Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The city of Sarajevo, the city of the longest siege in modern history. This might be my favorite place I have traveled through despite the small set backs like bed bugs. I found a new hostel after one miserable night with the bugs and now I am in the nicest and cheapest hostel that I have found in Europe. Sarajevo is different than I thought it would be. The people are all friendly, the people speak English better here than they did in Italy, and the city is remarkably safe. Much safer than all the big western European cities. I came here with the impression that I would have to be guarding my stuff and guarding my life, but no. Despite the bleak building shelled and charred, the Muslim Bosniaks, the catholic Croats and the orthodox Serbs are all very welcoming of foreigners. The point I'm driving at is that everybody should take a tour of Croatia and Bosnia. Hope summers are going good!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
So I am coming up on the last 2 weeks of my epic journey south through Europe. I’m in a city called Mostar in Bosnia that bore the brunt of the war. The buildings are still in rubble and the walls of peoples stores still have huge artillery craters and holes speckled throughout the black charred foundations. The city was laid siege to for 18 months nonstop and the citizens had to live in secret underground bunkers and basements in order to avoid blasts and snipers. So it’s still a scary looking place. Even the cats that live in the dumpsters kind of scare me. I came here because there is a UK prosthetic mission center that I will visit tomorrow.
Now onto a lighter subject. Croatia is my favorite country. In the couple days I was there, I kept living with the British guys and we camped just outside of Split. We all went whitewater rafting, rock-climbing, spelunking, swimming, kayaking and met some pretty girls from Switzerland. One of the most beautiful places i've ever been and definitely action packed. The British guys headed south in Croatia not wanting to leave the beautiful coastline, and I don’t blame them. I will be in Sarajevo still when they meet back up with me though. It’s really been fun, and now I have to catch up on some work. I’m going to miss the easy going beach lifestyle of Croatia, its even more laid back than the Galapagos. Bosnia is just too riddled with tragedy to really relax. The people are too poor and the infrastructure is still in shambles. I really hope Sarajevo is better off. Either way, I really hope that I learn a lot at the Bosnian prosthetic mission outpost, should be a little eye opening. Pictures on the way. Over and out
So today was the biggest break through in my studies since I was in the Ossur factory in Iceland. The political structure that has erupted out of the post communist Bosnia and Herzegovina is soo absolutely interesting. I went to a British NGO that helps out here to learn about the finances, third party payers and welfare, and I came out with a new idea for a new thesis. The bureaucracy is so corrupt here that the large amounts of children here have to pay the authorities to tap into the health fund and then the German company Otto Bock has bought the right to be the sole provider for prosthesis in this country. The people can’t even go to neighboring Croatia to get better and cheaper ser vice because they can’t leave the country without a visa. A prosthetic leg costs more here than it does in the states and the service they get is garbage. I came to Bosnia to study how the people had adapted to the staggering number of young amputees, but instead all I found was how corrupt the government is. The people in a country that can barely feed everybody actually charges more for healthcare, and it has to ultimately come from your pocket unless you can pay your way through the many branches of the government. I’m going to spend an extra few days in Bosnia to figure out how Otto Bock has bought the right to a monopoly in an advertised free market economy. Something just doesn’t make since, and this German company is making a fortune off of cheap components in a place with 6000 child landmine accidents. I’m Sherlock Holmes and I will be here till I figure it out. Till then Ill dodge the landmines and rabid cats.
Now onto a lighter subject. Croatia is my favorite country. In the couple days I was there, I kept living with the British guys and we camped just outside of Split. We all went whitewater rafting, rock-climbing, spelunking, swimming, kayaking and met some pretty girls from Switzerland. One of the most beautiful places i've ever been and definitely action packed. The British guys headed south in Croatia not wanting to leave the beautiful coastline, and I don’t blame them. I will be in Sarajevo still when they meet back up with me though. It’s really been fun, and now I have to catch up on some work. I’m going to miss the easy going beach lifestyle of Croatia, its even more laid back than the Galapagos. Bosnia is just too riddled with tragedy to really relax. The people are too poor and the infrastructure is still in shambles. I really hope Sarajevo is better off. Either way, I really hope that I learn a lot at the Bosnian prosthetic mission outpost, should be a little eye opening. Pictures on the way. Over and out
So today was the biggest break through in my studies since I was in the Ossur factory in Iceland. The political structure that has erupted out of the post communist Bosnia and Herzegovina is soo absolutely interesting. I went to a British NGO that helps out here to learn about the finances, third party payers and welfare, and I came out with a new idea for a new thesis. The bureaucracy is so corrupt here that the large amounts of children here have to pay the authorities to tap into the health fund and then the German company Otto Bock has bought the right to be the sole provider for prosthesis in this country. The people can’t even go to neighboring Croatia to get better and cheaper ser vice because they can’t leave the country without a visa. A prosthetic leg costs more here than it does in the states and the service they get is garbage. I came to Bosnia to study how the people had adapted to the staggering number of young amputees, but instead all I found was how corrupt the government is. The people in a country that can barely feed everybody actually charges more for healthcare, and it has to ultimately come from your pocket unless you can pay your way through the many branches of the government. I’m going to spend an extra few days in Bosnia to figure out how Otto Bock has bought the right to a monopoly in an advertised free market economy. Something just doesn’t make since, and this German company is making a fortune off of cheap components in a place with 6000 child landmine accidents. I’m Sherlock Holmes and I will be here till I figure it out. Till then Ill dodge the landmines and rabid cats.
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