The view from the other side.

Whoops.  I haven't written for a while... sorry to all those ardent followers out there.  (Ha.)

We're in Banja Luka!  I know I've said this about every city we've been in, but it's beautiful.  From my third-story room in a hotel, I can see typical medium-sized cityscape: the rounded dome of an Orthodox church and tree-lined streets with mountains in the background... yeah.  Bosnia is absolutely lovely.

Banja Luka is the capital of the Republika Srpska.  So, for those of you not paying attention to my earlier Bosnian politics and history lessons, when the war ended in 1995 and the Dayton Peace Accords were signed, the country was split into two halves: the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).  Most of Bosnia's Muslims and Croats live in the Federation; most Bosnian Serbs live in the Republika.  (OK, on a side note, I was talking to one of the girls on the trip last night about those particular names for the three people-groups in Bosnia, and we decided they're unsuitable.  All the people from Bosnia are Bosnians.  Serbs and Croats, though, call themselves a different nationality; Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) are associated to their religion.  Isn't that weird?  Serbs generally are Orthodox and Croats are generally Catholic, but that religious tie isn't used in their "national" identification like the Muslims' is... it's strange.  But anyway.) 

Until two days ago, we had spent all of our time in the Federation.  Crossing over to the RS made some of our group members nervous--apparently in past years they have been refused service for being Americans, etc., and the Muslim members of our group feel very uncomfortable here.  But I still think it's important that we came, and I have actually really enjoyed Banja Luka.  The Serb narrative about the war is really different from the Bosniak narrative, which is troubling because (in my opinion, and the opinion of many international observers) the Serb side did assume the role of perpetrator far more often than the Bosniaks or the Croats did.  But that doesn't mean that some Serbs weren't victims--really, in war, everyone is a victim.  It's just interesting to come to a place where the overwhelming narrative of what happened is strikingly different from the story as we have come to understand it.  I do think that counterpart is important, though.  Without it, we would have a very one-sided view of the war... and there happened to be three sides.

We have spent our time in Banja Luka primarily in meetings.  The highlight for me was yesterday morning, when we met with the Genesis Project.  They're an NGO funded by UNICEF and the Canadian government (woot woot!).  They do amazing work with kids in primary schools all throughout the RS, using puppet theater and little TV spots and in-school workshops to educate kids on ethnic reconciliation, conflict resolution, and land mine avoidance.  (Yes, it's sad that they have to teach kids about land mines.  But it's reality here, and the approach they use is so whimsical and entertaining and well-done that you can't help but admire their work!)  It was such a joy to talk to them.  It actually made me really excited to go back to camp!  Youth are so impressionable, and the way we are formed as children affects the way we will view the world for the rest of our lives.  That potential, then, is awesome, and I am so thankful for the work of the Genesis Project in teaching children lessons of peace and reconciliation.  Bosnia will probably require generations to "recover" its multiethnic identity, but organizations like this are an important step in that process.