Part Two
Anita Susuri: Did you go to school in Janjevo?
Marija Basler Karamatić: I did go, to tell you the truth, I went up to the fourth grade. I went and did not. That’s how it was among the people of Janjevo, they wronged us here, and maybe somebody regrets that now. I was a child, you know, for home. My mother sent me, I was no fool, I crossed the world and I could attend school. But they rebuked her, it’s a girl, she’ll marry, you know, she doesn’t need education she will deal with diapers. But the boys too, they will carry packages, he will work at the market. This is how it was. Mother was giving birth, there they mowed the land, and she sent me and stopped me from going to school. “She will marry, what school?”
And when my brother, when my brother was born, I was at home for months, she did not let me go to school and she had to pay a fine for that. I was in the fourth grade about to get to the fifth. She paid a very large fine, then she had to let me go to school. But without notebooks, books, wasting my time at school. Three years later, after I passed fourth grade and was in the fifth, for three years I went to the fifth. I always joke about it. I said to the present school principal, “Give me a diploma.” She says, “Why Marija?” “But, I did go to school, I want a diploma.” She says, “What diploma?” I say, “I went to school for eight years, that should mean something.”
I said, “You know what? That too is a sacrifice. I want a diploma, I won’t show it anywhere.” I said, “I don’t need it for job applications, but to…” They promised they would give me one for the eight grades I completed. I want to put it in a frame because I went for three years in fifth grade. I also went to the seaside to work. Then I had arguments with people over there, they didn’t take me seriously and wanted to trick me. When they see a woman all by herself, you know how it is. I know the people and everything. I felt bad for the place there [so nice], and I found the people and all that hop {onomatopoetic}. And he said to me, I said, “You know what {points her finger} wait and see, I will outsmart you.” He said, “No.”
When I did all this, he said, “Marija.” I sat down, he asked if I wanted coffee, he was from there. “Which,” he said, “school, high school, or university did you finish?” I said, jokingly, “You know what,” I said, “not even high school.” I said, “Four grades, I spent three years in fifth grade, but they’re considered four grades” I said. “What?” {yells}. I said, “This is it. Like this, but mother nature and school teaches you everything”, I said. Life teaches you, this is it. So, my mother…
Anita Susuri: Did you go to Vladimir Nazor?
Marija Basler Karamatić: There, it’s there {points} I went there. Now it is still old, now they are doing music videos, in that old school they are doing music videos. Young people are coming and taking pictures, I don’t know, every Sunday there are many young people, young women taking pictures in Janjevo. When I saw this, I was amazed. And a movie is being shot there now, one has been shot and now the other is being shot. All this was there {pointing with the right hand} upstairs was occupied. We couldn’t pass and when we passed, they said, “Shttt” {onomatopoeia}. I said, “Good”. (laughs) Leave it, it’s beautiful, it will remain a memory from Janjevo, what can I say.
Anita Susuri: Do you have any memories from when you went to school?
Marija Basler Karamatić: Listen, there are memories and those, my friends were good. You know when you don’t have some kind of, we only had the will, someone had it, someone did not. My grandmother had vineyards there, I sent the children there, then the cherries, then we stole them and this is the biggest memory. Then it was a memory, eh, to go and steal someone’s quince, to steal from the vineyard, and so on. Listen, I do not know how to say it, memories are and all those memories have all been sweet. I remember as a child, when I ate janeriks, how good they were, how sweet. Even to this day I like them, I even in Switzerland had to get an apple if I saw it [hanging in the tree].
My daughter Paulina said to me, “But mother, you can’t do that here.” I don’t care that I can’t. When I was in Zagreb, it depends on the pear or the apple, I have to… this has remained the same for me, I pass by there, I take the janeriks from there and eat it. It’s the same for me, we didn’t have anything else, to know about something better. When rice chocolate came out, I still eat it even today, we all gathered the money, those dinars to buy chocolate, share it, and eat it. So, something I don’t know what, I don’t know how to say.
Our mothers simply didn’t allow us, they did not allow us to move forward. So, I gave everything I had just to move past these issues; I bought my children notebooks and everything, but some of my brothers finished school, some didn’t. For that same reason, for the same old reasons. This is it. Here my son didn’t finish it all, and my daughter finished up to the eighth grade. She even came to work here, she was very smart and she loved school. And she cried for school, and she started school at six, not seven, but six. So, this is it, what can I say?
Anita Susuri: Were you a religious family?
Marija Basler Karamatić: Yes, yes. Everyone here was, to tell you the truth. Church was important for us, that’s how we were brought up. Now people have moved to Zagreb, even the children lost their faith, they all are modern now. Now they’ve fallen again and can’t recover but it’s life… but we used to go, we still go to this day. Listen, here it is, always when devetnica starts, now it’s the Mother of God we go there, then Saint Anne and everything. So, our people are up there [Croatia], but the young people who are growing up now, it’s no one’s fault, the mothers or grandmothers. They can’t educate them, it isn’t how it used to be.
Children have seen the world, they’ve seen, my nephews can’t be like me, this is it. My daughter still has that attitude that my children will not go, here they are. They’re in first place for taekwondo and everything, but they know, but my son’s children who are in Zagreb, they let go and they were allowed to do so. They’re in their second year of high school and they were allowed to get tattoos, children like football. I felt sorry for them because they can regret it later, you can allow them after they’re 18 years old, but you can’t talk much. And when that child is on their phone all day long, they’re good at school, it’s sad, but his daughter is also very smart. But children spend so much time on the phone, everyday more and more.
You can’t make them, but I also agree with this, you have to tell them they should go to mass on Sunday, they will not go like we did, like our parents made us go. But at least they should know, but… it isn’t like it used to be, no, not the youngsters, no, no, no… generation after generation, little by little. But I can say that now according to the generation, who wasn’t there and who didn’t give birth, now during the winter in the second month, actually in the first month, when Saint Sebastian is, in Pešter, many young people come, it’s full. And now for the Lady, more serious people come, then for the Little One, on the ninth month, many people also come.
Also young people, Janjevo is full, it looks beautiful, there’s happiness, everything. But for the second, the first month many young people come who have never been before, who weren’t born here, depending on which year, each year more. This, now… God willing, I don’t know, I don’t know. It isn’t good for anyone, even for those who left Janjevo, it would be better to stay in Janjevo than go to Kistane. They ruined their children, now children are doing drugs and everything. It’s sad, but it’s true, this is how it is. There’s nothing, ours is called Ranjo, every place has, I don’t know, we have one from Zagreb, he knows the history. If you listen to him… he knows which hill was named after who, when we were created, which families are Palić, which was Glasnović, who is Karamatić, from which family.
In Janjevo, there were four Orthodox churches, one was in Ranja, Catholic. But when the Turks occupied us afterwards Austria, Austria, Austro-Hungarians, when they came, they defended the Croats. Then he says [Ranjo] that all the Serbs who are Ivanović here, who are now, I don’t know, Mazarekić, were Mazareku, they were Albanians there, who became Catholics and all those churches remained then, that… but for this man, you must sit down and talk to him, I heard this from an early age, our people were Glasnović, Palić were from Dubrovnik. And then there are some people who have become Catholics, there are some we call Zymeri. A brother has converted to the Turkish religion, and the other remained in the Croatian religion, you know.
Eh, Janjeva is historic (laughs), it is the oldest in Kosovo. I don’t know which city I have heard of, but I have heard that there is another place. But it is the oldest and a unique settlement in Kosovo, why not? Exactly on that day I was with Shepa, they have that tea shop there and everything. They also have very well educated children and all of them are university graduates, some even lawyers, some something else. And we talked, he said, “Marija, it’s a sin,” he said, “Now God given they do what they said, and we become a historic site.” He said, “Let people come, let them be here,” he said, “let someone open a good restaurant here, drink, eat, have people come. A little advertisement,” he said, “whoever sees Anija [Albanian restaurant in Janjevo], sees how beautiful it is.”
“My son [asks me] do you know this person from the seaside?” “Yes, I do.” He said, “Pal,” they called my son Pal there, “What is your mother doing, where is she?” He said, “She went to Janjevo.” I was also in Zagreb. I took a picture at Anija and he saw it through Facebook, and he said, “Pal, what is this? You told me your mother is in Janjevo, now in Paris.” You know, and he said, “It’s possible, she is crazy, she could have gone there.” He said, “Shut up, stupid,” he said, “there’s one in Janjevo.” “What is there in Janjevo?” You know, this is for people to post on social media. And so after that my son came to visit, then my nephews who never visited Janjevo, and they were happy, we were all at Anija and we have the photos and everything.
Then my daughter for two years, she wasn’t here this year, she will come now because her children just started high school and come because of it. And then when she will be able to travel, she will come here with children. I can tell you that, when she went to Zagreb, she wasn’t happy. When she came to Janjevo, she thought there’s nothing better, a smile like that is priceless. I never said no to her, can you imagine my oldest nephew Jasin, he asked me when he got them from the airport, he asked me, “Grandma, can,” he said, “these old houses be bought?” Talking about the old houses. I said, “If your father gives the money, everything is possible.” But the way that kid thinks, immediately, before he got inside of the taxi, he asked if they could be bought. This is it.
My daughter told me, “Mom, we have to bring the old one…” Because my son-in-law was a champion of taekwondo in Morocco, now the children took after their father. She said, “We have to bring the old guy to Janjevo, he will buy half of Janjevo,” she said. This is it, he says, “I would want to,” he says, “But I don’t want to come here without my wife. I have to close down the store there, to come here.” He says, “But we have to eat,” he says, “we have to work. There will be other opportunities to come.” So, there is a woman from Janjevo, she is in America and she is quite rich and now she apparently wants to invest. When she visits now, I hope to God she will do something, and hire some young people who are here, it’s a pity not to.
To tell you the truth, a pity for our country, our president Kolinda was also here, the one who is down there, Franjo, the second Golome {shows the direction with his hand}, he is a farmer. Kids love Janjevo, they don’t want to leave. Now he has two or three kids at the seaside, they work as other people’s servants, but they always ask, “How are the goats? How is the person who had chickens? How is he?” Such great children… [politicians] they all visited, and they promised things, but they did nothing for people, people have to live in other people’s homes. They did not have to build them houses made of gold, but a house to live in. Kolinda was also here, she promised, she took a picture with little Paško.
Mister Thaçi was in front of his door, he promised everything. I said I will do an interview on live TV, it can show on television, I don’t care. He said, “Marija, this is for the archive.” But I said that I don’t care, no one helped with anything, I don’t know. Has anyone come to help, or did people or other associations steal the means, I don’t know, I wasn’t there, and I didn’t see everything. They say, I hear from people that enough money has been secured for Janjevo but nothing is done, I don’t know. I don’t know, but you can see that now there’s theft everywhere. You see Croatia, what a pity.
Switzerland takes care of its little lake, they clean it and preserve it, while we have all this beauty and we have ruined it. What can I say, that’s why I moved from Croatia. At least I’m comfortable, that’s it. I have a person who drives me, a neighbor, when I have to go to Pristina or to Lipjan, to buy things and come back home. This is it. There’s no better place. I came here for quiet, to calm my mind, to tell you the truth. I worked a lot as a kid, then when I got married at the Palić family. I only experienced something beautiful for a little while in Switzerland, when I remarried, but he was an older man. But he gave me everything.
He didn’t have much money, but he gave me everything, the love, I don’t know how to tell you, what women need, some kind of kindness. He surprised me with flower bouquets. He always worked, he waited for me at home with smiles. He was a very good man. There I experienced something beautiful and with smiles, someone making me happy, giving me something. May he rest in peace, he gave me his pension. I don’t ask for anything more, I’m not asking for wealth. I hope God takes care of my children because they’re my biggest wealth, I am good here and that’s it. What can I say, you’re done with me or do you want to continue with my mother downstairs? However you want.
Anita Susuri: Could you talk about Janjevo a little more? How do you remember Janjevo when you were young? What was it like here?
Marija Basler Karamatić: When I was young, there was youth here, it was nice. I told you, we didn’t know about other places, but we were very, I said we didn’t finish school, any of us. Rarely, from my generation, one went to Lipjan, to Pristina, to school. There were some from each generation that went, from my [paternal] uncle’s generation one finished medical school, she went to Pristina. It was fun, the children didn’t know about others, but the church. But we were very well dressed. There were these streets, this is really pretty now, but back then, it was in ruins. The heels, you had to have the prettiest boots, because we used to call it Little Paris. Women dressed well and men went with it. My brother went, you always had one who went to buy for all of us.
Then, when the cafés opened, that’s where people met, and in the streets young men would take walks. You didn’t have to go anywhere, men would find you. Those that desired you came to your door. Wooing you, whistling, this and that, to meet you at the church to seduce you. After my generation’s youth, the cafés opened, I remember when I was like that. I remember going to Kino Salo when it first opened. That’s where Roma people live, that is our spot, mine, now it is my son’s. The state confiscated it, now I am trying to get it back. There was real happiness.
But women got dressed, you can see my mother in that photo. The gold coins, aprons were expensive, 200-300 Deutsche marks or more. But our women made them by themselves, they didn’t have much electricity so they painted the apron and the sparrow with precision. There were weddings, they got married, they made them by hand pulling all-nighters, and they were in a straight line, and not ugly. This is it, they were all handmade, made with great dedication, then the birds until recently… I was the second bride with a wedding dress, before they always wore dimija, brokada, all of that tasvesi was {shows around her head} you put it there, it was like this.
Then brides wore wedding dresses, the younger ones wore brokada. Then the older ones, this is how it was, but we were happy. There were many children because no one had less than five children. They had seven, eight, twelve, thirteen. So, there’s an old woman there at the bazaar, she came back from Zagreb, she is 97 years old. Do you know how many grandchildren she has? She has around 200-300 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will soon turn hundred years old. Her nephews, the Palićs, that have the most said they will celebrate her birthday, they will also call television stations [to report]. There’s no one else in the world like this, she knows all their names by heart. She tells you how many grandchildren she has, how many great-grandchildren. They are over 200, then 130, they’re a lot.
You know how, she’s just one woman but all of them came from her. So our mothers, they tried and they were very clean. We were very clean in that old house, we cleaned up to the door, the children with boots, then the mud had to be cleaned, but it was a joy to hear someone whistling, and you go out. Then as children when there was snow we went to slide, we gathered as a group. This was happiness, you know…
Anita Susuri: Were there also serenades? Someone mentioned that men sang?
Marija Basler Karamatić: We sang, there where the plum trees are, we gathered, we brought wine and sang. They sang to women and complimented them, but women did not go to them. That was there, a bit away from Marija where you went, a bit up, that’s where we gathered. When I was 16, somewhat 15-16, there were boys too, and their group brought theirs, blankets were laid, we laughed, sang. Then, to the walnut tree, we tied a rope for a swing, that was it. Someone at home celebrating St. Georges, mother would… It was beautiful.
There was no, I told you, we didn’t know of anything more beautiful, but this place, people experienced something and that’s why they all love this place and now they suffer, even young people. Last night I was talking to my brother, he said, “What’s the weather like, Meri?” I said, “You know what, it’s very beautiful.” Mother and I are sitting outside. What can I say, the moon, the sky is full of stars, you can hear the cicadas. “Now,” he said, “I wish I was a bird to fly.” He said. You know how it is, it’s like this but… there was happiness and we did our best. Listen, we didn’t know any better, it’s a good thing we didn’t, and we were happy.
As I said, by ten or eleven o’clock we had to be home, to wash the boots of the younger siblings. You know how feet sweat, we had a fire stove there, then when we moved here, we put the wood to dry because in the morning they had to go to school. Not to be wet, to not get sick. Then we went to slide in small or big groups, we didn’t have a sledge, we didn’t have anything, a plastic bag, then a plastic basin (laughs). And like this, we met and married, parents met parents. There wasn’t much love even when we got married. Do you know how it was, your family gave you away, family to family, it was like that, we accepted it. They asked me once when I was at the seaside, “Marija,” I said, “I am from Janjevo, Croatian.”
This was weird for them, they heard me talking, Serbian, I wasn’t talking in Macedonian, we have all the words. “Marija,” he said, “are you Macedonian?” “You know what, leave me alone. We are.” I said, “We lived in Janjevo, my grandmother told us about the Turkish reign, women weren’t allowed to go out, they hid. Then,” she said, “when Bulgarians came it was even worse. Bulgarians stole, and women ran and hid in their houses, they stole.” So they got some Macedonian words. There are also many Turkish words, like penxhere [window], xhezve [Turkish coffee pot], many others, tepsija [baking tray], many Turkish words. And like this, depending on who was in power. And I said that I don’t care, I’m like my mother, if you understand me, you understand me. “No, we understand you.” I said, “Why are you asking then?” I said, “This is Janjevo.”
So these poor people accepted everything, we know the origin, where they’re from and what they are, but there are also people from here, who have become Corats. I’ve heard this from an important man who told me. So which last names, but a man from here also knows history, then he also said who, what…
Anita Susuri: You also mentioned the Culture Center.
Marija Basler Karamatić: They built it down there.
Anita Susuri: Did you also go there?
Marija Basler Karamatić: I was a few times, not many, my mother didn’t let me, to tell the truth it was like this. I was twice, once I went to see a movie, I was with my [maternal] uncle. And the second time was when the singer Mišo Kovač was there, then I went there. Like this, our people went, others. Then my brothers, there was also a dance, they went. I didn’t. I went there twice in my life, that’s it. So…
Anita Susuri: You also had the Masked Ball…
Marija Basler Karamatić: There was, there was that then…
Anita Susuri: Can you talk about that a little bit??
Marija Basler Karamatić: It was… my brother-in-law wore women’s clothes, dimija. But that was something that happened across Janjevo, that was fun. It was great, funny. I’m saying there was nothing better and more awesome than that. That is no longer. But when he dressed up, he was very funny. So, husband and spouse would dress up. Those that were freer with their husbands, they lived like that. They get on the horse carriage and roam around. His wife wore male clothes, while he wore dimija and like that drove throughout Janjevo. And the kids would join with whatever they wore. Although you had vintage clothes and you could dress whatever you wanted. Like that.
Once when I was here… before I left, I was here at Don Matej’s as a guest. Up until a few years ago, Don Matej, two years ago, he brought together youth and children to mask… you know. One of the Palić children dressed up like a gypsy, and I was like, what should I do, and he told me, “Why didn’t you dress up?” Don Matej told me, “Go upstairs and dress as whatever,” because the Red Cross had brought stuff to him. I wore a suit, a skirt, and some colorful tights. When they saw me, we danced, we had fun, we entertained the children for a bit. This is the first time I dressed up for a Masked Ball. As children, we did dress up, but I didn’t, but I did go to watch, I didn’t, no.
But it was a happy place, I said, we didn’t know better, but I’m glad we didn’t know better. Parents, mothers with children went there, our people were in markets and thank God, God helped us and we gained money, we sent spoons. My father went to your people [Albanians] for weddings, and they bought 100, 50 spoons. Then they went and sold flowers in markets and so on. But women didn’t go anywhere, no. When children grew up, their fathers took them along and so on. Then it was, the son would carry packages the same way as his father did.
The daughter has to get married like her mother, she will give birth, she will get married and give birth, this is how it was then. This is how it is, we all accepted this, I was in front of the church, my husband would whistle at me. The other one was more handsome, they got mad, those boys and then nothing. I got engaged to him and this is how it was. This is how it was, but my parents said that this is how it was even before them. Your parents know them, they know the house. This is how it used to be among you as well and they accept it. When you live in a place like this, this is how things go. This is it. Your father knows that family well, he knows you will be fine. Now will you be fine there or not, your father marries you off. This is it. This is how it was.
There were also many old women in the house, my grandmother, my father, and we showed you many of them [addresses the interviewer], my mother showed you the pictures, they, they were in America, they traveled for months. My mother’s grandfather was in America, that’s why he bought a house for his children. Then the vineyards, then he bought the land, but he was for years in America and he didn’t even see his children. This is it.
Anita Susuri: Did they deal with commerce?
Marija Basler Karamatić: In America? Then they worked there. They went there, I don’t know up to where they were walking, then by ship, they traveled for months. When they came from America, they bought vineyards, they bought vineyards and lands, but they had more vineyards, there were grapes. Do you know what it meant to have vineyards, it meant you were rich. You have grapes, you have wine, you have raki, like this. This is how we stocked up when the fall came. We bought 500, 600 kilos of flour, then you had to have a stack of sugar.
I remember this, some didn’t have, most didn’t have enough, but I know we had sugar for the winter, one stack, and around 500-600 kilos of flour. Now, that was the most important, salt and flour, didn’t matter if you had the rest, once a week we had meat. Only those who had money, a small part of meat but it was sweet, we all ate. Then my mother bought a goat and it gave birth. We had sheep, a little bit of milk. This is how it was, this is how life went. Like this…
Anita Susuri: When did you start working at Metalac?
Marija Basler Karamatić: Now to tell you the truth, sometimes around ‘88 or ‘87, I don’t know. Because in ‘91 I went to Switzerland. When I went, that year I didn’t work, that’s how long I worked at Metalac to tell you the truth (coughs).
Anita Susuri: How did you spend those years, the ‘90s when the situation here was a little…
Marija Basler Karamatić: Well listen, it was scary, it wasn’t good, it wasn’t good. You can imagine, you can imagine. We weren’t afraid of the people here, people that lived here, since always. Because, as I said, there were Albanians and Turks, to this day we respect each other. This was it, children were growing up and all of this, to this day they long for that, for that good old Janjevo. I mean that respect, he said, now he is old, Halim, he said, “Marija, there’s no place to drink coffee anymore. The children have come,” he said, “they will run you over with a car.”
He was alone abroad, he said, “They drive like this, they don’t talk, there’s no one you can sit and have a conversation with.” I met with him on Friday and we talked a little. But this is how it is, I don’t know, I don’t know what to say, but it isn’t… it was another experience, it wasn’t bad but hard, to tell you the truth, very hard. Especially for our mothers and grandmothers, let’s not talk about that. They were martyrs, and your [grandmothers] from the villages who were old women. How would they know, what, nothing. Work and work, who had goats milked. Listen, we were poor, there’s nothing there. I know many people, but my grandmother, I know my grandmother, she told me, she loved me a lot and she told me how but…
Anita Susuri: We heard that he was here in ‘90, or ‘91, I don’t know, Šešelj.
Marija Basler Karamatić: Yes, he was.
Anita Susuri: Then the situation changed at once.
Marija Basler Karamatić: At once, that’s why young people left. He came to kill everyone in the church.
Anita Susuri: Were you there?
Marija Basler Karamatić: Yes, I was and after this I left. I was there.
Anita Susuri: Can you tell us a little about this?
Marija Basler Karamatić: I was there, but not down there because I wasn’t allowed to. I was married with two children, my husband was a jealous man. I didn’t go, but he could have [killed] us all to be honest. But here it was horribly scary, but when Olga came back, she knew a lot of people and she called in Prishtina (coughs), she heard that Šešelj will be coming here. You know that Albanian boy, when they went, when they went down there, allegedly he thought he was a donkey. He was wounded in his leg, that boy. We gathered money to take him to the hospital, me and Finka, so they would remove the bullet out of his leg.
So, it was scary, it was horrible. But I don’t know it well, I haven’t experienced it because I wasn’t at the bazaar. I was at home, my husband didn’t allow me, my mother-in-law was living with us, I didn’t go there. But from what I’ve heard, I know that it was horrible and then our mothers started getting the children out of here. They thought they would be sent to the army. So they didn’t know who was leaving, this is how it was. My mother stayed here, my father, my little son, he was here with my mother and my daughter. The grownups all went, some by plane from Skopje, some like this. My brother barely gathered all the merchandise, everything, they had many machines, just to leave. Like this.
But thank God, or Saint Nicholas, anyway, the church was full with people but he [Šešelj] went back. I don’t know how it was, Olga called them immediately, then they came from Pristina because I knew many…
Anita Susuri: Which Olga?
Marija Basler Karamatić: Olga down in the bazaar. She is alive, the girl Finka died. I told you I was in Turkey with her, she knew many people in Pristina. All the important people in SUP, but she also knew Serbs who… But they were good people who she socialized with, they’re not all the same. Even Serbs who worked with Albanians cried for me, before I left for Switzerland, “Marija, how can we turn our backs to our best friends? I don’t know,” he said, “what is this, we ate, we drank,” he said, “we socialized.”
In the worst times, they came to me, they weren’t scared because they weren’t bad. This is it, how in a second things change, they worked, they were inspectors until then, security there. I don’t know but our Saint Nicholas ward them off, and they came here to kill people and the church was full of people. I know all of these, but it has passed. No one had, just a boy. Then they ran off, they immediately came from Pristina, they left for up there [Croatia] and wounded that boy. And this is it, the story…
Anita Susuri: After this, you went to Switzerland?
Marija Basler Karamatić: After this, yes, yes. After this, I went to Switzerland and this is how it was. Then my family went to Zagreb and so on.
Anita Susuri: Were you in Kosovo during the war?
Marija Basler Karamatić: I wasn’t here, no. I wasn’t here and I didn’t experience it.
Anita Susuri: What about your family?
Marija Basler Karamatić: No, no, they weren’t (coughs). No, no they left when that horrible period began. I wasn’t. I don’t know what to say about that, I don’t know about this because I wasn’t, I didn’t experience it. But, as I’ve heard, it wasn’t easy. They hid, they were scared, they didn’t have electricity, they didn’t have anything. You know how it is, this is all.
Anita Susuri: Do you have anything to add?
Marija Basler Karamatić: I don’t have anything else, this is all for now.
Anita Susuri: Thank you.
Marija Basler Karamatić: Nothing, maybe some other time, when you have time, I will calm down, and maybe I will remember something else.