24 September ’04, Friday. The Old Fortified City of Dubrovnik was a shelter for the citizens during the war. This war started without warning on Monday, September 30th 1991. There were 2 airplanes that fired rockets at the communication towers and destroyed them. From that time on there was a complete blockade keeping all the food, water, electricity and all communications from the outside world. The city was under attack from air, sea, and land. During the aggression 52 people were killed, 202 were wounded in Dubrovnik, and 15,000 were displaced from their homes. 70 percent of the buildings in the old city received some damage. As we have traveled down the coast of Croatia, we have seen more and more signs of the fighting. Homes, cars, and businesses that were damaged or set a blaze are still empty…weeds growing…unsafe to enter in some cases because of the possibility of land mines still there. We have a large hotel within 100 yards of our campground that still stands empty and shattered. Too many to count small arm pock marks, and 3 or more heavy equipment (tank type) holes, and the building was set a blaze as well. This is only one, there are many. Louise had her hair cut this morning, and directly across the street was, what was, a beautiful two story home with a wonderful landscaped yard….no roof, no windows, pock marks all around the building, some fire damage, yard…gone…tall weeds with the exception of a large group of yellow flowers by, what was the front entrance. Imagine just what was and still is going on in the minds of those that were here then….it has to be tough, although, we have only seen what appears to be a society that is making the best of what was the worst. There is no outward crying, but outward smiles and a warm greeting. Yesterday as we were sitting waiting for the bus, a young man came up and sat down beside us. Really nothing unusual about this. I happened to look over at him as he sat next to Louise, and I noticed that he was paying particular attention to what we were saying, and you could tell he could understand it as well. So I asked him a question about his school, which he answered in broken English. It turns out, he is 9 and goes by bus into the city for his classes, and then returns as well by city transportation. Now, this may not be too unusual, but when you have a city like Dubrovnik, where there are three to four times more tourists than those that live there, I would have thought that he may have been more timid. Not the case….I wont get into a lot of detail, but a nice kid…. Tomorrow…Bosnia-Hercegovina
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