I apologize that I did not have time to offend you

So ended one interview with a farmer in Serbia yesterday. It was a very friendly conversation and he was quite open, answered my questions, provided a lot of helpful information, and even went out of his way to introduce me to others and take me out to the field, but in the end there was some underlying tension - a simple reminder that many Serbians see the NATO bombing as being led by the US and they despise Americans because of it. In the wholesale fruit market outside of Belgrade earlier in the week a trader took ten minutes out of his busy morning to tell us how much he dislikes Clinton (although I’m sure he used much less dainty language edited by the translator). These underlying tensions between different ethnic groups and towards outsiders are complex and not easy to understand. They make working here interesting.

I traveled to Central Serbia on Friday and spent my day with the head of a blueberry cooperative. Serbia is so much more advanced compared to most countries where I work, but I keep having to stop myself from making that comparison as Serbia really should be compared to the rest of Europe and it is certainly far behind Germany, Austria or even Slovenia. Still, there are lots of changes taking place and assuming peace reigns, Serbia seems to be on the right track.