Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 00:04:00 CET
From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de
Reply-To: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de
Distribution: world
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary 16 November 1992
Organization: Zamir = for peace, Zagreb
Content-Length: 7140    
X-Gateway: UC xclhh [UZERCP V3.99]

Zagreb Diary
16 November 1992

Dobar Dan,

The next morning we were waked up very early by a group of children who 
were looking for their English teacher, John. He is probably one of the only 
teachers in the world which has it's students standing in front of his home 
and waking him up to get their lesson. And that on a free day, since the 
school was planned to stay closed for the next three days. The green single 
roof tents are destroyed by the Yugo (south wind) and the houses, which the 
Belgium army promised for the school, activities and housing of our 
volunteers are not total finished yet.

When we left it became clear what the guard meant when he said they are 
destroying the whole camp with their big trucks. Just 10 metres from the tent 
we slept a couple of huge army trucks (nicely white painted and with big 
"UNHCR" on it, like they were in the middle of a war zone) busy to dig 
themselves in a metre deep mud pool. About a hour later a special heavy 
tank-a-like vehicle had to get them out. The Belgium army, who has come 
with 150 soldiers (50 from Walonie, 50 from Flanders, 30 from Brussels and 
20 from the East Cantons, said their commander with a joke for me, to show 
the difficult situation in Belgium as well) to build 350 houses. The houses are 
simple (made from hard board and isolation material and they can build 12 a 
day) but big enough for a whole family and a lot more space then in a tent or 
small caravan. They are simpler then the 36 houses build by a German aid 
organisation ins three days in Gasinci, but their the people had to wait another 
month before the local building company finished the chimneys.

But some how they came with the wrong equipment, the trucks they are using 
are far to heavy for the grounds in Savudrija or the drivers too inexperienced 
to drive in mud pools, any case the red mud, which is so characteristic for the 
sea side region (bauxite ground), is every where. The Belgium soldiers run 
around on nice rubber boots and most from the Suncokret volunteers also 
found out that that is the only way to get through the camp. Most of the 
refugee however have no money to buy boots and try by jumping from stone 
to dry spot to wood pieces to come from their tents or houses to the central 
kitchen. Just today the Belgium received a few hundred pair of boots for the 
children, which has to be given by Suncokret to the children, Jasmine, one of 
our Zagreb volunteers (she comes originally from BiH) will design a plan, a 
game, to spread them around. 

Working on the houses the Belgium found out that the electricity lines at the 
camp were not well and they decided to renew them as well, which resulted in 
open digs everywhere and lot of broken water pipelines, but it looks that on 
the 6th of December when every thing is finished according to the plan 
Savudrija is really ready for the winter. 

Ogi, who can't walk for two metres over the camp without been asked for 
something by somebody, but has a type of organisational skill that is 
marvellous. He seems to organises nothing and still every thing runs like a 
clock work, showed us around and introduce the "home volunteers" to us. 
Besides from the app. 15 foreigners and 3 Croats from Zagreb we, 
Suncokret, have now about 10 full timers and at least 15 half timers active in 
Savudrija.  The first stop was at a small caravan, in which a family of four 
persons live, mother, father and two grown up children. Mother and farther 
are the history teacher and director (and teacher of the first four classes of 
the grammar school)  from the Suncokret school (which has about 200 till 300 
pupils, depends who is teaching). 

Akife, the school director, use to be one of the major school controllers in BiH 
before he was arrested by Serbian extremists and send to a detention camp. 
He stayed for near 4 months in the camp and lost his big belly there, he joked. 
Since 6 weeks he is running our school and he is really full of passion for his 
children and the school (tomorrow he goes to Zagreb to told to the 
ambassador of BiH to get the official papers for the school). He is inspired by 
all the foreigners who are coming and the new ideas they bring with them 
about education and especially the personal and informal way they are 
teaching. "We are the first official international school of BiH, and more over 
we are designing a new system, which we will bring to BiH when we go back". 

He ask me if we could provide all kind of books about education systems and 
teaching children with war traumas for his school. We have translators 
enough, who has nothing to do. On our way to another building, just outside 
the main camp, were older and disabled person have found a place to stay, 
we met the "home-language" (we call it home-languages, since it is the 
languages from Bosnia, not Croatian, not Serbian and not Serbo-Croatian) 
teacher, a women from about 56, who lost her husband and her two sons 
when she escaped from Bihac.

In the other building we met the math teacher, we lived there with his disabled 
wife and the head of the children garden. They all lived with two or three 
people in rooms, which were just big enough for one bed and a table and in 
no time the room was full of smoke. But above all, full of plans, what to do 
with the school and how Suncokret could be become much bigger, not only is 
there a plan to open a second school in Porec and Umag for the children in 
private houses there. But they want to improve our radio station in Savudrija, 
radio Suncokret, and bring it in the air, during the day for education purposes 
and during the night to send messages to BiH.

On the way back we dropped of at a buffet, where they sold some home 
made spirit under the take, and after a while we where not talking about 
schools and refugee camps any more. Akife told about his months in the 
camp and how he didn't hate his guards, most of them he knew from before 
the war, the only thing he wants is having a talk with them to find out what 
happened and why they did it.

Bog I Love from Za-Mir-Greb,

							Wam
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Zagreb Diary can be found on a lot of different electronic networks, it is 
copyright free and can be ported to any network or other means of 
communication you like, but please drop my a line, you can reach by sending 
a message to wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de or 
wam@zamir-zg.comlink.apc.org. Zagreb Diary is dedicated to Tyche, Pjort 
and Rik, so that they found out what there father have been doing all that time 
in Zagreb.
Financial support for Suncokret can be send to our bank account in the 
Netherlands, Postbank Amsterdam, account number 5110, on the name of 
SUNCOKRET, AMSTERDAM. Or by sending post checks made out on the 
private name to: Ulla Treadmark Jensen (this is the person which should be 
on the checks in order to cash them), Keizer Karel V straat 23, 6147 HD 
Sittard, Netherlands. In both cases the money will be send to us in the form of 
materials which we can work with in the refugee centres and camps.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:9579 soc.culture.europe:9646