At the innocent age of fifteen, Selma was just
beginning to experience the power of her first love.
Unfortunately, living in Bosnia in 1992, Selma and her parents soon found themselves targets of the Bosnian War. Being in a war, they didn’t have a lot of choices when it came to food. They ate whatever they could find.
Since Selma and her parents lived in a city, they
didn’t have a vegetable garden or live stock. They ran out of money, so they
couldn’t just go out and buy food.
At first, they would walk to Selma’s grandparents’
farm and borrow food. The walk would usually take them about two hours there
and two hours back, but as the war situation got worse, going there became too
dangerous.
After Selma’s father got arrested by the Serb army
and taken away to a concentration camp, Selma and her mother were at the end of
their rope. They had absolutely nothing to eat and no way of getting food.
That’s when one of Selma’s neighbors pitched in and started sharing with them
what little food she had left.
She didn’t have much herself, so they had to come
up with their own recipes in order to create something out of nothing.
One of Selma’s favorite things to eat at the time
were these little doughnut-like cookies they didn’t even have a name for.
In a large bowl, they would mix a little bit of
flour with a couple of diced apples, a pinch of sugar, and some water. They
would, then, take spoon-fulls of it and deep fry until golden brown. Sprinkled
with some powder sugar—if they were lucky enough to have it— it almost tasted
delicious.
Those were the happy memories of shared meals in a
war. However, those days didn’t last too long, for Selma was unfortunate enough
to be taken away from home and thrown into a concentration/rape camp where she
had to learn the hard way about how little a person needs in order to survive.
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Sanela!
You can find Sanela here:
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