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.