Raja

Another exciting week is coming to a close in Sarajevo, and in 8 days, I will be saying my final "Vidimo Se" to this fantastic city and to our new friends and family we have made here. On the topic of friendship, I was introduced to a term yesterday that explains the mentality of most people and a phenomenon we've experienced here in the Balkans. The word is Raja, and it refers to your crew, gang, homies, or circle of friends.

I'm normally fairly talkative (some people may consider this an understatement), and ever since I was a child, I haven't had many issues making friends (I'm pretty sure it's genetic, considering my parents and brother aren't of the shy variety either). Since we've arrived, we've noticed that people, although super friendly, are hesitant to let you into their world. While we've been in the Balkans, Ana and I have gone out, people will stare at us, and smile at us, but rarely invite us to join them for a drink, or talk to us at all for that matter. This is much different than other places I've visited, or life back in Canada, where people go out with friends, but aren't opposed to meeting new people, and are often welcoming to the idea. We met up with our new friend, Sonja last night, who studies in Australia with Cary. She is originally from Bosnia, but moved to Australia in 1996. She was the one who introduced the concept of Raja, and suddenly our world made sense again. Balkan people, especially Bosnian's, have their Raja (often a solid group of 8-12 people, sometimes more, rarely less), they do everything with their Raja, and if your Raja is out of town, you're hooped. Period the end. So needless to say, it's been difficult and effortful for Ana and I to penetrate our way into a Raja. We started to figure out the concept of Raja a few weeks back, and Ana and I more took this as a challenge, setting SMART goals for ourselves to slowly start building a "Raja". I'm happy to report that we now have a Raja. Our original Raja members were Ana, Hana, Nermin and I, but it's slowly growing consisting of Cary, Sonja, and a few others that we've met. We're still accepting new members (as the Canadians that we are), and my parents and Ana'a sister will become members at their arrival on Tuesday and Wednesday! My parents, the fantastic Heidi and Jim, are currently in Croatia, and heading to Sarajevo on Tuesday to see what Ana and I are doing here. My Mom booked us to go on a sailing trip of the Dalmation Coast for a week, and it will be nice to spend quality time with them (me beating my Dad at multiple games of crib, and Mom and I exchanging books in quality bibliotherapy, soaking up some rays, and exploring various islands we stop at), as long as we don't kill eachother being stuck on the same vessel for that long. It'll be much better than my alternative plans would have been, and needless to say I'm very excited to see them, and I'm sure they'll be happy that I've brought them to another part of the world, that may have not been on the top of their list previously. I strongly feel that everyone should come to the Balkans, they are AMAZING, and they'll capture your heart, with or without a Raja.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has started, and the streets are PACKED with people. I'm pretty certain the regular population has tripled, and the pedestrian streets are filled with the world's people, including Mr. Morgan Freeman, who I'm determined to meet. It probably won't happen, but a girl can dream (not for the fact that I want to jump his bones, but the fact that he is amazingly talented, and he'd be so interesting to talk to). Tomorrow, we're going to 2 films (we bought tickets to one, and got a 2 for 1 combo). We're going to see "The Long Road through Balkan History", which I'm pretty stoked to see. The history of the Balkans is so interesting, and I feel that the more I learn, the more I'm intrigued. As much as I love Canada, our history is fairly dull (to be fair, we're a very young country and there are houses here older than Canada). I was also young during the war here, and our school system didn't touch much upon the cultural or religious conflicts, nor many other world events such as the Berlin wall, Rawanda or other recent major events that have shaped our world. But I guess it's our experiences that open our eyes to the rest of the world, and I'm sure glad there's Wikipedia for quick access to such information, considering I don't have the bank account to get first hand knowledge.

Again, Ana and I are working away (I'm pretty sure we've double our required hours- maybe we're attempting too much? Never...) even though it's Saturday, and we'll work again tomorrow. Ana and I are a good team, where I'm putting together stuff in English, and she translates it. The website we're producing for them may be completed after we've left. Ana and I have already discussed (with our Raja) the fact that we'll be back sooner than later. Ana and I are also brainstorming fundraising options and ideas that we can take on back in Canada (Ana in Toronto and me in Vancouver) for Radost Zivota. We may be working with them for the rest of our lives. They've stolen our hearts, and I don't think we'll ever get them back.

Miss you all. Besos y Abrazos (xoxo)