily in front of the mirror to it or take your choice between air guitar or air drums. (Full disclosure: I'm the guitarist but when it comes to air instrumentation I am almost exclusively a drummer.) It may not be the sound-of-the-summer but it is certainly a sound-of-the-summer type song. B

Gigging again

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We're gigging tomorrow and Saturday. Gilgal. That's us. Rowan and I and Budo, our drumming co-worker at Novi Most in Jajce. If your eyesight is good you'll see from the poster that the gigs are at two different caffe bars in town. We're actually playing outside two caffe bars, because at this time of year any caffe bar that has the option to operate outdoors does so. These will be are first gigs in Jajce, if you don't include our cameo in last November's AVNOJ event. As you'd expect, we've been putting the hours in rehearsing. We're ready to play about 35 songs, including extended guitar solos and an acoustic set! Quite how the evenings will play out is anyones guess at this stage. Experience has taught us to at least try to be relaxed about such minor details start and finish times, and whether another bunch of guys are going to hold an impromptu jam on your instruments half way through the evening. I guess in the UK advertising like this is

Awesome!

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I show this photo not to illustrate man's propensity to spread a little around the middle but because it was my favourite photo from our recent camping experience. That it is pains me. Not because I have anything against any of these guys; the photo was the idea of the bloke doing the pointing and I thought I'd do them all the favour of blurring their faces to spare their blushes. And it's not that I dislike the photo. I like how it captures the happy wind down after a mad five minutes that mixed testosterone and a diving board. My pain is because of all the good photos I didn't manage to take. Four days camped out at Boračko jezero, the lake you get a glimpse of in the picture, came with some fantastic sights that did not include excessive man flesh. The sunlight, the mountains, trees, clouds, weird and wonderful bits of wildlife: all of these I tried to capture. I failed. The photos I downloaded from our camera this afternoon have no mystique, no sense of wonder.

Finished!

Rowan spotted this video on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. It's from a high school graduation celebration here in Jajce. We were out of town when it was filmed so we missed the parade, although we did see a similar one in the boarder town of Gradiška on our way back from a recent trip to Zagreb. It's a fun video to watch - we know a few of the characters in it - and it does a good job of showing Jajce off, which we think is a cool thing. Posting it tonight has an added significance because I've got that end-of-term feeling. My work on the children's album (that our last post talked about) is officially finished. After nine months of the project simmering in the background and two weeks of intense work, today we put a CD on the bus to Mostar, where the artwork is being designed and where it will be duplicated. It is a satisfying feeling to have delivered what was asked of me inside the timeframe we initially discussed. That the initial feedback has all been positive is

In the mix

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It looks like it's going to be another sunny day in Jajce but I'm inside, sitting down for another of mixing. It's what I've done for the last two days; it's what I'll be doing for most of the next three days. At that point we'll assess progress and work out what needs to happen before the end of next week. You'll have to watch the video below to get the details of the project, it's enough here to say it's going well but the timeframe is tight. The looming deadline means there's little room for interruptions. However, in my experience, achieving an uninterrupted working day is a big ask in Bosnia and Herzegovina - but here's hoping!

Mine no more.

“UK Government congratulates #Nepal for clearance of last remaining minefields & its designation as landmine free country.” So tweeted the Foreign Office this morning. This is good news for the Nepalese, and for visitors to their country. When it comes to the scars of war, clearing up the physical mess can take a lot longer than it does to return to some kind of psychological normality. We hear people talking about choosing to move on, but bombed-out buildings don't mend themselves. In the fifteen years since the shooting stopped in Bosnia and Herzegovina many of its marks are still clearly visible. This morning I woke to see the sunlight streaming through the bullet holes in the shutters on the window of the bedroom I was borrowing. I'm in Mostar. I drove down from Jajce on Sunday evening. One section of the journey passes through what has been, until recently, a largely unmarked minefield. Last month a sudden proliferation of bright yellow hazard tape alerted me to th

What we see in Zagreb

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Last weekend the Pope was in Zagreb. We were there the couple of days before he arrived. The to events had no connection, except that we were as aware of his impending arrival as he was unaware of our impending departure. However, the point of this post is to put Zagreb on the map if you haven't heard of it before. We would hope the capital of Croatia has crossed your consciousness before now but should it have evaded your radar that's about to be corrected. We've only started to explore Zagreb since our move to Jajce; it's now about a four hour drive away, which is makes it a reasonable proposition for a weekend break. Where as every city we've visited in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a east meets west feel to its architecture, Zagreb is definitely a western city. It has charm and, though we can't claim to have visited any of them yet, it also seems to have a healthy collection of museums and art galleries. It also has recently landed a regular Easyjet service fro

Music Courses Update

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Last Thursday we ran a second rehearsal for our music students at Novi Most Jajce. Since we started teaching guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums (and violin), at the beginning of the year, we've seen a steady increase in the number of young people wanting to learn with us. Some have tried an instrument for a few weeks and decided it's not for them, but despite that drop-off we still have more students than we started with. Fourteen of them joined us for this session. For some it was their first time trying to play as a band, for most it was their second. (One or two might have had a little more previous experience.) Anyone who's played music for any length of time will know there's a big difference between being a 'bedroom player' and a gigging musician. It's encouraging to see these young people rising to the challenge. Many off them are still in the very early days of getting to grips with their instrument. That they are prepared to use the little they'

Big news & black humour

Today the big news from this part of the world is making the headlines around the globe. It's always difficult to know what if anything we should write about such things. If we've learned anything in these past few years it is that war stories are really as simple as most news outlets like to paint them. We were in Croatia last weekend and there were plenty of visible declarations of support for General Ante Gotovina. A UN war crimes tribunal recently sentenced him to 24 years in prison for persecution, murder and other war crimes during the conflict in the 90s, but that doesn't stop him being a hero to many Croats. Likewise, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the arrest of Ratko Mladic will be met with different reactions. It may bring closure for some, reopen old wounds for others. And then there are those who will think he's being falsely accused. Discussing it could prove a conversational minefield; a sad reflection of the physical minefields that still litter the country.

A First Swim

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This weekend saw Rowan and some friends taking a first swim for 2011. I know that three months from now the waters of the Adriatic will be beautifully warm, which does little to tempt me to plunge into the cold. I did, however, get as far as getting my feet wet. We were in Gradac, Croatia, for the Novi Most team retreat. I should, of course, be showing video of all the thought-proking sessions but I was too busy leading them to get the camera out so instead you're left with a glimpse of how we spent our spare time, although what this video does fail to show is how good the ice cream was!

A wake up call.

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Summer has not even arrived yet and we're already preparing for winter. This morning we were woken by the persistent ringing of the door bell, announcing our first delivery of wood. It was ten to seven. So we started the day, under the watchful ear of six or seven swallows, stacking this pile of logs into something neater and altogether more tidy. Although the instructional videos on YouTube tell me wood should dry for a year before being burned it doesn't seem to work like that here. However, this lot will get a minimum of four or five months which should put us in a lot better starting position than we were last October. Here's hoping fires start quicker and are distinctly less smoky come the autumn.

Biciklijada

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I should have got this online about a week ago but I needed a little longer than a moment here or there to get the video edited. So in the spirit of 'better late than never' here is what the outward leg of our recent 60k cycle ride looked like. I didn't film the way back so you miss out on the increasingly heavy rainfall the accompanied our journey home, and the collision between a brake-less BMX and the rider in front of me that left one of them tasting tarmac!

Burnt out

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At a time when there are fears the actions of politicians on all sides are fanning unwelcome flames in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jajce experienced its own unwanted act of arson. We were told today these mills by the lakes survived the war unscathed but last night they did not survived what was surely a very pointless, and mindless, act of vandalism. Although, lest they perished in vain, perhaps they will provide a timely reminder of how beautiful environment is too easily scarred. Nobody benefits from that.

Worst Post-War Crisis

If Wikipedia is the place to go check 'facts' online then Twitter is certainly the first port of call for breaking news. When I noticed the phrase 'worst post-war crisis' appear with alarming regularity is my 'Bosnia' keyword search I figured we probably had something worth investigating. It seems this is the verdict of the International Crisis Group. One might argue that given their name they were unlikely to find the situation in Bosnia as anything other, but nevertheless these kind of reports are a timely reminder that nothing should be taken for granted. You can read the way the BBC reported this story if you want a bit more background, although it really contains little new news. However, I was left wondering where hope and optimism are when you need them. It is a brave man who says he understands the ins and outs of the political machine in Bosnia and Herzegovina; it will take brave men to see it provides ongoing peace and prosperity for all people here.

An R-rated barbecue?

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This video really needs very little introduction although it may benefit from a film-like classification. It's been labeled as 'the most gory video I've seen' and I've been told it should be R rated for violence. I feel I should say "you have been warned" but can a barbecue really be that bad?

May Day Barbecue

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In the next couple of days I'll edit an hours video footage into something watchable but until then I present this photograph as evidence of our May Day celebrations. That's a young goat being spit roasted and, yes, that's me taking my turn at slowly rotating the highlight of our barbecue lunch. I'd never eaten goat before. Now I can say I've been party to tearing a freshly cooked one limb from limb and chewing it off the bone. Civilised dining it probably wasn't. However I now know goat doesn't taste like chicken, it's, unsurprisingly, lambish.

Best of British?

Sometimes it's hard to understand something you've never experienced. Up until two weeks ago my only clear recollection of an earthquake was on a simulator in London's Science Museum. That didn't prepare me for what flashes through your mind when your house actually starts shaking, like it did as we were watching Man City dump Man Utd out of the FA Cup. Last night as I lay in bed, trying to drift off to sleep, the house shook again. These quakes, while big enough to show up on the websites that monitor these things, were nothing compared to the quakes we've seen destroy communities around the world in recent months. I know that my little experience cannot really help me understand the tragedy, and terror, of those situations. This morning we woke to a day where around the world people have joined in celebrating one of the best things about the British: their ability to do pageantry. Rowan and I watched the Royal Wedding thanks to the streaming on YouTube, althoug

Not one swallow...

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One swallow does not make a summer but could two be the sign of sunshine to come? The online weather forecasts don't agree at the moment but we live in hope. Whatever the weather it was quite a surprise to see these guys outside the window as I was getting breakfast. Perhaps it is evidence of ageing or a sign of the power of parenting that such things catch my attention. As if to prove either point, this morning's bike ride around the lake was a head turning affair. I am pleased to say I didn't run over three of the largest snails I can remember seeing. Spotting the first, bang in the middle of the trail I was riding, had me stopping to gauge just how big he was: head to tail easily as wide as my fist. Maybe that doesn't sound so impressive to you but it was to me! The wisdom of Wikipedia indicates the bird swimming on the lake could be a sign of summer. The margin for error comes from the vagaries of their distribution map and the accuracy of my identification. Ne

The first rehearsal

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Back in January I wrote a post about the behind the scenes preparations for the music courses we are now teaching in Jajce. In the video I said I hoped that at some point we'd be able to post a video showing the result of this teaching. This is that point. After a couple of months of teaching individual music lessons we decided it was time to get all our students into a rehearsal to put together what they have been learning. There were nerves, and there were some mistakes, but there were a lot of very encouraging performances too. Judging by the cell phone videos that appeared on Facebook on Thursday night they are proud of their progress; we are too and this is our video record of their first rehearsal.

Not inevitable

This afternoon I was told a simple story that illustrates why the hatred and division, fuelled by nationalism, that's all too common in this part of the world need not be an inevitability. We were visiting the parents of some brothers who are attending the youth work we're running in Jajce. Over generous helpings of coffee and cake the conversation ranged around various subjects. Then it turned to the one that can prove so explosive. The father leans forward. “It was ninety-three” he begins, explaining that this was the height of the war between the Croats and the Muslims, at least where he was at the time. “We got married then.” He is Catholic, his wife Muslim. His point was clear, so clear I think it needs no further expounding.

An Empire State of Mind...in Sarajevo.

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We'd watched it grow but we'd never been up. Yesterday, we visited the Avaz Twist Tower in Sarajevo for the first time. The decision was made by its proximity to the place we were spending the night but mostly by the gloriously clear blue skies stretched over Sarajevo. Although they had postcards pushing a parallel with the Empire State Building the two are very different experiences. For one thing there are no snow-topped mountains to be viewed from Manhattan. Without a double the Avaz Twist Tower does offer the best panorama of Sarajevo. If there was one disappointment it was that the open-air section of the 36th floor viewing gallery was closed, meaning the 35th floor cafe bar provided the better views. But as it would be wrong to gain that much elevation without stopping for coffee we did have time to savour them.

International Roma Day

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You have to be careful what you read in the news. It can give you a very unbalanced perspective on things. Today as I sat in a multi-agency round table meeting to discuss Roma issues in a village school near Jajce I caught myself thinking: I can't imagine this happening in France. I'm aware this is probably very unfair to all the un-xenophobic French whose views are not presented in the British media. However I was struck with the contrast between reading recent stories of deportations and sitting in a room with representatives from the local social services, local government, OSCE, EUFOR and others discussing issues around education with a group of Roma parents. Here were people trying to make life better. That, at least, is the optimistic view. Listening to the realities of the struggles this community faces it's easy to wonder if life will ever change. This evening I read a less than hopeful article about the future of the whole country . With such big problems in need o

A winning day

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Saturday was a very satisfying day. Sometimes in youth work it can be hard to see progress, or any kind of positives, from all your efforts; it was not one of those days. Instead it was day when I could choose which of many encouraging outcomes to reflect on. The uni hockey match in Mostar brought together young people from a mixture of ethnic and social backgrounds, although the teams were not defined by these factors. The teams, from Mostar and Jajce, were both mixed. It was exciting to see that after a hard fought game, that lacked nothing in passion and intensity, the teams were happy to hang out and mix together. Perhaps this was because the players are unified by an involvement in a sport almost unknown in this part of the world. I'd like to think the accepting atmosphere the coaches from both teams have created had something to do with it too. For my part it was nice to know I haven't been forgotten by the young people from Klub Novi Most in Mostar, and it was fun to sho

Jajce fights back!

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It's like Jajce read yesterday's post about Mostar and thought anything it can do...and turned up the heat. When I left the house at nine this morning is was a grey, overcast day. By noon we were sitting outside a coffee bar in the centre of town, burning up under the midday sun. This season's tan is officially started! At five I had a meeting with a local band out by the lakes. Had I sat the other side of the table I would have spent an hour staring at this view. As it was I concentrated on what was being said instead! Truth be told, Mostar was warmer yesterday but having given friends there a cautious appraisal of Jajce's move towards summer weather I am happy to be proved wrong so quickly.

Mostar looking lovely.

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Mostar was looking lovely today. I was down for the day as our uni hockey team from Jajce were playing against the team from Klub Novi Most in Mostar. I'll save any comment on the game until I can post the highlights video. Instead, enjoy the view from the Stari Most. It was ideal weather for taking in the delights of the Stari Grad, which we did before hitting the road back to Jajce. Warm, t-shirt weather in the low twenties is much more suited for strolling around in the sunshine than the mid-fourties heat of high summer. What you won't see is all the photo opportunities I passed up on the way there and back in the interests of driving responsibly. Blue skies, sunshine and snow-topped mountains still take a lot of beating in my book. In fact my concern to drive safely almost backfired when I slowed dramatically on a mountain road to let a cat with no sense of urgency saunter out of my path; I was being tail-gated by an impatient local at the time. In retrospect, full speed ah

What Europe has lost.

It's a sad fact that most news stories about Bosnia and Herzegovina that make English language news sites tend not to be happy ones. The article from this week's Economist that landed in my Facebook inbox this week would be a good example. While I don't believe you, me or the international community at large should ignore the issues this kind of journalism highlights it is important to offer proof of the positives of this place. As an example of this I present this quote from an article a friend posted on my Facebook wall last night. “ The country described sometimes as the heart between the mouths of two lions, hosts one of the two greatest tracks of primeval forests in Europe, unmatched biodiversity, daunting mountain faces yet to be climbed, deep gorges yet to be traversed, wild rivers with water so pure you can cup your hand to drink, some of the highest concentrations of wildlife, and perhaps the last highland tribes of semi-nomadic peoples on the continent. In ma

It's a funny old game

Let's pile on the the cliches; we are talking football after all. That game of two halves. The one where things always seem to be up there and probably at the end of the day! It's been described as a game that is't a matter of life and death, it's more important than that. Maybe it is, probably it isn't. Nevertheless, these days, many a manager mangles words like a would be philosopher while the stars of the pitch are schooled to deliver non-committal, controversy-free press conference performances a politician would be proud of. Taking their cue, this post will touch a little on the political and philosophical, which I hope makes up for the lack of anything more important. Tonight I played a little game. I typed 'Bosnia news' into Google, determined that I would blog about the first link it served up under its 'News for Bosnia news' heading. That was this link from ESPN Soccernet. I was the story I expected. Although I've been aware of th

Ingenuit-Wii!

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We recently bought a Nintendo Wii for the youth club sessions we're running in Jajce. There were two reasons for choosing this over a PlayStation: the Wii is less common here and it seems more of a social gaming experience. The wireless controllers often make the players as entertaining as the game play. However, it was only in the unboxing after the purchase that we realised the sensor that picks up the movement of the controllers was connected by a very thin, delicate-looking piece of wire. Not something I deemed durable enough for repeated rigging and de-rigging. One over-enthusiastic tug might have left us with an expensive collection of useless bits of plastic. And so I dreamed up this, as-yet, un-named transport, storage and protection solution for the Wii. That it doubles as a handy projector stand is an added bonus. The toolbox cost little more than a fiver and now houses the Wii console and power supply. The tool tray keeps the various controllers and connectors organis

The passage of time

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Consider this our passage of time moment. Like in the movies we are acknowledging the time since our last post by showing the changing of the season. (Compare with the post below.) This is today in Jajce, a warm sunny day that might mean winter has passed. After a couple of weeks of catching up with friends and family back in the UK we're now getting back up to speed with our work here. Rowan was running a baking course last night and is out teaching art this evening. I spent the afternoon giving keyboard lessons. So we are back, up and running.

Castles in the Sky...with snow!

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I think it was in a video I made earlier this year that I mentioned how a dash of snow suited Jajce's castle. Back then I didn't take the photos to prove it but an overnight fall gave me the chance to snap this shot while walking home today. In fairness, the castle looks pretty good whatever the weather. On Monday I was sorting through some old photos to upload on our new WeDoAdventure Facebook page . If you were to head over there and click ' like ' you'd be able to see that clear blue skies and golden sunshine also compliment it nicely. But least I be accused of favouritism let me add the castle is not the only photogenic spot in Jajce. The waterfall, the mills and the lakes are all up there as great place to take a camera; something I've tried to provide a bit of evidence for on Facebook. If you do like the page I hope you like what you see!

Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I don't want to claim to speak for anyone on what this means so I'll quote from something I saw on the Facebook profile of a local friend. It was written in English, so I haven't coloured anything in translation. Happy Independence Day to MY most BEAUTIFUL country Bosnia & Herzegovina!! ♥ and to all of the people living here, wishing that any subsequent year is better and that all who live in this territory feel like BiH is their homeland :) :P I wholeheartedly agree this is a beautiful country but it was the last bit that really got me. If the things I've heard over the years are a fair representation of the truth then it was the desire for distinct homelands that broke up Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country from which some people would still like to carve a distinct homeland for themselves. While not wanting to comment on the politics of that I fail to see how the economics of such action would

Fact or fiction?

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I'll confess that at first the thought made me cringe. Google refused to come to my rescue and the growing realisation dawned: I may have invented a myth. That is a rather grand way of saying that the lies I told as a tour guide my brother took as truth and presented to YouTube. Obviously, I didn't intentionally set out to misrepresent my adopted home, or to mislead my brother, or his YouTube audience. I still maintain that my information came from somewhere other than my fertile imagination, but I have yet to find the facts to back this up. Clearly a video about a different kind of tanning booth has great potential on the internet. It was only after seeing it titled and tagged that I began to doubt the description I'd given. Online all I can find is references to 'mills' or 'water mills'. (Now I know which sounds more glamorous; perhaps the local tourist office is missing a trick!) I quickly came clean to my brother about my reservations and he countered

Squeamish?

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The last couple of days it has been attempting to snow here in Jajce. This has jogged my memory, for better of for worse, reminding me of this photo from when we had snow settled everywhere earlier this year. Against the white blanket covering the ground this mystery object stood out as we studied the view from our kitchen window. Rowan declared in disgusting and I, employing a sensible look-don't-touch policy, reckoned it to be some kind of animal skin, probably removed at one of the butcher's shops near our house. Whatever its origin, and however it ended up opposite our home, it provided hours of entertainment for the local stray dogs. For the better part of a week we watched it get smaller and smaller until, with the snow, it disappeared altogether.

A uni-hockey first.

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Over the past couple of years I've written a number of posts about uni-hockey. However, I've never posted a photo or a video that shows the game in action. Thankfully, last weekend my brother was on hand to do the honours. This, then, is his first-hand account of his first experience of uni hockey, on his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Big Thumbs Up!

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This isn't the first time we've had reason to write nice things about EasyJet on this blog. We hope it won't be the last. But least pessimism get the last word let's celebrate the bizarre experience that was collecting my brother and his family from Zagreb airport yesterday. We knew they were flying EasyJet, in fact we'd noticed tickets for the new route become available and recommend they book a cheap trip months ago. We'd since forgotten they'd booked on the inaugural flight. Without this context we did wonder why we were seeing the aircraft ceremonially doused by the hoses of two fire tenders as is taxied towards the terminal. The presence of a media scrum in the arrivals hall had us wondering if a Croatian celebrity had shared the flight with them. When a lone piper struck his first drone note in baggage reclaim we were lost for an explanation. Thankfully the British Ambassador to Croatia was on hand to provide the missing pieces of the puzzle. As we say

Undermined?

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On today's impromptu after-lunch stroll my wander up to the view point overlooking Jajce's waterfall was interrupted by a familiar looking strip of yellow tape. MINE: not an indication of ownership but an announcement of clear and present danger. After a quick glance around I decided they was no need to do what Hilary said she did in Bosnia. I did not duck and run; I stopped and took this photo for you. Only last week I saw a new article posted on Facebook about a cliff fall a few metres from where I was standing. My mind was putting two and two together hoping for four. Was the danger not so much a mine as an undermined area? Is it wrong to suspect that MINE tape was being used as an all-purpose hazard tape? Having experimented with various ways of capturing the view and the tape in a neatly composed image I wandered back down to the path that leads out to the side of the falls. The sun was in completely the wrong place for capturing a good photo – why I had headed for t

Not lacking potential

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A piece on the BBC website about the Easter Islands caught my eye this morning. It made me think about a conversation I had on Friday morning out by the lakes in Jajce. I was drinking coffee with a local friend who was saying it was a shame more had not been done to develop the potential of the lakes as a leisure destination. It's true they have huge potential, their banks bear testimony to various efforts down the years to capitalise on this, yet it's fair to say much of this potential remains unfulfilled. I'll confess my knowledge of the Easter Islands runs little deeper than recognising the origin of the giant talking statue in Night At The Museum, but their story got me thinking over breakfast today about the pros and cons of achieving potential. The lakes in Jajce could easily become one of central Bosnia's go-to summer locations, but at what price to the local community. We know the lakes are loved by the local community but perhaps the price of overcrowding an

Sun...and sexism?

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The sun came out on Saturday. It's not that we haven't seen it for months but this was the first time for months that you could say it was warm, or at least warmish. Running around at uni-hockey training I wasn't the only one to end up in a t-shirt. Since the start of January, after training on Saturdays, Novi Most has been running a social session for a couple of hours. Most of the team will turn up joined by a number of other young people from the area. So far this year the sessions have happened inside – apart from one snowy weekend that saw some impromptu 'ice hockey' happen in the area behind the building. This week the sunshine and warm weather prompted our co-worker to suddenly decide to get all the lads clearing leaves and generally tidying up the yard outside. He is unashamedly keen to have this space ready for the onset of barbecue season! And so an industrious half hour from the boys saw a splendid piece of early spring cleaning accomplished under the

Pretty in pink?

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Without doubt, the most popular car on the road in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Volkswagen Golf. Every generation is represented, in fact, only the other day I saw one of what Wikipedia tells me was only 6,697 Mk2 Golf Country's ever made. This was Volkswagen's pre-emptive – you could even say prophetic – stab at producing an SUV in the early nineties. My sighting was the only time I have ever seen this model anywhere, other than in a picture. But today we saw a much more modern incarnation that whet Rowan's appetite. As you can see from the picture it is pretty in pink. Rowan declared that it looked like you could eat it. Instead of the words 'Volkswagen' or 'Golf' adorning the cars behind there was just a simple, silver heart decal. This too is a unique sighting. I can't recall seeing many pink cars over here, if any others at all. Do I approve? Well, I like the wheels! Naturally, if I had to choose between these two Golfs my vote would have to go w

On Course...

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Last week we said we'd be starting running courses as a Novi Most team in Jajce. We can confirm we did and that our first week of courses turned out to be a heady cocktail of drums and guitar, with a dash of synth, a spot of violin, lashings of papier -mâché and two dozen chocolate muffins! This video gives a bit of insight into the preparation for the music courses and a nice long look at my new hat from various angles!

She Will Be Mine?

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I'm not sure how familiar you are with Wayne's World. As a teenager my wife and her friends were definitely in the Bill and Ted camp; for me and my friends it was Wayne and Garth that got our laughs. Regardless of your franchise allegiance – if any – an interest in either should have stirred an affinity with the rock wannabe. I first watched Wayne's World as an aspiring musician; two decades on I've now got a long history of helping others strike their own first heroic barre chords. Tomorrow Novi Most starts its first music courses as part of its work in Jajce. So it was that today I – a guitarist – walked into Banja Luka's premier music store with my drumming co-worker for some essential supplies. Yes, there was a drum kit sitting under some lighting bars but he did not treat shoppers to an impromptu solo! In the movie Wayne had his heart set on a white Stratocaster that lived locked in a glass case in his local music store's window. “She will be mine” he s

Lunch

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This was lunch. I can't say I'm proud of it but I present it as an interesting case study of economists; neatly summing up both the psychological power wielded by global brands and the well known fact that scarcity increases demand. As we've mentioned before, Bosnia and Herzegovina has no McDonalds. This is by no means a bad thing. The country has plenty of quality home-grown alternatives to the most famous burger in fast food. However Croatia has McDonalds and that means the lure of the Golden M is never far from the travelling kind. We once spent twelve days in Manhattan. Despite there being seemingly a McDonalds on every corner that wasn't occupied by a Starbucks we only stepped inside once, when needing to find a 'rest room' after a trip on the Staten Island ferry. We had no inclination to eat there. Years before we left the UK we'd stopped considering McDonalds as a fast food option, except in an absolute emergency. So why did I find myself eating a

Back Page Special

One of our co-workers turned up this morning, apologising for oversleeping in one breath before breathlessly asking if we knew how much Edin Dzeko is set to earn every day. For those whose eyes are not glued to the UK's back pages, Dzeko is Manchester City's latest acquisition and Bosnia and Herzegovina's star striker. We saw him once, when he turned in what I'd have to describe as an uninspired performance in the country's most important ever football match. They lost 1-0 to Portugal and didn't go to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. With a £27m price tag to justify you have to hope he performs better week in and week out in the Premier League. Whatever his wages are they are almost certainly beyond the realms of comprehension for most people in his home country, although this is almost a universal issue with the sport's highest paid stars. That said he could probably pop back here in a couple of weeks and afford to buy a small town, or two! The funny th

Crazy Icy Tunnel

We blogged about icy tunnels a few weeks back but as yesterday's bike ride took in a couple of them I could resist the temptation to stop and make this video so you could experience them close up. Enjoy!

Happy Trails

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Here is the evidence I went out riding today. It's not that I think you wouldn't believe me without the image - I could have blogged about the ride without it – but a pictures ability to add to the word count without adding any words is the stuff of legends. From what I gather from Facebook it seems some UK readers may be sick of the sight of snow, and to them I apologise, but it was the dusting of overnight snow that got me out of the house this morning. I wanted to ride in the snow a couple of weeks back but we had too much work on for me to find the time. Today gave the perfect combination: a sunny day and enough snow to make it a snow ride, without too much to render riding an impossibility. Yesterday we met an American who had worked in Jajce at the end of the nineties. They were excited to here about the developing youth work project we are part of. The word pioneering cropped up in the conversation. I'll confess it's not a tag that sits easily because I'