International activity – 6 June

Although we stayed up late into the night, it did not stop us to get up at nine o’clock. Drinking domestic coffee on the banks of the Drina and traditional Serbian breakfast was a prelude to what comes next. About 11 o’clock, we arrived at the school where we were graciously welcomed by the director Šišić Svetlana – Ceca. After the delivery of the humanitarian aid, we played a football match with the students.  Seventh grade students, only 13 years old were better than the Rotaract representation that was for this occasion composed of Dutch, French and Serbs. The final score of the game, 3:2 was overshadowed by the exchange of the jerseys and the socializing in the ceremonial hall of the school.

Visibly tired, we came back in the Ethno Village for a short vacation, but the host of the village, Nikola did not allow us to rest, lunch was already set. An amazing combination of grilled trout and barbecue (believe it or not) surprised  not only us but also our guests. School principal Ceca arrived very soon at the ethno village and we continued where we left off in the evening. Wine, beer and rakia were constantly amounted. Our guests kept asking: “What is the plan for later on?”, and we would tell them, “Don’t worry,  ahead of us are only unforgettable moments!”.

About 4 pm hours we hoped in our two cars and mni bus, the drivers were ready and we went on a short trip to the village of Babin and cottage of our club member Igor. Mitar (Igor`s сcousin) welcomed us at the cottage and told us that everything was set and ready for us. We politely asked our guests if they would like something to eat and they correspond with a smile that they could eat later because they were not accustomed to this kind of rhythm. Even then, we knew that we organized a gathering it in a way they could not even imagine. Nikola Stojanovic setting up the speakers and the music, our girls preparing the salad and the rest of us  drinking the first bottle of rakija. Our guests also prepared us a surprise, French cheese and salami were served, as well as a bottle of Pastis (French brandy). Passengers who were unable to drink rakia switched to beer and  wine, noone aksed us for water. Since it became dar we lightenf the yard with a few torches and around seven o’clock dinner was served. We tried again to present to our guests the tradition of our people. We placed white cheese, kajmak, corn bread and serbian salad on the table and a real surprise was when we hade presented the lamb on the spit. Everyone just got up and looked at lamb, but we didn`t want to serve it, we just put it on the table and gave them the cleaver, scissors and knives and told  them: “Come on guys, take part of lamb you would like to eat!”. At this point, we were all feeling relaxes, the lamb was slowly disappearing, the music got much louder, we started to dancing the serbian national dance „kolo“ and a few of us played the limbo dance. We will all remember for a long time when the Roman (Roman the first) instead of water drank one diciliter of rakia, Katya wanted to eat the lamb’s head, Kevin with a glass of rakia was lying on the grass, Agata with meat cleaver was moving towards the lamb and Louise was still eating wild strawberries. Arounf 1 am, we moved to ethno village and went for our rooms, but… At the entrance Milos, Nikola`s son, was waiting for us and he didn`t let usgo to sleep until we drank another rakia with him. It wasn`t easy for us, but we had no choise, we sat in the restauran and drank a couple of glasses of rakia with Milos. At 3 o`clock we finaly went to our rooms.