Toledo, Sarajevo, Budapest and Tallinn

As I am part of the Bosnian National Team for Samaritan's Purse's "Operation Christmas Child", this year I went to the IConnect conference held in Toledo, Spain with 3 of my fellow team members. Here we are below with our colleagues from Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Yes, we went all the way to Spain and hung out with our local colleagues :)

This year was also Elvira's first time and she asked me to also dress up in National Costume so she wouldn't be alone. this was meant to be for the first night along with everyone else, but our flight was delayed and then our luggage lost, so we didn't get to do it then... but we were determined to do it anyway and it was really fun: 

Here are all of us from Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the OCC mascot! 

The conference was huge - over 500 people from 60 nations. We had corporate sessions in the morning and evenings and then workshops in small groups the rest of the day. It was long days, but we had a great time! 

One evening we were able to go to Toledo - and we took the little train up to the hill overlooking the city and got some great views of this Unesco World Heritage City, before exploring the city further and then having a little adventure getting lost trying to make our way back to where we could catch the taxi home! But we made it back safe and sound in the end...

After the conference, we all flew back to Sarajevo, and as it was my birthday the next day, everyone arranged to stay on and celebrate with me... Yay!! We were joined by Carolyn (and Elvira opted out) for the trip up the mountain on the newly redone Cable Car:

Here I am in one of the old cars - the original Cable Car was made for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and then unfortunately it was destroyed in the 1990s war, so it is nice to have it up and running again. 

Then, instead of travelling from Sarajevo to Banja Luka (5 hours by train) and then onto Budapest (12 hours on bus and train), I just flew on a Wizzair cheap flight to Budapest... and stayed with my friend Marie (and got to hang out with some other people as well which was great - but I don't have pics of that).

The reason for going to Budapest, was actually to take advantage of cheap flights to my next destination, Tallinn, Estonia, another Unesco World Heritage City!! (I should call this post from Toledo to Tallinn, seeing World Heritage cities across Europe!)

But you can see why it is a world heritage site... above is the Russian Orthodox church and below is one of the city gates that is still there - they have more that 80% of them, which is amazing for a medieval city!

 A view from the walls out... so pretty:

 This was part of the walk from where we were staying in the middle of old town to the place we were meeting... 2 years ago when I was here, I could barely make it up the hill... now 15kgs lighter and little bit fitter, I was able to make it up, sometimes twice a day, with no problem... so I was happy about that :)

The reason I was in Tallinn, was to spend time with these great people: The European Leadership Learning Community. I was part of the staff team for this event which was so fun. I love this group!

We had two very different, but amazing teachers. One was Ben Fitzgerald from Awakening Europe: He was more inspirational...

The other Oivind Augland from xpand Norway: He was inspirational, but also so very practical. Loved it!

We did have time for a little RnR... playing games in the park. There were some interesting ones like the one below... It was so much fun! And if you want interesting games, get a Dutchie to organise it!

During the week, I also got to hang out with my Estonian/Bosnian friend, Jael. She lived in Bosnia for 17 years and left last year in October to return to Tallinn. She took me to the medieval restaurant "Old Hanza" which was amazing...

The sausages were bear, moose and wild boar!! All the food are things that they would have eaten in medieval times... such a fun experience!

After 3 weeks, 1 5 hour hour train trip, 9 flights ranging from 1 to 4 hours, 1 5 hour bus trip, and many other forms of transport including the Cable Car, I met up in Zagreb with Ljilja and Sina and we hung out for a bit before Sina left... and then Ljilja and I picked up my MOM for her to come to stay with us in Banja Luka... but more on that in another post :)

Ukraine | LTS Europe Module 5

For the last of the 5 modules of the Leadership Training school, we headed for Kyiv, Ukraine. I got there a day earlier because of flights. We were put in hostels around the city, and luckily at my hostel there were already some people who arrived early too, so we spent the day hanging out in the city: Me with Neil, Gunhild, Johan, Suzanne and Courtney:

It was great to see some of the sights: main square - Maidan Nezalezhnosti

St Michael's

St Andrew's

We spent the week having fantastic teaching from Ina Snyman, and others on the staff. We also had presentations of our final projects (which we did between module 4 and 5). And then it was time for graduation: After being 35degrees C all week, it fell to 18 on the day of graduation, so my planned dress didn't happen... warmth wins over style! (and yes I am in the front row on the right!) This is most of the participants and staff - over 100 of us!

The best part of this whole leadership training school has been the relationships... and we did have some time to hang out . There was a Swiss bakery down the road from the YWAM base where the training was held, and it was nice to get away for a bit each afternoon (the days were long -as we were commuting, we were gone from the hostel from 7am until 10pm). Here I am with Dale and Cynthia on out last day. 

It was great to be able to hang out with people from all over Europe, but here are (most of) the people who are in Central Europe: from Greece to Hungary to Romania! Such a fun bunch! 

As I said, we were scattered around in hostels, and there were 22 people in ours. We had fun in the mornings and evenings trying to get all of us showered in the 2 showers after 10pm and before 7am... but we managed. And we also had a moment of bonding when the lift decided to get stuck on the first morning (it may have been the fact that we were 11 and it was made for 10...). Luckily the handyman came quickly and freed us under 1/2 an hour... but still we were very, very careful after that to not overfill the lifts!  

We also had one whole evening to hang out on a boat ride on the Dnieper river through Kyiv. The best part for me was when we went through a huge lock to get into a higher part of the river. I was just as excited as the kids to see how it all works! 

After we got off the boat we went downtown... we were a big group and it got unmanageable, so we decided to split up... Siril, Cynthia and Krystal wanted to stick with me as they think I am awesome... or maybe it was because they knew I could get them back to the hostel ;) Here we are going down into the metro which is the deepest in the world! (I was wondering why it had such long escalators!) 

We had fun hanging out at the main square, which was getting ready for independence day in a couple of days... so it looked a little different even from the week before.

And the fountains turned out to be a music and light show... so we took a seat (and some food) at the McDonalds (I know, I know) and enjoyed the show...

As always it is hardest when something comes to an end... and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to so many quality people. This was the first time that this leadership training has been done in module format, and it worked so well it looks like it will be done again elsewhere! In the meantime, we will have a module per year somewhere in Europe, so people who did this school can renew relationships, and also have more input, and we are all excited that even though it has ended for now, there is still a "next time". So, until next time... 

Another Polish adventure | LTS Module 4

I needed to be in Krakow for the Leadership Training School Module 4, and I couldn't go to Poland without seeing my newly found relatives, so I started in Warsaw for a night with my wonderful (second) cousin Izabela, before being whisked away by the rest of her family to Terespol.

Izabela had to work and so she couldn't come with us, which was a problem as she is the one with the best English. I was kind of worried that we would have to resort to hands and feet, but between my little bit of Polish, their little bit of English and the genius that is the Google translator app, we did great! If you are connected to the internet, you can even talk into the app and it translates it and then speaks it out, and on the whole is pretty good. However there were a few times it didn't hear properly or the translation was less than ideal... like the one below: WHAAAAT???

We had a great couple of days, and one day they took me to the place where they used to go on vacation as a family when the kids were younger. Here we are with Ania (who is another second cousin), her aunt and uncle (and Izabela's parents), Irena and Adam and Izabela's sister, Ilona. We ended up walking the 5kms around the lake and then having a lovely lunch!

They took me again to the place where my Grandfather grew up, and the poppies were like a little hello from him! I was surprised at how emotional I actually got... but family and roots do go deep I suppose, and I am just so happy that we found this side of the family once again!

 Then it was time to say goodbye and head off to the next adventure... (until next time!)

On my way to Krakow, I broke up the long journey in Kielce to meet up with Janna whom I met in 2011 in South Africa... it was fun hanging out with her again. Here we are on the walking street in Kielce:

 She also took me to a very interesting memorial/art piece which shows what man does to man, and commemorates the different acts of terrorism across the globe, especially September 11/twin towers.

While I was in Krakow, a few of us took the opportunity to go to Auschwitz, and I was reminded of the Kielce memorial - what man does to his fellow man...

 A little story: the Jews were all told that they were going to do a job, so they would get on the trains willingly and that that job was to polish the boots of the German soldiers. So many of them came with their own brushes and polish, so that they could do a good job. So sad...

These are the train tracks into Birkenau, and it seemed so poignant that there was a rose there... remembering the 1000s of people who came into the camp and never left again.

The thing that really got me was the kids... there was one really poignant display where they had reproduced drawings that were drawn by kids in the camps... and every one of those kids consequently died in the camp. I lost it the most at that... this is their impression of the above picture: No words...

Back in Krakow, we were right near the old city, which was really beautiful: here is the Marketplace

And Church of the 12 apostles, next to St Andrews:

 The Castle:

 The castle from the other side with one of the carriages who go through the city carrying tourists:

We did actually have lectures and processing groups, and all sorts of busy-ness which made for long days, but soooo good! Below is Bruce Clewitt who was speaking to us on the Catholic World. We also had Jeff Fountain on Europe, Stephe Meyers on teams, and many other great speakers!

 There was some time to connect with our fellow students and enjoy some networking: love it!

It was also great to connect with the people from YWAM Poland - we spent one afternoon together just catching up, and we meant to get a photo, but it didn't happen :( After the week in Krakow was over, I went to Rzeszow to spend time with one of the YWAM families, Roma and Tamara and their two boys, Sasha and Tolek. We also ran a couple of fun English classes for the children in their church and I shared in the church on Sunday morning. 

Then it was time to head back to Banja Luka and catch up with what is going on there! 

Leadership Training School Module 3

I missed Module 2 in January, which was in Holland, because I was in South Africa, but managed to catch it up on video. This time the week-long intensive was in Skien, Norway (actually pronounced Shay-en) which is also pretty close to Oslo, but from the airport it was almost 3 hours on the train. I was in the quiet car and had to take a picture:

We were in a former prison now turned YWAM base, and it was pretty cool!! They are not used to having over 130 people, but they did a fantastic job of hosting us all!!

One of the great things about this course is that you get to meet and connect with people from all over working all over Europe...I was in a room with a Kiwi who works in Greece, an American who works in Scotland and a Swiss girl who works in France.

I and the Kiwi, despite being the older ones in the room ended up on the top bunks, because the American is pregnant and the lovely Swiss girl had broken her back in December in a car accident... there was no ladder on the bed which made it tricky to get down. I managed to do it the first morning, but realised that I wouldn' t be able to do it on a regular basis... I talked to the YWAM base staff and... no problem, one of the Norwegian staff came and measured and the ladder was made and on the bed before I came back from lunch! love it!

This is the door to our "cell" - isn't it the coolest!!

 We were in lectures (with discussion around the table) most of the time. We had two great lecturers, Markus Steffan and Jim Stier. Markus is the President of the University of the Nations and Jim Stier (below) was previously President of Youth With A Mission. We had our lectures in a Methodist Church right next door to the prison.

 On the last night we had a wonderful meal together - we call it a Love Feast. Where we have lovely food and then share about how God has been working in our lives. We also sang a few hymns acappella which was great!

Afterwards we were treated to wonderful music by two fantastic Norwegian musicians in a 13th Century Church. It was so beautiful!

During this module we were given a big project that we had to complete, so now we are all busy working on that in our own time until the next Module in Krakow in June. So far it has been a fantastic experience to be a part of this Leadership Training School... we will finish with the 5th and final module in Kiev in August.