Being that I was qualified as a driver,
I was qualified bus driver so I had to
bring fifty men from where we were at to
their house down in Visoko.
I don’t know where Visoko is but
they all told me you have to wear your
helmet and your bullet proof vest because
they are shooting in the pacman.
The pacman is a road,
a Canadian made road that the engineers
did while we were down there and, you know,
they said there were snipers all over the
place and it’s dangerous.
So just before I even leave
I am already worried where am I going, you know.
I don’t know where I am going so
I am insecure, okay I have to rely on somebody
to phone me the way and
I have to drive fifty people
that are responsible,
that I am responsible for on the bus.
I mean there’s not many ways
of getting out of a bus if you’re
being shelled on or if you are being shot at.
So I said, I prayed,
I prayed all the way.
When I got to Visoko everything went fine.
A great relief but that was my
welcome to Bosnia,
the first day that I arrived I was right on the road,
you know, there was no debriefing,
you know, nothing I had no time for
anything like that.
And everybody in the bus they all had
their bullet proof vests and their helmets and,
you know, I said this is serious business here.
And pacman was known at the beginning
to have a lot of snipers.
A lot of vehicles were shot at;
some of our trucks were shot at.
I had a sea container that was shot at
while I was driving so it was terrifying.
Terrifying because not only were you
worried about these snipers but
you were worried about the road that
we were on was not wide enough for
two vehicles to pass and the Croatians or
the Serbs didn’t bother,
they would pass beside you.
It wasn’t too bad when you were in
through the mountain but when you are
out of the mountain and they are passing you,
you’re on the ledge and you are very high
so you don’t know if you are going to slip or
anything like that so that’s another worry.
To watching that, watching the person
that’s driving plus worrying about the snipers,
it gets you going.