Balkan Express

Cao Friends!
I’m writing as I’m on a bus (the "Balkan Express") making a 7.5-hour trek to Belgrade, Serbia for the weekend. The “highways” are narrow and winding through the beautiful luscious green, mountainous countryside. Periodically we’ll pass a small town, or a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and pick up or drop off passengers along the way. We’ve passed through hundreds of small farming towns nestled in the mountain valleys, or villages built into the mountainside. Steep cliffs with rives and lakes running through it, and fisherman attempting to catch tonight’s dinner. I’m in awe of the pristine beauty, and that as a roadside observer, appear to be 100 years behind the times. Ana and I are off to visit her family in Belgrade this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited. A place filled with different culture, sights, sounds, and people- just my cup of tea.

The past two days, Ana and I have been busy at the centre, conducting interviews with the members. They were semi-structured interviews, based on the COPM (addressing self-care, productivity and leisure) to find common trends, wants, needs, themes and gaps between members, but also addressing Radost Zivota; how it helps them and what can be improved. We have been interviewing the people that we see daily, that participate in the program (that they call workshops—a mix of art, music, sports, excursions, motor development, and socializing). There are members that we have only met once or twice, that attend for 1 on 1 therapy with Hana, Nermin, Silva or Olga. We have been collecting valuable information, but our uncertainty regarding our project is still at the max. I think our biggest difficulty is that the members that attend workshop daily are the same group of about 20-30 individuals ranging in age from 10-39, ranging in diagnosis from autism to cerebral palsy, from learning disabilities to psychiatric conditions. Some individuals have no insight into their disability, while others have insight, fully understand their disability, yet have the greatest perspective. Disability seems to be something of a mystery around here, and not really openly talked about—especially learning disabilities or cognitive impairments. We know that a few of the members didn’t receive proper intervention or prevention during the war, and then they seemed to fall to the wayside post-war due to the large number of other social and medical issues the country was dealing with. Some individuals have parents that do everything for them, while others lost their parents in the war. Radost Zivota does the most amazing job operating on a zero budget, but the raw truth is that they function from grant to grant, scraping by on pennies. The centre itself is far too small the number of people that attend, and would probably be considered a fire hazard in Canada to have that many people in such a small space. It’s apparent that all of the members could benefit from individual therapy, but our goal is to impact the collective community. So whatever Ana and I suggest has to cost nothing, can’t require lots of space, and impacts a spectrum of individuals. So far, apparent themes that could be addressed are: sexuality and disability, self-care needs, activities that promote independence, self-esteem building, disability awareness, and life skills (mainly cooking, and transportation). We’ll be continuing our needs assessment next week with more interviews, and some focus groups. I’ll be updating with more findings, but we’re always open to suggestions, so please feel free to comment!!

So Ana and I have now been in Sarajevo for 2 weeks, and we’re getting are adjusting just nicely. It’s sad to think that we only have 3 weeks left, but excited for the adventure to come. We’re getting more comfortable walking and running in the streets. We still get stared at while running, as if we had 3 eyes, but I don’t think that’s going to change. I’m starting to comprehend the slightly organized chaos that is European driving. People are really good at laying on the horn around here, and I can now distinguish between a friendly hello, and road rage. Driving appears to be a mastered skill, but I’m surprised we don’t see more accidents. It still worries me that motorists don’t wear helmets (even small children), and people don’t wear seatbelts in the backseats of cars. I managed to go to a stand, and buy an onion independently the other day (woo hoo!), and I’m able to understand some words and phrases embedded within speech. Hana, Nermin, Ana and the kids are great at teaching me vocabulary. Hana and Nermin started teaching me “key” phrases one should know (mostly slang haha), while Ana remains my lifeline and greatest teacher of all, celebrating my small successes. I think her brain wants to explode some days constantly engaged in one language or another. My frustration with not understanding the world around me or being able to express myself is driving me nuts!! There’s only so many times you can ask someone how they are, what they’re doing, how they slept, or randomly spurt out simple vocab words regarding your surroundings. How productive is it if you were trying to engage in conversation with someone who can just say “chair, table, window, sky, cloud, sun, eye, nose, hair, milk, coffee, peach” and then counts from 1-10 (although I ensure you, I know more words than that). I can also be seen attempting to speak Spanish, just because it’s the foreign language I do now, and when English doesn’t work, I may as well try option #2. Needless to say, I’m gaining a huge lesson on how much we rely on verbal communication.

Balkanika song of the day is a Romanian beat... needless to say, it's unreal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv8nGq-XMQM&feature=PlayList&p=DD201CFC3AE0ECA9&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=4

Well, we’re in Belgrade now settled in with Ana's amazing family! Her mother is the nicest lady, her Grandma is adorable and I'm excited to meet the rest of her family! So I'll update after the weekend! I miss you all, and I hope you all have a great weekend! BC’ers, enjoy the summer weather you’re finally getting! Ontario, try to stay cool from the heat wave! And to the rest of you, just enjoy whatever is coming your way!! xoxo