Anna Callaghan
OCCRP
Sarajevo, BiH
Why are you here?
The question is often nuanced, said in a tone that seems to question your sanity. It comes with a blank stare and furrowed brow.
I’ve heard it many times – I still don’t quite know how to answer.
The second night I was here, we sat at an outdoor cafe. Our group was made up of expats and locals.
“I don’t understand why everybody is coming here,” one local said, looking at me. “Why would you come here?”
It wasn’t so much of an inquiry of what I was doing, but more of a question of why I would you want to come here in the first place. Of all the places in the world, you chose Sarajevo? That kind of thing.
I heard it walking up the six flights of stairs in my apartment building. It came from a toothless man, his white shirt unbuttoned halfway, accompanied by Mimi, a yippy little chihuahua. He wanted to know where I was from. The U.S. I said. He stared at me. “And you chose to come here?”
It’s not that they don’t want you here, at least that’s not the impression I get. It’s that they don’t know why you would want to come. They see this city differently. Perhaps they are resentful of the ease that expats and tourists enter and exit the country. Many people don’t have the luxury to leave at their leisure. They’re stuck. Each year things get worse, they tell me.
This is the perspective I’ve heard many times, but it’s not the only one. Last week at a bar housed in an old cinema I met a group of Bosnian guys a little younger than me. They asked me what brought me here with genuine interest and what I thought of the people. Generous, hospitable, and welcoming I told them. I asked if that’s what they thought, wanting to have my opinion vetted by locals. “I don’t think,” one said, looking me in the eye, “I know.”
One of the other guys who’s family moved to Belgrade during the war comes back to visit Sarajevo at least once a month. “Belgrade is the party capital of the Balkans,” he said, “But Sarajevo is the soul. It has heart.”
“I love this city,” the first one said, nodding in agreement with his friend. “I never want to leave it.”