From Prague, Part 2

So, as promised, here is another entry from Prague. I'll try to describe my feelings and thoughts about Bosnia here briefly. Lots of pictures and thoughts from my journal will come once I am home.
Overall, Bosnia is a very beautiful country, but our visit had very mixed feelings. We were led by a group that works for reconciliation, economic development (esp. with native agricultural workers), and tourism. They want to portray Bosnia as a great, safe, wonderful place to visit. And it is. We went white water rafting (mellow river overall though) through an amazing valley/canyon that was up in green hills covered with trees with leaves just starting to change color, and the water was drinkable, which is something I never would have thought about in Bosnia. At the same time, Bosnia experienced a war of ethnic cleansing among other things just 15 years ago, and many of its buildings and homes still show bullet and shrapnel damage, which is intense to see. We were told by our guide, a former soldier for the Bosnian army (the good guys, really, having studied the history myself) that if we had walked outside of our hotel room 15 years ago we would have been sniped merely for being in the open because Sarajevo underwent a 3 year siege in which Serbian snipers, artillery, tanks, and rocket launchers surrounded the city, covering the hills around it. They targeted anyone, hoping to weaken the city and its morale to the point of capitulation. That's intense, to live everyday, working, trying to buy what food was available, raising kids, in an atmosphere in which going outside meant risking your life. One image in particular that sticks with me is a 10-12 story hotel that still stands in the middle of the city completely bombed out.
Downtown Sarajevo is full of vendors and the language (Bosnian, which is pretty much as similar to Serbian or Bosniac as Texan is to Californian) is not at all recognizable as it is Slavic based. The vendors would know enough English to sell you things, typically, and were often very aggressive salemen and women. Also interesting, if I can use that word, were the number of beggars and their ethnicity--most were what most Europeans call Gypsies, who are more properly called Roma. They have darker skin and have never really been integrated into any European society. The Nazis targeted them as they did the Jews, and today they are very prejudiced against. Because they are different, from skin color to music and culture, they are seen as scapegoats for societies' ills and stereotyped as thieves and beggars. Many of them become beggars when no one will hire them, and many live in "homes" where the owners "rent" them a small space in return for all of the money they collect begging all day, which is really a cycle they cannot get out of.
Last note. The leader of our guides there was an American who did the "backpack around Europe" thing after college in the States, found out about the war in Bosnia, joined an anti-war protest group, and has been there ever since working with the people and helping those in need while trying to promote tourism and overall understanding of the Bosnian people, who remain so divided that even on paper, such as government forms, they may identify themselves as Serbian, Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim), or Croat. There is no box for Bosnian. That's just a glimpse of how separated the country remains and how much needs to change if there is to be a truly united Bosnia.
Hope that gives some insight into my time in Bosnia, and hopefully I will be able to blog again from Poland, although we are staying in hostels and I will have to find an internet cafe in the city.
Thank you again for your prayers and messages. Please pray for me and my group and we travel into Poland and visit concentration camps as we discuss the Holocaust and contemporary Neo-Nazi movements and the rise of Anti-Semitism, which is significant in Europe today. Pray that we may ask the hard questions, the theological questions of salvation and why we weren't born into a Jewish family in Europe, and why those who were were.
May God's blessings be upon you,
Joe