In the late summer of 1996, I spent several months as a Canadian observer of the post-Dayton elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The terrible fighting in the war had ended the previous year but the reminders of war were all around us. 

Nowadays, election observation is a very organized process. But then, it was very ad hoc. I had to find accommodation, interpreter, and driver and car myself, and pay for it with Deutschmarks I carried in a money belt I wore almost constantly.

One other international, who had just moved from an apartment downtown to a house up on the hill overlooking the town, offered the apartment. It was on the second floor, overlooking an alley. The bar across the street would set out tables and chairs.

And play the Macarena, over and over again.