We Do Adventure

Back in January I wrote a post about the behind the scenes preparations for the music courses we are now teaching in Jajce. In the video I said I hoped that at some point we'd be able to post a video showing the result of this teaching. This is that point. After a couple of months of teaching individual music lessons we decided it was time to get all our students into a rehearsal to put together what they have been learning. There were nerves, and there were some mistakes, but there were a lot of very encouraging performances too. Judging by the cell phone videos that appeared on Facebook on Thursday night they are proud of their progress; we are too and this is our video record of their first rehearsal.

Just less than two years since we arrived in Mostar we have worked our last evening at Klub Novi Most. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. The summer's been a busy time – perhaps evidence by the very sporadic blog posting! - so although we've known for a while that we'll be moving on to a new project with Novi Most in the autumn we've not had the down-time to let leaving really sink in. There were a few tears tonight as me, Rowan and Budo (all pictured on the leaving cake on the left!) were given a very fitting send off by the young people and our other team members in Klub. Two years have flown by or at least it feels like that tonight. I might have said different if you'd asked me in the middle of Mostar's long, rainy winter! We've seen a lot and been part of a lot. Hopefully we've help a bit along the way. Time will tell. A couple of years from now perhaps we'll be able to look back with greater perspective and see how our positive c...

Almost a fortnight ago I blogged about a particularly poignant songwriting commission I'd received. Two weeks later that song – No Time To Say Goodbye - is written, recorded and, with the obligatory music video, now ready to tell its story wherever the world wide web may take it. Life is, as you're doubtless aware, not quite so simple as those last two sentences imply. That I have produced a recording and video featuring both of the young people it was written for is a testimony to the the shifting sands of bureaucratic time frames, the importance of sometimes just acting on impulse and of what can be achieved if you are prepared to sacrifice a little sleep. Both Sting and Craig David have songs called 'Seven Days'; this song was turned around in four. It was early evening on a Monday when I picked up my freshly restrung Telecaster and started strumming out some chords. Suddenly I hit something that I knew would be the basis of this song. Very quickly the genesis of a m...

Brits in Bosnia commented on a recent post that a picture of some zeljanica would provoke some jealousy in the now ex-expat blogger formerly known as Fraught Mummy *. When this healthy chunk of the aforementioned delicacy arrived as a gift for someone who attends Klub Novi Most I had to grab the opportunity to snatch a photo. One of the older young people had decided to volunteer to resurrect the 'garden' at the front of the Klub building. What you see to the right of the photo are the first green shoots of new grass springing up where once there was nothing but hard baked earth. A neighbour had spotted him at work and asked for some assistance in her garden. The home-baked goodness you see is the reward for his generosity. *So Bosnia is down one English blogger but if you're interested in how the UK looks after getting a little Balkan perspective in your life then I sure there'll be some good tales of readjustment at www.pantswithnames.com .

This is not a picture of me executing some fine overhang-conquering free climb. I’m in the picture below, staring up into a dark dead-end. But I was climbing and, as my fingers, hands and arms testify as I type, this evening was an upper-body workout unlike any I’ve had in a while. A week or so back – which could mean anything up to a month ago! – a co-worker mentioned they had discovered a neighbour was involved in a new indoor climbing venture in Mostar. One thing led to another and a few of us went ago to check the venue out and ask about bring a group of young people along from Klub Novi Most. This seemed like the first request of its kind as the owners had to go away a work out what price they’d charge for a one-off group visit. Tonight, somewhere on the campus of Univerziteta Džemal Bijedić in Mostar, a dozen young people and youth leaders got to play at being monkeys! It was all good, relaxed fun, with no accidents or injuries. But it was the sort of fun that it sadly outlawed t...

I aware I don’t write too much about the work we’re involved in and so today’s post will do something to redress that balance – or imbalance, if you prefer! We are team leaders for Novi Most International, a Christian charitable organisation providing youth work in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rowan and I are only too aware that when you mention youth work many people can’t see past labelling you as a teenager who never grew up; someone who prefers playing and hanging out to growing up and taking on the real world. Everybody’s entitled to an opinion but there’s a lot to be said for informal education, which is what good youth work will provide. Whether you take a snapshot of education in the UK or in BiH you won’t have to look hard to see that the formal education process only work for so many people. For others it just does do it for them. That’s why we hear of so many rules or coercions, threats or incentives deployed in the classroom. Some would tell you that part of the problem ...

You're watching our opening song from the concert at Klub Novi Most on Thursday night. The video of the rest of our set will leak online during the course of this week. If you want to sing along then here are the words - enjoy! this is better than i thought it could be your love’s amazing you’ve forgiven me this is something that i’ve never known life just gets better i know that i’ve come home the bar is higher than i thought it could be but then you’ve promised trust and you’ll succeed there may be struggles but the victory’s won you know the ending i know that i’ve come home how could i ever thank you what could i give back to you nothing i have comes close to everything you’ve done what can i say of all you’ve given to me a life that’s priceless yet you give it for free once just dream but now i call it my own i’m in the family i know that i’ve come home how could i ever thank you what could i give back to you nothing i have comes close to everything you’ve done what could i gi...

We’ve rocked too hard tonight for me to write. The concert at Klub Novi Most was a success. There are details I should give, but they’re not going to get given now. But the evening achieved everything we set out to. Fortunately the weather was having a cool day as the better part of sixty people squeezed into Klub to see everyone perform. For people who know the music I’ve been involved in before you might be able to piece together something of what it sounded like from the set list – although several have been reinvented in a hard-rock style! - Everything You’ve Done - Nothing Without You - Here Alone - This Is Your Song - So Here I Am - Top Of The World