Belgrade 2 Eng

Dear friends and family

We are almost two weeks in Belgrade (Beograd/White City) now and enjoy discovering the city.

We went to Kalemegdan this weekend. It is in the middle of the city and also the place where the Sava and Danube (Dunav as they call it) rivers meet. We found a book (English!) that was written by one of the city's most famous writers and artists, Momo Kapor, "A guide to the Serbian Mentality". He describes the Danube like this: "The Danube foams like Swabian beer. He drinks like a Russian, 'bottoms up!', and with pangs of conscience; amidst merriment he is capable of secretly drawing a knife like a Bulgarian; he can utter a curse in Hungarian." We experienced Kalemegdan as a very nice garden with lots of high trees, benches and play areas for the children.

We went to look at the St. Sava church on Sunday. It is an othodox church which they are restoring. They are covering the whole building in marble. It reminded me of the Taj Mahal.

The pictures they sell of all the saints also remind me of the Indian gods. I know I cannot apply it directly like that, but it just looks the same. See for yourself. At twelve the bells started ringing. It was beautiful and clear.


Language learning is going okay. This week I must try to learn the numbers, because even if I can ask "how much is this" in Sripski, I have no clue what the answer is. It is a dilemma. I often get people who ask me something in Sripski, and then I have to admit that I am not a local. I sometimes answer them in Hindi (it is a reflex), but it doesn't matter even if I speak Afrikaans.



It is nice to blend in with the people and not to be clearly marked as a foreigner. We also got used to the city's bus system and can go to Centar/Slavia with ease.


I have met two people this week that speak English. The first was a women that I met in a park. She told me that she stays in a small apartment that she shares with het father-in-law and her brother-in-law. The 3 families share the apartment with one room each. Her husband is a baker. They have a boy, Martin, of almost one year. She says that it is very difficult for them. The other was a small girl of about Nadia's age (7/8). She told us that she stayed in America during the time of war. She didn't want to die. When her family left the city, they saw people dying while bombs were being dropped on the city.


The last bombs fell in 1999. Last week we drove past buildings that were bombed. It is sad, but the people are slowly busy building their country again. Everywhere we see people beautifying their homes and every piece of open land is being built on. We stay in a street that was previously called Yugoslavian Army Road, but now it is called Oslobodenja which means freedom. We've read in the Belgrade Times (the only English paper that comes out weekly) that Kosovo can cause a crisis. A decision must be made if Kosovo is going to become independant from Serbia. We are praying for a peaceful solution.


It is going well with Stephan's work. They are making good progress. We are waiting for the contract to be signed. It will mean that we might possibly move to an apartment. We look forward to prepare our own meals and washing our clothes in a machine again (the hotel asks so much that we can rather buy new clothes!). But we are spoiled every day with clean sheets, towels and a big breakfast.

We also got contact details of churches in Belgrade. There are many and we'll try the nearest one. We hope we will find a place where we feel at home soon.