& the music plays on...

So it is the beginning of week 6. Only two and a half more to go. And I can't wait. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my time here, but I'm done; I'm ready to go... but since I have nothing else going on at the moment, I will update you on this past week..

Thursday, Alma, Amir, Christina, and I traveled to the municipality of Milići and we got to see some more CRP/ Red Cross trainings being conducted at the local health center there. It was good to see, and there was a completely different dynamic at this one than we had seen in Srebrenica. We interviewed 6 people, getting their perspective on the trainings and what not. It looks like Christina and I will be giving a presentation to the rest of the staff, explaining to them the details of our interviews and what not. I think that may be happening in 2 weeks, since most of the staff will be gone that last week of July because they are all going on holiday.

Then Thursday night Amir's band was playing at Club Privilege at Hotel Tuzla. It was a great time! We got to hang out with a lot of the CRP & Mercy Corps staff and it was nice to see them outside of work. Amir's band was awesome! It was great sounding music, even though I hadn't a clue to what the lyrics meant since it was all in Bosnian (hahaha) but it was a great time. And since we were supposed to be going to Srebrenica on Saturday, Alma decided that we should just take Friday off, because 'it's going to be a very draining experience', she said. So that is percisely what we did. And I took full advantage of the R&R and dragged my tush out of bed early on Friday and went to the salt lakes, solo. I got to work on my tan and enjoyed the time by myself, getting to 'people-watch' everyone in Tuzla who joined me at the salt lakes.

Unfortunately, our trip to Srebrenica on Saturday was canceled. It was pouring rain and my supervisor at the hospital, Dr. Esmina, didn't want to travel in such conditions. Also because we would have had to be walking in the mud and what not. So, needless to say I went back to bed after having gotten up at 6am, and proceeded to have a lazy Saturday. Me and the other girls just hung around for a bit and watch movies on the tv and then Bree and I decided to venture out into the rainy day for some retail therapy (which was very much needed). It was nice, we strolled into the center of town and had pizza for lunch, then we went and had traditional Bosnian coffee, and then treated ourselves to some ice cream for the walk home. All in all it was a pretty good day, aside from the rain.

Sunday strolled around and Bree and I went to the salt lakes to just sit by the lake and enjoy the relaxing sunday, like sunday's are supposed to be. We were invited by some of my coworkers to attend a bbq at another coworker, Sabina's house, so we were really looking forward to that. However, I guess bbq's here don't start at the normal time of 1 or 2pm but instead at like 10:30am! Bree and I had just arrived at the Salt Lakes when we got a call saying that our ride would be coming to get us in 20 minutes! Needless to say we canned that idea and told the group we would just take a cab... which we did... which was 20 KM, but it was totally worth it! I had a great time hanging with all of my coworkers and just sitting on the porch drinking beers and relaxing. Especially, because we got to play some volley ball! haha! And Eddin, one of the guys who works in CRP cooked dinner for us all and it was soo delicious! Bree and I ended up getting back to the apartment a little after 9pm, and we both had work the following day, so we were pretty exhausted.

So, as you can see, I am having a really great time. I think part of 'the debbie-downer' in me is that I am just sort of over it, if that makes sense to anyone. However, I can imagine it doesn't to some, because I can totally sit on the other side of my argument and say 'why the hell are you complaining?' But truth be told, it's all just monotonous a lot of the time and it's getting old. The work I'm doing is interesting, but it doesn't make it feel any less like busy work, sometimes. I mean, yea is having mundane work part of, well, work? Yes. But, I don't know.. I think 8 weeks is just a bit too long...