The grant

I should have written this almost three weeks ago, just for the sake of celebration. But end of sessions have a great inhibiting effect on me.

I was in the editing room at Concordia, snapping away at some clips for my last short documentary of the semester. Besides me, my faithful laptop that has never left my side since November. My eyes were begging me to leave the room, bloodshot and dry.

And then, the news. It popped into the email inbox on the screen of my laptop.

I got a grant to pursue my independent journalism project in the Balkans this summer!

Of course, the world stopped turning and my doc was suddenly not a priority anymore. I got that warm, bubbly feeling inside my throat- that energizing feeling which makes life worthwhile. I made a few phone calls to announce the news... That was March 14.

Writing the proposal for a Millennium Grant was quite time-consuming. I got the idea to look into the roles of Canada, international aid and the media in the Balkans based on the internship I had done in Guatemala the previous summer.

But this time, I wanted to be on my own and be free to explore the themes I chose and to have more time to do it. I love being immersed in a specific cultural environment trying to understand the dynamics and customs of different societies.

And the Balkans have been a coup de coeur of mine ever since I visited Croatia three years ago.

I'll be landing in Zagreb on May 16th, a bit more than a month. Until then, I'll be interviewing Canadians who have reported and worked in the Balkans, working on my Serbo-Croatian and reading as much as possible.

Just plunging into the history of this beautiful part of the globe that has seen so much destruction and pain...