First Week in Srebrenica

Our workshops in the Srebrenica area began on the 7th and 8th of October. The plan from now until December is to do four music workshops each week. On Wednesdays we will visit the kindergarten (near the Srebrenica town centre) and then a school in the nearby village of Potočari. In the afternoon we will help with the music section for the Srebrenica Children's Theatre's forthcoming production of 'Beauty and the Beast'. On Thursdays we will travel to a school in the somewhat remote village of Skelani.

In all workshops we will be working with our friend, percussionist Toni Pešikan, and in Potočari and Skelani we will be joined by Nemanja Stjepanović and Miroslav Vasić who will support our activities and help with translation.

Here is a report of the first week's activities from Tory Tevis of Musicians without Borders...

"The activities of the Music Bus for this fall are just kicking off as the schedule and rhythm of the weekly workshops is established. This was the first week that all the planned workshops were able to take place. The workshop team includes Sarajevo drummer, Tony Pesikan; former students from the University of Edinburgh, Sarah Ridgeon, Hannah Linklater and Lewis Forbes; and Srebrenica youth, Nemanja Đukanović and Miroslav Vasić. The team is still figuring out the best ways to work and divide themselves, but for this week they all attended the majority of the workshops. The funding for these workshops is provided by The Edward Starr Charitable Trust of the United Kingdom.

The first workshop was scheduled to take place at noon on Wednesday the 7th at the Srebrenica Kindergarten. Unfortunately, there was some confusion about this plan and the workshop had to be rescheduled for the following day.

The next workshop was at 13:00 at the Potočari Primary School. This went very well and even more children participated than expected – 23 were in attendance, plus the 6 facilitators. After some warm-up games, the basic activities of the workshop (and the workshops the following day) were based around creating characteristics, sounds and movements for an imaginary creature called a „kibungu.“ The children really enjoyed the opportunity to be creative, use percussion instruments which the team had brought along, and to do some acting as small groups created their own kibungu. To end the workshop Hannah, Sarah and Lewis performed a song with their respective instruments – viola, oboe, and guitar. The viola and oboe were particularly interesting for the children because these are instruments most of them have never seen or even heard of before.

At 14:00 there was a Drumming Workshop scheduled at Srebrenica Dom Kulture (Srebrenica Cultural Center), but unfortunately only 2 boys came because it was the first one and others did not know about it. Tony led a workshop anyway, with Sarah, Hannah and Lewis playing along with the two participants. Hopefully they will spread word to their friends and by next week, more will attend. Tony had them do rhythms on djembe drums which were challenging for them but they could attain with practice. Tony had definitely worn them out by the end!

On Thursday the 8th, the day began with the re-scheduled workshop at the Srebrenica Kindergarten at 12:00. 10 children participated and followed a series of activities similar to those used at the Primary School, but adapted for a younger age-group. Tony drew a Kibungu for them with their input about what each part of its body would look like – this was something they found especially funny!

Miroslav and Nemanja rejoined the team to head out to the village of Skelani for a workshop which began at 14:00. The village is not so easy to get to and it was a long drive for all the passengers. At the school though, we were greeted by 15 waiting youth who were very excited to get going. Activities again centered on the Kibungu, but because it was a slightly older group they were able to exercise a lot more originality. In future weeks, group leaders here will work to make activities for this group even more challenging as it is clear they are enthusiastic and have a lot of creativity.

This first full set of workshops really allowed the team to meet and gauge the children and youth they will be working with and to determine how they will best be able to engage them. While they have already generated a lot of excitement among the participants with this initial set of workshops, the coming weeks should allow for even more success, creativity and growth as they continue to shape and expand the workshops for those they are working with."