Monday, May 03, 2010
Thank You!
Dear Muris,
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and making the effort to complete this interview. Fourth time is the charm! And I suppose the offer of free food helped too, haha. But really, thank you.
Although I can't say that I was really surprised by much from your interview, hearing your stories and the story of your family in your voice was very powerful. Stories mean so much to me - they are the only piece of heritage that I feel I have - I grew up on my father's stories about the people of my hometown. Hearing your story of coming to America reminded me of the importance of telling stories and of what America seems to be to so much of the rest of the world.
Thanks again,
Mari
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and making the effort to complete this interview. Fourth time is the charm! And I suppose the offer of free food helped too, haha. But really, thank you.
Although I can't say that I was really surprised by much from your interview, hearing your stories and the story of your family in your voice was very powerful. Stories mean so much to me - they are the only piece of heritage that I feel I have - I grew up on my father's stories about the people of my hometown. Hearing your story of coming to America reminded me of the importance of telling stories and of what America seems to be to so much of the rest of the world.
Thanks again,
Mari
Domino's on N. Clark
This is the breakdown of the ethnicities of Domino's.
This is where I work and where I met Muris.
No Man's Land
This Oscar winning Bosnian film is a good introduction to the war and the tension in the aftermath.
Former Yugoslavia
This image, courtesy of Yale University, shows the current territory lines as well as sites of genocide and conflict.
My Thoughts on the Interview
If you’re craving pizza one evening, I recommend that you order up at Domino’s on 5912 N. Clark in Chicago, IL. If you order online and utilize the pizza tracker, once your pizza is out the door you will be able to see who is delivering it. There is an 82.4% chance that your delivery expert is an immigrant. If you call in and order, there is about a 30% chance that you will speak with a Bosnian immigrant. Or, you might get me. I am Mari Lynn Thompson, student at Loyola University Chicago and native Kentuckian. When I first moved to Chicago for school, I resisted applying at Domino’s. I had worked at Domino’s throughout my senior year of high school and was getting a college education so that I would not have to continue to work there. Had I realized the diversity at the local Domino’s, I probably would have gone in much sooner. It was the first thing I noticed when I walked in with my application. What you need to understand is that I love my job here in Chicago. I could not care less about making pizza, but the people I work with are amazing. The Domino’s I worked at in Kentucky was 100% white. I attended an all girl’s Catholic high school. The most diversity in the school was my Indian friend Rima. I had never spoken to a Muslim before I came to Chicago. The diversity at Loyola and at the N. Clark Domino’s astounded me and filled me with joy.
As a writer, I am rather obsessed with people’s stories. I want to know where they’ve been and who they’ve known and what has influenced them. Here, finally, was something completely new. Everyone was different from me. It did not take long for my friends to start telling me to shut up about my job. To understand this obsession, you must understand my heritage. I am about as Kentucky as it gets. My parents do not know when our ancestors came across the pond or even where they were from, but according to my grandparents’ surnames they were Welsh and Scottish. That is it. I find this extremely boring. Further, Welsh and Scottish families that were in Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century have probably been there since Daniel Boon came through the Appalachian Mountains. I have never been satisfied with this and it has greatly contributed to my dissatisfaction with my identity.
Enter Muris Selak, a young Bosnian immigrant and my co-worker at the N. Clark Domino’s. He is a student of International Business and Accounting at DePaul University, and is paying his own way through college. This is one of the first things that we bonded over. We are both paying for college ourselves and both of our parents have a limited education. Neither of his parents went through high school. My dad only graduated the sixth grade and it took my mother twenty years to go back and get a college degree. Muris and I are also both very driven. Neither of us wants to work at Domino’s for the rest of our lives. That is about where our similarities end. Our life experiences have been very different. Whereas I grew up in the South, he grew up thousands of miles away in Bosnia. Whereas I consider what heritage I think I have to be boring, he embraces and celebrates his despite being thousands of miles away. The reason for the distance is the economic condition of the country following the Bosnian War. According to the CIA Factbook, employment in 2008 was 40%. And the United States is concerned when it is 10%! His parents left not because of the violence and trauma of the war, but to seek a better life in the United States economically. The violence has affected him though. When Muris was just two years old, his country became embroiled in an ethnic conflict – Serbia, under Slobadon Milosevic, began a genocide of the Bosniaks. He touches on this in his interview – “We lost my uncle and cousin to the war”. His family also lost their home. They had to flee from his home to Gorazde where they “hid out” for the remainder of the war.
Having experienced this, it is no wonder that the conflict is still alive in him. You can tell from his behavior at work and the language in the interview. He states that his home in Bosnia is under “Serbian territory,” not that it is in Serbia and Montenegro. He does not really associate with the Serbians who work at Domino’s. Because he does not know them, he can have nothing against them. We did not go into any detail during the interview, but the atrocities committed during the war include the burning of homes filled with people and mass rape as a tool of terror. Previous to this, my only knowledge of the Bosnian War came from the movie “Behind Enemy Lines”. This movie provides the typical American viewing experience, focusing not on the citizens of the country, but the American hero. However, it does provide some information as well as images of the country at war. For a truer picture of the country at the end of the war, and a true representation of the tension that remains – and that one can sense in Muris – one should see the 2001 Oscar winning film for best foreign film, “No Man’s Land.” It is available in its entirety on YouTube. After learning I had seen the film, he asked what I thought of the ending. I do not want to spoil it for the reader, but we both agreed that it could not have ended any other way. As Muris said, in war there are no winners.
To me, Muris is confident in his identity, although he laughed when I mentioned this. He is a proud Bosnian and is trying to get citizenship in the United States. He has applied three times and each time the government offices have lost the paperwork. From my perspective, he will always love and celebrate Bosnia, but he is making a life for himself in the United States. He holds on to his culture through the celebration of his Muslim faith at a Bosnian mosque and various celebrations and festivals throughout the year. He plays football – soccer to any Americans – on Foster Beach with his friends, many of whom are Bosnian. And he listens to Bosnian music. His favorite band is Bijelo Dugme, and of their songs, “Ako Ima Boga” is his favorite. The title translates to “If There’s a God”. At first I thought this might have something to do with his feelings about Bosnia and everything that happened. It does not. It is his favorite because it is a great break-up song.
I choose to interview Muris over the other immigrants I work with because we are able to talk. We have great discussions about politics, the economy, and religion. We are both willing to admit that we do not know much about any of those. And we are friends. In interviewing him, I was able to satisfy some of my curiosity about the people I work with – their history and influences. I could live vicariously through their unique heritage, and in doing begin to build my own identity through my life experiences. I may not come from a unique heritage, but my experiences in life are just as important and influential in forming my identity.
As a writer, I am rather obsessed with people’s stories. I want to know where they’ve been and who they’ve known and what has influenced them. Here, finally, was something completely new. Everyone was different from me. It did not take long for my friends to start telling me to shut up about my job. To understand this obsession, you must understand my heritage. I am about as Kentucky as it gets. My parents do not know when our ancestors came across the pond or even where they were from, but according to my grandparents’ surnames they were Welsh and Scottish. That is it. I find this extremely boring. Further, Welsh and Scottish families that were in Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century have probably been there since Daniel Boon came through the Appalachian Mountains. I have never been satisfied with this and it has greatly contributed to my dissatisfaction with my identity.
Enter Muris Selak, a young Bosnian immigrant and my co-worker at the N. Clark Domino’s. He is a student of International Business and Accounting at DePaul University, and is paying his own way through college. This is one of the first things that we bonded over. We are both paying for college ourselves and both of our parents have a limited education. Neither of his parents went through high school. My dad only graduated the sixth grade and it took my mother twenty years to go back and get a college degree. Muris and I are also both very driven. Neither of us wants to work at Domino’s for the rest of our lives. That is about where our similarities end. Our life experiences have been very different. Whereas I grew up in the South, he grew up thousands of miles away in Bosnia. Whereas I consider what heritage I think I have to be boring, he embraces and celebrates his despite being thousands of miles away. The reason for the distance is the economic condition of the country following the Bosnian War. According to the CIA Factbook, employment in 2008 was 40%. And the United States is concerned when it is 10%! His parents left not because of the violence and trauma of the war, but to seek a better life in the United States economically. The violence has affected him though. When Muris was just two years old, his country became embroiled in an ethnic conflict – Serbia, under Slobadon Milosevic, began a genocide of the Bosniaks. He touches on this in his interview – “We lost my uncle and cousin to the war”. His family also lost their home. They had to flee from his home to Gorazde where they “hid out” for the remainder of the war.
Having experienced this, it is no wonder that the conflict is still alive in him. You can tell from his behavior at work and the language in the interview. He states that his home in Bosnia is under “Serbian territory,” not that it is in Serbia and Montenegro. He does not really associate with the Serbians who work at Domino’s. Because he does not know them, he can have nothing against them. We did not go into any detail during the interview, but the atrocities committed during the war include the burning of homes filled with people and mass rape as a tool of terror. Previous to this, my only knowledge of the Bosnian War came from the movie “Behind Enemy Lines”. This movie provides the typical American viewing experience, focusing not on the citizens of the country, but the American hero. However, it does provide some information as well as images of the country at war. For a truer picture of the country at the end of the war, and a true representation of the tension that remains – and that one can sense in Muris – one should see the 2001 Oscar winning film for best foreign film, “No Man’s Land.” It is available in its entirety on YouTube. After learning I had seen the film, he asked what I thought of the ending. I do not want to spoil it for the reader, but we both agreed that it could not have ended any other way. As Muris said, in war there are no winners.
To me, Muris is confident in his identity, although he laughed when I mentioned this. He is a proud Bosnian and is trying to get citizenship in the United States. He has applied three times and each time the government offices have lost the paperwork. From my perspective, he will always love and celebrate Bosnia, but he is making a life for himself in the United States. He holds on to his culture through the celebration of his Muslim faith at a Bosnian mosque and various celebrations and festivals throughout the year. He plays football – soccer to any Americans – on Foster Beach with his friends, many of whom are Bosnian. And he listens to Bosnian music. His favorite band is Bijelo Dugme, and of their songs, “Ako Ima Boga” is his favorite. The title translates to “If There’s a God”. At first I thought this might have something to do with his feelings about Bosnia and everything that happened. It does not. It is his favorite because it is a great break-up song.
I choose to interview Muris over the other immigrants I work with because we are able to talk. We have great discussions about politics, the economy, and religion. We are both willing to admit that we do not know much about any of those. And we are friends. In interviewing him, I was able to satisfy some of my curiosity about the people I work with – their history and influences. I could live vicariously through their unique heritage, and in doing begin to build my own identity through my life experiences. I may not come from a unique heritage, but my experiences in life are just as important and influential in forming my identity.
Bosnian Music
Music by his favorite band, Bijelo Dugme:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bijelo+dugme+ako+ima+boga&aq=0
This is Ako Ima Boga, which translates to "If There Were a God". Apparently it's a good break-up song. The translated lyrics can be found here:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/ako-ima-boga-if-theres-god.html.
Another is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sELOjP-yLyM
It translates to "You Were a Rose". Lyrics available here:
http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/serbian-croatian-bosnian/57010-ruzica-si-bila-bijelo-dugme.html
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bijelo+dugme+ako+ima+boga&aq=0
This is Ako Ima Boga, which translates to "If There Were a God". Apparently it's a good break-up song. The translated lyrics can be found here:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/ako-ima-boga-if-theres-god.html.
Another is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sELOjP-yLyM
It translates to "You Were a Rose". Lyrics available here:
http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/serbian-croatian-bosnian/57010-ruzica-si-bila-bijelo-dugme.html
Transcript of Interview
ME: Okay, what’s your favorite memory of Bosnia?
MS: My favorite memory was before coming here, the day we were leaving ‘cuz my whole family was together. It was back at my aunt’s house, so we were all – the whole family was there to say goodbye to us. They were in their cars and all that, we were in a car and I remember waving goodbye to everybody and that’s my favorite memory of the country ‘cuz it was the last time I saw my family for about ten years – since I went back – and I still haven’t seen everybody that was there that day so… that’s my favorite memory.
ME: Um, how much of your family stayed there?
MS: Uh, basically everybody, except for a few uncles and aunts and us, basically and us, that’s all.
ME: How did you all manage to come here? Why were you the ones that got to come?
MS: We got to come cuz my aunt was here for like 10 years before, she came in like 1990. So she gave us a visa and got us the papers, so that’s why we were able to come here.
ME: So are you considered immigrant or refugee?
MS: Um, I’m not really sure about that. I don’t know.
ME: Okay. Why is Bosnia the one place you’d stay?
MS: Cuz you’re just really comfortable over there, at least for me, cuz that’s your own people, that’s your own culture, and you can relate to everyone there. Like, here is much different, you look at people differently for some reason. And…that’s just how it is.
ME: So, coming to the US you didn’t know any English? At all?
MS: No.
ME: Was that the most difficult part?
MS: That was the most difficult part. Yeah, cuz I used to stay up late at night just trying to learn how to read and write and all that. And even when you learn, you still have your accent, so you get teased for your accent and then that makes you want to work harder to lose the accent so, that was the most difficult part – the most difficult transition I had to make.
ME: How long did it take you to really grasp the language?
MS: The language? I’m still learning it right now, there’s a lot of – I think I’m still learning, not a lot but grammatically and all that – I’m still learning how to read and to write and all that. I’m still not that great but…Just the language I think I picked up around five years. To lose altogether, you know my accent and everything, to speak properly. But still I have to work on my writing, and the way I set up my writing style and all that.
ME: So, you can still speak and write Bosnian?
MS: Yeah.
ME: Is that because of your family?
MS: Yeah – cuz like the two main parts here were at home and at school. So at school I learn English and all that and at home I speak Bosnian.
ME: What was your biggest expectation for the US?
MS: Just a lot of stuff you hear from people, from neighbors and people, the American dream and all that you know. A lot of job opportunities, it’s a big country, which is really true, it’s really advanced.
ME: What’s the American dream to them?
MS: Just to be well-off, you know?
ME: To prosper?
MS: To prosper. To be well-off, better than what they were back there. To have a home and all that, you know, to be financially secure the rest of their life.
ME: Is it just about the financial security or is it about the violence too?
MS: I mean, I think like, if you’re referring to the war, the people that left around that time, then yeah. But, later on after that I think just for the financial reasons cuz it was really peaceful before that.
ME: What was the biggest disappointment?
MS: Uh, I think the biggest disappointment is that you find out it isn’t really that different. Other than, there’s still like just this big – I think you find that out once you become more mature and older, when you find out that there’s a big gap between the poor and the rich. And you know I see a lot of homeless people here, you know, so that’s the biggest disappointment you see that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. And that’s yeah, that’s basically…
ME: Um, what’s the first thing you remember, like, getting off the plane?
MS: The first thing I remember is that you just see a lot off diversity, cuz that’s the first time I’ve seen almost every other ethnic group. Like, the first time I’ve seen an African American, first time I’ve seen an Asian American, first time I’ve seen a Latin American, first time I’ve seen… so you know that’s the big thing I remember. And also another thing I remember is just, uh, taking a tour around Chicago and seeing the big buildings and the infrastructure cuz I’ve never seen anything like that before. Like our highest building is maybe twenty stories tall so that’s what I remember, but, yeah.
ME: How successful do you think the immigration process was? Cuz I know that you get like three months of rent and three months of support and then you’re basically off on your own.
MS: Yeah, that’s true, but I think fortunately for us we had a family that was living here so we lived with them and plus they also set you up with language classes so like my parents went to a language class, I don’t know how successful that was – haha – but I think that helped them out. Uh, the reason we got jobs was through family connections, but I think others would have a more difficult time. If they were being helped by the government and just these programs that are meant to help immigrants.
ME: So, you’ve obviously got family here – birds are chirping very loudly – um, so I guess, how – really random, how – you’re Muslim right? So, do you attend services regularly?
MS: Yeah
ME: can you just tell me about that? I don’t really know anything about that.
MS: It’s basically the same thing as attending church. See, for me I go to a Bosnian mosque, you just see Bosnian people that are Muslim, or you can go to another mosque with others, that’s more diverse here. But me, I go, I just basically stick to what I’m used to.
Me: Do Bosnian women wear the veil?
MS: No, that’s just a matter of choice. A lot of older women wear it, but you don’t really see a lot of young girls or young women wearing that cuz that’s a matter of choice. We don’t really…
ME: How many young Bosniaks are there in your community, in Chicago?
MS: I would say a lot…
ME: Is it mostly young people?
MS: What do you mean?
ME: Is it mostly your age, teenagers, or is it the parents and aunts and uncles? Is it a pretty even distribution?
MS: Yeah, it’s pretty even. It’s a pretty big community.
ME: How active is that community, like in getting together?
MS: Uh, actually, it’s pretty active. We have, once a year there’s Ramaddan so the community we all go to the mosque, we have a yearly picnic, we also have other indoor soccer events and outdoor events. You have big dinner parties or big concerts as they call it, so wherever you’re from they celebrate that region, you know, you buy tickets and stuff and you can meet people who were your neighbors that you haven’t seen since you left. They could be attending the same place, so you know.
ME: We’re at nine and a half minutes so we have about three to go, so is there anything you’d like to say about Bosnia, about coming to America?
MS: Uhm, not really. You know…haha.
ME: So you’re family came more for economic reasons.
MS: Yeah.
ME: So, if you don’t mind me getting this personal –
MS: Yeah
ME: How did the war affect you personally and your family?
MS: We lost – I lost my uncle and my cousin to the war and we also, uh, cuz we used to live in Cajnice which is, right now it’s under, uh, it’s under Serbian territory but we used to live in that area but our house got burned down so we had to run to Gorazde which is nearby, it’s another province and we hid out there for the remainder of the war. And it still takes effect to this day, you know, cuz you still have – it’s still really hard to heal and people want to talk – people bring back, people bring it back up, especially if you have meetings between these two people, or those groups like at soccer games a lot of fights break out cuz there is still frustration and the anger boils over…yeah, so that’s what happens. Basically, it still hits home you know, you can’t really forget anything even though you can say you hope something happens but nothing can really be the same as it was. Nothing’s really going to be better or like a lot of older people like to say oh, it used to be better, you know, back in the old days when we could just cross without being stopped but now if you pass between Bosnian territory and srpska republika you have to show your identification and all that but before when it was Yugoslavia just as a whole but a lot of older people bring that up that it was so better. But it’s not going to be the same, not really, you can’t really take back what happened.
ME: Another kind of personal question – I know Boban and Roki, they’re both Serbian, right?
MS: Yeah
ME: So, is it difficult to work with them? Or does it not…?
MS: Um, yeah, I try to really avoid it if, if…I don’t really talk to them that much, if they say something… cuz they don’t really bring any of that up so I don’t have anything against them. But that’s basically, yeah, that’s basically that.
ME: Okay, thank you.
MS: No problem. Those birds were really annoying.
ME: I completely agree. Haha.
MS: My favorite memory was before coming here, the day we were leaving ‘cuz my whole family was together. It was back at my aunt’s house, so we were all – the whole family was there to say goodbye to us. They were in their cars and all that, we were in a car and I remember waving goodbye to everybody and that’s my favorite memory of the country ‘cuz it was the last time I saw my family for about ten years – since I went back – and I still haven’t seen everybody that was there that day so… that’s my favorite memory.
ME: Um, how much of your family stayed there?
MS: Uh, basically everybody, except for a few uncles and aunts and us, basically and us, that’s all.
ME: How did you all manage to come here? Why were you the ones that got to come?
MS: We got to come cuz my aunt was here for like 10 years before, she came in like 1990. So she gave us a visa and got us the papers, so that’s why we were able to come here.
ME: So are you considered immigrant or refugee?
MS: Um, I’m not really sure about that. I don’t know.
ME: Okay. Why is Bosnia the one place you’d stay?
MS: Cuz you’re just really comfortable over there, at least for me, cuz that’s your own people, that’s your own culture, and you can relate to everyone there. Like, here is much different, you look at people differently for some reason. And…that’s just how it is.
ME: So, coming to the US you didn’t know any English? At all?
MS: No.
ME: Was that the most difficult part?
MS: That was the most difficult part. Yeah, cuz I used to stay up late at night just trying to learn how to read and write and all that. And even when you learn, you still have your accent, so you get teased for your accent and then that makes you want to work harder to lose the accent so, that was the most difficult part – the most difficult transition I had to make.
ME: How long did it take you to really grasp the language?
MS: The language? I’m still learning it right now, there’s a lot of – I think I’m still learning, not a lot but grammatically and all that – I’m still learning how to read and to write and all that. I’m still not that great but…Just the language I think I picked up around five years. To lose altogether, you know my accent and everything, to speak properly. But still I have to work on my writing, and the way I set up my writing style and all that.
ME: So, you can still speak and write Bosnian?
MS: Yeah.
ME: Is that because of your family?
MS: Yeah – cuz like the two main parts here were at home and at school. So at school I learn English and all that and at home I speak Bosnian.
ME: What was your biggest expectation for the US?
MS: Just a lot of stuff you hear from people, from neighbors and people, the American dream and all that you know. A lot of job opportunities, it’s a big country, which is really true, it’s really advanced.
ME: What’s the American dream to them?
MS: Just to be well-off, you know?
ME: To prosper?
MS: To prosper. To be well-off, better than what they were back there. To have a home and all that, you know, to be financially secure the rest of their life.
ME: Is it just about the financial security or is it about the violence too?
MS: I mean, I think like, if you’re referring to the war, the people that left around that time, then yeah. But, later on after that I think just for the financial reasons cuz it was really peaceful before that.
ME: What was the biggest disappointment?
MS: Uh, I think the biggest disappointment is that you find out it isn’t really that different. Other than, there’s still like just this big – I think you find that out once you become more mature and older, when you find out that there’s a big gap between the poor and the rich. And you know I see a lot of homeless people here, you know, so that’s the biggest disappointment you see that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. And that’s yeah, that’s basically…
ME: Um, what’s the first thing you remember, like, getting off the plane?
MS: The first thing I remember is that you just see a lot off diversity, cuz that’s the first time I’ve seen almost every other ethnic group. Like, the first time I’ve seen an African American, first time I’ve seen an Asian American, first time I’ve seen a Latin American, first time I’ve seen… so you know that’s the big thing I remember. And also another thing I remember is just, uh, taking a tour around Chicago and seeing the big buildings and the infrastructure cuz I’ve never seen anything like that before. Like our highest building is maybe twenty stories tall so that’s what I remember, but, yeah.
ME: How successful do you think the immigration process was? Cuz I know that you get like three months of rent and three months of support and then you’re basically off on your own.
MS: Yeah, that’s true, but I think fortunately for us we had a family that was living here so we lived with them and plus they also set you up with language classes so like my parents went to a language class, I don’t know how successful that was – haha – but I think that helped them out. Uh, the reason we got jobs was through family connections, but I think others would have a more difficult time. If they were being helped by the government and just these programs that are meant to help immigrants.
ME: So, you’ve obviously got family here – birds are chirping very loudly – um, so I guess, how – really random, how – you’re Muslim right? So, do you attend services regularly?
MS: Yeah
ME: can you just tell me about that? I don’t really know anything about that.
MS: It’s basically the same thing as attending church. See, for me I go to a Bosnian mosque, you just see Bosnian people that are Muslim, or you can go to another mosque with others, that’s more diverse here. But me, I go, I just basically stick to what I’m used to.
Me: Do Bosnian women wear the veil?
MS: No, that’s just a matter of choice. A lot of older women wear it, but you don’t really see a lot of young girls or young women wearing that cuz that’s a matter of choice. We don’t really…
ME: How many young Bosniaks are there in your community, in Chicago?
MS: I would say a lot…
ME: Is it mostly young people?
MS: What do you mean?
ME: Is it mostly your age, teenagers, or is it the parents and aunts and uncles? Is it a pretty even distribution?
MS: Yeah, it’s pretty even. It’s a pretty big community.
ME: How active is that community, like in getting together?
MS: Uh, actually, it’s pretty active. We have, once a year there’s Ramaddan so the community we all go to the mosque, we have a yearly picnic, we also have other indoor soccer events and outdoor events. You have big dinner parties or big concerts as they call it, so wherever you’re from they celebrate that region, you know, you buy tickets and stuff and you can meet people who were your neighbors that you haven’t seen since you left. They could be attending the same place, so you know.
ME: We’re at nine and a half minutes so we have about three to go, so is there anything you’d like to say about Bosnia, about coming to America?
MS: Uhm, not really. You know…haha.
ME: So you’re family came more for economic reasons.
MS: Yeah.
ME: So, if you don’t mind me getting this personal –
MS: Yeah
ME: How did the war affect you personally and your family?
MS: We lost – I lost my uncle and my cousin to the war and we also, uh, cuz we used to live in Cajnice which is, right now it’s under, uh, it’s under Serbian territory but we used to live in that area but our house got burned down so we had to run to Gorazde which is nearby, it’s another province and we hid out there for the remainder of the war. And it still takes effect to this day, you know, cuz you still have – it’s still really hard to heal and people want to talk – people bring back, people bring it back up, especially if you have meetings between these two people, or those groups like at soccer games a lot of fights break out cuz there is still frustration and the anger boils over…yeah, so that’s what happens. Basically, it still hits home you know, you can’t really forget anything even though you can say you hope something happens but nothing can really be the same as it was. Nothing’s really going to be better or like a lot of older people like to say oh, it used to be better, you know, back in the old days when we could just cross without being stopped but now if you pass between Bosnian territory and srpska republika you have to show your identification and all that but before when it was Yugoslavia just as a whole but a lot of older people bring that up that it was so better. But it’s not going to be the same, not really, you can’t really take back what happened.
ME: Another kind of personal question – I know Boban and Roki, they’re both Serbian, right?
MS: Yeah
ME: So, is it difficult to work with them? Or does it not…?
MS: Um, yeah, I try to really avoid it if, if…I don’t really talk to them that much, if they say something… cuz they don’t really bring any of that up so I don’t have anything against them. But that’s basically, yeah, that’s basically that.
ME: Okay, thank you.
MS: No problem. Those birds were really annoying.
ME: I completely agree. Haha.
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