Mom's visit

Mom hasn't visited me since 2019, which is a long time - but I feel really blessed because many parents don't visit their overseas family at all! It was lovely having Mom in my part of the world again. She had already been to my brother in Canada and to my sister in Oxford twice. She has in the past only been here for up to 10 days, so it was wonderful to have her for 3 weeks! 

We had quite a "guesty" beginning to our autumn - Sina was staying with us for the last week of August and on the day she left, Ljilja's mom and sister came to stay. As Mom's flight was getting in quite late in the day we had to stay over at least one night anyway... and when I found a really good option for a few more nights, we decided to hang out in Zagreb for a couple of days... And our adventures were just to the shops: Enjoying the middle aisle in LIDL: 

And found some bargains in the IKEA: 

 And tricked some of our friends and family that we had made it to the seaside... 

But alas, those kinds of beaches are very far away from Croatia and we just took that photo in the lobby of the Decathlon sports shop. Here we are in the shop itself 😉

Once back in Banja Luka, it was mostly "bring your mom to work day" most times I would go somewhere and everyone loved getting to meet her. I don't have any good photos of those situations. She also got to join us when we went to visit a friend in their new home. I think getting to see the house (as an ex-estate agent) was more interesting than any of the conversation we had! 

As she is half Polish (my grandad was from Poland), when I heard from my friends Nada about a meeting of the Polish society while she was here, we had to go! It was learning how to make pierogies - and it was great fun! 

Besides the pierogies, there were lots of other lovely Polish treats! 

And even a bit of Polish vodka to enjoy with some old and new friends! 

One of the fun things we did do was go to the Cyrillic park and check out all the letters: 

Above is NOT actually a B it is a V!! ("false friends" are a real problem!) 

This is an L for Lav (Lion) 

A D for "Dvorac" or castle: 

Ž for Žirafa (you can guess what that means!)

Besides making a cover for one of my chairs, she also managed to make muffins or crunchies almost every day while she was here... It was such a lovely visit that it was really hard to say goodbye when it was time for her to go again 😭 But I am looking forward to seeing her in January in South Africa!

Fun Visit: Nils and Keren

My good friends, Nils and Keren, finally made it to see me as Keren and her family were doing a Croatian cruise for her 50th and so they came afterwards to see me... And we had a fantastic time together! 

Firstly, I showed the sights of Banja Luka: Fortress Kastel: 

Gospodska Ulica (Gentlemen's street): spot the fancy decorations!

And also the rest of Banja Luka... We did go out for love gelato after that tour, but sadly I don't have a pic. However, we also finished the next day's tour with the best ice cream in Banja Luka: it is just vanilla with toppings, but it is yummy: 

This year has seen me hosting 3 different times so far - check out the posts on the other two here: Angela and Greg. 

I love to show my guests all the wonders of this area, but this year, I realised that I am my father's daughter!! He had a route he had worked out around Cape Town and would so enjoy showing people around that same route. And I realised that I also have out a route around this area and so took Nils and Keren around it as well! The first two times this year were snowy and/or cold, so it was interesting doing it in the heat! First stop Krupa na Vrbasu: 

Next stop in Jajce. There is a lovely waterfall there too, but I didn't get pics. Old town on the hill:

Jajce city wall: 

And then it was time for the 3rd river and waterfalls, the Pliva - I am debating about calling this tour the Three Rivers tour: Krupa, Vrbas and Pliva: 

One of the fun things was the fact that they had some "vouchers" which I give out as prizes at my Bosnian Evenings back in South Africa. One of them was for a "home cooked meal". And even though I was planning on ordering a meal, I said, "The only homecooked meal I could do is french toast as we have eggs and bread." and they decided that was enough. With all the toppings, including fresh berries it did turn into a feast! Here they are showing off their voucher and the meal! 

After that, as it was a Friday night (which is traditionally game night between them and other friends, which I join in when I go to SA), we ended up playing a game of Port Royal (aka the pirate game) which I introduced to them last time I was in SA...

 

They also got to enjoy some work stuff on the day they left. We had visitors from a Medical Organisation that works with Christian doctors and medical students around the world. Ljilja had reached out to them because of our International Medical Students (most of them are from India, but also Bangladesh and Turkey). So it was fun to introduce fellow Dr. Keren to them. We also shared with them all what our ministry here in Banja Luka looks like so they can see what we do. Then we had a chance to hang out with them (and some of the Christian medical students from India) at lunch: 

And then it was time to say a fare farewell. It was so fun having them visit and get a snapshot of my world here in Banja Luka. They have been saying for years that they want to visit, so it is great that it finally happened!! 

Fun Visit - Greg

I think 2025 is going to be the year of the visitors for me. It started in February with Angela, and then in April it continued with Greg. Greg and I go way back - we were both in the best band at our church in Cape Town, back in the day, before he moved to the US and I moved to Bosnia. I had visited him a few times in the US, but this was his first visit to me! 

We spent some time in Banja Luka seeing the sights... 

And then did my "tour" to Krupa, Jajce and beyond... First stop Krupa: 

Where we got to see inside the working flour mill: 

And then it was time to go to Jajce and wander around: 

We had a lovely lunch there and then headed to the Pliva river water mills before stopping for some coffee and cake, before heading back over the mountain... 

And I couldn't have asked for a better experience, than having the shepherd herding his sheep over the road as we drove by - Bosnian traffic jam! 

His last day was a beauty and we took advantage and enjoyed the beautiful new cafe at that park - including very comfy chairs... 

I think he had a good time, and it was lovely to show him a little bit of my world! 

Fun Visit - Angela

 In 1997, I became a camp counsellor on a camp in Virginia for the summer through an organisation called Camp America. It was a wonderful experience! Angela was a camper with whom I started a sort of pen pal relationship after camp. She has been working in Poland the last few years, and I told her that she needed to come visit... and in February she finally did. It was lovely to see the lovely young lady she has become!

I took her on a little excursion to places nearby - like Krupa Falls (left) and Jajce (right). Despite it being cold, it was such a beautiful sunny day! 

November happenings in Banja Luka

During November, after all my travels in September and October, I was firmly in place in Banja Luka, but we had some lovely visitors come to stay which was great fun. We also managed to get up to a lot of different things during the month! 

Eric and Sophie (above) came from YWAM Ireland, and Jesse and Charity from InterVarsity - all in time for the events we held with Professor Emyr MacDonald, who is a Professor with Cardiff University who also is a believer. His work in nanoscience has caused him to believe even more in a creator God as he sees all the intricate details at the nano-level which couldn't have just happened by chance. He spoke at an event at Ihtus (below) and he also lectured at the Natural Science faculty. 

Sophie and Eric also helped with our weekly reading club at the Children's Home. We have really enjoyed going in each week with a different story and then doing a craft - and my favourite was definitely this one of Pinocchio: It might have taken me going to 4 different stores to find the split pins to use for it, but it was worth it! They were super cute - and yes the pencil nose can grow when he is lying! 

And we also held a "Fall party" while Sophie and Eric were still around. Based on Thanksgiving it was a great evening of fall foods and also remembering all that we are thankful for: 

The last week of November, we held the training for Operation Christmas Child ministry partners for this part of the country:

Here I am in action, doing my part of the training: 

We have to ensure that the partners will do the distribution of the 10 000 packages in the way that they are supposed to. It is so fun to be able to be part of the team that helps make sure things are done well.

Our friend, Jelena, was also coming to help with the training, so we convinced her to come early and stay on and so she helped us with our Reading Club and also ran an event for the Mothers in our sponsorship project (she is on the left): 

She talked about "Zimnica" (Preserves) which each woman here usually makes for winter - jams, relishes, pickled vegetables, you name it. But she related it to our spiritual/emotional lives - that we also need to preserve good thoughts and things we are grateful for. We each decorated a jar with little slips of paper inside with things we are grateful for. When times are hard we can take them out and remind ourselves of all the good things in our lives. It was such a good life lesson and the mother's loved it!

 Here are Emina and Vesna with their jars: 

All in all it was a busy and varied month, and a lot of things to be grateful for!! 

InterVarsity part two

I stayed on a couple of days in Budapest after my meetings to catch up with people there, but also so on my way back I could "collect" the next set of people coming to Banja Luka from InterVarsity (after the team that was here in May/June). They came into Zagreb airport and we sent a van to collect them, and this way I could be there to meet them and connect them to the driver (and travel back with them). Unfortunately because of the chaos on the airlines, two of the six didn't get in until the next day, but eventually all of them made it to Banja Luka: Here we are on our tour of the city:

This wasn't an ordinary group of people, but rather the leaders of the Central California region of InterVarsity. They have been partnering with the local version of IFES for over 20 years! There is a student team in Sarajevo at the moment, so they came here first to meet up with us, and then headed to Sarajevo. But not before we took them for breakfast at the lovely "Slap" restoran ("slap" means small waterfall which you can see behind us)

Despite the problems with their arrivals, it really was lovely to have them with us and show them a good time in Banja Luka!

Easter Week 2022

This year, "Western" and "Orthodox" Easters fell one week apart. If you don't know why there are two Easters you can check out this article

On the Saturday of "Western" Easter weekend we went to the town of Celinac, which is about 20 minutes away to put on a couple of workshops there. Some of the children in our sponsorship project are in Celinac, so we first had a longer workshop with just the 20 or so of them which included them playing games and making crafts. Here is Ljilja with them showing the Easter Story: 

They were all then given "shoebox packages" before it was the turn of two organisations we have great cooperation with - one for families with 4 or more children, and the other focussing on helping those who left during the war and have returned. We again started with a song:

And then the Easter story with them as well. They have to put the pictures in order, and then tell what happens in each of them... And then it was time for them to received their shoebox packages too!

On "Western" Easter Sunday we had a meal after church for those who were there. And our friend Dragana (in red in the middle) surprised us by visiting us from Germany! 

On the Monday we had a workshop for our sponsorship children at the church. We started with a song: 

Then also worked through the Easter story: 

Before moving on to two workshops: One group was downstairs with Kate and Haley making objects with "hama" beads: 

While the other was upstairs with me painting flower pots (which we planted seeds in): 

And then they got to switch around so in the end they got to do both activities: 

Before all receiving their shoebox packages: 

Later in the week, we managed to go into the Children's Home and hand out packages. We handed out 105 packages by family units and it was so much fun to see our children again, some after 2 years. One of them said "hey Aunty Belinda, I remember when you were taller than me." Now he is a foot taller than me!. Here is one photo of one of the family units that I can put online as it doesn't identify the children: 

For "Orthodox" Easter, I had an unexpected guest. He is a friend who lives in South Africa, but is originally from the Phillipines.  I did show him some sights: 

And we went out for Banja Luka cevapi: 

He also came just in time to celebrate Orthodox Easter at my friend Ankica's: 

So even if he was here only for 26 hours, I think he enjoyed himself! 

I hope you enjoyed a little look into my Easter week 2022 😀