The 2-hour flight

Contrary to what I thought, the plane was crowded with people, almost leaving no empty seats as it took off. Croatia is not an unpopular destination after all. I quickly realized that we were the only Asian in the plane. The rest were, as I would like to think, Croats and English tourists.

A few minutes after we left the runaway, Nubli muttered,"I have a feeling that something is going to happen whilst we're in Bosna. I don't know exactly what, but it's definitely not something good". I failed to disagree with him. There is so much about the history that makes us at risk of being harassed, and on top of that there are many more things we haven't learned. As much as we have submitted our lives, safety and future to Allah, the mortal instinct remains intact- and that makes us human. We are weak and incapable, but we have means to attaining strength and capacity. We are ignorant and foolish, but there is knowledge and integrity. In short we are helplessly powerless; and it makes a good reason for us to turn to our Creator. Thus, during this whole bus-plane-bus journey, I've decided to keep myself busy imploring and praising the Almighty.

We busied ourselves with the Bosnian history during the course of the flight; a revision and consolidation for myself, and a new learning for Nubli. Being in the holiday mood, Nubli dozed off a dozen of times while trying to digest the multitude of new names of men and places of importance in the Balkan war. He can never be blamed for that. The wikipedian version of Bosnian history he downloaded from the internet is repetitive and bland, the narrative was void of any attraction. Nevertheless I found it refreshing- indeed anything about Bosna is exciting to me.

Although being 20 pages thick, it is far from exhaustive. There was so much about Bosna that it has failed to tell. Reading an article is not sufficient to help me understand what is happening at the grassroots level. It needs a man to experience it himself to know and appreciate such complicated matters. It needs me to step on the Bosnian soil, breathe the Bosnian air, walk along Bosnian streets, and mingle with its community. This reality, I was overjoyed to know, is now only a few hours away. And while I had the chance, I did not stop asking for His forgiveness and protection.