Sarajevo Student Joins EVDS Nedzad Ajanovic I was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina. There, neighbours of different religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds lived side-by-side in harmony for more than 500 years. I lived in that European jewel until 1985, a year after my fellow citizens and the entire world sang the famous Olympic tune: "Good Bye Sarajevo, See You in Calgary". My family moved to New Delhi, India, where my father took a position in a trading company. There, I enrolled at the American Embassy School. I found India to be a fascinating place. However, I shy away from describing it because everyone experiences it differently. I graduated and after leaving India, my parents returned to Sarajevo, where they have witnessed the Serb Nationalist genocide of the Bosnian people for the last four years. In March of 1992, the Serbian tanks and mortars surrounded the city and indiscriminately started shelling hospitals, schools and universities, cultural and religious monuments, marketplaces and even graveyards. Not even children or the elderly were safe from the snipers' scopes. The massacre of innocent civilians was not enough for Serb Nationalists; they even prohibited basic utilities such as water, electricity and gas from reaching the city in order to make the lives for those still living more miserable. Humanitarian food and medicine from international donors were constantly turned back at the Serb checkpoints on the roads to the city. Having lived in this "concentration camp" of about 400,000 people, my parents and other Sarajevans have experienced things which a normal person would not wish upon their worst enemies. Our apartment was shelled twice. Walking back home, one evening, my parents were fifty meters from the explosion in which shrapnel took the lives of two people and wounded ten others. Another time, my father was wounded in the head by a sniper bullet. Even though my parent's experiences seem so horrible, in comparison to other Sarajevans, they feel extremely lucky to still be alive. In the last couple of months, the situation in Sarajevo has improved and my parents seem more optimistic about the prospects for peace. I escaped the realities of war, six months before it began, by attending Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Commonly known as Mudville (seems like it rained there every day), this small rural town is known for two things. It is famous because the first zipper was invented there in 1800s and it is the birthplace of Sharon Stone. At Allegheny, I majored in environmental studies last May. I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of EVDS's environmental science programme. I am happy to be in Calgary too, because it reminds me of Sarajevo. The mountains are close and a river flows through the city. The same is true in Sarajevo. I feel it is a home away from home.

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