Novi Pazar

Novi Pazar andis kohe meie sealviibimise esimestel minutitel märku, et tegemist on erilise linnaga. Hotellituppa jõudes kostis kuskilt mingit imelikku pominat. Arvasime, et toas on raadio mängima jäetud, kuid akna poole minnes taipasime, et hääl kostub õuest. Kui akna lahti tegime, tundus nagu hulk rahvast oleks üle linna tänavatele kokku tulnud ja üht palvet sünkroonis lugema hakanud. Oli pime ja me ei näinud ühtegi inimest, kuid see lõputu soigumine ei lõppenud ega lõppenud. See oli muezzini - kutse palvele. Teadmatus ja nii ootamatult uudne olukord tekitas ausalt öeldes kõhedust. Õhtusöögi ajal oma serbia sõpradelt uurides selgus, et hääl tuli siiski makilindilt, mitte otse elavas esituses. Enne õhtusööki - ja muidugi ka õhtusöögi ajal - tutvusime Novi Pazari aktiivsete noortega. Ametlikus osas andsime vastastikku ülevaate oma tegemistest.

Meie teisel Novi Pazari päeval kohtusime sealse keskkooli õpetajatega. Algselt oli küll plaan kooli külastada, aga kuna kool oli seagripi tõttu suletud, tulid õpetajad hotelli meiega vestlema. Õpetajad olid väga avatud suhtumisega (eriti vene keele õpetaja), nad andsid meile ülevaate Novi Pazari haridusasutustest ja koolis ning linnas tervikuna valitsevatest probleemidest. Näiteks saime teada, et ka Serbias on omamoodi keeleprobleem serbia ja bosnia keele näol. Saime teada, kes on bosniakid ja mille poolest nad serblastest erinevad. Meil polnud aimugi, et usulised vaated mõjutavad ka keelelise ja rahvusliku identiteedi määramist.

Järgmisel päeval kohalikke NGO-sid külastades saime olemasolevatele teadmistele üksnes kinnitust, et probleemid on, aga alati neist ei räägita. Ausalt öeldes ei olnud Novi Pazari inimestega lihtne kontakti luua, tundus, et nad jätavad palju enda teada.

Within the first minutes of our stay in Novi Pazar we got the signal that it is a special town. As soon as we got into our hotel room we could hear some strange murmur. At first we thought somebody had left the radio on but as we got closer to the window we realized that the voice we heard is coming from outside. When we opened the window it seemed as if a number of people had gathered from all over the town to start praying simultaneously. It was dark and we couldn’t see any people, but this endless moaning noise didn`t seem to end. As we found out afterwards – it was muezzini – invitation request for prayers. As it was an unknown and unexpected experience for us it was quite frankly chilling. At the dinner table our Serb friends revealed however that the voice was coming from a tape, not directly from the live playback as we first have thought. Before dinner – and of course at dinner time – we got to meet active young people of Novi Pazar. In the official part we mutually gave an overview of our activities. On our second day in Novi Pazar we met the teachers from the local high school. The original plan was for us to visit the Novi Pazar`s high school , but since the school was closed due to the swine flu, the teachers met us in our hotel instead. All the teachers were very open minded and very chatty (especially Russian teacher). They gave us an overview of Novi Pazar`s educational and also talked about the problems in school and in town in general. For example, we found out that in Serbia they have kind of language problems in Bosnian and Serb language form. We got to know who are Bosniacs and how are they different from Serbs. We had no idea that the religious views also affect the determination of linguistic and national identity. The next day we visited the local NGO-s which only confirmed existing knowledge that the problems are there, but they do not always talk about them. To be honest, it was not easy to connect with people in Novi Pazar, it seemed that they leave a lot to themselves.