Abida and Mevludin Mehic left their jobs in Sarajevo and returned to Srebrenica. Although in the beginning, as they say, they had difficult path, today they are satisfied. They say that there is work in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as well, for whoever wants to work.
“I’m leaving my job as a top craftsman in Sarajevo, where I had a daily wage of 100-150 BAM, and I’m coming here to look after 13 sheep in the forest and cry,” Mevludin Mehic, whose friends and acquaintances call him Brko, told.
The village of Gladovici, where Mevludin lives with his wife Abida, belongs to Osat in the municipality of Srebrenica, a region widely known for its builders who created their own special language proposed for inclusion on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.
At the age of 14, Mevludin left his native village to study in Bratunac, where he later got a job, got married, had children and lived until the war. After the war, he lived with his family in Sarajevo, where he and his wife worked, educated their children and built a house. Dealing with construction as a good craftsman, he was in high demand and earned good money. In 2011, he came for the first time to see his native village and the family estate, which has since become overgrown with weeds and bushes.
Life without electricity, water and other people’s help
Mevludin says that there were moments when he thought of leaving everything and returning to Sarajevo. However, as he says, he remembered that his father did hard construction work. On one occasion, he worked with him for 30 days in Herceg Novi and, as he says, he never once bathed in the sea.
“He had to save on everything in order to feed us seven children and his parents. He ate pate and salami to buy land and this land was paid for in blood and what now, I should leave it? That father’s pate pulled me back and made me come back,” explained Brko.
At the persuasion of a friend, Mevludin starts roasting lambs, which turns out to be a profitable business because, according to tradition in BiH, not a single more festive lunch, let alone a celebration, can be imagined without lamb on a spit.
“Today, in this country, we have come to a position where people who live in the village go to the market to buy, for example, eggs, vegetables or something else they can produce themselves, as our ancestors used to do.”
In response to the statement that the villages in BiH are becoming more and more empty, that no one lives in many of them anymore, and that the youth mostly see their future in leaving BiH, Mevludin says:
“It is largely the fault of politics, but also the people. This summer, I was looking for a guy to just sit with me for three hours while I cook and help me if I need anything. I pay 50 BAM for that and no one wants it,” says Mevludin and highlights the example of a neighbor who kept goats but could not find a shepherd even for 1,500 BAM salary.
He is particularly proud of the sheep barn
“We built a large barn with all the necessary facilities. I call one special part of the barn the maternity ward, because that’s where the ewes lamb, each in its own box. I keep top quality sheep, exclusively of the Sjenica breed. Lambs are born every 7-8 months, and in 90% of cases two lambs are born. I had 160 sheep in the barn, but not bought, but my own, which I raised myself,” noted Brko.
“Today I have become a veterinarian to a large extent.” I give injections and pills to the sheep, and help when ewes lamb. I do that myself, and for vaccinations and other things, which I don’t know or can’t do with the help of my wife, I call the vet. Each sheep has its own name and I keep records of them, so I know when they will lamb and everything else that is important,” Mevludin concluded, DW reports.
E.Dz.
