‘Creating Music’ - EAMTS Project in Mostar
Written by Penny Evans

During September 2007, the 4th EAMTS music therapy project in Mostar, Bosnia i Herzegovina, took place to offer music therapy and recreational music activities for children, adolescents and adults with a range of needs in and around Mostar. ‘Creating Music’ documents the project from my experience as a volunteer. It is a story of ‘sharing music’, ‘trust’ and ‘making friends.’

 The EAMTS collective at the preparation weekend

The Team
The team of music therapy students and graduate volunteers: Penny Evans (Scotland), Neysa Navarro Fernandez (Spain), Elizabeth Flordeliza (The Philippines), Bethan Shrubsole (England), Rozemarijn Verhoeven (The Netherlands), Bart Van Der Zanden (The Netherlands); assembled in Skofja Loka, a beautiful and historic town in Slovenia, welcomed warmly and enthusiastically by the team organisers: Jantina Bijpost (music therapy graduate) and Roos Walhof (drama therapy graduate) both from The Netherlands; project supervisor and Slovenia manager, Spela Loti Knoll; project assistor, Claudia Knabe, the cat and a huge pot of hot tea! Anxieties immediately started to fade as like-minded ‘musickers’ began to get to know each other and talk excitedly about plans for the project.

Later that evening the team travelled by car, along winding roads, high up into the hills to a school where we were greeted with a huge smile from Mihaela Gostisa.

Preparation Weekend
The next few days at the school helped to prepare the volunteers for living and working in a war-effected area. Previous project organisers and participants shared invaluable insight from their experiences in Mostar and Sarajevo. Verena Heidenreich (project supervisor) provided intercultural training, which focused on values, customs and differences in cultural ‘ways of being’ and ‘thinking’. Agnest Durst provided a crash course in Bosnia language and Spela Loti and Claudia taught us some fantastic Bosnian songs. The volunteers got to know each other through teambuilding activities and, of course, joint music making Mihaela and Regina Weiss and the organisers made wonderful wholesome and delicious meals, which we enjoyed together outside in the blazing sunshine – an essential part of the preparation ritual!

Fundraising Concert
The EAMTS collective integrated to perform a fundraising ‘candlelit’ concert in a small local church. The evening was magical! Beautiful and unforgettable, the division between the audience and performers dissolved as everyone began to sing clap hands and stamp feet together in unity. Donations from the local community were extremely generous and afterwards we were presented with sunflowers as a symbol of ‘thanks’ and ‘good luck’. The evening merriment continued as we all chatted and enjoyed homemade cakes until late.

It was time to say goodbye to our nurturing EAMTS family and to embark on the long journey to Mostar...

 

Mostar
At first glance, Mostar appears a beautiful jewel in an arid rocky landscape. The ‘Stari Most’ - Mostar’s Old Bridge (destroyed by shelling in 1993, rebuilt in 2004) forms a stunning backdrop, spanning a high arc over the deep emerald Neretva River, glistening in the scorching sun. In the old town, there is a lively buzz - tourists sight-seeing, locals chattering and sipping coffee. The scars of war are visibly etched in Mostar though: a street or so away from the old town, many buildings are pockmarked or still completely ruined from the effects of heavy shelling during the war. I found it shocking to see the after effects of war still so evidently present. Although the people are re-building there lives here, the sense of loss and suffering can be felt heavily in the Mostar, this was experienced many times through interactions and conversations with locals illuminating their experiences of living through war.

The Work
Two days after arriving in Mostar and quickly adjusting to our new surroundings, the work began. Working pairs (therapist and co-therapist in changing roles) were formed to build strong and cooperative working relationships and work placements were assigned, Additionally a 4-person team was assigned to make visits to the Djeciji Dom (orphanage) on the outskirts of Mostar.

Music workshops and sessions were undertaken in Caritas Nazaret - a training and rehabilitation centre for adults and children with special needs, Novi Most - a club for children and adolescents from the Karacabey and Bisce Polje roma camps, Sunce - institution of parents and friends of people with special needs, Los Rosales - a centre for children and adults with special needs, and several special schools and kindergartens around Mostar. Additionally, the team explored cross-disciplinary working - combining hypnotherapy with music therapy (horses and instruments!) for visually impaired children and adolescents whilst on a weekend rest at the Land of Friendship and Peace in Sarajevo.

Each therapist worked in a way which was informed by his or her own training backgrounds, adapting it to harmonise with traditional local values and models, when considering the specific needs of the groups they were assigned.

 
Bart playing the guitar with the children

 
Group music making
 

Aims included: exploration of emotions through music, creative self-expression, activation and expanding physical boundaries, relaxation, promotion of joy and pleasure, increasing awareness of self in relation to others, learning to respond to personal needs through social interactions, increasing ability to turn-take and providing opportunities for developing positive relationships, (e.g encouraging respect, equality and listening to others).

The aims were addressed through various musical activities including hello and goodbye songs, creative improvisation (group, individual, pairs), musical and vocal conversations, dancing, rhythm games, musical and vocal mirroring, conducting and turn-taking games, singing pre-composed songs in Bosnian and English, actions songs, educational songs, listening to music, body awareness and musical movement, body percussion, and making and playing musical instruments.

The following extracts summarise aspects of the work I undertook during the project:

Working in Novi Most Club with the adolescent girls from the roma camps presented the greatest challenge, yet the greatest rewards to myself: Cultural differences meant I was required to think completely out of my ‘music therapy’ box to find a meaningful way of engaging and connecting with the girls, I had let go of any pre-conceived ideas and expectations I held about what music therapy ‘is’ (e.g instruments may not be played) and be flexible, creative and spontaneous in my approach. Meeting the girls in their ‘music’ world gained their trust and respect – this involved following dancing (on my part, quite inelegantly) and miming to Balkan’s pop (about loving and losing) music on CD. Consequently the girls become more accepting of our ideas; they began to use their voices freely in vocal improvisations to explore their emotions (the girls initiated turn-taking) or creating dialogues on drums. Various themes emerged from the work, notably togetherness, saying goodbye, anger and sadness. We were invited to the girl’s family homes where we exchanged stories about our lives over coffee with their mum - an open and generous heart

 
Miming during sessions

Group music making at Caritas focussed increasing self-awareness and individuality through creative self-expression in free musical improvisations, as well as promoting joyfulness and pleasure through collective creative music making. These aspects were very much evident in other activities observed the centre - The music sessions provided a new medium in which the group could express themselves and communication with others. My breath was taken away when a non-verbal member of the group, supported the group’s music making during an improvisation with a strong, ‘containing’, and very fast Balkan influenced 7/8 rhythm - an innate musical ability that remained despite disability. This was a powerful moment that reinforced my belief in the power of music to reach to every human being.

Staffs at the centres were extremely supportive and appreciative of the work the team was undertaking. Caritas invited the EAMTS organisers and therapists working there to a party at the centre. As the celebrations got into full swing - EAMTS representatives, the adults from our sessions, their parents and staff danced together or exchanged smiles and conversation.

Twice weekly visits were made to the Djeciji Dom (orphanage). Initial curiosity turned, to some extent, into hostility - some of the children exhibited challenging behaviours and were aggressive towards us - throwing stones, pulling our hair, hiding and damaging instruments and testing our boundaries in small physical ways – it was crucial to be tolerant, compassionate and forgiving – but also to know our own limits. Generally, we observed that these behaviours might have manifest in living in an environment without sufficient personal boundaries or a consistent foundation of nurturing. Resultantly, it was important to continue to make visit despite the children’s aggression, resistance to engage with us or attempts to push us away - this provided consistency and predictability, which formed a basis for trust. We invited the children to join in dance and action songs or rhythm games and we offered small items (e.g sugar free chewing gum, balloons and drawing chalks) for exploring creative play. A gradual process of trust developed between us. The children showed us ‘friendship’ – sharing their fruit, drawings and they began to engage with us through their ‘music’. The children had been able to show ‘friendship’ towards us, despite knowing we would be leaving after 1 month - they hugged us warmly, shook our hands, smiling and waving as we left.

Energising, inspiring and challenging
The work in Mostar was energising, inspiring and enormous tool for learning. Musical friendships began to develop in group work and and a mutality and warmth shone from shared music making, showing, clearly, the benefits of the musical input.  It was felt by the whole team that the work that took place had been a success.

Working in Mostar was also challenging, discernibly because of cultural differences and expectations - sometimes sessions were unpredictably cancelled or attendance was sporadic.

Reaching out…
Creating music was not limited to the sessions and workshops: the team reached out to the community through street busking, impromptu performances at local eateries and encouraging a dance or musical exchange with locals and travellers in pubs, clubs and OKC Abrasevic – a Youth Cultural Centre. Chatting over coffee (as in customary in Bosnia) with locals occasionally evolved into sharing ‘music’.

Boundaries
Living in Mostar was exhausting and intense; the psychological effects of years of trauma and destruction have left deep individual wounds and have caused an aftermath of tension in the community. It was vital as a ‘healthy outsider’ to cultivate a strong inner protection to keep emotionally healthy here and to be very aware of personal and therapeutic boundaries. The team also took time to nourish themselves and have fun!
 
Goodbye
Through ‘creating music’ the team had forged many new friendships: individuals in the groups, children at the orphanage, staff in the establishments, other voluntary workers, the team and local; and as the project draw to and end there were many ‘goodbyes’ to be made. Before leaving I stood by the Stari Most one last time and looked out over the Neretva and Mostar and was filled with sadness. My heart will always be open for Bosnia. It is a beautiful land that has a soul. As the people breath, the land breathes in rhythm.

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart" Eleanor Roosevelt

Returning
The bus journey through the beautiful Bosnian countryside to Zagreb, followed by a late night train to Ljubljana in Slovenia, took us back to where our journey began. The journey served as a needy transition in which the group reflected on the month-long experience in Mostar. It had been a wonderfully enriching and rewarding experience, and a life-changing process. A de-briefing weekend in The Netherlands one month after the project gave the team the space and distance to digest and share feelings coming up from working in Mostar. We found an ending for the project together.

“Believe: Peace and Music
 Will Work”

 
The Mostar Team
Behind from left: Roos Walhof  (organiser), Rozemarijn Verhoeven, Bart Van Der Zanden, Neysa Navarro Fernandez; Circle Inset: Elizabeth Flordeliza; Front from left: Jantina Bijpost (organiser) Bethan Shrubsole, Penny Evans.
It is unsure when the next EAMTS project in Mostar will take place, but it is hoped that the success of the work that has been achieved there so far will continue at some point in the future. If you are interested in participating or fundraising, please have a look at the EAMTS homepage at www.eamt.org or write an email to the project commission at eamts.org@gmail.com.


 

---> for general project-information see the  projects page