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!

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.

Nice.

Right now we are enjoying a very pleasant surprise, which we never saw coming.

In eight hours, we’ll board the flight that will eventually take us to the States. We are in Prague, finishing a co-worker’s wedding and a couple days seeing the city. But our flight tomorrow is at 6am, which presented a big problem. What to do the night before, and how to maximize Gabi’s sleep? We want as cheerful a little girl as possible before a long plane flight. PRG airport is 17km from the city. As mentioned in the previous post, we have a lot of luggage. Public transportation would not be possible if we stayed in the city. I looked into airport hotel rooms (though I can’t stand paying $100+ for a room I’ll spend very little time in, I’m learning as a parent that some of these expenses are necessary), but even that would mean leaving the room at 4am and waking Gabi reeeaally early. So we decided to look for a comfy-ish place to sleep in the airport, a corner where we could put Gabi down in her travel bed. She’d be able to sleep a precious extra hour, and we’d be calmer knowing that we’re already at our destination. Of course, we predicted lousy sleep for the two of us, and a chance that Gabi would be awakened repeatedly.

Tough choice. We decided to scope out the airport and see how it looked, and then get a hotel room if necessary.

Unexpected surprise #1: We were able to check our heavy bags in at 6pm the night before our flight. Words can’t express how relieved we are to see all that stuff float down the belt and off to some back hangar, hopefully for a reunion in SEA.

Unexpected surprise #2: The woman at the check in counter didn’t give us any flack for bag weight. Some of our bags were definitely on the edge, and the wrong agent can make life quite difficult. Big smiles and small talk get you a long way in any culture.

Unexpected surprise #3: Ducking down an out of the way hallway on the third floor, we found the “Mama s Detmi” (mother with child) room. Huge score. This 20×20 carpeted playroom has a changing table, sink, table and chairs, a baby see-saw, a crib in the corner, and decorations of Lightning McQueen all over the walls! Oh, and it’s empty. Gabi had dinner and went to bed on time, and she’s been in dream land for three hours now. Jess and I got to spend some precious time in prayer for the huge transition ahead of us. We haven’t had nearly enough of that lately.

This is such a great gift from the Lord. It’s amazing how the little things mean so much to you, especially when you’re in flux. Where we expected constant loud flight announcements and bright lights on a hard floor, we instead got a quiet room with a quite romantic view of the sun setting on the runway. And now here I am blogging while Jess sleeps a few feet away.

So far our only guests have been an employee on break and a guy without kids, both of whom quickly excused themselves. If you’re reading this, pray for seven more quiet hours! And pray that we get some sleep.

*I’m slightly hesitant to blab the secret of the Mama s Detmi room, but I suppose the overlap is quite small between readers of our blog (a few) and people traveling through Prague and looking to sleep in the airport. So don’t worry PRG, your secret’s safe with us!

Some pics…

Gabi, growing like crazy!

Favorite activities these days are dancing, clapping, and bopping mom and dad in the face with a pillow.

Our staff team, at last week’s training.

Quick pic of Bos on BBC News

Just came across this article on BBC.

The picture at the top is from southern Bosnia, and is of a Turkish Tekija, or Muslim dervish‘s house, at the mouth of the river Buna at Blagaj.

Blagaj is one of our favorite spots in Bosnia, and has great fish and riverside cafes, in addition to the incredible view. Spots this beautiful are literally all over Bosnia, nearly undiscovered.

Here’s our picture of the same spot:

Ten reasons to come visit!

In honor of my parents arriving for a visit Wednesday night, we’ve made a list of top reasons why you want to come see us in Bosnia.

10. Deep history – We’ll stand on the street corner where World War I began, or climb 16th Century fortresses overlooking even older cities, and more.

9. Beautiful nature – I mean untouched, compete-with-anything-in-the-rest-of-the-world nature. Hiking, biking, rafting, we’ve got it. Like here.

8. Warm and welcoming people. Bosnians love welcoming guests, and they are proud of and eager to show off their country. You’ll make friends your first day.

7. The coolness factor of going to an unknown destination. Let’s face it, when you tell someone you went to London or Paris, they respond with “Oh yeah, I remember my visit there…” But how many can talk about their visit to the Balkans? You’ll be unique!

6. Great architecture. Many different empires have passed through and left their mark. In Sarajevo you can see low-slung, ornate wooden Turkish buildings butting up against grand, ornate-in-a-totally-different-way Austro-Hungarian ones.

5. Walking culture. Here people enjoy a slower pace of life in general, and they walk everywhere. Not only is it very healthy, but it’s great for mentally unwinding, praying, and just enjoying life and the scenery rather than sitting at traffic lights in your car, angry at other drivers. Our daily commute is 30min on foot, and we enjoy every minute of it.

4. Coffee culture. They drink it every day, all day, for all occasions. If you’re a fan, you’ve found paradise. If not, there’s tea.

3. Affordable prices. For most things. How about $1 for that cappucino? Take that, $3 Starbucks or €5 Paris! Also for food, activities, movies…

2. Beautiful other nearby excursions, like to Dubrovnik – a pristine 13th C walled city on the Adriatic Sea. As beautiful as anything in Rome or France. Oh, and with fabulous beaches and warm water. Forget the Pacific. See above photo, or click here.

1. We’re here! C’mon, like you need another reason?!?

So what are you waiting for? See you soon…

So happy right now…

Today we found a new store that sells a variety of unique and hard-to-get-in-Bosnia foods. Asian: teriyaki sauce, rice noodles, sweet and sour sauce, even chopsticks, which I was jonesing for just a couple days ago. Mexican: tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole. And a variety of other things. But the pièce de résistance was this:
Sriracha! If you’ve never tried this Vietnamese(?) wonder, made in Rosemead, CA, you’re missing out. We are so stoked to find it.

We eat great food here and really can’t complain, but there are definitely some things we miss…and it’s SO cool to find some of them!

*As an added bonus, the guys who worked there told us where we can buy chickpeas and tahini to make hummus! We used to make it all the time in CA, but haven’t found the stuff. Until now.

If you’re looking for us, we’ll be in the kitchen for a few weeks…

Loving nature

Lately it’s been hot in Sarajevo, and sunny every day.  (Well, not quite every day.  We get bizarre lightning-and-thunderstorms in the middle of the day.  The other day Jess and I were walking back from the office, and 4 blocks from home the skies opened up.  We had umbrellas, but by the time we’d gone 2 more blocks our shoes and pants were soaked through and the lightning and thunder had no sound delay, meaning it was within a mile or so!)

So as I was saying, the weather’s been AWESOME!  I can’t get over how much I appreciate the sun after a long, gray winter.

Yesterday I returned from 2 days visiting David, the EUS staffer I supervise in northern Bosnia.  I really enjoyed the 4+ hour drive by myself, and couldn’t resist stopping numerous times to take pictures.

Then David and I carved out time for the best mountain bike ride I’ve been on in my life…a steep and long climb, past tiny mountain homes, along single-track paths, and then descending through dense forest.

This country is so green, and full of beautiful mountains.  If/when it gets discovered by more tourists, it’s gonna be a hit!

(click the pics to enlarge)