Serbia Journal

Joe Heacock, a residence hall coordinator in Schaaf Hall, is a part of an ELCA group that is visiting Serbia to meet with other Lutheran congregations and youth groups to learn about life in Serbia and to talk about life in the United States.

Joe will attempt to post updates to this page from time to time over the next week.

Second Update from Serbia: Thursday, Oct. 27, 8:22 a.m.

This is the first time I've ever tried writing in the dark. I can't sleep and I'm going to type this tomorrow morning before my daily responsibilities. I can barely make out my lines...

It was an interesting and busy day. My seventy-five year old roommate (Bill) woke me up five minutes before we had our first meeting of the day. I still had no suitcase so I was sad and had to get ready quickly.

We have a Serbian pastor who has been acting as our tour guide, translator and educator. He gave us more history about Serbia and gave us an idea about the current economic climate. Bill & I sadly were the only ones to miss breakfast. After our history lesson, which was fascinating, we walked a block from the hotel to the Serbian Lutheran Bishop's office. Our time there, although interesting, was a lot of translating and meetings about conditions and Lutheran relations.

I hear its warm back in Ohio, but it definitely has been in the forties and fifities here. For those of you checking Accuweather, it's definitely at least ten degrees off! So most places we've visited are going without heat. Everyone just dresses warmer. Good for the gas bill and bad for my toes. I am glad my Mother made me take a coat.. :)

Our morning was spent with the Bishop of the Slavic Serbian Lutheran Church. I should toss in a disclaimer; I am not a historian and I did not double check my facts with anyone. So anything I write in here is what I heard through the translation.

So yeah, the Bishop of the Slavic church talked to us about the state of the church in Serbia. I quickly found out a speech through a translator can make conversation three times as long, especially when I’m spoiled and used to being warm.

Meeting with the Bishop of their church is probably going to be one of the most important parts of the trip. So after 2 and a half hours, we signed a covenant with the Bishop. The covenant will allow our Synods (geographical areas of the church) to begin prayerful relationships with partnered congregations. My explanation doesn’t do it justice, but we will now be encouraging youth, women and other groups to travel back and forth from each of our countries and share their experiences. Anyways, I’m sure I’ll get a better idea of how this will play out throughout the week. & by the time the covenant was signed in the afternoon I was starving…

Mmm... the food... I really like the food here. Lot's of fried potatoes very similar to french fries. And pork EVERYWHERE... Same thing with the cheese. So the pork... It definitely feels like home. Although I haven't seen a pig yet, I'm sure they look a lot like the ones at home. I never realized pork tastes so good with cheese.

So I found ways to warm up at dinner. We had dinner in the fellowship hall of a very old and small church. (We spent a lot of time today going to different churches and visiting their congregations). A local pulled out a dark green bottle and poured our whole group a small amount. Nearly everyone winced or coughed. At over 50% alcohol and locally made, I had a fire lit in my stomach the whole evening.

Pork sausage, breaded chicken and pork rolls with cheese were served among other things. Although many of the locals barely make 200 Euros a year, (something like 250 American dollars, maybe a little more, but don't get conversion quotes from me), the table was loaded with their generous cooking.

We spent most of the time after dinner finding out what the locals do. Many of them are farmers and teachers. Keep in mind there is a lot of translating so a 20 minute conversation may take nearly an hour with translation. The teachers enjoy the children and everyone is very family centered. There are some youth and young adults involved in the church but very few people from their 30's to mid 50's. Apparantly, the communist's propaganda was pretty powerful to that age group.

When I got up to speak, they joked with me about International and John Deere tractors. Then they showed me the pictures of their daughters and granddaughters. Apparently they wanted to marry me off as I was the only single person in the group.

I'm probably going to come back to the states twenty pounds heavier!

Interesting thought from Serbia: “I am not used to cars using sidewalks as streets…”

First Update from Serbia: Tuesday, Oct. 18, 12:33

I'm here in Serbia to make connections with Lutherans in Serbia. My goal will be to establish relationships with other Lutherans. Mainly, I'll be conversing with young adults and youth who are interested in what life is like in the United States. So far, it seems everyone is interested in life about the U.S.

Fifteen years is a short amount of time. I remember what I was doing throughout the last fifteen years. Its surreal to realize that Serbia has changed so much. During the same time I was worrying about junior high, high school & college.

Towards the end of my elementary school years Serbia left the U.S.S.R. and quickly turned under Milosevic's control. From what I've heard, life under communist rule was much more pleasant. Then there were the bombings by NATO. Finally, after Milosevic's fall five years ago, there is a new government the people have more speech in.

I've been here about ten hours. From what I've seen and heard today, the situation here doesn't sound much more comforting. I saw several farmers walking the freshly picked fields of corn, looking for ears to put in wheelbarrows they carted around. There is still considerable damage from the bombings five years ago. Important bridges are still out and I've seen a couple buildings still in rubble.

Although, I shouldn't paint things so negatively. The countryside is beautiful and the area around were staying is very unique. We're meeting with the Serbian Bishop tomorrow so it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'm also hoping that the luggage that I checked that ended up missing shows up sometime tomorrow. The airline says it will...

Have a great time back in the States!!