Contents:
CLIMATE
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN MALE
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN FEMALE
HABITATION
INTERIOR SPACE
WATER
LIGHT
SLEEPING
HEATING
DRINKING
EATING
PRESERVING TIPS
MEDICAL CARE
SCHOOLS
NEWS
RUMORS
Sarajevo is a city of slender people...wearing youthful clothes of teenage size. Sarajevans have lost about [8 million pounds]...They greet each other with--TAKE CARE!
You can change apartments if one of your friends manages to leave town. Some people have two or three apartments. Depending on what each of them can offer: electricity, gas, water, or minimal security--they move from one apartment to another. Those who are looking for you will find you at the address where you collect humanitarian aid. Some are living in communes. Old families have disintegrated--new ones are being formed.
Windows are gone, destroyed by perpetual detonations. It was kind of pleasant during the summer--plastic came only with the first rains. People were fixing it to the window frames with wide tape used in factories for packing. Glue gave up under the rain and winds. Then people used nails. Whoever had no plastic--more than a precious item on the black market--would close the windows with cardboard boxes left behind from the humanitarian aid.
Some windows are protected by lumber brought from basements and roofs. Those homes are dark as graves...For the sake of security--merely psychological security--one closes windows with heavy cupboards, mattresses, books, carpets. Windows are dark after daylight is gone. People accumulate all their precious belongings in some corner of the apartment which they consider safest. Bathrooms, which somehow often happen to be in the center, are storage for paintings. Photographs, documents, jewelry, money, passports are in a bag next to the exit. In the bag are a few more items: zwieback [crackers], thermos, canned pate, and blankets.
In the basement everyone has a place, either one that was fought for or one that had to be accepted. This space is ruled by the laws of community. Basements and staircases are special territories.
In the beginning of the war, a new social category emerged: owners of staircases. They established office hours. Those who are idle write down the name of each visitor, the ID number, hours of arrival and of departure--all very precisely, in a little book. A real spy book, in fact, like the proof needed by a jealous husband or wife.
Water shortages may last for days, or weeks. The reasons are always the same--no electricity, or an act of terror. Then the search starts...Those who carry water do so, depending on their strength and the number of canisters, several times a day, traveling several kilometers, waiting in a line for at least three hours. The lucky ones are those with bicycles, which are pushed rather than driven. The same with the owners of baby carriages and former market carriages. Anything that rolls will do, for everything is easier than carrying the water by hand.
One of the ways to find water is by using dowsing rods. Life, and your ability to survive, is very much about natural talents. In this case you pit your electromagnetic waves against those of the water. Gifted magicians are searching for water. Those more talented and skillful can even advise you how deep you should dig.
It is the rain that brings consolation. Groove gutters are, unfortunately, damaged. People stand in line, in the rain, waiting with buckets for their portion of rain-water. Day or night--it doesn't really matter. People drink it and use it for doing laundry. It is very good for your hair, which becomes silky and shiny...They ration water as if they were Bedouins. Long hair can be washed in a liter ad a half, the whole body in two or three--all in little pots and pans, with water lukewarm or cold.
The washing machine is a household appliance from some long-gone time. It has no function. The women of Sarajevo are again first-class laundresses. The only thing lacking is a battledore, lye soap, and a clean river to wash what they have.
To run the toilet, waste water is collected, and water is brought from springs--if they are not too polluted--or from the street.
Cold weather and the arrival of winter brought about new arrangements in the apartments. Chimney outlets were opened even in houses with central heating. From basements and attics, from friends and acquaintances, old stoves were brought. Boiler rooms are not working. In the absence of chimneys, people fix extra flues and stick them out their windows. Flues are lurking on streets, smoking. Cooking still continues on the balconies, housewives stirring the fire with newspapers. The basic stove is a tin one...Material and imagination define the form, size and the purpose [for coffee, cooking or heating]...But the major problem is fuel. You cannot buy wood or coal.
During the first summer all dry benches, trees and wooden material were collected. This fall, parks, allees, courtyard and cemetery trees started to fall--birches, poplars, ash trees, plane trees, plum trees, apple trees, cherry trees, pear trees, all the way down to brushwood. Wooden backs of benches in parks were taken away, frames and doors of ruined apartments, handrails from the hallways, shelves from abandoned stores and kiosks, wooden stools and bars from restaurants, even the crosses and pyramids from the cemeteries. All bombed houses and barracks were dismantled with enviable speed. But fuel is still scarce...Fortunately, everyone can get warm while searching for food and water.
The water from Sarajevo has always been famous. Today, it is being boiled and cleaned by pills...There is a white pill for two liters and a green for five liters. Problems start when you have a green pill, and you don't have a pot big enough. The source of these pills is a secret which cannot be known. Pills are owned by the military, police, UNPROFOR [the UN Protection Force], by the civil service...Yet, the water, and tea, are the basic drinks in Sarajevo.
The search for alcohol is long and expensive, as it is for juices and milk. Parents are looking everywhere for canned powdered milk...Peasants who managed to save their cows and goats are not bringing milk into the city. There are refugees in the outskirts of Sarajevo who took their animals with them into exile. There is a story about the woman who lives with her cow in an abandoned apartment, on the fourth floor: the woman inside, and the cow on the balcony. She is afraid to leave the cow for a single moment.
A war cookbook emerged spontaneously, as a survival bestseller. Recipes spread throughout the city very quickly. People are healthy, in spite of everything, for no one eats animal fat anymore, nor meat, nor cheese--meals are made without eggs, without milk, onions, meat, vegetables. We eat a precious mix of wild imagination.
MEAT, if you have any, should be cut in very thin slices, salted, arranged in a bowl, pressed with some heavy object and covered by oil. Not the smallest piece should be in touch with air. That way it will be preserved longer, especially under your careful control. Better effects are gained if you fry the meat first, and then cover it with hot oil. You take out the portion planned for each meal. Another tip for preserving meat...wash it well, then roll it in a napkin soaked in vinegar--that way it can stay fresh for a few days.
FRESH VEGETABLES [can be had only] from someone's garden, or your flower pots which are by now cleansed of unuseful plants, or a park that's become a source for survival. Vegetables like scallions, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, or anything that looks similar, should be cleaned, washed, and rolled into a wet napkin...to preserve freshness. Carrots and parsley should be cut, salted, and packed tightly into jars...to keep them longer with most of their vitamins retained. You should squeeze all the juices from vegetables like parsley and celery, and then dry them...the way our grandmothers did it many years ago.
Pharmacies are working, but medicine is mostly missing. Bring your own vitamins. In an emergency--look for the locations of Benevolencija and Caritas.
Radio Bosnia and Herzegovina, Studio Sarajevo, is broadcasting 24 hours a day. When there is electricity, one listens to more than just news. The news is broadcast every hour and everyone is waiting for it. Television today is no more than a few informative broadcasts, live programs and a press-conference held daily in the International Press Center.
PLEASE SEE:
DART GAME--The beginning
THE EXTRAS--Non-essentials
DIVERSIONS
FUTURE AND PAST--End of the beginning
A COOKBOOK FOR WAR
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