How many times I start a journal and want to begin with "You never know what to expect on an aid trip...", as each trip is different from the last and there is always something new to experience, something which makes you understand why this work needs to continue.

On the one hand this was a normal aid trip, except that there was a group of students from Portsmouth, Southampton and York Universities who had come down to help Father Bradica in Lasinje create a children's playground. They had undertaken a whole range of activities to raise the money in order to buy playground equipment and tools which were needed. They spent nearly two weeks in one (sleeping) room with a single shower and toilet between them. The local villagers helped by allowing them to use their facilities.

They worked very hard and completed the playground on time. There was also a lot of cementing of international relationships! and, I am informed that the alcohol consumption in Croatia increased dramatically over the two weeks.

Well done the students.

There was the usual team of myself, Bob, Fred, Roy and Tim; in addition we were joined by Nicky and Stuart from Wales, and Pam from the Essex/Cambridgeshire border. Nicky and Stuart are friends and supporters from Wales, while Pam is a journalist who works for a local paper.

We had the normal range of goods, food, toiletries, clothes etc., only this time I had been asking people to particularly collect sanitary towels and nappies, and we had bought 1,000 bottles of vegetable oil and a further 100 duvets and pillows for Grad Mladic. The weather also played a crucial factor on this journey as we had some amazing thunder storms which meant quite long periods when we couldn't do anything.

We had what looked like a pretty straightforward visit. The usual round of camps. Firstly Bundek, where there are over 150 families, many of whom have lived here for seven or eight years. We had opted for the new system where we prepared enough for each barrack to ensure that there were no complaints about fairness when the aid was handed out. This worked really well and at the end there had been no fights or arguments and everyone appeared happy. Although this took us much longer than usual I think the extra effort was worth it.

On the Friday we visited some new camps (it's amazing that after all this time the refugee office keeps springing new places upon us). The first Kenedev was full of refugees from Vukovar. These people had all been here for seven years and most shared a room with two or three others. They were so hospitable and sang a number of folk songs from Vukovar, the countryside and Croatia in general. It was really wonderful.

One of the people whom we were talking to (Nicky and Stuart were filming a lot of this trip) started to explain how they hid in the basement of their house for three months to avoid the shells, while living on a basic diet, often made up of some form of grain and vinegar. It seemed unbelievable as her story unfolded. We watched her room mate, another woman in her seventies, start to cry as she remembered about her friends and family who had been murdered.

This is the way of the Balkans.

We promised to bring them some furniture the next day and left for another new camp, which sounds rather more luxurious, it being in the Park Hotel.

One complete floor of the hotel has been given over to refugees, who have also been here for seven years. This may sound O.K. but if you try and consider living in a small hotel room with two or three other people, converted to include cooking and washing facilities, then I can assure you that it is not very pleasant at all. We met many people who had various horror stories to share with us, and with different people split into smaller groups we were entertained by a seventeen year old girl called Ivana who, with her older brother, had visited England in 1993 as a guest of a Devon based charity which cared for refugees. The coordinator of this group was to accompany us to Vukovar on Tuesday, and we offered them all some furniture which they could come and chose the next day.

That evening we met a Scotsman named Tom Connolly who had been working with an NGO in Croatia, which had been building houses. As we have plans for a larger project in Croatia involving building Tom's advice was invaluable also as he is now being posted to Kosovo and we want to start work there later in the year. Tom's assistant, Jadranka, has agreed to help us in Croatia and her help will be very useful.

The next day we took the furniture to Kenedev and the people from the hotel came and chose theirs, which we also delivered, and then we loaded up for Grad Mladic.

Last year I made a commitment to the people that we would provide each person with a fifteen tog duvet. There are 183 people and now we have seventeen to go. This trip we delivered another 98 duvets and 103 pillows. Again we were treated so kindly.

When we arrived there was short presentation where they thanked us for the support we give them and gave to three of us small gifts. I received a flag of Vukovar. One of the elders, a woman named Maria, gave a short speech and said how the friendship between us was beyond that of most friends. We could come and see them at any time as friends and the aid was now coincidental. She then recited a poem she had written at the time of the battle for Vukovar. There were tear filled eyes from many of those present.

Later we found out this woman's story. She is actually a Serb and married a Croat. When she was sixteen, she is now in her seventies, she was a partisan and imprisoned by the Nazi's, at the same time as they killed her brother, who was then twenty three. Because she is a Serb she is treated badly by some Croats, but because she married a Croat she is treated badly by Serbs.

This is a woman of great fortitude and it is difficult to look at her now and think of the things she has done in her life.

Our stay in Grad Mladic over we headed off to meet the students in Lasinje, but first to deliver aid to the camp on the other side of the river to that at Pisarovina. The students worked hard handing out aid to each family and after about ninety minutes the work was done and we crossed over the bridge to Lasinje.

It was easy to see that the students had worked hard in their first week, despite the rain, and the playground was shaping up already.

We enjoyed a communal meal, provided by Father Bradica, at a local bar, and left the younger members of the group to enjoy their drinking which went on to the early hours.

We had a relatively easy day on the Sunday, visiting the camps at HZ and Nova Cice. As an illegal camp HZ has had no water or electricity for quite a while now, and so we always take extra goods. The family whose house we paid part of money for, live there and they are always pleased to see us. It was warm day and we unloaded the aid and let the refugees tell their stories to Stuart and Nicky, and Pam. After some time we left for Nova Cice.

Nova Cice is the place where there is always the most trouble when we hand out the aid and so we decided we would use the same system we adopted at Bundek. This worked really well, until at the end when we left some aid outside of two barracks and a family managed to take more than there fair share. Arguments suddenly started to break out everywhere, I suppose it is the tension, and we had to move in as mediators. All was calmed down and we left to visit the house we had helped to purchase.

The work is starting to be done on the house in order that it is habitable (it is now, but needs a little upgrading) and the land at the back has had its first crops sown ready for late summer harvest. It was nice to see the family so relaxed and happy, and I was reminded of the day in May when I flew down and handed over the balance of the money to make the house theirs, and the look of happiness on their faces was a joy to behold.

The next day, Monday, we were visiting Gornje Bistra and the railway carriages at Zapresic. I have mentioned both in previous journals, but the first is a hospital for children with severe mental and physical handicap, and the second are some carriages where four families live. They have to leave as they have been given notice to quit, and it is likely they will have to find other accommodation before the end of the Summer.

As always Bistra had a very powerful effect on the visitors, especially the students who had never been there before. The mood is always a little sombre when we leave.

That evening we were treated to a bhajan learning session, led by Hrvir who leads many bhajan sessions in Zagreb.

The next day we left for Vukovar, via a transit camp for refugees called Gasinci. The fact we even got into Gasinci was a miracle in itself.

In the local town, Dakovo, we were asking for directions and a police car turned up, he said follow me, and he led us for about ten minutes until we reached the gates of a 'fenced off' area. Seeing the police car they opened the gates immediately and we drove in unchallenged.

It was a public holiday and most people had the day off, including the person who had arranged for us to visit. After a lot of negotiating we were allowed to leave part of the aid, in fact it was more like threats, such as - if you don't want it then we'll take it to Vukovar. If the policeman had not led us in, we would not have been allowed to enter under any circumstances.

The conditions were quite difficult. The camp houses refugees without any form of status, such as those from Kosovo. We met one man from Kosovo who came from Volvodyna, which is a province in Northern Serbia. He was the local baker and when the trouble started in Kosovo his shop and house were stoned by locals and his family threatened. They fled to Croatia. He was quite bemused by what was happening. He said that he had a house, car and money in his town and what he was hoping to do was go to Kosovo and find a Serb family who would swap with him.

The camp is surrounded by barbed wire and policed by armed guards. No one is allowed to leave the perimeter. Everyone gets three meals a days and wood to keep the rooms warm, and beyond that medical facilities are provided by the Red Cross/Crescent, and other items by UNHCR. The situation is bleak and the previous week some refugees arrived from Kosovo and were so frightened by their circumstance they refused to get off the bus and stayed on it for four days until they were allowed to return to Albania.

We left for Vukovar. We were accompanied by a woman named Ana whom I had met when I visited the British Ambassador and his wife in May. Although this was my fourth visit to Vukovar, Ana was to show us areas I had never visited.

One place she took us to was her own house, which is currently occupied by a family of Serbs. To try and put some things into historical perspective, Vukovar was occupied by Serbian forces in 91/92 and most Croats left. Houses which were not too badly damaged were then inhabited by the remaining Serb families. Two years ago Vukovar was handed back to Croatia and people went back for the first time. Ana found that a Serb family moved into her house in 1992. In the block of ten houses, which had previously been home to five Serb and five Croat families, it was now completely occupied by Serbians.

I asked her what she was going to do about it and she said that she would pray and treat the people nicely and hopefully they would move out of their own accord. She had been advised that she should start legal proceedings to have them ejected. She was so friendly towards them, I wonder how many of us would be in her situation.

After driving around Vukovar for some time (we were now running very late), we moved on to a small village where we were given a meal by a family. Imagine the situation, twenty people arrive at 17.00, immediately you are seated at a table, food is brought, you eat, you get up and leave, the time is now 17.45. In between all this your hosts sing songs to you. As you leave they say come back and see us, spend some time here, just come and be happy.

On we went to a village called Bapska where we had the Mayor, Priest and various village dignitaries waiting for us. We were leaving the rest of the aid here. Bapska had previously had a population of 2,000. During the war it was evacuated and 5,000 Serbs moved in. At the end of the war, the Serbs moved out and most of the village was destroyed. This was home to an ethnic group called Ruthians.

We unloaded, were treated to another meal, I refrained. Although no one sang to us here, we were told the usual stories of atrocities, but I had to leave early as a bag had been left at our last stop and we had to go and collect it.

The long drive home to Zagreb followed.

The penultimate day and we visited Children First, an organisation which looks after street children, poor Bosnian families and Romany families. Blanca, the woman who runs this, does a fine job and was grateful for the nappies we were able to leave.

Another long drive home, made easier with three drivers and the excellent company of Nicky and Stuart, who may make the August trip on their own, accompanied by Bob.

With many thanks to the children of Llanelwedd primary school in Builth Wells, as well as the many individuals in Builth who contributed aid, varying groups in Bedford, Luton, Llandridnod Wells, Portishead, Totnes and Westcliff, together with the many individuals and organisations who have helped put this trip together, for without you all we couldn't have achieved anything.

Now let's look forward and see what we can do for Kosovo later in the year. Tom said he'll try and get us in there, but who's going to help out at this end. Any volunteers?

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