Croatia joins EU, Bosnia takes a hit, I rant

This article describes how, when neighboring Croatia joins the EU on July 1, Bosnia’s farmers will lose their main export market and get hit bad.  I could add it to the long list of economic ailments in our dear country, most of whose origins can be traced to the top.

Here’s how:  In order to sell food to EU nations, Bosnia needs to make sure its food meets EU hygiene codes.  Many private farmers have already met these standards, but Bosnia’s government still has not agreed on a unified verification system.

Image: Bosnian farmers protesting government idiocy. 

In politically-divided postwar Bosnia (now 18 years after the war ended) the three ethno-religious groups cannot agree on much of anything.  Gridlock ensues, progress is not made, and the average Bosnian suffers.  In this case, farmers who are making good products could lose their livelihood because the government can’t agree on a way to certify the products.  If verifying the quality of their nation’s products so that citizens can earn a living isn’t among the very obvious duties of a government, I don’t know what is.

What to say?  It’s insane, it’s exasperating.  Bosnians of all ethic stripes are already sick of a political system that only helps those in power to get rich and stay in power.  Yet before each election nationalistic politicians stir up paranoid xenophobia (“You can’t vote for the other guy, ’cause he’s not one of us. We have to stick together and look out for our own.”) and stay in power.  Pray that next time, people will be so sick of it that their frustration will dominate the fear and they’ll throw the bums out.

“Be angry, but do not sin.” -Ephesians 4:26

Cajdžinica

Here’s the view from the Cajdžinica, lit. “tea shop,” a place we just discovered hidden away right off the main plaza of Sarajevo’s Turkish district, Baščaršija.  We sat on a little bench looking down the alley to the plaza and Sebilj, the lit centerpiece in the distance, which is on every Sarajevo postcard.

The Cajdžinica’s quaint, has great decor, exotic imported teas like Moroccan mint, cinnamon and rose, and my favorite, chocolate and almond.  Yes, they really do taste like those flavors.  Oh, and the owner is a really friendly guy named Hussein who wears a giant flowing white caftan robe and has a wild head and beard of white hair…making him look like a hippie Jesus.  Wish you were here!

Cajon

I (D) love woodworking.  It’s my introverted outlet, and a chance to produce something extremely tangible (alas, there are times when ministry feels a bit intangible).  I’ve been working on a few projects lately, one of which will be unveiled in a few days when done.

This one is a cajon, Spanish for “box”, a Latin drum used in a lot of great music.  If you’ve never seen one, you sit on it and lean over, slapping the faceplate (the part with the brass screws).  The sound is perfect for syncopated funky rhythms, like flamenco and latin jazz.

Mine has a drum snare inside, which can be turned on or off using the knobs on the sides.  Play it right, and you get 3-4 different sounds.  The only bummer is that since making it a month ago, I’ve rarely been able to play it!  At church and other venues, I’m usually playing guitar.

And since my production costs were only about $30, if we fall onto hard times maybe making and selling these in BiH could become my cottage industry.  Comparable ones on Amazon with the snare run around $200.

Deron, publishing bit by bit…

I recently wrote a short article for Fuller Theological Seminary called “Fundamentalists, Traditionalists and Progressives: Reflecting on the Bosnian Islamic Mosaic.”  It’s basically my master’s thesis in 600 words!

Check it out here.

If for some bizarre reason you’d like to read my thesis, contact me and I’ll email it to you.

Help! Medical care for our co-worker

Over a year ago our co-worker D____, who directs our ministry in the north, developed a herniated disc in his back and has been very limited in his mobility and had debilitating pain since then.  Unfortunately, D____’s options for care in this part of Europe are extremely limited.  Thus the two of us are trying to gather resources from people in our community to help him.  An excellent doctor we know in Washington who deals with these type of needs has been hugely influential for Jessica,  Deron’s sister and parents, and others.  Most recently his services saved my dad’s friend from having to have back surgery.

We are trying to arrange for D____ to fly from Bosnia to WA so he could receive care for a month.  If we can make the arrangements, his trip would be as soon as possible and he would stay with my parents.  The timing needs to be soon, as D____ and his wife are expecting their first child in July.  We want to raise $1500: $1000 for D____’s plane ticket and $500 for medical care (his foreign insurance will not cover any of it, but the doctor–a friend and believer–has graciously offered to donate most of his services).

As far as the quality of a person is concerned, we can’t recommend him highly enough.  We ourselves support D____ and his wife financially.  His home country is itself a very unreached country, and D____ is one of the first missionaries he knows of who has gone out from there.  He regularly communicates with a number of churches and young people, and is a role model to them.  He’s also a key leader in our ministry in Bosnia, and we would like to see him serving here for years to come rather than severely limited by back pain.  Our fear is that if his disc problems cannot be treated, it will eventually jeopardize his ability to continue serving in Bosnia.

Will you give a special donation of $100, $200, or another amount toward getting help for D____?  If so, please contact us at allthebauers at gmail dot com.  Thank you!  We love that we can invite our community to help another.

Clip from our recent concert

Last week we played a concert for 60 EUS students from our English classes.  We picked a variety of songs in English, Spanish, and Bosnian, and put the text up so students could follow what we were singing about.  Through and in between songs we shared how Jesus has changed our lives.

Here’s one of them, and old Caedmon’s Call song, All I Know.  (The actual song begins 1:25 into the video, after we explain what it’s about.)

Winter’s Last Fight

Two days ago, it began to snow again.  It’s mid-March, and we’re ready for spring!  Now, we can’t complain because we just got here.  However, it’s been difficult to figure out how to entertain my toddler when we have to spend the whole day inside.

There is a phrase in Bosnian for this snow phenomenon: “zadnji trzaj zime.”  Winter’s last twitch.  If that looks like a mouthful, don’t worry, it is! We are hoping that this really IS the last time we see the snow until next Winter.

I recently made a commitment to rejoice in all things, and so I want to share with you what I found myself thankful for on the that day the snow came back:

1.  The sound of snowflakes falling on my umbrella
2.  The hush that ensues once the snow falls on the city
3.  Everything clean and covered in sparkling white
4.  My warm apartment waiting for me when I returned home

Thank You Lord, for these gifts, and thanks that spring is almost here!  According to weather.com, it’s spring in 3 days, 4 hours, and change.  But who’s counting? 

Moves

Lately G, our almost-3-year-old, is really into dancing.  She calls it “doing my moves.”  Every day she’ll come up to us excitedly and ask if we want to do moves with her.  Hers are a combo of stomping, jerking elbows, shaking hips, and Mr. Roboto.  It’s become a nightly routine–good for her, good for us in that it gets some of her energy out before bedtime!

The other night we laughed as we realized that since we live on the 14th floor and were dancing in a well lit room, we’re visible to a whole lot of people on the hill opposite our building.  And since G is quite short, she’s not visible over the couch like we are.  So to anyone watching from outside, we look like two 30-somethings, stomping, jerking elbows, shaking hips, and doing Mr. Roboto.  Word.

Singing in Sarajevo

On a whim, my dear friend invited me to an “Open Mic Night” at a British pub in Sarajevo last Saturday night. Excited and nervous, I said yes.  I said yes because, even though I am sleep deprived, exhausted, and still very much adjusting to being a two-kid mom, I came back to Bosnia determined to use my voice.  I came back determined to enter the world of the arts, as a means of building more friendships for the sake of the Kingdom.

After putting Nora to bed, I got all dressed up and waited for my friends to pick me up.  We got to the pub, and walked up a hill in the snow to reach the old wooden doors.  As we entered this hobbit-style door, I felt my stomach clench.  I was nervous.  The band was setting up, and seats were full. My friend introduced me to the owner of the pub, who is also the director of a band that has gigs all over the city.

I asked him if I could sing tonight, and he said of course.  Only a few moments later, I sang my first song, Crazy, by Patsy Cline. As soon as I was done, the owner of the pub came back and began our conversation with, “So, you live here? I didn’t know you existed! How long are you planning to stay here in Sarajevo?” He eventually asked me if I would be interested in performing with their Blue Grass band whenever they have gigs in town.  Yes!

I sang a couple more songs that night, including old favorite Stand By Me, and Come Away With Me, by Norah Jones.  Needless to say, I left the pub elated, thankful for an open door into the music scene in Sarajevo. I pray that this leads to great things, and I look forward to what God has in store for me this year through singing…

PB, baby!

We try not to spend too much time whining about the foods we can’t get here, that we miss from back in the USA.  There are plenty of great Bosnian dishes we enjoy, and it’s no help to anyone, let alone us, to sit around complaining.

But possibly the one longing I could never get over was for real, all-natural peanut butter.  Those of you who know me (Deron) know that I consume peanut butter like your big American SUV consumes gas.  Rapidly, and in large quantities.

But it’s not a popular item here, and the few you can find are quite expensive and more like Skippy.   I long to share with our Bosnian friends the delights of all-natural PB.  Now, peanut butter is one of those things that is expensive to mail, and doesn’t fit our packing standard (it has a quite low longevity-to-weight ratio).  For a long time I’ve meant to look for a quality food processor that we could grind our own peanuts with, but have never pulled the trigger.  Our cheapo one couldn’t handle it.  So basically we do without.

But upon returning to Bos this time I was more determined.  Tonight on a whim I pulled out a simple handheld immersion mixer a friend gave us and went to work on some peanuts.  Added some oil and then honey to offset their oversaltedness, and BAM.  No, seriously, BAM.  Jess took one bite and her eyes grew to silver-dollar size.  I was dancing in the living room.

Coming up for dinner tonight: PB&Js!

And now on to learning to roast our own coffee beans…

Yes, the yield was small, but I was dealing with the tiny bit we had on hand.  And check the quality…look at those nuggets, and the color!  There’s a business opportunity here.