Colin: Today we left Zagreb on the bus for the Eastern part of the country. Our next stop will be the city of Osijek (pronounced OH-see-eck). The weather is getting worse. Everyone dressed much more warmly today, but there is only so much layering that can be done with the clothes that we brought. On the way to Osijek we stopped at the Jasenovac Concentration Camp memorial and museum. This is a museum that showed the atrocities committed by the Ustasha government against the Serb population and other ethnic minorities & dissidents opposed to the fascist WWII puppet-state.
One of the things that Croatia has done as a state is to acknowledge that not all of its history is pretty and that it has made mistakes. This is an important step in becoming a responsible member of the European and world community. One of the important aspects we will be looking at is the results that the recent war has had on the physical, social, economic and psychological health of populations. To fully grasp this, it is not only necessary to understand the history of the interactions between the combatants in the 1991-1996 Yugoslav War (called the “Homeland War” or the “Independence War” in Croatia), but one must also understand the socio-political history that preceded it.
Ben: Other stops along the way to Osijek, including a tour of Osijek, were cut short since it was just too cold and wet. We eventually made it to our hotel and were given a few minutes to settle in before leaving for dinner. After driving to a nearby restaurant, we were served a wonderful meal of local cuisine (including more cabbage salad) along with some entertainment. Our guide Zvjezdana taught some of our students a Slavonian folk dance as we all clapped and sang along! The girls were instructed to dance around in a circle, while holding hands, and at certain points during the dance, they had to shout something that sounded like "ee-yu-yu" very loudly. The entire performance was a riot! To the left is the best picture I could find of the entire ordeal.
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