BiH Youth Leadership Fall 2014: Welcome to Seattle
Four blog posts from high school students learning about community service - and much more - during four weeks in the United States.
From learning about tolerance and diversity to volunteering at local food banks and creating their own political ads, the Youth Leadership Program participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina have accomplished a lot in their first week! Read blog posts below from Pavle, Elena, Damir, and Ana to learn more about their experiences so far.
Tolerance is a Turtle - by Pavle Koljančić
Hi, I'm Pavle. I am a sixteen year old student from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I came here to the US as a participant in the Youth Leadership Program. The story that I want to tell starts in the pre-departure program in Sarajevo, there the FIUTS staff was talking about tolerance in the US, and to give us an example, they told us a joke . The joke went like this:
“One guy walks up to the other and says I believe that the world stands on top of giant turtle that created everything, and the other guy answers: that is stupid… and I respect that.”
Back then I thought that they were just telling us that so we would ourselves tolerate others and differences and I didn't believe that it was true that people act like that. So for my first weekend, I stayed with Dave, a FIUTS homestay host. He is a 60 year old, retired electric engineer and a veteran of the Vietnam war . On Sunday he took me to an Asian store while he was protesting on a crossroad for an hour and he told me he does that, the protesting, every Sunday with others. That was kind of surprising to me. So while I was walking through the Asian store I heard people talking in different languages, there were a lot of Asian products from living crabs to original Japanese sake and I realized that was their own microcosms, their own little world. The first thought that came to my mind: “How does that work ?”
I mean that could never work in my country, people just wouldn’t stand it, there would be violence. So when I went out of the store to the crossroad where Dave was protesting I saw him, a 60 year old guy, protesting on a crossroad, about things that don't really affect him at all - like the minimum wages and involvement of the US in the Middle East. And that’s the point it got to my mind. There maybe were people that dislike the Asian stores, restaurants etc., but they tolerate it and there are people for sure that disagree with Dave’s protesting and opinions but they tolerate it and they respect his right of free speech.
And it’s that respect that they show to others that they demand for themselves. You have to tolerate their opinions and beliefs.
So I thought to myself at the beginning, well if they tolerate it that doesn't mean that they like it. So I thought at first it was just covering up the real tensions, but then I thought what would happen if people in my country were like that, if they tolerated each other, that wouldn't destroy the tension at first but people would finally talk more about differences and from that talk, understanding would arise and - with understanding and communication - national, cultural, and ethnic tensions would be lowered.
The Adventure Begins - by Elena Ourdan
Hi everyone. My name is Elena and I'm one of the 2014 YLP participants from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two days ago, in the peace and quiet of our retreat center came a man called Bernie. The center is located in the mountains, and its purpose is to adapt us to our new environment and our teammates. He showed us some group exercises we would have to do. They looked entertaining. But in the next hours, as we struggled with accomplishing our tasks, we learned some valuable life lessons.
One of the exercises was to build a bridge across marked places on the grass, so the entire team could go from one side of the maze to another. Since we didn't have enough planks to build that bridge, we were asked by Bernie to come up with a system of moving those wooden boards repeatedly, allowing every participant to cross to the other side.
After almost an hour of arguing, failing and trying over and over again, we succeeded in our mission of building a sort of draw bridge. But it was only then that we realized the solution of arranging the planks had already been suggested by four different people throughout the game. It showed that we weren't paying enough attention to what the other members of the team had to say.
That's when we understood what it was to be a team. Ignoring each other's suggestions and showing that little respect to one another was simply not acceptable. As the exercises went by, we started learning from our mistakes and became more of a compatible group, helping each other out any being more patient.
Working as a team is important. An idea can be improved if more people are involved and if they can help each other. Rather than being subjective, if more minds are working on it, it is more likely that the result will be better. In the next four weeks of the program, I know we will be able to learn how to function as a real team, and I'm sure we're progressing and learning something new every single day.
Tuesday, October 28 - by Damir Hadžić
Over the last couple of days spent in the USA, I honestly believe that I have changed as a person, and the way I fit into a team. Being thrown into another way of living is an awesome way of reevaluating my own way of thinking and my actions. The Youth Leadership Program is great in the way that it provides us with a lot of opportunities to experience all the parts of American culture, the good and the bad.
Our first presenter in the program was Luis Ortega. He is an expert in political sciences and civic engagement. His speeches were eye-opening. By analyzing great leaders of the past, he explained the things they all had in common. The way I look at problems in my society and how I would approach to solving them is completely different now. We learned about how to pick a problem, how to inspire others to think the same way and how to actually solve it.
Following the great theoretical knowledge on civic engagement we acquired, it was time to put it to practice. Today, I had the best experience in the USA to date. Me and a group of five other people went to a local grocery store to collect donations for the Ballard Food Bank, which we had previously learned a lot about. I was very skeptical about getting food from random people since there were not a lot of customers but I was wrong. It amazed me how generous the people from Seattle were. Customers were actually making an effort and going out of their way to provide for other people.
At the end of the day, I felt great about myself since I know that my effort will make other people happy. I really hope that the rest of the program provides us with great opportunities like these.
New Experiences - by Ana Puljiz
Hello! My name is Ana Puljiz, I am 16 years old, and I live in Sarajevo. Thanks to this amazing project, the Youth Leadership Program, I am able to write this post in the Emerald City. I have been here for a few days, and I have experienced a lot of new and interesting things. I have met new people and tried new food.
Although, this experience has been fun, it isn't a vacation. We attend lectures and do projects to improve our leadership skills, our citizen engagement and to learn how to turn our ideas into reality. One of the ways we learn that is by doing charity work. The biggest value of it is remembering the importance of being active in the community and making change.
I was working along with my friends for the food bank, and we were collecting food for the needy. I tried to be smiling and cheerful all the time. It worked for a lot of people, and most of them were really nice. There was one lady who was annoyed by that, but she was an exception. But there was also a lady who told me that she will help us because she was using the food from the food bank once too, and it was the hardest time of her life.
People like that are the reason we should work for a better future. There will be many people who will stand in your way, but for a good cause, there are many more who will help you out.
The Youth Leadership Program with Bosnia and Herzegovina is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the program here.