Sunday, October 24, 2010

Community Care Day

One of the other CAS's I'm in, besides my core CAS is Environmental Council (an ecology group). the leader, Hilary (my second year from Oregon) organized, with the help of the rest of the team, Community Care Day. This was a day when everyone came together and cleaned up trash from the city. It was advertised around the city that we would meet in certain areas of the city that especially needed cleaning and pick up trash for several hours. When the students arived in one of the areas, it was already completely clean already. Another oginazation had seen the posters and orginized themselves! Another area where we were working at is a huge memorial park for the soldiers who fought in the 2nd world war, called the Partisan's Memorial, which hadn't been maintained in a really long time and is mostly a party place, or so it seemed by the number of beer bottles we picked up (literally thousands). This place was so covered in trash, at one point I stood in one place and filled up a garbage bag within arm's reach. We worked in two parts of the park, the area you see in the photo, and then a reflecting pool that was full of floating bottles and plastic bags. Once I started cleaning it was so hard to stop, and even though at some points it seemed like there was just way too much to even make a difference, in this memorial, or this city, or this world, all the trash we are creating is just overwhelming! But after looking
back at an area I had cleaned it felt so good. now that small place is a better place in this world.
In total about 12 of us collected over 130 bags of trash just from this memorial park alone... here you can see them and the dupster behind which used to be empty. Here are some shots of one of the areas we cleaned
BEFORE & AFTER

Monday, October 11, 2010

CAS

Part of the UWC curriculum is CAS which is like co-curricular activities. CAS stands for Creativity, Action, and Service, so every week we do activities that fit into one of these groups. We have our core CASs which we are required to attend and then you can also go to any to any other ones that fit into your schedule and you have time for. My core CASs are Refugee camp, Hiking and cycling and Fashion.
I didn't sing up for fashion, fashion is is the last thing I think about, especially since I came here and where whatever is most comfortable. When I herd I was in Fashion I just laughed and was like what the heck, I might as well go and just see. So I went and found out that it is more like sewing which was more interesting to we so I'm just going with it and seeing what happens, I'm hopping we can make ridiculous costumes out of recycled materials to promote recycling so that's a bright side :).


here's what we made last week! haha ... I wish


Refugee camp is a refugee camp about an hour out of Mostar with people still without homes because of war 18 years ago. What we do is go to the camp every Saturday and play with the children there for a couple of hours, teaching them games and a bit of English, and they help us with our local language. We are also working on getting hot water heaters for them for when winter comes, and also cleaning up a room where the kids can all play inside. The kids are all really helpful and fun, it's nice to play with some younger kids, since at school I'm only with kids my age. I'm also really enjoying trying to learn the local language and communicate better with the kids.

Here is a shot of the kids tackling one of the other UWC students.

Hiking and Cycling is incredible ... every couple weeks we will be going on hikes, we've only gone on one but it was amazing because I missed the wilderness, I missed being blown away my the size of the mountains and lying in complete silence, only listening to the wind in the leaves. I do not mind this city, but I miss the out of control peace of the wilderness.

(Photo by Jess)

so theres a bit of what I've been up to, not quite like xc skiing and playing base in the orchestra, but I'm happy with the changes and I'm enjoying trying new things (even fashion :P )



above: before and after pics of an epic ruby match (also a CAS)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Praying


Last week my room mate Merve from Turkey and a volunteer teacher who is also Muslim took my second year Hilary from Organ and I to the Mosque for the last prayer of the day. Since Barium when I fasted for a day with Merve I had been wanting to go to the mosque and check it out.
I was doing my homework when Merve reminded me we where going in 15 minuets and so we rushed upstairs and she taught me how to clean myself before praying. washing hands, face, ears, mouth, nose,feet and arms three time in a specific order and always using the right hand. After being cleaned we put on our head dresses that covered our hair and neck and put on lose fitting covering clothing.
We then walked about 4 blocks to one of the closer mosques. On the way there my room mate said to me, "I know you may not believe in 'God' but when you are in the mosque just think about a higher power and feel them."
"I belive in God" I responded "I'm just not religious"
We entered the mosque with our right foot first and then removed our shoes for the prayers. the men where in the front, and we lined up in the back. With the prayers in Arabic the leader spoke we moved from standing to pressing our foreheads to the carpeted floor and then back up again. I did not know what these movements or words meant, but moving in synracy with so many people in a place of worship felt very powerful. I prayed to God or a higher power that people of all religions could try to understand each other, and find there similarities and respect their differences.
At the end of each prayer we faced our right shoulder, and then our left shoulder saying peace to the spirit that writes down all of our good deeds on our right and the spirit that writes down all the bad deeds on our left.
On the walk home Hilary who is Christan and Lela (the volunteer teacher)talked about how although they reached their god in different ways they prayed to the same god. They spoke about how any Christan who wishes death upon Muslims is not a true Christan and any Muslim who wished death upon a Cristan is not a true Muslim. And how the war here in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not abide to any of the religions participating.
Living my whole life with out belonging to a religion the whole experience was very opening for me, to participate in the Muslim prayers and to debrief about how going to the mosque made us feel with people of different religions, I was able to understand better the importance of spirituality and of being open to the ideas and beliefs of others.