From Sarajevo, we took a guided tour to the Srebrenica Memorial Cemetery. It’s where many of the 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys killed in the genocide are buried. We’re glad this tour had a designated driver. Some tour guides cannot talk and drive. It was a very sad, but informative trip. You may recall our guide, Arna, invited us to her home the following day.

In the museum across the street from the cemetery was a group of teenagers from a nearby school, and a group that I was pretty sure was Malaysian. When we were seated to watch a video, I confirmed with a Malay man that the group was in fact from Malaysia. He said about half of his tour mates decided to stay in Sarajevo instead of taking the 2.5-hour journey. They really missed out on a great learning opportunity. The video was pure horror, and made Kenric and me want to be better human beings.

Visiting a Farm Run By a Returnee Family

On our way back, we stopped by a farm in the village of Konjević Polje run by a war returnee family. Arna introduced us to a boy of about seven. His sister, maybe eleven, came out to greet us. Arna handed the bread she brought for them and our picnic leftovers to the girl. Their parents had gone to gather wood; a dangerous task as there are still many landmines in the forests. The kids showed us their young calf and their small herd of sheep. The boy tried looking for his cat, his favorite animal, to show us.

I Dug Out a New Bag of Cat Treats

The girl checked on the cows’ dinner – squash and potatoes boiling over fire. The boy kept looking for his cat. After taking a few more pictures while Arna told the girl to relay messages to her parents, we left. Back at the car, I dug out a new bag of cat treats. Kenric went back to deliver the treats. He said when the boy realized those were cats treats, he started smiling and said, “Thank you!”