We had no trouble finding our little house in Belgrade and our host, Bora, was there to unlock the metal gate and guide Jim into the small parking space in front of the house. He and his family live next door (the 2 buildings are connected and share a mostly concrete garden space out back. Also out back are two covered cooking and eating areas, one for guests and one for his family). This property has been in Bora’s family for at least 4 generations. His great grandparents lived here and ran a small business selling provisions, including tobacco which at that time was grown and controlled by the King and one needed a special license to sell it. Bora still has the sign announcing they were tobacco providers. Bora totally renovated the house about 12 years ago and did a meticulous job creating a lovely clean, efficient two bedroom apartment. We paid about $60/ night which is an amazing price considering the free parking, the two bedrooms, the convenient location and the modern amenities.
After showing us around and introducing us to his three sweet dogs, all rescues, we walked down the street to get a few things from the market, then Lud’s niece, Nikolina, who we have met numerous times before, picked us up and drove us to the far side of the city to a sort of suburb called Borča. Borča is where Nikolina’s family moved as refugees during the war. Nikolina was 10 at the time. Life was difficult for them, leaving everything behind in their village in Croatia, and being cramped into a small place with various relatives coming and going as needed. Kids at school tended to make fun of the refugee kids. But she enjoyed riding bikes and fishing and playing in the neighborhood. This was her first time back to the neighborhood in about 20 years and she hardly recognized anything due to so much growth. But she chose to take us here because abuse she had heard this particular restaurant served a special kind of pečenje called Baja deer, a traditional style of cooking pig or sometimes lamb. She ordinarily doesn’t like this dish at all but people assured her she would like this, and indeed it was delicious. It was less greasy than it usually is, and the thick crisp skin sooo delicious!
We enjoyed our time with Nikolina as we always do. She is doing quite well professionally, working independently as someone who fixes companies’ websites to make them more successful. She is bright and opinionated and articulate. We of course talked about both Trump and Vučić and she believes both are destroying their countries. Because of the pervading level of hatred toward him she is surprised nobody has tried to kill Vučić. Like many people here, even though they hate Vučić they don’t have a clear or realistic idea of what or who t replace him with if they manage to remove him from power. On our drive home we had to detour around the student blockade downtown and then drive past the Vučić-paid counter demonstrators’ camp nearby. (Some say that some of the anti Vučić demonstrators are paid by outside powers, but most people here insist they are not. However, Milica in Dragovac said that when she was a student during the last period of upheaval she protested a lot and then after the fact learned that indeed some of the protestors, including one of the leaders, had been paid, and this devastated her, so she is slower to make claims about the current protests. That said, she supports them).
The next morning while sitting outside drinking my tea and petting Bora’s dogs I saw he was across the yard smoking and drinking coffee in his eating area. We greeted each other and I said I was engaging in therapy by petting the dogs. He liked that and came over and we had a long chat. His English is quite good although he has a heavy accent. Throughout the course of Jim’s and my conversations with him he told a lot of stories (in this way he reminded me of my dad and how he used to pontificate).
He talked a lot about the bad treatment of dogs in Serbia, and while it is improving the change is slow. He said Sweden gave money, educational materials and patrol cars to Serbia to educate people about dogs as well as to oversee better treatment but within a few months the money disappeared and the vehicles were stolen and the program died.
His newest rescue dog was so traumatized when he got him that it took 2 months before he would let him pet him. Even now he is tentative and rarely lets anyone pet him, but within a day Jim he was coming up to Jim and allowing him to pet him.
Bora had liver cancer many years ago and had surgery to get the 20 centimeter tumor removed along with 2/3 of his liver.
At some point he had a vivid dream about St John. He didn’t understand why he dreamed about him because their family saint is George. But the dream was strong and affirming. Then in the early 2000’s he went to LA to visit his sister and her husband who works in the movie industry. He wanted a PET scan (not available in Serbia at the time) to see if there was any new or remaining cancer in his liver. After he was handed an envelope with the results he was afraid to open it but finally did while in the elevator. He read down the list of results, each saying ‘negative’, and at the bottom of the page noticed the date and it was the date when people celebrate St John. Then as he was leaving the hospital he noticed the big sign saying the name of the hospital was St. John’s. He of course then remembered his earlier dream.
He has been healthy ever since, but like other people we have met, despite recovering from cancer he still smokes! He mentioned that his grandma smoked a lot up to the day she died at age 102. She smoked so often that every evening someone had to go check on her because she often fell asleep with a cigarette in her mouth.
Both his sister and a friend in Philadelphia offered to let him live with them so he could move to America but he decided not to. Now, looking back he thinks that might have been a mistake, not for his own well-being but for his two sons. His eldest is nearly done with Dentisty school but can’t finish because of the student blockades and universities being shut down. So until it reopens he goes every day and joins the protest. His other son works as a chef in town.
Bora, like others we’ve talked with, vehemently hates Vučić who he says is absolutely corrupt and is ruining everything and selling off the country to the Chinese and other foreign investors. The rampant development in Belgrade is unfettered by any rules regarding size, scope, planning or regard for the locals. Tall new huge buildings are going up all along his street and tower over his modest place.
He talked about the sham of the elections in the country. Two elections ago he discovered on the voter list that a woman he had never heard of had used his address as her own. He spent 5 days being shunted from one office to another trying to find out who this person was and nobody knew or cared. Finally after a week he learned this woman with a Serbian name lived in Sweden and was not eligible to vote. But when the next election came along there she was again, using his address. He was too weary to go through the process again if trying to get her name removed. But he said this is common to have phony votes using false addresses. We also have been told that many gypsies are paid to vote for Vučić.
We ever did find out what Bora does for a living besides rent the apartment. His wife is an accountant. He said his job for now is to get his sons on their feet, then he wants to buy a small place along the Drina river and fish. He loves to fish.
Bora and pups, the apartment and back ‘yard’, Nikolina, ‘green market’ in the neighborhood.
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