Imagine a high school where students change classes to the explosion of mortar bombs, not the ring of a school bell. Where classes are moved to local pool halls after the school is turned into rubble.
Where students don't live in anxiety over semester exams or a dreaded biology final - they fear for their lives.
This may sound like fiction, but according to award-winning photojournalist Jim Craig of the Hungry Horse News, for students in Bosnia that's a good description of reality.
The students "liked going to school," said Craig when speaking to Richard Hildner's Global Village class on Jan. 16. "It was a social gathering for them, since they don't lead structured lives."
Originally from Pennsylvania, Craig flew to Sarejevo, Bosnia, in 1992 because he believed that it would be the "ultimate photo experience." He intended to stay for a few days, but instead remained for three years.
"There was always the danger of getting to and from school for the students," said Craig. "They could be killed at either time."
While speaking to Hildner's class, Craig recalled stories of his time in Bosnia. Wells were favorite bombing sites for Serbs, so Bosnians began drinking beer, because it was safer to get. Some Bosnians even went to extremes, such as brushing their teeth with beer.
In fact, beer and cigarette factories were the only factories left open during the war.
"Nothing's ever as bad or as good as you expect it to be," said Craig. "Things on TV are short and condensed; in real life it's long and drawn out."
While walking through Sarejevo, Craig saw signs that had "Pazi Snajer" encrypted on it.
The sign warned pedestrians that the street in which they were walking had had civilians killed by snipers.
"The beginning of the war was worse," said Craig. "As the problem of snipers grew, Bosnians started to build trenches and walls to hide in and behind while walking to the market or such."
Craig rode in vehicles with bulletproof glass, and always wore a bulletproof vest.
"Everyone had guns, you didn't know if someone would shoot you," he said. "When I left Bosnia, I gave my interpreter my vest, and later in the day she sold it so she could buy cigarettes."
Perhaps what Craig will always remember most was when he was talking to a Bosnian civilian in Sarejevo, when three nearby journalist friends who traveled with Craig to Sarejevo were hit by a mortar bomb. Craig took a photo of his friends lying on the ground dead and later sold it for $4,500 to Rai television of Italy.
"Sometimes I was sorry that I took that photo," said Craig. "I was kind of rattled when it happened, but taking photos was what I was there to do, so I did it."
Craig's were so good that he won Czech Press Photographer of the Year honors for a photo of what was left of a man - the foot - after being shelled by the Serbs.
Now safely living in Columbia Falls, taking photographs of Boy Scout camping trips for the Hungry Horse News, Craig hopes to travel to Rwanda or back to Bosnia - to once again endanger his life for his photography career.
"I learned a lot about life," said Craig. "It was an accelerated photo-journalism course. I was exposed to a lot of stuff that most people never will be exposed to. I had the ability to see both sides of the war."
Said Craig: "I have no regrets."