So What? - Final Thoughts

Ask Balkans was not only a trip but also an eye opening experience. Throughout the planning portion I gained experience and throughout the trip I gained enlightenment.

From planning to experiencing what I researched first hand, this trip was a whirlwind of adventure and insight. The planning process was a growing experience for me since I was helping with the outdoor portion of the trip. I can say from planning this trip, learning came from doing. There was no better or quicker way to learn exactly what goes into planning an expedition than diving right into it.

There were a lot of moments of personal growth for me as well. The first moment was right when we got to the cars and I was asked to drive a manual, 9 passenger van. This was something extremely out of my comfort zone but I trusted my training and had confidence in my abilities. This ultimately resulted in a success in my book and through this I proved to myself that I need to trust my abilities. The second moment of personal growth for me was being able to admit that "I don't know". It is easy to follow formulas and assume answers but it takes maturity and acceptance to admit that sometimes you just don’t know. Even further, once you admit that you don't know you open your mind to learn from your surroundings. This allows you to not only observe but to understand what is happening and why. One example of this was in the grocery store. We did not know the protocol for produce and Hugh (a faculty guide) suggested we watch the locals to learn what to do. We were in a rush and just assumed that it would be the same as America since it looked the same and we have a preset framework for that instead of admitting that we did not know how we were supposed to go about this purchase. We finished shopping and went to check out and realized that we had done it completely wrong. Instead of admitting I do not know in the first place we seemed more ignorant and insensitive. That was a moment of growth for me to realize that it is more admirable to admit that you don't know and learn from your surroundings versus being ignorant and assuming answers. I used to think that admitting a lack of knowledge was a confession of ignorance (or weakness) but from this trip, I have learned that I was very wrong.

There were a lot of moments of insight on the trip that were evoked due to emotion. The most emotional moments I had were in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The combination of the children begging, the genocide museum, and the scars of war were all too much to process. I still cannot process everything I felt or even put the experience I had into words. However, I can explain that I learned from these experiences. I have learned that this sadness is not something that exists for the sole purpose of mourning. Instead, I have gained a new tool, a new perspective to use in the future. We take tragedies and we learn from them. Not that we think that we alone can prevent genocide or poverty or war but knowing that we can empathize and gain perspective from survivors and war scars that cover the land. We can use these images and stories as motivation for the future using what we have learned as a tool of understanding.  

Final Thoughts

It was a whirlwind two weeks in the Balkans (and a crazy week of work starting the day after I got back), but that time was filled with some of the most memorable experiences in my life. In this final post, I'd like to share just a couple of those memories and their significance to me, couched in David Knobbe's "What, so what, now what?" format.

What?
For a brief recap, we spent time in Croatia, hiking in Paklenica National Park, sea kayaking along the Dalmatian Coast, and a little time in the second-largest city, Split, as well as the cities of Livno and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Belgrade, Serbia. Key experiences in Croatia included learning about how Buljma Pass, our hiking destination, was involved in the war, interacting with people in some small coastal towns, and learning the history of Diocletian's palace in Split. In Bosnia, we visited a museum on the genocide at Srebrenica and explored the ruins of the Olympic bobsled track, and in the short time we were in Serbia, we saw the ancient Belgrade Fortress in Kalemegdan Park.

Paklenica National Park

Prvic Luka, Croatian Dalmatian Coast

Bosnian coffee house in Sarajevo

Olympic bobsled ruins in Sarajevo

View of the Danube from the Belgrade Fortress

So What?

As David Knobbe also says, you don't learn from experience, you learn from thinking about experience. So I spent some time thinking about my experiences in the Balkans. One important idea I came to was that the conflict in the Balkans is not truly over, it's just simmering now, biding its time. In Bosnia and Serbia, we heard the story from their side - we visited a Bosnian memorial to the genocide at Srebrenica (committed by Serbs), and some of the Serbian people we talked with passionately told us of the atrocities committed by the Bosnians while dismissing their own wrongdoing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was little remorse on either side for what they had done. While Bosnia and Serbia could each probably name hundreds of reasons why they deserve vengeance on the other, that won't help them live peaceably next to one another. I thought about the time I spent in Germany, seeing memorial after memorial about the Holocaust. They freely and openly admit their guilt, and by doing so, they've moved past the horror of that dark period in their history. Until Bosnia and Serbia can reach that stage of acceptance of wrong, they seem doomed to continue their ancient feud.

I then thought of this concept in light of the U.S., where we also have trouble owning up to our faults. From military action in Vietnam and Korea to the drone strikes of today, we have in some cases indiscriminately taken the lives of millions of civilians. Maybe we've been overall better than the "bad guys." Maybe, in the end, we did something good. The fact remains that there's been a lot of indefensible bloodshed in the meantime, and that's something we should own up to. The best way to do better in the future is to admit our own guilt and let ourselves learn from our mistakes. Blind patriotism is not admirable; it's counterproductive.

Now What?

To me, one of the most valuable parts of spending time abroad is the chance to understand a different way of life. I've learned countless things from spending time in Germany, and those lessons have worked their way into the way I live now. Although I spent far less time in the Balkans, one of the most valuable such experiences was observing the way people lived on the islands we kayaked to in the Adriatic. At one point, I asked a fellow trip mate how much money he estimated these people had. It was difficult to say - no one owned cars; instead, they all had small boats; their homes were pretty, but many were adjacent to vacant lots or abandoned houses; and people dressed well and ate at quaint restaurants in town. Without any major industry, it was difficult to see how they got by. At the same time, I came to appreciate the lifestyle. Many people, it seemed, took pride in maintaining their yards. People enjoyed the natural beauty of their surroundings and the community of the other townspeople. It was difficult to judge how much wealth these coastal hamlets might have, but the time we spent there was a reminder that money is not the only (and perhaps not the best) way to determine quality of life. Our time in the Balkans was quality time indeed.

-Trey

Final Reflection

Final Reflection

I've had the opportunity to journal and to reflect on our grand adventure over the last week, and soon I will have the chance to email each person individually about how they impacted me on the trip. I wanted to say to everyone collectively as a group, however, that I was so impressed with the quality of the people with whom I traveled.

My travel companions were unique in that I had the amazing opportunity to spend two weeks with the best kind of people: everyone was positive, supportive, and team-oriented. Each person was eager to learn and willing to try new things. Even when we were doing seemingly mundane things like waiting at the airport or riding buses, I had some very thought-provoking, meaningful conversations. It was so refreshing to spend so much time with such high quality people- I feel very blessed to be counted among Georgia Tech's President's Scholars. 
 
This sentiment manifested itself when I was traveling to visit family in Italy after ASK Balkans and I met and hung out with a group of girls my age headed to Florence for a study abroad trip. For the 5 hours we were waiting at the airport, the entire conversation revolved around what time they should take their birth control pills with the time change, which clubs they would hit up first, and whether there was good shopping in Italy. There was also excessive whining. It struck me how fortunate I was to have spent the last two weeks with such an amazing, positive group of people that was focused on the important things in life, like culture and teamwork and solving real world problems.

Thanks for everything y'all,
Lara

Finding my way home

On May 13th a series of rainstorms began what would become the worst flooding in the Balkan region in more than a century. With billions in damage and over 40 dead, this event should have been at the forefront of my mind. Instead I found myself worrying about whether I would catch the flight to England for part 2 of this summer's cultural exposure. I tried to rationalize that worry: I had spent money and time planning for the rest of my summer, it made sense to be concerned. Then, looking outside, I saw the Miljacka River. A great torrent of deep brown water crashed into itself, waves that would pull you under in an instant. The river roared with its swollen water. To think that this was just a small river running through downtown Sarajevo, where there were at least some sort of flood management systems in place. In the narrow mountainside canyons there would be no controlling the water. Some of the group watched a video of a home being destroyed in all of three seconds. In the government's fragmented state there was little chance of any emergency relief or financial assistance after the floods. People were watching decades of toil torn away all around them. After the floods they would return to empty plains of mud where their homes had been. Any surviving livestock would be in disarray, spread miles in each direction. Someone's mother, child, and friend had died while I sat in a downtown Sarajevo hostel worrying about my flight home. I would get home eventually, and my home would still be there! I realized how little of a right I had to worry for myself during the floods. Slowly I think I began to understand something about my place in the world. I had come to the trip excited to "experience a new culture" and "expand my horizons"! It was not wandering through different museums and trying a bunch of food that would teach me a lesson. To understand the burdens that others carry is so much more telling of their perceptions of the world. People in other nations have every right to consider Americans loud and selfish if we can't stop for a second and truly empathize with their joys and struggles.
This trip has left me with some sense of humility and the desire to grow that over the course of my life. The goal is that someday I will be able to step into a completely foreign environment and immediately fall into step, experience the highs and lows of life in a different place. Perhaps then I'll understand my role in these different communities and where I can begin to make my mark on the world.

A Reflection [Nicole Kennard]

This experience held so many insights, great conversations, laughs, and realizations that I can’t possibly write them all down. I came out of this trip with a whole new outlook, and a great new set of friends. Since pictures often speak louder than words, that is how I’ll try to summarize this trip.

What was most interesting to me about the history is how much it still lingers behind. Certain cultural practices remain from hundreds of years ago. I was also surprised by how friendly the people were. You would think an area ravaged by so much conflict would develop a hardened attitude toward those entering their country, but countless times I was amazed by the kindness of people, such as the lady who walked us all the way to a pretty far away bakery in Croatia, or even our hosts at the Maestral hotel.

I was also exposed to the tensions that do still exist between the ethnicities here. Talking to a young teenager in Livno, I came to understand that generations tend to pass down prejudices to their youths, so that while a kid in high school may see everyone the same, he knows that his parents and many of the other kids do not.

Something that also hit home was how fresh some of this conflict was. In Sarajevo, I could not believe that a siege had happened just 18 years ago, when I was born. The fact that I knew nothing about it upon arriving just solidifies the fact that it’s easy to become bogged down in your own life at home. Sometimes you need to lift your head up and take a look at what is happening around you, and around the world.

I definitely was surprised by some of the deep conversations and amazing new friendships I gathered from this expedition. While I’m not one to talk much, I found myself engaging in complex and intellectual conversation, discussing history and religion with those around me—but of course, we joked about just as much.

Finally, I was definitely amazed by the sheer beauty of the area. Nothing can compare to that fresh (unpolluted!) air, the clearest water I had ever seen, the mountains that seemed to touch Heaven. I definitely think one of my highest points of the trip was hiking up to that peak (go Team Summit!) during the backpacking portion. I frequently backpack, but that was probably the hardest hike I’ve ever done, even without a pack on, but when we reached the top, all together, it was so worth it; we truly felt on top of the world in that moment.

This experience has given me a thirst for travel and also for learning about the diversity of people in general. Obviously it is impossible to learn everything you can about a culture and a history of people in just a week, but I am determined to keep my eyes on the horizon and strive to learn more about the people and world around me.