Freedom Loving Youth – FLY·Tuesday
The earthquake was deafening and frightening; dust filled the air, people were screaming and crying, they went mad, there were corpses on the ground, people were under the ruins and the town was destroyed.
It was a hell which later had its real and awful consequences…
There were ruins and dilapidated blocks of homes that were later replaced with the “dnaks” (metal containers). They were supposed to be temporary dwellings where people could live only 3-5 years; however 3-5 years turned into 25-30 years.
Almost everyone started living in those dnaks. A dnak was a room which was 6-9 m long and was made of tin which had no conveniences. Most of us lived there; many generations grew up in those dnaks made of metal.
People lived in darkness; there was no gas, no electricity, no water… and no jobs. They ate only a limited amount of dry bread…
Those who had a bathroom were considered to be happy and lucky people. A toilet was a tiny room with a hole inside the ground outside of the house. In the wintertime, during the rain and snow, at night we were afraid of using that toilet outside of the house.
Our mothers carried in buckets of water then they boiled it on the wood-burning heater to do housework. Taking a shower was not always possible. We carried in buckets of water, boiled it and then we took a bath in a tub in the corner of the living room. When the power was switched on, it was pure joy; our mothers didn’t go to sleep because they needed to do housework.
We burnt everything except wood in the wood-burning heater to warm ourselves, including shoes, clothes, oil, plastic bottles and tires. Sometimes that toxic and black smoke filled the entire room.
We tried to finish our homework during the daytime otherwise we had to write and read by candlelight.
It was extremely cold in those dnaks in the winter and extremely hot in the summer. In the winter the windows and the nails inside of the house walls were covered with the ice. The wooden floor broke and decayed because of rain that poured in from the ceiling and windows.
The only happiness during those years was our conversations in the darkness by the candlelight near the heater burner on which we fried potatoes and ate them.
In the summer we filled plastic bottles with water, stored them in high elevation to get warm, and then we used that water t take a bath and do laundry.
To have a simple house was a dream for us…
I was 20 when the government repaired our dilapidated block of flats. I was born there and lived there until I was 4 and the earthquake happened. After having lived in a dnak for 16 years, it was a blissful joy to have a stone apartment. It was a dream for my family to have a bathroom, cold and hot water, heating, a solid floor on which no fungus was growing and there were no rats. We had a kitchen, a bedroom and a living-room. When we lived in a dnak, we had just one room for the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom.
The common conveniences had been a dream for us…
Even in those inhumane and cruel conditions, we had been taught to love, to forgive and to be kind. Those teachings invigorated us and gave us the patience to carry on until we got a “blessed house”.
16 years of memories.
A small part of the memories that began from 4 till 20 years old!
Armenia, Gyumri, 1988-dnak- 227/171- Armenia, Gyumri, 2004- block of flats76, apartment 1.
Armenian:
The earthquake was deafening and frightening; dust filled the air, people were screaming and crying, they went mad, there were corpses on the ground, people were under the ruins and the town was destroyed.
It was a hell which later had its real and awful consequences…
There were ruins and dilapidated blocks of homes that were later replaced with the “dnaks” (metal containers). They were supposed to be temporary dwellings where people could live only 3-5 years; however 3-5 years turned into 25-30 years.
Almost everyone started living in those dnaks. A dnak was a room which was 6-9 m long and was made of tin which had no conveniences. Most of us lived there; many generations grew up in those dnaks made of metal.
People lived in darkness; there was no gas, no electricity, no water… and no jobs. They ate only a limited amount of dry bread…
Those who had a bathroom were considered to be happy and lucky people. A toilet was a tiny room with a hole inside the ground outside of the house. In the wintertime, during the rain and snow, at night we were afraid of using that toilet outside of the house.
Our mothers carried in buckets of water then they boiled it on the wood-burning heater to do housework. Taking a shower was not always possible. We carried in buckets of water, boiled it and then we took a bath in a tub in the corner of the living room. When the power was switched on, it was pure joy; our mothers didn’t go to sleep because they needed to do housework.
We burnt everything except wood in the wood-burning heater to warm ourselves, including shoes, clothes, oil, plastic bottles and tires. Sometimes that toxic and black smoke filled the entire room.
We tried to finish our homework during the daytime otherwise we had to write and read by candlelight.
It was extremely cold in those dnaks in the winter and extremely hot in the summer. In the winter the windows and the nails inside of the house walls were covered with the ice. The wooden floor broke and decayed because of rain that poured in from the ceiling and windows.
The only happiness during those years was our conversations in the darkness by the candlelight near the heater burner on which we fried potatoes and ate them.
In the summer we filled plastic bottles with water, stored them in high elevation to get warm, and then we used that water t take a bath and do laundry.
To have a simple house was a dream for us…
I was 20 when the government repaired our dilapidated block of flats. I was born there and lived there until I was 4 and the earthquake happened. After having lived in a dnak for 16 years, it was a blissful joy to have a stone apartment. It was a dream for my family to have a bathroom, cold and hot water, heating, a solid floor on which no fungus was growing and there were no rats. We had a kitchen, a bedroom and a living-room. When we lived in a dnak, we had just one room for the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom.
The common conveniences had been a dream for us…
Even in those inhumane and cruel conditions, we had been taught to love, to forgive and to be kind. Those teachings invigorated us and gave us the patience to carry on until we got a “blessed house”.
16 years of memories.
A small part of the memories that began from 4 till 20 years old!
Armenia, Gyumri, 1988-dnak- 227/171- Armenia, Gyumri, 2004- block of flats76, apartment 1.
The earthquake was deafening and frightening; dust filled the air, people were screaming and crying, they went mad, there were corpses on the ground, people were under the ruins and the town was destroyed.
It was a hell which later had its real and awful consequences…
There were ruins and dilapidated blocks of homes that were later replaced with the “dnaks” (metal containers). They were supposed to be temporary dwellings where people could live only 3-5 years; however 3-5 years turned into 25-30 years.
Almost everyone started living in those dnaks. A dnak was a room which was 6-9 m long and was made of tin which had no conveniences. Most of us lived there; many generations grew up in those dnaks made of metal.
People lived in darkness; there was no gas, no electricity, no water… and no jobs. They ate only a limited amount of dry bread…
Those who had a bathroom were considered to be happy and lucky people. A toilet was a tiny room with a hole inside the ground outside of the house. In the wintertime, during the rain and snow, at night we were afraid of using that toilet outside of the house.
Our mothers carried in buckets of water then they boiled it on the wood-burning heater to do housework. Taking a shower was not always possible. We carried in buckets of water, boiled it and then we took a bath in a tub in the corner of the living room. When the power was switched on, it was pure joy; our mothers didn’t go to sleep because they needed to do housework.
We burnt everything except wood in the wood-burning heater to warm ourselves, including shoes, clothes, oil, plastic bottles and tires. Sometimes that toxic and black smoke filled the entire room.
We tried to finish our homework during the daytime otherwise we had to write and read by candlelight.
It was extremely cold in those dnaks in the winter and extremely hot in the summer. In the winter the windows and the nails inside of the house walls were covered with the ice. The wooden floor broke and decayed because of rain that poured in from the ceiling and windows.
The only happiness during those years was our conversations in the darkness by the candlelight near the heater burner on which we fried potatoes and ate them.
In the summer we filled plastic bottles with water, stored them in high elevation to get warm, and then we used that water t take a bath and do laundry.
To have a simple house was a dream for us…
I was 20 when the government repaired our dilapidated block of flats. I was born there and lived there until I was 4 and the earthquake happened. After having lived in a dnak for 16 years, it was a blissful joy to have a stone apartment. It was a dream for my family to have a bathroom, cold and hot water, heating, a solid floor on which no fungus was growing and there were no rats. We had a kitchen, a bedroom and a living-room. When we lived in a dnak, we had just one room for the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom.
The common conveniences had been a dream for us…
Even in those inhumane and cruel conditions, we had been taught to love, to forgive and to be kind. Those teachings invigorated us and gave us the patience to carry on until we got a “blessed house”.
16 years of memories.
A small part of the memories that began from 4 till 20 years old!
Armenia, Gyumri, 1988-dnak- 227/171- Armenia, Gyumri, 2004- block of flats76, apartment 1.