roadtrip!
The WiB team went to Priboj, in the Sendzak region of south Serbia on Saturday. It was the 13th anniversary of a massacre. In '92, a group of Serb paramilitaries took 17 Muslim men off a bus and shot them. [Yes, there are Muslims in Serbia, but not many and mostly in the Sendzak. I heard a call to prayer while we were there & it felt comforting.]
Our first act of commemoration was a tribunal. Local leaders, the German ambassador, & my boss spoke. I understood the German ambassador - he spoke in English - & a few words from everyone else. The gist: the killers have not been caught. The killers should be caught. Those further up the chain of command should be held responsible. The German ambassador spoke about how the Serbian state needs to deal with its past before it can get into the EU. An interesting carrot to dangle.
And then we marched - through the town and across a shopping center - to the river. Relatives of those massacred led our procession, carrying photos and crying. Intense. We dropped roses in the river in remembrance.
And we ate: pita. I'm guessing pita is short for spanokopita, as it is made from philo, cheese and spinach, but it doesn't taste as good. It's always soggy and every time it is served to me (often), I eat more than I should and my stomach hurts. . .
They gave us about 15 minutes of free time before we had to head back to Belgrade (it was a 7 hour trip each way). I sat in a park & watched a wedding party arrive at their reception site. The dress was absurd - the first wedding dress that I have seen that incorporates feathers. It looked as though she had a feather boa wrapped around her shoulders & there were small gathers in her skirt accented with clumps of feathers. Ugly. All the men in attendance had shirts or towels wrapped around their necks - it looked like they were wearing capes. I asked a woman that I knew why they did that & she told me it was symbolic. Of what, she did not say.
Our first act of commemoration was a tribunal. Local leaders, the German ambassador, & my boss spoke. I understood the German ambassador - he spoke in English - & a few words from everyone else. The gist: the killers have not been caught. The killers should be caught. Those further up the chain of command should be held responsible. The German ambassador spoke about how the Serbian state needs to deal with its past before it can get into the EU. An interesting carrot to dangle.
And then we marched - through the town and across a shopping center - to the river. Relatives of those massacred led our procession, carrying photos and crying. Intense. We dropped roses in the river in remembrance.
And we ate: pita. I'm guessing pita is short for spanokopita, as it is made from philo, cheese and spinach, but it doesn't taste as good. It's always soggy and every time it is served to me (often), I eat more than I should and my stomach hurts. . .
They gave us about 15 minutes of free time before we had to head back to Belgrade (it was a 7 hour trip each way). I sat in a park & watched a wedding party arrive at their reception site. The dress was absurd - the first wedding dress that I have seen that incorporates feathers. It looked as though she had a feather boa wrapped around her shoulders & there were small gathers in her skirt accented with clumps of feathers. Ugly. All the men in attendance had shirts or towels wrapped around their necks - it looked like they were wearing capes. I asked a woman that I knew why they did that & she told me it was symbolic. Of what, she did not say.
posted by rachel @ 4:05 PM
1 Comments:
At 2:35 PM,
Anonymous said…
In Greek, at least, "pite" means pie (ala tiropita (cheese pie) or spanakopita (spinach pie)), while pita means the flatbread, which is never pocketbread.
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