There are several thousand foreign citizens who are living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who left their homeland because of their careers and love. One of them is Ljudmila Mila Babic, a Russian who married Nedim Babic from Sarajevo five years ago. Today, Mila is a mother to a year and a half-old daughter, and she leads one of the renowned Sarajevo gyms together with her husband.
Ljudmila Babic, also known as Mila, came from the distant north of Russia. This creative young lady loves art, nature, and travel. She met her husband, Nedim Babic from Sarajevo, on one of her many trips. He and her unconditional love for him were the reason for numerous changes in Mila’s life: she moved to Sarajevo, learned the Bosnian language, she tried to work many interesting jobs, and she got introduced to Islam.
She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Russia and mastered applied arts.
After her studies, she got a job in the notary office as an assistant and, thanks to this job, she had the opportunity to travel a lot. She met Nedim on one of her trips in 2011, not even imagining that he will become her life partner just a couple of years later.
Mila said that the Bosnians showed her that you can learn to do anything in life, does not matter what you studied before. Mila worked for a year as a pastry cook in a patisserie run by her husband’s mother and sister. After her husband opened the gym, she took over the administrative part of the job, and she works there today. She never gave up on her first love, painting, and she is doing it in her free time. She also painted on silk, and since it required an appropriate space that she did not have, she decided to learn the art of beautiful writing or Arabic calligraphy.
She is planning to visit Russia next year. Although she loves Bosnia, she is missing her family and friends in Russia. “Bosnia is beautiful. There are plenty of beautiful places where I can find my silence and peace, such as Vrelo Bosne, Barice, and Trebevic. Cities in Russia are large and it is hard to find something like this. People here are very open and warm,“ said Mila.
Commenting on Bosnian cuisine, she said that it is quite similar to Russian cuisine, except that they eat a lot more salads. “I like the Bosnian food. Especially roasted lamb in Jablanica. Our food is adapted to my husband who is an athlete, and I prefer this diet as well. We also have our own YouTube channel, and my husband publishes my recipes from time to time,” said Mila.
She believes that BiH has a lot of unused opportunities. According to her, one of them is woodwork. Since it is her specialty, her husband created a workshop for her where, in the future, will be created Mila’s wooden artwork.
(Source: stav)
