Hello from Kozarac!

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Hello all!
As I hope you can tell from the "subject" line I am writing to you from
the city of Kozarac... it is absolutely lovely!
We are staying at a peace center here run by an absolutely amazing woman.
She is a muslim now living in the serbian republic... this area is very
unique because it was entirely ethnically cleansed during the war. She was
held in a concentration camp in the area... we will be going there
tonight. It is certain to be an educational and difficult experience.
Yesterday we held our first friendship camp! IT WAS AWESOME! I cannot tell
you how fortunate I feel to be able to be connected to these children. So
often we would be playing or goofing around and I would forget that there
was a language barrier separating us. You do not realize how much you can
communicate without spoken language.
BUT there were some difficulties... We had to run the camps yesterday and
today without most of our equipment because... yup! you guessed it... we
still do not have our luggage... I am still recycling clothing... but i
have washed it since we got here and bought a new pair of pants, a shirt,
and a pair of underwear... fascinating right? We have been told that we
will be getting our luggage tonight so hopefully before we go to bed we
will have our equipment for the friendship camps and my PAJAMAS!!!!!

Any way... I have been humbled by all of my experiences... including
having to survive in the few pieces of clothing i have! haha


before i go i just want to tell you about one of the girls i met
yesterday. Her name is Hadidja and she is fabulous! She was in my group
yesterday and used her limited knowledge of english to talk to me. We
bonded and I must say that I was amazed at how fast I was able to form
that strong bond of love. She was in my group with her little sister and
her other little sister was in the blue group (i am in the red group)...
at the end of camp she asked for a picture of me... i didnt know what to
give her so i gave her one from my photo album of me and my friend shannon
from Halloween freshman year. She gave me the necklace that she had made
as the art project in the camp and I was deeply touched. Then when we were
packing up the bus her little sister ran up to me and gave me a popsicle
that she had bought. It was so sweet! So now I have a friend in Jajce!
(pronounced Ya-it-zeh... kinda) I cant wait to come back and see all the
new friends that I have made ... next year!

Ok I need to go cool off because we finished the camp today and then
immediately walked all of our things to the bus... then i came to the
internet cafe. So I am hot sweaty and tired... but very very happy! Oooo
thez have LEMON fanta here! It is delicious! Last night we had a homemade
Bosnian dish that is alot like Holupcha that my grandmother makes... it is
essentially cabbage and meat.... SOOOO good!

Enough rambling from me, I will write again when I can! I love you all!

Volim Te!


~*<3 Always*~
~*Lyssa*~

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