still going strong

here are some pictures from the last couple of days.

here we where waiting for an houre.





the report is delivered!
I had a hand shake as well, but was also holding the cam, so no pic. of that one.





my grandmum would like to see some pictures from the exhibition, so of course i will publish them as well. unfortunatly i did't have battery for the whole day, enjoy any way!

The Final blog for now…

The last couple of days we haven’t really been updating the blog due to the fact that we have been writing the report for more or less for 16 hours a day so nothing has really happened…
Sunday night we went to Abrasevic for the last time. Nanna and Hedvig joined a last concert; Anders and Søren played the game of table tennis. It was sad to say goodbye to all the beautiful people we had meet. Abrasevic had been our second (or maybe first) home in Mostar for a month and we really loved to be there. Thank you so much to all of you guys who welcomed us with a smile and a loza.

Monday morning it was time for packing and cleaning. We hadn’t heard from the company who was supposed to pick us up, so we started to worry. We managed to get in contact with them, and they couldn’t understand why we didn’t call. They would try to fix us a cap for 11 o clock… ups! The cap came and hid the road to Sarajevo. After half an hour driving we had all fallen into ipod-coma. We woke up by the driver stepping hard on the breaks and avoiding a car in the front. Unfortunately the driver behind us was not as fast and bumped right into us. Damn!!! The car was only a bit damaged, but the driver wouldn’t continue, so we had to wait for a new car. It took an hour before it came and we started to worry about getting to the airport in time.
The new cab was driving like hell. I don’t if he wanted to reach the airport in time or it just his style. We tried to not to think about… question was: die or fly…?

Luckily we didn’t departure from Kastrup, so 45 min check in is non-existing.
First flight was safe. The flight from Vienna was one and a half hour delayed, next problem… the train in Kastrup…
We managed to get a hotdog in the airport and reach the train… guess this day is a very good example of our whole project; what ever happens is suppose to happen!!!

Today we have been working on the layout and the whole document is no being printed.

We are back in Århus, IT’S NICE, but we miss Mostar. Wish us luck the 5th of June.

Thank you for following us this month, it has been a pleasure!

Over and out, peace, love and harmony to you all!!! And to Mostar…

Nanna, Søren, Anders and Hedvig
The Bosnia loving group- Mostar must mingle forever!!!

Friday 25th...

we were sitting like this all day long............!!!

Exhibition day – 24th of May

When we woke up in the morning it was raining heavily and black clouds covered the blue sky. Hmmm… plan b, plan c, plan d??? It did not look good for an outdoor exhibition. We managed not to panic but decided to postpone it a bit and cross our fingers for the sun.
It helped a lot. About an hour or two later the clouds were gone. We jumped in a taxi with the party tents and butterflies in the stomach. It was the ending of almost two month of work, it would be public and we had told people to come – even the minister of culture would show up.
We started to put up the tents and one by one our journalist showed up and wanted to help. They have been so nice.
Hedvig and I picked up all the photos we had been preparing the day before… we were very exited about how it was going to look.
We had arranged with Budda bar that they could put up a bar if they wanted to. Guess we had expected a little fridge and some cold sodas, but suddenly several trucks arrived with tables, drinks etc. we couldn’t stop laughing.
To be honest we were not too proud of the final settings. The message and the process leading up to the exhibition was great, but I guess our budget for the exhibition became very clear to us. (My aesthetic heart was crying) Never the less the students were proud of their work and showed it to friends and random people passing by. We had really managed to create ownership around the project, and for that we were very happy.
The culture minister’s right hand showed up. Anders and Søren had a meeting with them and they decided to support the project with 500 KM (ca. 2000 kr.) They were very interested in the project and we asked if they would support a student organization with focus on education. We got positive response and will pass the contact on to Vejle Municipality; LDA and our Journalist.
Around 4.30 we took the exhibition down again. We have no idea about how many people who had been there, but we had finished our project and reached our goals.
It had been a pleasure to work with the students. We were happy and tired.
We celebrated the evening with a steak at our favourite restaurant Laguna.
Hedvig and I crashed on the couch when we got home. Søren and Anders had some interesting conversations with the neighbour about the war between Belarus and Finland in the late seventies. ???????

Wednesday – 23th of May – PREPARATION

Sorry for the late update. The group is focussed on writing.

Once again we have a day before the day… guess every day is a day before another day, but not every day is the day before the last day of a May-project – our May-project!
Hedvig and I were inside all day preparing the exhibition of the pictures – cutting and gluing all day long. We can be great kinder garden class teachers now. ;-) Hedvig would love that – especially if all the kids were dogs.
We had got all call from the ministry of culture and sport, who had tried for a long time to get in contact with us and vice versa.
They were very interested in our project and wanted to support it. We were told that they would cover all our cost as long as we had recites. The boys started to go through the whole apartment to find all we had. Of cause we hadn’t really made a system for that. We were all very happy if we could get some of the money back we have spend on this project. BUT AS USUAL – NEVER CELEBRATE BEFORE THE MONEY IS IN YOUR HAND.
I think this was the first day Hedvig and I hadn’t been to Abrasevic since we arrived here in Mostar.
They boys went out at night to watch AC Milan – Liverpool, Søren as Liverpool fan was of cause sad about the result of the game.

Wednesday – 23th of May – PREPARATION

Sorry for the late update. The group is focussed on writing.

Once again we have a day before the day… guess every day is a day before another day, but not every day is the day before the last day of a May-project – our May-project!
Hedvig and I were inside all day preparing the exhibition of the pictures – cutting and gluing all day long. We can be great kinder garden class teachers now. ;-) Hedvig would love that – especially if all the kids were dogs.
We had got all call from the ministry of culture and sport, who had tried for a long time to get in contact with us and vice versa.
They were very interested in our project and wanted to support it. We were told that they would cover all our cost as long as we had recites. The boys started to go through the whole apartment to find all we had. Of cause we hadn’t really made a system for that. We were all very happy if we could get some of the money back we have spend on this project. BUT AS USUAL – NEVER CELEBRATE BEFORE THE MONEY IS IN YOUR HAND.
I think this was the first day Hedvig and I hadn’t been to Abrasevic since we arrived here in Mostar.
They boys went out at night to watch AC Milan – Liverpool, Søren as Liverpool fan was of cause sad about the result of the game.

The Powerful four remains strong!

-pictures will come...

With the boys back and our beloved photographer back in DK, the work could continue. Me and Anders had a skype meeting with our team manager back in Århus. Nothing dramatically new stuff happened. The girls went to the radio station while me and Anders used some time catching up on the internet, mailing, calling, skyping, editing photos before meeting the girls. apparently the radio MEETING was an interview witch surprised the girls. It will be online to day in the local radio between 21-22 O´clock. Watch out! Then the photos was ready and delivered at the different photo stores. -the one Mostar municipality has sponsored demands 10€/photo, the one we found on our own demands 4,5€/photo... as soon as the money comes from the municipality the price is the double. Strange strange but true. never the less the pictures got developed and every one was happy. we worked at Abrasevic during the day catching up upon what is needed for the report and what is already done. Then we chilled for a while before the feedback meeting with our young “journalists”. We had a relaxing meeting with a nice atmosphere and a calm talk. They were all extremely positive about our work and the way we had worked with them. Even though we said: YES, AND.. do you think we should have done ANYthing in a different way? -nothing happened! we were the first foreigners that had made them think and work on their own! we were also the first that hadn’t promised them anything! -we made it clear from the begining that if you want this YOU must do something. We leave on Monday and in 3 weeks we are all working on a new project. It was a little bit difficult to say, but it is the true. On Monday we are gone and we are not building the Career Center for them! -Sorry guys! -I know you read this as well!- Well any way, they had a lot of different ideas and planes on how to get this further when we leave. that is nice! -again we didn’t tell them how to what, we asked questions. I went home with a headache, Nanna came soon after. Hedvig and Anders had a beer at -guess where?- Abrasevic. -good and hot day! Now talking about hot, check this out from TV2 wether station.
“Varmeste sted i Europa var i Mostar i Bosnien, hvor temperaturen rundede 29 grader. Men der var også andre steder, der kunne følge disse sommerlige temperaturer.” http://vejret.tv2.dk/article.php/id-6673044.html
No wonder we have sore asses from walking around in jeans...
Love from a “Hot” Søren :0)

The Boys are back in town!!

What a trip to split! Wauw! (for the uninformed Split is a city in the south of Croatia) we basically made a city sightseeing combined with a pub crawl and a mingling advanced adventure from saturday night till monday night. relaxing? not really...! fun? definitely!!
- the view before ariving the city!

We had talked with some of our friends in Mostar about split, they said: -You just go to Gettobar in old town and ask for Marko. then you give him this note and if he is in a good mood you will have a place to sleep! Maybe he will say Ciao! maybe not... - And so we did... after a while with getting lost in the old time, asking for directions and meeting nice people, we finally found Gettobar and started to ask for Marko. -he was sleeping they said. Okay, then we will sleep at the beach. We sad down and had a beer and enjoyed the new surroundings. Suddenly a girl asked: -You looking for Marko? we said yes. -then witch Marko are you looking for? -we said: we dont know... we meat some people in Mostar...AAAAAAAHHHH Mostar Marko!!!! she yelled out and two seconds later a big and friendly man named Marko said CIAO! -we told him who we were, and he said, ya ya! of course you can sleep in my flat... And then we had a place to sleep... Nice nice...It’s Nice (in true Borat stile)! thanks Marko and thank to Feda and Nedim from Abrasevic-Mostar.
-Split By night on the way home first night.


Spit was a fantastic city! with a view over the Mediterranean sea and mountains surrounding the city Anders and me just laughed all the time. We ran into two amazing people named Igor and Martina. They worked in a bar called Mosquito in the old town, a place to visit again. Extremely friendly and kind! they told us about the city and gave recommendations about where to go and so on. this is how they look! -good looking nice people in split!

the girls mingling...

Just another Monday....

The guys were still in Split and from reading at the blog it sounded like they were doing just fine!
Our dear beloved 5th memeber of the group, Hanne left this morning, she had to go back to DK for exam.
So back in the appartment were only Nanna and Hedvig, we started the day by reading through some more interviews and making the headlines for the exhibition. When that was more or less done we went out to take care of some practical stuff, first we stopped by the photo shop where are going to develop most of the pictures- had a nice little chat with the guy there and agreed on that we would come tomorrow and develop the pictures.
Then we headed over to the radio Mostar and agreed on meeting tomorrow with the radio ladie and a translator.
After that we went to the first and best cafe in the shade, we needed something cold to drink- it was so hot and we had totally miscalculated weather when we went out. It looked kind of cloudy and not really warm so we took jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt on, wrong choice I can tell you.. Our damn scandinavian minds that are useed to that it´s not really warm when the sun is not shining..
Anyway in some mysterious way we still managed to survive the day, we got a lot of things done- some more writing on the report as well as the research rapport.. we even developed a new model; "stairway to heaven"! you´ll hear more about it later, it´s still in the development phase.

So that´s all for us today, another beatiful day has passed!

WE ROCK SPLIT!!

see u 2 night at some point...

SUNDAY 20th of May - CHILLING

Deadline for Pictures - 19th of May

At one o clock we meet with all our young “journalists” at Abrasevic. They had brought all their interviews and pictures. After loading all the pictures on Sørens computer we went through them quickly, hmm… it was not exactly what we had in mind. Either they had not understood the task or simply been to busy with other things as well. We had a quick emergency meeting in the group and decided to ask them, if they would do more pictures. First we sad down all of us together and helped with ideas for visualising more abstract pictures. Around 2.30 they were of again with cameras.
Hedvig and Nanna started to read through the interviews while waiting for them to return. Søren and Anders left for Split.
Around 6 o clock almost all the pictures were home safe. Some people had not shown up that day at all, so we had to do with out them.

Hanne, Hedvig and Nanna went home to go through the pictures. The result was much better this time, luckily.

Abrasevic was host for a concert with a band called SOPOT. We joined the concert and the party after.

SPLIT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

18th of May - WAITING!

A quiet day where all of us basically were placed in front of the computer all day long. (Or behind, depends on how you look at it)
Hedvig and Nanna were spending a lot of time at Abrasevic because the last interviews had to take place.
At 1 o clock Nanna was called by LDA, and told that a school was waiting to be interview, but no one had showed up. She had to go to the school to clear the situation with a disappointed teacher. Apparently our “journalists” had forgot about them. Guess that was the drama of the day.
Søren and Anders had an easy night out, Hedvig and Nanna collapsed in the apartment.

A day of waiting – waiting for the pictures, the interviews, the material for taking the next step – the exhibition! We were all very exited about Saturday.

17th of May – Day of Hedvig!!!

4.30 the alarm went on. Our very ambitious photographers Søren and Hanne were off to do morning photos of the bridge. Anders, Hedvig and Nanna just slept on without really noticing that they were gone.

-here is some of Sørens pics, from that morning. -Hanne fucked her memery card again... how proffesional is she?? :0)









This was the great day of writing!!! Hedvig and Nanna stayed at home trying hard to get words on paper. Søren and Anders were of to Abrasevic to meet with the “Journalists” and the interview objects. As we before have experienced communication can be very difficult. Apparently 15 people thought they were to be interviewed but only 3 “journalists” were available. They managed to go through all of them any way – we are really dealing with hardworking people. IT´S NICE!!!
Small practicalities were on the program, but mainly the day was set of to hammer on the keyboard. Hedvig and Nanna went to Budda bar to continue the work. You really have to adapt, when you are use to have space and silence to work in. Maybe Budda bar just ain’t the place for writing… they play loud music with texts like “My daddy ain’t rich, my mama is a bitch, don’t feel sorry for me just suck my d….!”
At six o clock the workday was over and the guys joined the girls for a catch up of the day and beers.
This day was not just some random day, no no, Hedvig made sure that we all knew that the 17th of May is the Norwegian national day. All day long she was singing the national anthem and other Norwegian stuff. To make her a little happy and so she would not miss her friends and country too much, we replaced the dinner with alcohol… very Norwegian.!!! Lets celebrate small and young nations.

And just a little add on, we have now been here for seventeen days and some of us feel more at home than others…to put it in other words, Nanna took her scarf and put it on her head so she looked like a Muslim and walked happy home without any annoying men bothering her.


And now for Hedvigs own opinion of the day:

This was a very dramatic day for me, both mentally and physically. For the first time in my life I was not home in Oslo celebrating my national day.
I had tried for some days to explain the importance of this day to the rest of the group and that the 17th of May is bigger than New Years Eve, Christmas and birthdays all together. You can say that I got little to no response or understanding from them… Damn those Danes, all they think about are themselves…
The whole day I tried to get some writing done, but my mind kept dreaming about the 17th of May.. I saw myself in my national costume (the very famous Bunad!!) celebrating with all my friends, walking around singing the national anthem, drinking beer, smiling and laughing..
But my dream didn´t last long, I was snapped back into reality by the heartless Danes who showed no empathy and were just focusing on writing the workshops “Hedvig what were your expectations for the 2nd workshop…” bla bla bla… Those cruel people, what ever happened to loving something that was once yours?
But after a long torturing day without any celebration I think the Danes finally got some sense in them and they agreed on that Hedvig needs to celebrate! And so we did in true Norwegian style, loads of beers, vodka here and a whiskey there… Hedvig finally smiled again and the love for the Danes had returned!

THE PARTY TENTS

Søren and Nanna went to OBI markt to (German edition of Silvan) to get three party tents for the exhibition. They did not really have a clue where it was, so the best thing was to jump into a cap and say OBI markt? OBI markt?
They drove for about 15 min and arrived then in the suburb of Mostar (City Syd, if anyone knows that place in Aalborg), where big supermarkets, empty ruins and grass fields were mixed together.
OBI markt was like entering an other world – like being at home maybe.
10 steps straight ahead and a white party tent caught the eyes. Man this was easy they had all we need.
Three tents (which Fredericia high school has been so nice to pay for) on the bag and then with the bus to Zalik (the ghetto area we live in).

Hedvig and Anders had volunteered to start writing on the report most of the day, so they were working hard when the party tents returned.
Otherwise the day has included “observation” of the youngsters doing interviews, coordination of new interviews, a lot of table tennis, shoe shopping, strategy for the report we have to deliver, pizza (again again), Abrasevic and Internet surfing.
Hedvig is now watching a movie, Anders is some where in town, Søren is playing computer, Hanne is visiting a gypsy village and Nanna is writing.

Everything is running smooth, but as Kasper A. said yesterday: “You don’t have to be stressed to make a good project…!” (or something like that) I guess that’s the agenda we are following.

picture from a psycadelic trance party! -good fun!

15 of May and half ways

While Nanna and Hedvig was starting writing repport and waiting for the skype guidance meeting with our team mannager Kasper Arentoft, Søren and I went into to town to do a lot of practical stuff and to meet up with some of the people from our enormous network we have created by now.
First of all we needed to clarify costs, sizes, quality and development of pictures. So we went to the office of democracy to pick up one of the workers there, who would bring us to the photoshop that the municipality have made the deal with. We went there together the three of us unknowing that an annoying and surprising experience was going to happen. We have got 100 euro from the municipality for the pictures, that we thought was more than enough..BUT NO. actually, opposite to everything else here in Bosnia, it was twice the price compared to Denmark, so we could get 1 picture for 10 euro, that means we only had economy for 10 pictures, and to make a proper exhibition we need at least 40 pictures. So we suddenly where in a need of 200 euro. Bummer... Secondly the lady that was with us to help translating in the photo-store had a few problems with listening to any other than herself (She could definitely need a lesson with David Stokholm about how to listen), so i had to raise the voice to get trough. I don't know if see got a little afraid, but it helped. We tried to use our business skills to get some kind of quantity discount, but the photo dealer just went NIET NIET,,,,,,NIET NIET (No way) After we told him that the other photo store across the street could make it half price, he started to loose a little up and was willing to sell the pictures 7,5 euro (We had to use this photo store because he was into some kind of corporation with the municipality) Okay, we still needed 200 euro, so what to do. HANS our father in Vejle, of course!!!! we went back to the democracy office and wrote him a mail and explained him the situation. It only took 10 min for him to respond with the very nice message telling that Vejle municipality would like sponsor the needed money. Thank you Hans...

Time for breakfast. We decided to eat breakfast in one of the small restaurants near the river next to a little watercourse. The time was at that point 11.30 so we decided to order lunch. Veal kebab with french fries. Right after finishing the lunch we heart a funny sound from the other side of the stream, it was a outlet from a toilet of the restaurant next to us. A big brown mass was dumping into the water in the stream followed by pink toilet-paper ...mmmmmmm nice nice...Not. We agreed upon an appreciation about they waited till we have finished lunch.

Next mission: Nanna and I had the day before made an appointment with Radio Mostar about deliver a KP brochure to them so they could prepare an interview with some of us tomorrow, so Søren and I went there, and they almost started to read when they got it. They said they need a day to or two to go trough the blog and the booklet, and will call me today to arrange the interview.

Next step was a meeting with one of our new journalist, Belma 16 years old and from the gymnasium, she had already made one interview and wanted to check if she was right on track, and she was, definitely. She had made a very nice objective interview, that we went through with her. It was right on spot. Well done Belma!!! We killed a half hour with an ice cream and a small talk about how she could improve the interview even more.
Then we went to Abrasevic to meet up with the girls for a small briefing upon what had happened so far that day.
They made us very glad by telling us that the guidance with Kasper went very well. He told them that we definitely where right on track with our project. We agreed upon finishing the day off with a small brainstorm on how we could secure that the webpage, we have created for the youngsters here in Mostar, could go on when we are gone.

Time for a haircut. We ordered a beer and a Luso (Luso is made out of grapes and not of plums like Slivovic are, actually Luso tastes even better) and I started to cut Sørens hair with Nannas paper scissor. It went quite well I think so. Something i learned when i went to Handsome Boy Modeling School.

Anders giving Søren a haircut. No it wasn't a bet...


After a cosy time Søren, Nanna and Hedvig went home and I decided to stay for one beer more, half way trough my beer Hanne showed up in a good smily mood. After a little time with mailing, chatting and talking we wanted to go to Belmas class of choir. We met up with her in front of the gymnasium and walked for 20 minutes to the Papparatti Center. We joint in a lesson of Choir and it sounded very beautiful.



On our way out I suddenly heard a drum-kit and a electric guitar in one of the others room, i started feeling ticklish inside my stomach. I needed to play!!! So we knocked the door and I ask if I could try the drums, and yes I could. It was wonderful to play a little music again.



Back to Abrasevic for one more beer before going home to bed, we thought so, but no. We met up with Feda and Nedim. The two 30 years old guys that looks like they haven't realized that we are not in 1970 anymore. Velvet trousers and shirts with big flips.
They asked us( Hanne and I) if we wanted to have a four-man party at there place in the west side of town. And that was a experience we couldn't say no to. Jumped in the car driving to there apartment, it felt very good to be on our way to a private apartment. Feda And Nedim sat in the front-seat talking bosnian and english alternately. Suddenly Nedim stops the car in the middle of the road, Feda is jumping out very fast. What is happening??? looking through out the back-window we saw Feda was squatting in the verge picking flowers for the apartment. So sweet. Great guys!!



We got there and took the elevator up to the 7th floor, entered the apartment that looks exactly like there clothes, totally 1970. It was extremely big and they had the must beautiful view out over the town. we went to their 30 m2 big balcony and sat there drinking coffee and beers until 04.30 and had great conversations about everything you can't imagine :)
Nice Nice evening.



Søren became like a child when he saw this sign hanging over a bar.




This is the beautifull view from where Søren and anders had brakefast.

Kick-ass day!!!

Monday the 14th of May

Division of the group today:
Søren, Hanne and Hedvig did the photo workshop and Anders and Nanna worked on some practicalities and they got in touch with some media here!

The Photo workshop:

The arrangement was to meet the participants at the Gymnasium at nine o’clock, we came around 5 to nine expecting to be the first ones there…But to our surprise 7 of the participants where already standing there waiting for us, and they normally don’t even have school in the mornings so it was a most pleasant surprise and again really showed their dedication to the project.

After “a 15 minute waiting for the key to the room” break we were all ready to start the day, and as in true KP style we of course started the day with a check-in. Compared to the check- in on Saturday this one was more in thread with what we are used to, a small morning preach from each person telling how they are, their experience with a camera and why they choose to participate at the photo workshop.
After the check-in Hanne did a remembering exercise with them before we went on to the more practical part of the workshop. She hit it off with interview technique, showed how to make a good interview, how to make a bad interview- what questions to ask, how to ask them and of course taught them about the comfort zone. How to sit with your interview object and the importance of reading their body language so they don´t feel uncomfortable, but also so you can relax and take your time with the questions without stressing or being nervous. They got the hang of it and then it was time for our journalists to discuss what questions they were to ask the interview objects, we (the heads of the Mostar-Masunga agency , Hanne, Søren and Hedvig) had already written a suggestion for what questions to ask the night before- so we handed those out, divided our journalists into two groups and the discussion was now to begin!
They tore apart our questions and created their own, gathered in the whole group and continued the discussion on what was a good question, how they could ask the questions to get the information they wanted and the most important thing: what information do they want??? After many opinions expressed, a bit of head chopping and some really good points we all got a common understanding of what we want to gain from this; we want to gather information about what young people in Mostar think about a career centre, how they would like it to be (if it existed), what information it should have and where it should be.

Now that our journalists were on the same page, we were ready to send them out on their first mission. They got together two and two, picked a word from Sørens hat
And their assignment was to visualise the work into a photo. They did a great job, as you can see from the pictures below, the heads of the Mostar-Masunga agency were seriously proud of the journalists/photographers!! None of us had even dared to imagine in such a good result and Hanne as a pro photographer had no worries about the exhibition anymore.

So that’s all for the work related part of the day, we had a kick-ass day!! Loads of fun, some seriously good work done and basically just a great day!
The whole group met at Abrasevic after we all had ended our different parts of the day, had a beer, briefed each other on what we have done etc. Then we decided to go to sky-bar # 2 to have a check-in, status talk or check- up as we like to call it.
Some things got of our chests, we all got to tell the others in the group where we were at the moment, how we thought the project is going and where we think it’s heading.
After some really good talks and about 2 hours later we rounded it all up and decided that we needed a small celebration, so we walked up to the west side of the town where we know of a really good beef place, got a super beef, a big beer and even got a cake on the house as dessert from the restaurant.
So it was a super ending to a super day, we really did a progress in the project today, a progress in the group and generally it was just an overall great day!!


FREEDOM:




HOPE:




LOVE:




RESPECT:

The drunken & handicapped guy.

Sunday the 13th of May

We met up at Abrasevic around 3pm to go through the photo workshop on Monday. Apparently they are not open on Sundays so we got kicked out and went to Budda bar instead. We had a quit informal meeting about the workshop, who should help Hanne and what should be changed based on the experience from Saturday.
The new blog for the student was discussed as well, how much should we interact we it?
We decided that Hedvig and Søren would join Hanne, while Anders and Nanna would take care of a lot of practical stuff.
Hanne left to join some French people in a Roma camp outside of Mostar. The rest of the group went to the west side to find a restaurant.
We haven’t been that much in that area since we live in the other, I guess. But it feels a bit like entering an other city. Coming from the old part of town this is much more modern (not necessary more charming).
On our way in search for a place to eat Søren wanted to help a drunken handicapped guy of the street. The guy got very angry an yelled after us in Bosnien, the only word we understood was “fuck you”. We looked a bit confused on each other started then to walk again. Apparently the guy started to follow us yelling all kinds of things. We did understand anything, but it was clear that he tried to “communicate” to us, since all the people around first looked at him then at us with a funny look in their face. First we laughed a bit about it and kept walking but along the way the walking became more of an escape. He got more and more aggressive and we got more and more confused. Randomly we went by a police station and some of the policemen tried to get him away. Unfortunately we had in our escape got a bit of the main street, so now there were no place to eat – damn, we had to go back. The guy cut eye of us again, and we just made it into a restaurant before a bottle went through the air and crushed in front of our feet.
We got a great meal and laughed about the whole situation.
Back in the apartment we met up with Hanne and went through the program for the next day.

Masunga

Her we go with a Masunga in Mostar! after this energyzer the security guard came running to see what was going on, he was so confused and slamed in the door with a BIG question mark ? in the midle of the face!! Amazingly fun!

The workshop!

hey you who are following our work in Mostar. great things has happend! chech out some of the responses from the workshop inc. pictures. follow the link in top right corner. Youth in mostar online.

our day has just started, so i'll return later.

Here are some pictures that Hanne took during the day:

Masunga Mostar

Finally, the day where words would become reality, where Scandinavian learning was to be tried out in Bosnia. i Herzegovina, where we were to host a workshop on a Saturday with 50 youngsters in age 15-18 years.
First concern; would they show up?
Despite a lot of planning and rehearsing there is always something you forget, like finding a projector for the power point presentation. The first improvisation of the day – we did it the Løken-way.
In general improvisation became important for us. First of all only 29 guys showed up, not as many as expected, but definitely enough to carry through the program.
The energy was low among the participants in the beginning, but a check in and an icebreaker lifted the energy level.

This is the program of the day if anyone should be interested:
9.00 : Presentation of project: “Picture your future”
9.20 : Presentation of the Work shop program
9.40 : Check in / clarification on expectations
10.40: Break
10.50: Icebreaker: Picture each other’s faces (40 min)
11.30: Break
11.40: Value assignment: “Circle out 5 values that means the most to
you.”
12.30: Break
13.15: World Café: “How can I as an individual have a positive impact
on the future of Mostar?”
“How can I have a positive impact on my own life?”
“How can I achieve my dream/vision?”
15.15: Break
15.30: Presentation of headlines from the facilitators
16.00: Check out: “Mention one thing you take with you from the
workshop.”
16.15: End of day

Already from the beginning we were an hour ahead of the program. Apparently these guys were not as talkative as team 13, no one held a speech in their check in, as we usual experience.
Before introducing the value assignment we did a Masunga. In second round they really got it, and the security guy came running to check out what was going on.
We have to start counting all the countries that we are doing Masungas in.

They worked hard in the “World Café”, talking, drawing and discussing. We walked around and tried to figure out what was in the air, but to be honest we had no clue whether they were actually talking about their future or the party Friday night, since everything was in Bosnian.
In the presentation of headlines in the end it showed that they had been very engaged. The need of uniting the youth in Mostar and make things together they could be proud of, was mentioned several times. Further more the need of going abroad to get good education, and then make people return to Mostar to start new things, was a big topic as well.
We ended the day with a check out, where the young guys where much more diverse in their expression than the check in. It was nice to experience the change through the day.
We went straight to Abrasevic for beers and evaluation. Hanne and Mathilde (French girl working at the democracy office) gave us feedback, which is very useful for our report later on. We went through every step of the day and the final conclusion was a SUCCESS. We did realize, that we hadn´t taken the target group that much into consideration, while planning the workshop, that’s why the improvisation became so important. Not necessary a bad thing to practise and we managed very well to make the program fit the surroundings.
Abrasevic is now warming up for the psychedelic party tonight, so this is where the writing stop and the dancing begin.

the day before the day...

...the 11th of May

Abrasevic was once again the meeting spot for the different student council members. Søren and Anders went there by 9.30 to meet with them and high jack people for the interviews next week. The meetings were spread all over the day, so every time there was a break, we could work on the workshop for tomorrow. Luckily the young people we are in contact with are very eager to participate, and it all gives us good hope and energy.

While the boys where having meetings and playing table tennis, Nanna and Hedvig picked up Valentinas keys so we could finish the laundry project from the day before. You so certainly forget how much time and planning laundry needs, when you are not provided with a washing machine, we are lucky that we have meet Valentina. Lets hope there will be enough underwear for the rest of the time here.

We had two great phone calls today. The first one was from LDA telling that we would get 100€ for the photo exhibition from the municipality. The second one was the permission for the exhibition on the Spanish square. We have to move the date till the 24th of May though, but that will work as well. Now we have to be very creative on how to exhibit the photos in a funky and interactive way. We have invited Abrasevic to put up a bar at the exhibition, so they can earn a little money as well, and help create a nice atmophere.

Before heading home we went to the high school and checked the rooms for tomorrow, all materials and the person with the key…
The evening has been set of for rehearsing the elements of the workshop and eating great dinner (which Hanne cooked us, thanks).
We have to be at the school 8 o clock tomorrow, so unfortunately this will be a very quiet Friday night. The workshop will run from 9 to 4.30. We are all very exited.

The boys have been buying new flip flops to day, and Hedvig and Nanna have got red shoulders. It is so warm here and it is a challenge not to become too lazy and chill in the shade.

The word of today goes hand in hand with chilling and sun. The boys were showing their “S L A S K E B R Æ T” while drinking a beer in the warm afternoon. (the work can not be translated, but it means something in the sence of af sixpack in bad shape). -though i'm not sure this picture shows.

MOOOUU!!! -Da! Da!.... okay??

the 10. of may.
To day were the day were Anders and me were going to meet up with the chairmen/ladies of the students councils from different schools. So we got up early and went straight to Abrasevic and meet up with Elma. The first girl came on time while Anders and me were playing table-tennis, ya Anders won and then we don’t talk more about that. By chilling out a lot the culture has shown it self. Table-tennis and bagammon is the shit down here! the are born with a racket in one hand and dices in the other! Recommendation for to day: -think twice before challenging the locals in any of this sports!
-Our hot model Anders getting readdy to ask questions in the interviews.
We had some really great meetings with the different chairmen/ladies. They all went “DA” when we asked -do you think you would like to help us? -witch means -yes-. Around and about we had heard the roomers that the young people didn’t want to cooperate, so far NOT TRUE!!! I guess it will show on saturday when the workshop takes place.
While Anders and I were interviewing different chairmen/ladies with Elma, the girls were typing on the macs.Lots of mails had to be sent out again, and we are still without founding for the development of pictures in Mostar. -As it is a dynamic project we will see what’s happening and take it from there.
-So there were allso time for humor.
With that attitude we gathered for a brainstorm in the boiling sun. It wasn’t a brainstorm method we had seen before, i think i will call it -come and go as you like- it was only hedvig who was eager, she sat sown -in the sun- while the rest of us stood in the shadows drinking water and basically not really being as focused as we probably should have been. Any way. For some strange reason it all worked out just fine. A lot of different ways of presenting the pictures at the Spanish square was taken note of. one of my favorites was Hedvigs idea of having the participants to cary their own picture around the neck and walk the catwalk. a basically a Picture walk, this was an alternative way, if we couldn’t get any thing to post the pictures on. By now we are still waiting for permission and founding.
After a very nice session at Abrasevic, the youth center, Anders and I walked home to send the mails that the girls had been working on. We Kaospilot are not used to not having internet connections when working. -surroundings we just have to deal with. 20 min walk in 30 degrees later, the mails were send and we felt like doing something nice for the girls. We went for a walk in the hot air just to feel alive and the we went shopping for the dinner. We ran into several communication problems a long the way. first we needed cream in order to make -flødekartofler- cream beaked potatoes (wild guess - by Søren). We came home with cream with sugar -not useable. Second major mistake was at the butcher, here we tried to find out what was what. after several attends in many languages we came back to basic, pointing and saying the sound of the animal. So we point at what looks like beef and say MOOOOUUUU... “da da!!!” okay so fare so good. then the butcher points at some more white meat and speaks Bosnian, Anders was really trying to understand and at the point where he thinks he got it, he yells out ØF ØF (the sound of a pig). The butcher is not pleasant! -I remind Anders that we are on the muslim side of town..(Sometimes the muslims here can be very hard to figure out, they drink like vikings, and women don't wear scarfs, the mosks have bars implemetet in the same building,,,,but they still don't eat pig).. We both apologist many times and got some very nice sliced beef steaks. -A good dinner was made for the girls, a glass of red wine, personal mails and nice music took over the room. Hedvig’ nails has been pimped just to squeeze that in some where :)
A good finish of a good day!
-A picture from the day. Some windows lead to blue air, some to higher levels. You are to choose your own window! -Picture and Night poetry by Søren :)

Song of the day: “Man in black” by Jhonny Cash.
Word of the day: “Ceif” this word describes the atmosphere around you when your a chilling out and just enjoying the moment. If someone is having a “ceif” your are not to mess with it.

Søren becomes friends with Photoshop

Streetart in Mostar.

9th of May

Surprise surprise to the boys, the girl had arrived earlier than expected. Happy welcome with song and coffee at 10am.

Søren and Anders had planed to go to the beach that day and Hedvig jumped on that train as well. The Wednesday update will be a parallel story.

Hanne and I (Nanna) stayed at the apartment to work on their projects. After fighting for a couple of hours with a Power Point presentation for the workshop Saturday (I definitely needs more practice) I went into town. Only small project to solve this day, like getting a Bosnian number, sending postcards and drinking coffee.



On the bridge and under it was full of people cheering. Children drawings were exhibit on the fence and a guy was standing on the roof of a building with a big flag. The divers who often jump from the bridge (30m high) to the river were getting ready. Something big was going on.

First flowers were thrown into the water, then three divers jumping at the same time with the legs first and the final was a man jumping with the head first. It al happened very fast and was over very fast.
The 9th of May is the day the muslims were attached by the Coats and they gather at the bridge to do the ceremony.

Coffee and postcards I took care of at Budda bar.

Back on the bridge two guys were taking down the drawings. It was drawings of smashed Nazi symbols, the bridge during and after the war and freedom. Hmm apparently it was legal to exhibit on the bridge as we first thought of. Why not get in contact and keep the option open, you never know what will happen.
I randomly met Hanne on the bridge and together we jumped in with both legs – not in the river though, but the trap of two guys. we got to see the bridge museum, visit the diver club, a lot of information about the town, traditions of the 400 year old club, all very exiting things. But we had to sacrifice a whole afternoon as well, listen to how one of guys did all the girls in town, so in the end we had to do some kind of an escape act. Before we could run away they even claimed that we had to pay 80KM for 4 beers (normal price 12KM). Unfortunately they had helped me with my new phone number and of course saved it on their own phones, so I had 10 “missed calls” later that day.

THE PARALLEL...

Ya - It was a Surprise to find out that the girls had returned during the night and were sleeping when we came home. On our way home last night witch were meant to be an early chilled night, Anders wanted to by ONE cigaret from a random dude in the Local pub. We have never been there but walks by every morning. The owner asked us to sit down and offered us A drink. We were on the way home but thought that ONE local Sljivovica could be a nice “finish off” on a good day. So we sais “da, Vhalla” -yes please-. and sat down. To the uninformed Sljivovica is the Local Snaps made from plums, contains about 40% alcohol. We only had time to look at the drink before he gave us an other one... This is just an other example of the friendly welcoming we experience all the time. He sat down to have a drink with us, nice man. He knew no English or other language than Bosnien but he did know all the different football players in Denmark and the main clubs. Even AB-Copenhagen... what’s up with that?? amazing!


Anders and me had a REALLY hard time to stop this man serving us! As soon as we looked the other way a new drink was in front of us. Anders tried to hide the glass but the barman found it again and so it kept on. When the bottle was empty, about a liter later, Anders & me rolling our eyes and holding the hand over the glass, saying NO! NO! NO! he started to give us beers instead... This experience was the foundation for not cashing the bus on time the next morning. Next morning feeling fresh though waking up two hours to late. We had planed to go to the water and as Nanna wrote Hedvig would joined us. We all tree of us went with a happy smile (and the boys with a funny stomach, after yesterday). We were heading for the city Neum in south Bosnia for a swim. We found a bus and jumped on. About 1,5 hours driving and the bus stopped. Out of the window we saw a lot of police, the flag of Bosnia & Hertegovina and on the other side the Croatian flag. It looked very much as if this was the boarder, witch didn’t make any sense since Neum still is in Bosnia. Well never the less this was the Boarder and we had no Passport... yaya we could all hear our mom and dads voices in the back of our heads -remember your passport... well anyway, we tried with drivers license and business cards -but no luck! we where left in No-mans land with a hangover and a towel. So much for swimming! after a while a bus came by, heading back to Mostar. we jumped on it and had a yet an other 1,5 hour drive back...

The chicks in Sarajevo

6.00 am the alarm went on, time for the girls to get up. Sarajevo was tree hours away and the destination of the day. A deep breath, a cup of coffee and a quick shower, then out of the door and in the bus. Sleep, sleep, sleep and Sarajevo was outside the window.
We checked in at the cheapest hostel in town, dropped the bags… breakfast, included in the price, consisting of a hard boiled egg and two dead pieces of meet (sausages) no thanks, we wanted something else.
We wandered the streets of rainy Sarajevo searching for a café with breakfast. A part from the bad weather the old town was really lovely. Small streets, old houses of stones, a big mosque and cafés all over.
We did not really have a plan for what to do in Sarajevo. Researching on the Internet did not give the best options and after trying out the tourist office we did not feel much wiser. Instead we decided to walk and see where the streets would bring us.

Apparently, this day was the last day of “Sarajevo Fashion Week” and the youth house, where the team 9 girls did their project, was hosting a fashion show that night. We were told just to buy tickets in the evening for the event, great!
Then the second cup of coffee and a long talk about how we could make the very practical and boring clothes we had broad into fashion show outfits? We agreed about buying some make-up and that Nanna should get a haircut.
The streets brought us to a café full of colourful pastries. We picked the three best looking, and realized that sometimes looking can be better that tasting.
Then our curious wandering around town continued. Nanna was dropped of at the hairdresser, who used half an hour on getting hold on the natural dreadlocks. Nice result in the end though.
On the way back to the hostel we shopped for the evening event and had yet an other coffee. Sarajevo has so many different lovely cafés.
We got a bottle of Champaign just to get the party started. But first one hour of sleep, then music on, got dressed and sweet sweet champaign. Puha.

The red carpet and the spotlights were on when we arrived at the fashion show. Probably not for us though! We had on the way talked about laminating our business cards and use them for entrance, or telling that we were from the Norwegian “Elle”. Also the idea about Hanne running in front of Hedvig and Nanna doing a lot of pictures, when we arrived to make us look famous, was on the table for suggestions. We had so many good ideas how to get in for free. Well we did not need a good story or to buy tickets, we could just walk in.
It was a really cool room and people were already lined up waiting for the show to begin. It was funny to see the dresses and experience how big the different styles are around the world.
We went for late dinner. Too late actually, so we had to deal with yet an other byrek (butter dove with “you-name-it”).
We ended a great girly day at an Arabic café. Never had any of us experienced such a perfect place. Even the bathrooms were lovely. We got a huge arguila (water pipe) and a beer. They had nice music and great atmosphere. Even though the day had been rainy we had enjoyed wandering the streets of Sarajevo, trying to get a feeling of the city.

We woke up looking at the blue sky and the sun.
Checking out was at 10am and again we skipped the breakfast at the hostel.
Sarajevo was a whole new town today. People all over, running around. Where had they all been yesterday?
We went up the hill to get a view of the city from “the top”. It is funny how the city feels like a mix of many different places. Sometimes it is like being in Austria, then in Prague. The green beautiful mountains all around the city still with undiscovered mines. Many different kinds of people and religions. Sarajevo has many faces.
We were sitting just people watching for many hours, trying to find a pattern. It was not easy. The only thing we could figure out was that we really liked the place and wanted to go back again.
We had a quick visit in the mosque before heading back home to Mostar. After only one week, Mostar has become our home.

It was great with 2 days off, but now we really look forward to get started. And as you can read below this, the guys really had been busy. Great!
We have a meeting tomorrow at the Gymnasium with the student council, it is very exiting.

Song of the Sarajevo trip: “Love will tear us apart again”
New words: Kolaci = cakes
Torte = fancy cakes

joining the University.

After a killer day yesterday we manage to sleep until 10.30. Still no news from the girls in Sarajevo. No news is good news, so we made a cop of coffee. Bib Bib it said, the Bosnien simcards are being used. “Do you guys wanna come and see the university?” it said on Sørens phone. Of course we would. and half an hour later we were sitting in a 25 square meter room, with no air, not enough tables or chaires for the about 45 students. People were sitting in the windows, on the floor and on top of each other to fit into the room. It didn’t make it much better that me and Anders joint the lecture. Again people just smiles and welcome you.

The class was English History in English, so no problems with the language. Maybe not the most interesting class for two kaospilots to attend but suddently magic happend. The professore was teaching about the democratic system in England, and wanted to make parallels with the Bosnien. So he asked the class: who is our prim-minister? -No answer! -Do we have a prim-minister? -No answer. some jokes were made, people were laughing and me and Anders were choked! In the brake we asked the students about why they were not interested in their own government. The answer we got was that it is boring, it is not democracy it is Etno-cracy they called it. Where ministers get chosen by their ethnical background and not how many people in the public that votes for them. Scary to hear. a detail we missed out in our research. what a start of a day! it’s not over yet. lets see what happens!

Extrem Effectivity, And Lots Of Fun

Yesterday morning the girls went up very early, they wanted to take some days off in Sarajevo. they left at 6.30 to use the time most efficiently. Søren and I sleept till around 9.00 o’clock. The day was ment to chill out, enjoy the sun and mingle around with some of our new friends of Mostar. We only had a few small business to do.
Surprisingly the day turned out in the total opposite way and was one of our most efective days so far. We started out by buying bosnian sim-card to our phones(Søren: 00387 62935361, Anders: 00387 62935362) Right after that we went to drinking coffee at our regular bar “the budda bar”, chit-chating with our new friend Mary, who is a waitress there, played a little hagi and basically just using a little time to wake up.
We had an appointment at the Office of Democracy around 11 o’clock, just to tjeck if they had received one of our mail about getting permission to the photo-exhibition that will take place the 25th at the spanish square near the former frontline, but suddenly things started to happent. Instead of only one person working with us there, we know have three person helping us caring out our project: Jlenia, the italian girl, who is taking on the responsibility helping us getting funding for the exhibition, she talked with the municipality for ages, and afterward she said that we have great opportunities to get some money, we will get the answer tomorrow. Armel, a guy, 29 who will work as our interpreter translating all our letters to the police, electricity-man and municipality in order to make the exhibition. Alma, 25 years old and very enthusiastic about our project. She will work as our head of contacts to the different students-councils at the different schools in Mostar. Together with her we started building up a big pyramid of contacts to students that will partecipate in the interviews. Alma was a little stressed in the beginning due to the fact that all her important mails just where erased from her computer. But with Søren’s and mine relaxed and kind attitude, coffee and cigarettes and a few laugh she calmed down, and the work could begin.



Alma brought us to another very important institution in our project “The Nansen Dialoge Center” who provided us with all the contact information on chairmen of the different student-councils. We started together with Alma to phone all there chairmen and arranged 8 meeting thursday and friday. A network is created to get the interview done, it looks like this.




After some hours with very intens work we all three agreed about a big cold beer at Abresevic - the youth house. Here we ran into Anders bagammon friends from the day before, and they were planning to go to Split in Croatia to see Gotan Project live. This was an oppotunity we didn’t want to miss out on and asked for a seat in the car. We got a maybe, witch was a no... so still in Mostar. We then planed to meet up for dinner with our friend Mary. jumped in a taxi to get home to dress up. When Anders took his seat belt on the taxi driver said: Don’t worry- it’s okay! I know the police... He was a russian taxi driver there didn’t speak english (except the sentence about knowing the police) he didn’t speak Bosnien either. Then we tried spanish (witch actually works a lot down here) but not this time. German - No luck. French NO WAY! only Russian... difficult but funny! he was a good man and helped us home from centrum and back again for 10 KM -35 kr.


-beers with Elma, from democracy office and Hana from Nansens Dialogue center.

We then went to a local pub to wait for our friend. Here we found a Jukebox! Wauw -you might think! but it is wauw when you have heard Gipsy musik 24-7 for a week! we took turns as a jukebox Dj and first on our way out realist that we had been playing for the hole square in the old town and not just the 4 of us in the bar. a small laugh! We keep trying different local alkohol and we keep being disappointed. Our friend didn’t show up, we were two Billy no mates in Mostar.

-Mary, our new local friend and giude. -Fantastic person!

We took it with a smile and found a group of young Muslims sitting on a stone under the old bridge. We went down to them and said hello. They were very nice and we had a beer together. We had some very good talkes with them about religion and how it is to be young in Mostar. f.eks they are muslims but drinking beers on a monday. A very relax way of practicing islam. Some of them had a hard time understanding Anders´arguments for being an atheist. We turned the talk into Abresevic and how they use it. This was interesting for our project, course they didn’t like to come there. It was too alternative, and it was only people from outside Mostar using it. -they said. This we were surprised to hear! We went home late and had a late night dinner. VERY NICE DAY!

Higher Level

The day started a bit slow today due to the fact that we had a blast last night!
But when we got some breakfast, a cup of coffee and a shower we were all ready to get some serious work done so we went to our regular hang-out place; the Budha bar with pens, paper and a fresh mind.
Our plan for today was to make a SWOT analysis, stakeholder analysis and have a brainstorm on how we could take the project to a higher level.
The SWOT and stakeholder analysis really helped us to clarify what and who we are dealing with in this project, possible outcomes and what needs to be done to turn our threats and weaknesses around.
After an hour or so of really digging into the project, being realistic and focused on where we are right now we started the “higher level” brainstorm.
It was so much fun, people around us were looking kind of strange at us sitting there with pens in every colour of the rainbow making drawings and writing things down as it popped into our heads. True KP style!
Anyway, we got some really good ideas on how we can take it to the next level and how we can expand on the ideas that we are already working with- we all left Budha bar with a smile on our faces!

Nanna went home, Anders stayed at Buddha just chilling on his own and
Søren, Hanne and Hedvig went for a walk to explore the Croatian part of the city.
It was a beautiful walk, just walking around looking at houses and people in the street.

We got to see a completely new side of Mostar and it ended up in quite a long walk before we headed back towards home. On our way home we stopped by the Youth house to have a coffee where we found Anders playing backgammon with some guys there, we sat down talked a bit- Hanne found some games so we played one round before we started walking home.
The girls made dinner for Søren and now we are all just watching a movie, reading a book or playing with our macs- a really nice Sunday in other words!!

-Søren had a crach course in Photoshop! -Wuhoo!



Song of the day: “Personal Jesus”- Depeche Mode
Word of the day: “izvini,Stranci”- sorry stranger

Mingle the kids

When our photographer arrived.
The day started out with us joining the Office of Democracy to a opening session for a new kindergarden. this is the first kindergarden where muslims and Croats can go together. It was an amazing experience even though non of us understood what was said. The girls and anders started to mingle with the locals and Søren took upon the roll as a photographer. It was funny to see an opening of a kindergarden with only grownup smoking cigarets... there were only one child. Well Anders were with us, so i guess we could say two!!

It was raining heavily from the early morning and it kept on during the day.

Yesterday we planed the meeting with Valentina and we showed up in good time and had a coffee before she arrived. This meeting was a -lets plan the action plan- meeting. And so we did. Valentina is indeed a fantastic person! We went into details about the workshop we will run through with the Gymnasium and divided rolls.

As it is now, we are going to join a Students council on wednesday and we will have the “identity workshop” the 12. of may. The Meeting was very nice and many questions was answered. The deeper we get into the culture the more we see the need for our project, witch in a way is sad.



later we had a -lets chill home listen to the rain- afternoon.
Hanne, our photographer, arrived at around 7 and the groups strong men welcomed her and carried her bags. we had a chilled dinner with white wine and Salmon rissotto. Valentina had invited us over before the balkan rock concert that night. We had a few drinks with her and meet some of the students, one from Mostar and one from St. Petersberg. The rock concert was an experience for it self! This was a biker gathering from all over balkan to listen to this band. Many interesting personalities dancing around that night. unfortunately we don’t have any pictures from this night be course our professional photographer managed to delete all pictures, both her own and Sørens. -by accident, she says... :0)

-here there should be a picture...


“songs of the day -Radiohead” -all of them!!
The word of the day -osmiputnik, the Balkan rockers.

give me a "GAME PLAN"

We started the day by splitting up a bit. While Hedvig was making pancakes to the other guys Nanna want into town for a coffee, a book and some time on my own. We had agreed to meet up at “Abraz Evic”, the youth centre at one, with hopes about getting the promised working space.
I guess we once again experience, why it is important not to celebrate anything before you have it in your hands. Maja (leader of the place) wasn’t to be found anywhere, no one else knew anything – luckily we have an apartment with space!

We had a strange feeling in the group of being restless and floating. Due to the fact that we were not busy for the first time in a month, we felt something was wrong. Were we not working enough, had we missed out on something important in the project or had we simply prepared so much before we came here, that we were allowed to breath a bit and enjoy “a couple of days off”?
What else than a little check-in and a “game plan” can give the answer to a question like that?
Back in our apartment we lit the candles, found some candy and did it the Kaospilot-way.
The “game plan” made our whole month very visual and we realized that from the 9th of May it would all move a bit faster. Most important from these hours of visualizing, we found that the project could be taken to a higher level – this we will brainstorm on tomorrow.


We went out for dinner by the river. Everything was very quiet in town even though an important soccer match was taking place. Hmm, where were everybody, where are all the young people of this town?

Well they had all showed up, when we were done eating 500g of steak each. In front of the restaurant tree kind of different music was pumping out of the loudspeakers at the same time, and it was crowed. We grabbed a beer an enjoyed the setting of diamante earrings, heavy perfume and a lot of youngsters hanging around and dancing.
Budda bar became the next stop and a charming bartender saved our evening. Good vibe, deep conversation and a lot of love (mostly between the boys), drinks and rain.



We got invited for lunch with the bartender and her friends the day after before we left for Oxygen. Last stop before home – hardcore 95´disco style. Move your body! We danced and did a lot of pictures and ended a great day with an energy boom!






Anders is brilliant in English just read this: “ Søren is between my top 100 charming friends, he sneaks very good up” “sometimes my English very fuckes up! But I just speak.”

Song of the day: yo Magnus tillykke med din konfirmation
Word of the day, not a Bosnian one. SKUFFEJERN

The band that never showed up!

We started the day slowly with checking e-mails, coffee and breakfast.
First stop for the day was the high school in Mostar, which we are going to work with. Our contact person there Valentina we have had some problems in getting in contact with, so we wanted to try out the old fashion communication way, by showing up at the school, ask around and wait. We did not really know who we were looking for, but after one and a half hour and a cup of coffee, a smiling, black haired woman showed up.
-Meeting with Valentina.


We had a meeting with her to agree upon when to have a meeting. After a short briefing we agreed to meet the day after to make an action plan for the workshop and the research - the core foundation of the project.


-Grafiti on the wall of the Youth house, with bullet holes.


While hanging out at our favourite place, the youth cultural centre, we met a gay, German speaking, local guy. He was the owner of a second hand shop. We went with him there and did a little shopping. Hedvig got herself a big fur for 75 kr. She is so hot! He invited us to meet with him for a smoke and beer before the concert later that night, but he was quit pushy, so we talked our way around not making any plans with him.
It had been raining heavy the whole day, so we were soaked when we came to the meeting with Jlenia at the Democracy Office.

-The Democracy offices logo, we would like to show the office but for some how blogspot won't accept it... sorry.



We had a talk with her about, where we could do the different interviews and she will provide us with contacts. Also we discussed the exhibition and have now decided to move from the bridge idea to the Spanish Square, since this is where the town is divided. (Not the river, as we thought).
Before going for the concert we prepared the meeting with Valentina, went for a döner and showed up at the youth centre.
The concert was delayed, so we did not have to pay to get in first. We went straight to the bar ordered 4 beers and paid 20 kr. WOW it is cheep here… the guys are going crazy. We were drinking beer, mingling and waiting for the band to start, but they did not show up. Apparently the Croatian band had been hold back at the boarder to Bosnia, though they had papers and passports. It is very hard in general to cross the boarders here and maybe with their alternative style, they had looked more suspect? Anyway, the band showed up, but too late and the concert was cancelled. The guys tried to make them play the day after at 10pm, but didn’t succeed. They got some demos though.
We ended the night with beer and chips on a bench in the empty town all viewing the highlighted old bridge.
Great day with a lot of new impression, new people and input.

Song of the day: “I’m singing in the rain!” - and it looks like we are going to sing for a long time.

Learning of the day: Every time you order regular coffee and explaining “big coffee, not only espresso, also a lot of water” they say “year, year” and you get an espresso with a BIG glass of cold water. We are really challenging our stomachs…

Link: www.bilkspace.com



-Holes in a random door in Mostar.

Day 2

First morning in the town of Mostar after the first sleep. Very nice atmosphere in the room, a good morning smile on all lips and a strange attempt on the creation of coffee. Without the right equipment coffee isn’t the most easy drink to brew. Just to inform you. This day was meant to be the day of getting practicality in order. But the second of May is apparently a holiday in Bosnia. We found out by continuously running into closed shops. So we still have practicalities to do tomorrow. Instead we went to see the youth house here in Mostar. By coincident we ran into one of our contacts, Sanel. He showed us around at the youth house and asked into our project. We had a good connection and he is willing to help us further. All so the youth house has many visible wounds from the war like the rest of the town. Many many bullet holes in nearly every wall. Still the atmosphere around it was amazing. smiling and happy people coming and going. We were introduced to a very sweet woman working as the leader of the youth house, Maja was her name. We had a very good chat with her and walked out of there with a new office. Things are running smoothly down here, we now have a place to live and a place to work. tomorrow is the big day were we’ll meet with our contact from the Center of democracy,Jlenia. It will take place at 16.30 so cross your fingers :o)



Further more we have signed a contract with the main library of Aarhus and posted it. It says on the postbox “15.00 sati” witch we don’t know what means. maybe -they empty it every day at 15.00, or every saturday at 15.00. So it will be exiting to see when Marie Louise from the library receives it. Now when I’m writing about contracts the one we made with Vejle municipality should be in place at the school back in Mejlgade.
We are doing good and are about to cook salmon for dinner. The plan is a nice evening here in our “cosy-camping-cabin”
song of the day “stegt flæsk og persille sovs” by Jimmy og René.
the word of the day “kuvherthaj” -Envelope.

Arrival in Mostar

After a long journey from århus to CPH to sarajevo to Mostar we finally got settled in our apartment. We went from Sarajevo to Mostar by car and that drive was surprisingly amazing! I can’t describe what i had expected but what we saw was not expected. This country has fantastic nature. mountains covered with green trees and rivers running between the mountain chains. Old bridges crossing rivers and combining roads. Absolutely amazing!



Our driver lived up to our expectations, he went extremely fast through the turns of narrow roads. No seat belts and a very active horn that got honked if the smallest chance occurred. Never the less we got here in one piece and invited the driver up for dinner. He was a nice man that told us a lot of the history of bosnia. And what a History!

KP-on the road

The Bosnia task force hits the road.














It is now 8.02 tuesday morning. The group is together in the train on our way to Copenhagen and from there to Sarajevo. We started out with a hectic start at 05.30 at Århus main station. Our beloved team member Hedvig overslept. She woke up at 05.30 were we where suppose to meet. The train departed 05.48, the situation was as taken out of a movie when Hedvig came running and caught the train in the absolutely last possible second. Then we forgot to stamp the tickets and had to sweet talk the DSB lady. Everything is now in the right order and the trip has started! Anders is making music, Hedvig and Nanna are sleeping. The time is 08.07 and Mostar is waiting.

Entering the last week in Denmark

Final week of preparation, for the “Picture your future” tour anno 07, has started.

Yesterday was a day that you in a way can define as “the day of no return”. Nothing could go wrong( no matter we just got a deny on sponsor funds from Jyske Bank) We have the flight tickets, we have a place to live in Mostar and we definitely start feeling the excitement in our stomachs and chests. Yesterday we also recieved the final approval of our synopsis by Kasper Arentoft, Team-manager, Team 13, which means that we have fully acceptance on our project from the Kaospilots behalf. Monday we delivered the first edition of the synopsis. We got it back yesterday afternoon with only a few practical adjustments needed, and then yesterday late night we got the final approval..yeah yeah yeah..



Monday evening we went to Paradis Cinema and saw the highly recommended movie “Sarajevo, håbets sang”. In short terms the movie was about a teenage daughter, having a hard time adapting herself into the surroundings and society, and her war-traumatic mother filled up with unpleasant memories that is playing a big part in her mind. It was a very good movie, no argue about that, but it was also very miserable, but that actually engaged us even more to make a project about future perspectives and not looking back on the past full of war and destructions. What was really good about this movie, was that we really got a deeper insight in the world of Bosnia 10 years after the war. Furthermore it was very cool to hear the language and just in general get a better feeling about the environment down there.



“A little bonus in the end” Nanna’s dear beloved father have arranged that we can borrow 4 digital cameraes. We hereby give him a big thanks..

The next couple of days, we will be very busy with the admission workshop for the new team 14. 77 applicants are participating and will go trough an intense workshop and end up by being only 33 for the next team at the Kaospilots, Team 14.

Best regards from the “picture your future” gang.
-anders

Song of the day (goes to Zlatco Boric) Smells like teen spirit, Nirvana.....enjoy the sun

Project desciption

We are 4 students from the KaosPilot School ( Private university for entrepreneur of social innovation, creative business design and project/process management) located in Århus, Denmark.
We are going to have our project management exam in the month of May. We have chosen to put our focus on the youth in Bosnia and their identity.

We will arrive 2. of May and depature to Denmark again the 28. of May. We will have our base in Mostar but will work in other regions of Bosnia as well.

We wish with this project to let the youth focus on hopes and dreams in serious future perspectives. We want them to build on what they are good at, increase their motivation and engage them to take choices and ownership in there own lives, that will benefit them a lot later on.
Otherwise we want together with the youth to research on educational needs and youth related culture.

We want to put the focus on future perspectives and not look at the past.
Bosnia is in Scandinavia often related with the war, even though it ended more than 10 years ago.
We want to change the picture and make Scandinavia and hopefully the rest of Europe combine Bosnia with development and growth instead of war and destruction.

We will work with a groupe of 60 youngsters from UWC high schools in Mostar. Through photos and interviews from their daily life, education and interests they will give their country and Scandinavia a picture of, who they are and what Bosnia is right now.

The project contains several parts.
It is going to start with a preparation workshop, where youth with different cultural and religious background will meet. Here we will facilitate a process that will lead to the headlines for the end product, interviews of youngsters in Mostar and a photo exhibition based on the results. The reason why we use this approach is that, only the youth in Bosnia know what is important for them. We from Scandinavia will set the frames that are needed, for the end product to be as profound as possible.
There will be certain frames, such as that the workshop will be about the future, hope, education and work possibilities and the identity of the youth.
After the preparation workshop some of the youths will be equipped with a camera and through interviews and pictures they will describe the headlines from the workshop and also new headlines that the interview creates.

An hopefully we will be able to raise economical founding to bring some of the youngsters with us on the trip, and let them work as photo-rapporters of other areas in bosnia still within the topic Youth & Identity
The project ends with an exhibition of the pictures the Bosnian youth has taken. In Denmark we have a lot of agreements settled already for exhibitions. In Bosnia we would like to have it in different youth houses and public places, we are working with the democracy office on making it on the bridge in Mostar.

We are in cooporation with Vejle Municipality, Denmark, who is making a rapport for the Foreign Ministry of Denmark and the democracy office in Mostar on education in Mostar and Jablanica.

Apart from the 4 of us from the KaosPilot we will have a professional photographer with us that will document the entire project and will be at help when it comes to technical challenges, give the young people a crash course in photography and interview techniques and help with the exhibition.

Application workshop is taking alot of time

The whole day has been set of for preparation of the application work shop, and that demands a lot of energy and time...
We desided to work on our own today, going through the different questions in the synopsis.
We are at a point right now where we have done alot, have a million contacts, the project is possible, but we still need a final touch for it to be great... like 50.000 kr from Jyske Bank.

We have heard from Democracy office in Mostar, who would love to work with us and help finding the best place for the exhibition on the 25th of May (if possible), also our contact Klavs Vedel payed off, he knows a local who can set us up with the "under ground".

Otherwise there is not much to tell from today... Oh yes, Hanne has changes her traveling plans and will join us from the 4th till the 21st of May so she will have time in DK to finish her project.

And by the way we have change the name of the project til: PICTURE YOUR FUTURE...

Song of the day (goes out to Mark): I was never ment to cause you trouble, by Cold Play

C A L E N D E R

MAY

1.5) Leaving for Mostar
2.5) Meeting with contacts
3.5) Meeting with contacts
4.5)
5.5) Explore Mostar & youth culture
6.5) Explore Mostar & youth culture
7.5) Explore Sarajevo
8.5) Explore Sarajevo
9.5) Meeting with student council
10.5) Prepare workshop
11.5) Prepare workshop
12.5) "Identity workshop" at the gymnasium
13.5)
14.5) "Photo & interview workshop"
15.5) 10 youngsters from the gymnasium in Mostar do interview & photo /guidance from Kasper #1
16.5) 10 youngsters from the gymnasium in Mostar do interview & photo
17.5) 10 youngsters from the gymnasium in Mostar interview & photo
18.5) 10 youngsters from the gymnasium in Mostar interview & photo
19.5) Deadline for pictures
20.5)
21.5) Hanne is going back to Denmark
22.5)
23.5)
24.5) Exhibition at "The Spanish square"
25.5) Evaluation of Exhibition and photo project
26.5)
27.5)
28.5) We are going home
29.5)
30.5) Deadline for Report
31.5)

JUNE

1.6) Evaluation meeting with Hans
5.6) Examination
8.6) Delivery of pictures at Århus Libary
11.6-15.6) Exhibition at Århus Libary

SEPTEMBER

Exhibition & Lecture at Fredericia High School

Profile

Hedvig: Norwegian (22). She is very much into modern art. She is currently studying at the Entrepreneurial education the Kaospilot based in Århus. She likes the action behind projects and to get her hands dirty. Further more she likes to focus on the relations between the participants in the projects.



















Anders: Danish (24). He likes to create music with friends. He is currently studying at the Entrepreneurial education the Kaospilot based in Århus. He is into making businesses that serves a need for others than himself. -where there is room for a laugh-there will be a laugh.





























Søren: Danish (22), with a big passion for Snowboarding. He is currently studying at the Entrepreneurial education the Kaospilot based in Århus. He has a great interest in communication and sustainability.


















Nanna: Danish (22), with a huge passion for the punk culture in Berlin. She is currently studying at the Entrepreneurial education the Kaospilot based in Århus. Her main interests are innovative teaching and learning.




















Hanne: Norwegian photojournalist (24), studying at The Danish School of Journalism in Århus. Loves people, photography, travelling, surprises, coinsidences, music and words. Fascinated by the world in general.

The blog is born!

The day where the Blog was born and and the diary began.

It’s Wednesday today and we began work late due to our commitment to the admission workshop we are preparing.
Our tickets are in place and we are ready to leave!

The Work to day was about brainstorming and looking into the Synopsis we have to turn in before leaving. We have working on defining our Concept, Values, partners etc. and the result will be showed when it’s settled. Further more we’ve send mails to “the office for Democracy” a youth house in Jablanica, Valentina from the uwc in Mostar. Students from team 12 have been informed and so have the staff.

We have been contacted by Tom Nørgaard who is working on Politikens “turen går til” and he was interested in our project and might make an article about it. Further more we got contacted by Klaus Vedl who could give us a network of journalists and “underground” contacts in Mostar. We appreciate of course both of these opportunities a lot and responds has already been taken.

Later we had a nice diner at Nannas place and Hanne the Photographer came by. Pictures of the group was taken and the blog was created. The wine is running out witch also means that it’s time to go home to sleep. That will be the end of the Blogs birthday!
-Søren

Song of the day: On a long lonly night by Sko og Torb.