Nachricht Nummer : 355 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 46 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary on 24 December, 1993 Kopienempfänger : /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN Erstellungsdatum : 31.12.1993 22:44:00 W+1 Zagreb Diary 24 December, 1993 Dobar dan, Back to Pakrac by East Berlin 15 years old Ford Transit, with the back a load of aid for Slavonski Brod and looking at the outside like any Trabi (Trabant) in the former DDR, it looks like falling together any moment, but as long as the driver and owner will be alive the thing keeps on driving. One of the specialities from my friends in the DDR all the time, or other East European parts for that matter, what ever you have keep it rolling and working, cause you never know if you ever will be able to get a new second hand one. The police on the high way immediately stopped us, now wonder, and looked very surprised from DDR driving licence and ID from Greorg, they react a little bit strange on the hammer and sickle at the moment, some allergy from the past, I think. They have to get use to it, is what I am thinking when we see about 25 Kilometer further on a giant convoy, from old German trucks coming from the other side, when I look closer I see that the number plates are Rumanian. I lot's of trucks are loaded with wood, so they are still full, I wonder what their destination is. West Europe is bringing aid to Rumania and Rumania to this countries (I wonder if the second hand clothes which they receive as aid in Rumania and can't and don't want to use are part of this convoy as well, look out I am getting sarcastic). Wait so from here we are now going to collect aid for Somalia, Croatia already brings aid to BiH, and so on and so on. We arrive in Pakrac at the volunteers office house just about at the same moment as a truck from Zadar, which drives over our rose plants (some in or rather this house which wasn't destroyed yet) in order to drive his truck near to our garage, where we can store the 1000 packages from CARE Germany for this side of Pakrac (the other 1000 go directly from Zagreb via the highway with an international truck). Luckily all the volunteers, from which there are still about 20, although we really make a small holiday. have come to help, so in no time the truck is empty and our garage full. Manfred can't wait to find out what is inside this Christmas parcels until he see a luckily child opening it, so he breaks the sticker with the European flag and CARE German on it and shows us for what a child has been waiting for weeks. Toothbrush, toothpaste, multi vitamins, bandage, healthy muesli and more healthy stuff (and a nice letter in German and Serb Croatian (I suppose, otherwise we just have to hope that the two languages are not two different or maybe those 1000 for the other side are in Cyrillic and German (you never know "Deutsche Grundlichkeit")), with on it the contents of the parcel, so you know what you are suppose to get). We are just on the way to Skorpija, to drink a small beer as finish of the work or Burkie pass along with Markus, at the Pedagogical School (in which we slept in the summer) the truck from Women for Peace from the UK has eaten itself, or rather herself, in the mud and can't move an inch. Burkie, who played father Christmas for all the children on this side of Pakrac (with presents we got from Mi Za Mir in Amsterdam (and which arrived yesterday with a convoy)) and still can't remember how much houses he has visit during the whole day (also the amount of Rakija's he had to take as Santa Claus) only remember that the storage place for building material is somewhere near the school, but not in it as he remembered and send the truck into the football field behind the school, which is due to melted snow like a little moor. With the truck who brought the Care presents and an old water pipe from the fire brigade we get the UK truck back out of the mud and can start to unload that one without any pause. Also this one is empty in half a hour, although the guard came to collect every 5 minutes two others from us to taste his rakija, which is good for the atmosphere, but which can lead very unstructured situations if it goes on too long. Just when we were finished Zdenko came to control the work, but couldn't do much different as invited Manfred and his girlfriend, Greorg, Vesna and me for evening food. After that we went at last to Skorpija and after two hours Zdenko popped up to collect us and bring us to his house. We are still waiting for Manfred, who had to make so work calls in Opcina and didn't returned. Zdenko explains that it is the habit from this region that you don't eat the whole day before Christmas at least not until 12 o'clock in the night, only fish is allowed. But when he seas Greorg sad and hungry face he explains that rules can be broken. Like the rule that no uniform is allowed in this region, Zdenko has put on the jacket of it local defenders uniform and his military head. But he shows that he wears his bleu jeans so he is not in uniform. At Zdenko place we found out that he used killed his pig and that the meal will be meat, meat and some more meat, together with home-brew beer, home-made wine and home-burned rakija, from Zdenko and mother. Theirs is luckily for me the fish they should eat before starting with the meat, otherwise I had to survive on bread and pickles, which is still luxe in some parts around here. Poor Vesna hardly can eat at all she has to translate all the time and slowly the discussions are getting some times to a very hot point, I can cold it down by saying that Vesna is on holiday, that it is my girl friend and not a professional translator. Mir from somewhere in Hrvatska, Wam ------------------------------------------------------ "Zagreb Diary" can be found on a lot of different electronic networks, it is copyright free and can be ported to any network or other means of communication you like, but please drop my a line, you can reach by sending a message to wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de . Zagreb Diary is dedicated to Tyche, Pjort and Rik, so that they found out what there father have been doing all that time in Zagreb. Financial support for Grassroot relief work in Croatia or BiH can be send to Kollektief Rampenplan (atn. Lylette, Postbox 780, 6130 AN Sittard, Netherlands, tel:. +31-46-524803 and fax: +31-46-516460 or to Zagrebacka Banka, Zagreb, accountnr.: 2440291594, to Kat, Pieter Jan Herman Fredrik, Brace Domany 6 6fl nr3 (postbox 33), 41000 Zagreb. Please notify me if you send or have send any donations. Old numbers can be found by sending a message's with as subject "FILES" to pakrac.info@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de, to order a file send a message with subject "SEND " to same address. ## CrossPoint v2.93 ##