"Is that a computer?"

Visoko, Bosnia

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina live in a different time. I bring modern time with me and buzz around town like a super-gofer on my archaeological missions. It's like the Star Trek episode in which the aliens move so much faster than Kirk, Spock, and McCoy that the frenetic aliens are invisible and their voices sound like mosquitoes in human ears. Of course, Visoko, where the pyramids and I reside, is a very small town. Sarajevo, a bustling metropolis 30 minutes southeast of us, has been infected by the Western mosquito virus. But even here the old culture remains. Arriving at the Sarajevo airport after a 20-hour journey from the U.S., I picked up my bags and began to head toward the exit.

Plane ticket from Chicago to Munich

One of three officers studied my baggage, all of which was stacked on an excellent old (and free) cart. He focused on a huge box containing my non-portable Macintosh. On this box was a nearly life-sized picture of an iMac. He said, "Is that a computer?" I stopped the cart and said, "Yes." Wanting to offer more, I stated the obvious: "A Macintosh." I was ready to produce my shirt-pocket-secreted baggage claim checks, as all good Westerners are, but he just nodded me past. 

Baggage claim checks for flight from Chicago to Sarajevo