You must be kidding me!

We are getting ready to leave Banja Luka. We had a great day yesterday in Zenica. We met the mayor and he was very complimentary of the kids work. He promised to support the 4/H program in Zenica . After that we went to the Castle Vranduk. It dates to the 5th century. Nermin, Hana and Berina went with us. We got some great pictures. After that , another museum and then a lunch at a restaurant next to the River Bosna. It was really nice. Nermin took me to his school. I can tell you that he is really the mayor of Zenica. He knows everyone. We also visited the language school where Edina works. Very nice. The trip to BL from Zenica was amazing. I drove. It was like being in a 4 hour video game. The road was 2 lanes with no shoulder the whole way. People passing each other on blind curves, hills etc. There seems to be unwritten rules though that keep people from getting killed. It was really scary and katie slept! I must have said \you must be kidding me 100 times or more. Bosnia is beautiful. Imagine West Virginia with mosques instead of church steeples. Things got dicey when we crossed into Republica Srpska. The alphabet changed to Cyrillic and our map was in the Latin alphabet. Big problems. We stopped several times and finally saw signs in Cyrillic for BL. We called Igor and he said to just come into town and he would meet us at the hotel. Okay I said... sounds easy. We get here and BL is a city of 250000. We were lost. Finally after a policeman stopped me going the wrong way down a closed 1 way street we got oriented. My second vist with the BiH police. We finally found the kids and met them and their parents at a restaurant. You can park and drive on the sidewalk here, but walking sisdangerous I can tell you that. Aida came up from Mostar / 6 1/2 hours on a bus and went back at 1.30 a.m. Great girl. Her mom was there and arranged for us to tour city hall today. Igors mom was there also. Ninas parents were there as was Draga dad. All very nice people, Dushka was away on a trip so we missed her. Today we toured the city, the old fort, churches and museaums. BL is really a very cool city. I could live here, no problem. Lots of cafes and shops and the food is great as well as cheap. We presented the $100 to BL from Kent County. They were happy. Their project is working with deaf kids. Natasa was a great hostess. Now its time for 4 more hours of being a live participant in a Bosnian video game! I, m sure Katie will sleep the whole way. If we make it to Livno, we,ll check in there. We plan to go to Mostar to see Aida in her new school also. Lots more to come I hope. By the way, a Bosnian keyboard is a real challenege. That explains the typos. You must be kidding. the Bosnians are asking for all of you. They really miss you so stay in touch. I hope to contact you again tomorrow.