Balkanika

So I have a new love in my life in the form of music. It is known as Balkanika and it is hilarious yet awesome. It is channel 27 on TV and is the Much Music of the Balkans, without commercials and the music can be heard throughout every bar and cafe in Sarajevo. The Balkan countries are made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Romania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Kosovo. The music is a combination of fast tempos of the 80's and 90's, with trumpets, oboes, harmonicas, an occasional arabic tone, and lyrics I don't understand. That is except for the Romanians, who throw in random English lyrics overtop dirty euro dance beats. It's lyrical, wonderful and matched with hilarious music videos. The videos normally consist of half naked people, expressionaless men, slightly out-of-sync group dances, beaches or open fields, light shows, sunglasses, cats, unicorns, abstract art, and/or people in snowglobes. I don't know if this description has won your heart over, but if not, here's a few of our favourites for you to take a gander at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj-x0biQsSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjbkTctD98Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URFU2gL5eMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xW85VcIgXA

So, as mentioned previously, Balkanika is everywhere, including Radost Zivota (the centre). All the kids/adolescents/adults LOVE Balkanika for all that it is. We arrived at the centre this morning for 9am kafu (coffee) with some of the mothers and Hana (the psychologist). Again, I contribute very little to conversation (rare- I know!), but smile and continue to spit out the occasional "dobra", "dobra dan", "zdravo", "kako si?" (how are you?) or "zovem se Chelsea" to those I haven't met. At 9:30, everyone started arriving, and group started, and what was on as background music?-- Balkanika. We started with some fine motor skills and expressive art in the form of colouring, and everyone drew Ana and I "Welcome" posters. My name in Bosnian, according to the adolescents is "Celzi". My dreams of having a "z" in my name have now come true. There were alot of flowers, suns, and drawing of hands in great colours. The kids were trying to learn English and teach me some Bosnian. They are the coolest group of individuals, and their love and compassion for eachother, Ana and I is almost palpable and warms my heart. While colouring, there are some individuals who are blind, or have difficulty with fine motor due to spasticity or tremor, but they encourage eachother do as much as they can of a drawing/picture, and then they pair up with a friend, to finish it together. They talk about their problems and issues in the most non-judgemental way, and then try to put their problems into perspective by talking about how lucky they are to have the friends at the centre, and the life they live. They are very inclusive, uplifting, and encouraging and we spent a lot of the day laughing. Ana and I are still building rapport, and trying to get to know the kids more personally. Project ideas are still running through our minds, but nothing concrete is in place yet. We had lunch and afternoon kafu with the mothers, who are also the most cheerful group of ladies. Although to me, it sounds like they are often yelling at one another, I am then ensured its just friendly banter, because they break out in laughter about every 20 seconds. I got a phonecall from the President of the Physiotherapy Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina today, and Ana and I are meeting with him tomorrow afternoon. No idea what we're doing, but he wants our "fresh terapia brains" and we may or may not be going to SOS Kinderdorf tomorrow. I'll update on that tomorrow. It shall be interesting.

Just when we thought our day was about to end, we found out that every 3 months, the centre celebrates all of the Birthdays from the past 3 months in the form of a party (aka Balkanika with cake and juice) with the neighboring association. It was a lot of fun, and I learned that the best way to build rapport with people when you don't speak the same language is through dance and laughter. The association had a live band, that were fantastic. Again, 80's/90's tempo with trumpets, oboes, harmonicas and lyrics I don't understand. Everyone got involved in the dancing, and there was traditional Balkan folklore circle dancing, where everyone holds hands and dances in a rotating circle. I'm sure there are traditional dance moves that we were supposed to follow, but nobody cared. There were some people dancing on the counters, and lots of love and laughter. Here are a few photos of Ana and I partaking in the fun:




Tomorrow is another day of fun and excitement at Joy of Life. At 9am, we're going on a field trip with some of the kids to one of the schools in Sarajevo that is starting to move towards inclusive education. There are apparently some Americans in Sarajevo that will be there presenting ideas/projects/theories, so it will be good to collaborate with them. And then in the afternoon, we'll be meeting with Jasmin, the President of the Physiotherapy Association. I guess it will be a day of collaboration! I guess that's what OTs do best! That, and reflecting.

I hope you enjoy the Balkanika as much as we do! xoxo