Prijedor

Okay, last week Dee and I went to Prijedor but I haven't had time to blog about it yet, so here goes. Prijedor is a town about an hour away, it is smaller than Banja Luka, but still a decent size. It is also located in the Republic of Serpska. We have been working with a domestic violence safehouse there, and went up for two days to give seminars to the employees. The employees have all been hired/chosen, but none of them have ever done work in this area, received any training, or even started working yet. Although the safehouse is completely ready to go, they haven't opened yet because they are waiting on government paperwork. Given the regulations for employees, the people we were meeting with are not allowed to speak with the victims about anything related to their experience or domestic violence - that is the role of the psychologist and social worker. So our workshops focused mainly on self-care, common reactions, and the basics. This distinction seems very contradictory to the domestic violence movement in the US, and took a little getting used to. There are a lot of cultural differences that make this kind of response different.

While conducting the workshops and hearing from the employees was very interesting, probably the best part of the experience was actually staying at the safehouse. Two of the employees spent the night with us there. The safehouse is set up to be very self-sufficient, and that made for a good time. While we were there, the water went out. We had to draw all the water that we used from a well. They even heated up some water for us on a stove so we could bathe.

I should note - both of our hosts for the night spoke no English. Despite this barrier, we spent the entire evening with them and felt like we did a great job communicating. Okay - I felt like I did a great job smiling and nodding. While we may not have shared that much, it wasn't actually a problem.

We spent part of the evening working in the garden. Dee and I got to pick some beans. We also got to rock some nice winter weather wear- it was cold and they were bestowed upon us by our hosts. I wore that totally awesome vest and Dee got a swell sweater.

I think I drank a total of 5 cups of coffee that day. Our hosts were incredibly generous and after every activity it seems we got another beverage. The woman who cooked for us was amazing - the food was incredible, and most of it was freshly picked. We ate some of the beans and had apple cake made from apples grown in their orchard. Add home-made bread to that and it was fabulous.


Needless to say - good times were had by all.