THE EXTRAS--Non-essentials
from Sarajevo Survival Guide
Contents:
TOBACCO
DRUG STORES
OPTICIANS
BOOKSTORES
SOUVENIRS
GIFTS
MARKETS
MONEY AND PRICES
PARKS
THE ZOO
RECREATION
GAMES
TRANSPORTATION
COMMUNICATIONS
UNPROFOR (The UN Protection Force)
PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATIONS
REPAIRMEN
The tradition of famous tobacco from Herzegovina and more than a century of the existence and production of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory left a bad impact on Sarajevans. It spoiled them--people were used to the best cigarettes and tobacco for which special pipes, cigarette-cases and cigarette-holders were made.
Today, cigarettes are the biggest luxury and need. No one is quitting. You can buy them on the black market. Members of the army and of the police get them daily or weekly. There is no possibility of regular purchase. Matches too are to be found only on the black market.
On some markets you can find tobacco dust, which before served as a high quality fertilizer for plants and vegetables. Today, that dust is precious and hard to find. Tobacco leaves are even more expensive and very rare.
The most passionate smokers are smoking tea. They are drying chamomile, Swiss chard, leaves, and cut it into "tobacco." That tobacco is then being rolled into regular paper or daily [newspaper]. Filters are made of toilet paper which comes as a part of lunch packages. It seems to be easier to find a pipe.
There are three, for the whole city. What they sell is simple and cheap, but when you buy it--becomes expensive, and rare. Tooth-pastes, shaving cream, cotton, combs and hair-brushes, two kinds of after-shave lotion, three kinds of bad deodorants, about ten colors of lipstick, one kind of skin cream. The same "cosmetics" can be bought on the black market too, only there for Deutsche Marks.
They are selling about ten different frames for glasses, kept in the safe place under the counter. They don't cost too much. But people don't buy eyeglasses nowadays--they see all too clearly.
There are two that are working, and one "Book-Club"...in which the number and selection of books is rapidly diminishing. All the storefronts in the bookstores are gone, but no one has been stealing books. The storage of the biggest publishing house in Sarajevo is now in occupied territory. The destiny of those books is unknown. What can be seen is the growing interest for foreign books, and dictionaries. Everybody seems to be interested in the languages of the world. Price does not matter.
The most desired are the shrapnel, which can be found everywhere: on the sidewalks, on the streets, balconies, apartments. Bullets are popular, but have a somewhat lower price. Some take with them food coupons. Other 'trophies' include war issues of OSLOBODJENJE [the newspaper], pedigree dogs, shoes made of snake-leather--excellent for running at crossroads.
A bottle of clean water, a candle, a bar of soap, shampoo, some garlic or an onion. Passionate love is being expressed here by a handful of wood, a bucket of coal, a complete edition of books that lack humor or poetry. Could you spare some Vladimir Illich Lenin? Last winter has proven that his books burn well.
Abundance and color, choice and liveliness are gone from the markets of Sarajevo. There one can see poverty at its worst. Merchandise from all the tables can fit into two nylon bags. All the famous markets...are now more like meeting points. Fruits and vegetables have been reduced to some scallions, nettles, cabbage, zucchini, small rotting apples, green plums. All in small quantities, and all in DMs. During the fall you could find some pumpkins, potatoes from the humanitarian aid, nuts. The entire offer from any of the markets wasn't more than 20 kilos...
Yugoslav money was in official circulation until April 1992. The same one, only with the seal of the People's Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina functioned until December, for the country was without both paper and money. Since the new money for the Bosnian government printed in England [couldn't] reach Sarajevo safely, bonds were printed in size of two tram tickets...
One Deutsche Mark...is the basis for anything that is worth anything...The dollar is despised, and can barely be exchanged. Exchange functions only between the citizens of Sarajevo. Foreigners don't need to deal with it, for everything for them is paid. The biggest problem [for foreigners] is how to change a bank note of 100 DM. You should have change--that you can use in the Holiday Inn, in the Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the black market.
There is something new on the market of values. Papers: letters of guarantee, accreditation, military approval for leave of absence, a doctor's receipt that one is deadly ill, false documents of all kinds...Prices of these papers are...merely a matter of agreement. By now, the poor DM is quite inflated.
Sarajevo got its first park at the end of the last century. That was the Big Park, modeled by some governmental figure during the reign of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later, dozens of parks were planted with different trees and bushes, flowers and grass. They first suffered through the shelling, and then fell during the cold days and nights, cut by people who loved them but wanted to survive the winter. They did not believe anyone who reassured them that there would be electricity and that the heating systems would work. They were right.
Located in the Valley of Pioneers, is closed. The only inhabitants, still alive, are two ponies and several peacocks. Animals in the Zoo served as experimental targets for brave snipers on the nearby front line. Others gradually died of hunger and thirst--their guards were too afraid to reach them. All perished--monkeys, llamas, camels, tigers, wolves, lions. The last died on November the third. It was a bear, whose innocent death was shown all over the world.
Wear and Footwear
Everyone is in sports clothes, for they are warmer, more comfortable, and enable you to run quicker. Most of the members of the Bosnian Armed Forces wear deep white sneakers with the logo of Yugosport. Their uniform, at the beginning, consisted of jeans, [camouflage] ingeniously [improvised] of bright colors. Bulletproof jackets are very rare...Citizens renew wear and footwear by moving into abandoned apartments.
Walking
Six kilometers a day--that is the average for those who don't need to go very far. Some believe it helps to keep you in shape.
Running
That is the favorite sport, practiced by everyone in Sarajevo. All cross-roads are run through, as are all dangerous neighborhoods. One runs with stolen wood, to the line where others are standing. Something is for sale, and you will know [what] it [is] only when you join the line.
Rock-climbing
Urban rock-climbing is a compulsory sports discipline. Instead of adequate ropes, one uses sheets. Climbers [negotiate] distances between balconies, from higher to lower ones which are not yet reached by fire.
Soccer
Often played with soldiers of UNPROFOR. On the other side--Bosnian Armed Forces, police and professional city players who are still here. Games take place in the hall of the burned Skenderija. The game is hard, masculine, with lots of injuries. Foreigners lose here, as they always did.
Chess
Played on staircases, in basements and in shelters. Sometimes even in the chess club Bosna, which has a good and very expensive buffet.
Tree-cutting
An entirely new city discipline. Tools for this sport are an electric saw and axes, small and big. One gets trained by cutting, trimming, splitting, and piling wood on a balcony or in a room, where they don't suffer so much humidity. Wood is stacked in the bedroom, hall, living room, in the next apartment whose owners have left or disappeared.
Cards
The basic mode of comradeship during the long winter nights. Takes place on staircases where it was the first possibility for frightened neighbors to finally meet each other. For those who know how to play and win, it becomes part of the survival-struggle. No one plays for money, but for a lunch packet, canned fish, a liter of oil--that is serious capital!
Billiards
Banned in the nineteenth century, today it is the favorite time-killer for the jobless, school-less people. Some of them might become world champions.
Pinball Machines
They work despite the electricity. Their owners learned how to solve that minor problem.
Children's Games
Counting of grenades fired on the city, trimming fallen trees, collecting bullets, shells...Exchange of collections.
Speed
Dismantling the parts of abandoned cars and taking them away, into "security." Rules of the game: as quickly as possible. No age limits.
Ladies' Talk
Exchange of war recipes: who can prepare the better meal made of nothing?
Imagine driving through streets with no street lights (which are torn down or not working), without any traffic signs (for they are gone), without any attention paid to pedestrians, with a maximum speed across the crossroads and other dangerous spots. People are driving recklessly in both directions. No one pays any attention to crashes. Broken cars are abandoned easily and damage is...negotiated in quick conversations. This is the war with the biggest civilian motor pool. The war is being waged in Audis, in BMWs, in Mercedes and VW Golfs, as well as in expensive yuppie jeeps.
City Transportation
Trams, buses, vans, trolleys, cable rail-way--do not exist...Cars are running, if run by or for officials. Most were taken away by from private owners, with or without a receipt, especially if they ran on diesel. New models appeared, home-made armored cars which look like moving closets, only with a hole in front of the driver. They are slow, shaky and loud.
Bicycles
Never too popular in this hilly terrain--are being rediscovered and put to use. Shopping carts are now used for the transportation of water canisters, of coal and wood. Renting is not too expensive.
Taxis
Do not exist.
Parking
Advised only on spots protected from grenades and thieves. Such places are scarce. Whole cars are stolen, but their parts are not safe either: wheels, fuel, batteries, seat-covers, lights.
Gas Stations
Not working. Fuel can be found at UNPROFOR, and on the black market...You can get five liters of oil in exchange for a porno video--very appreciated by the Ukrainian members of the UN forces. Don't expect that the gas or petrol are going to be of good quality.
Car Repair
Exclusively arranged through connections. There are no visible signs where repairmen are working. But they exist.
Ham-radio operators are a discovery for the people of Sarajevo. Only through their stubbornness can you get in contact with the people you love. They are a connection between the East and the West. Conversations are short, and start with the punch line: "We are healthy and well. Over." All conversations and all messages are public. The room in which operators sit has at least five people at any moment, and the place where messages are being received has at least as many. Intimacy is gone, but the messages are still intimate.
Radio messages are trying to link gaps in communication. Sarajevo Radio broadcasts them day and night. Messages are sent from people in Sarajevo to their friends and relatives in other places in Bosnia and abroad, and to the people in Sarajevo from the rest of the world.
Packages. If you are well connected, [packages] travel with Caritas, Adra, Red Cross, Dobrotvor [Greek Orthodox relief]. Their journey lasts between forty-five to eighty days. Their content [incoming] is conditioned by the fierce rules of the aggressor. The weight cannot be over 24 kilos. It can't contain meat, vegetables, cans. It happens sometimes that instead of the expected package with food, one receives a piece of a uniform, or stones. More valuable packages don't reach their destination.
The United Nations Protection Forces were awaited as saviors when they first arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina with their white vehicles and blue berets. As time went on they proved to be powerless. They help in repairs of the infrastructure, in cleaning the city. They are also establishing bureaucratic rules of their own. In some instances proven to be good merchants, they are driving around in trucks, jeeps, transporters...They transport wounded, bring humanitarian aid, drive from and to the airport. In short, nothing is done without them.
UNPROFOR Headquarters is in the building of Communications Engineering at Alipasino polje. Soldiers are in the barracks which were formerly inhabited by the soldiers of the Yugoslav Peoples Army. The main headquarters of the UNPROFOR's commander is in a private villa. All these successions seem to be very natural.
Although some of these organizations help their members first, and although some of them are based on religious affiliation--Merhamet, Muslim; Caritas, Catholic; Dobrotvor, Serbian Orthodox--they are open for the members of other groups. Many [people] are on all lists, in this poverty...The Jewish Community, jevrejska opstina, established the War Kitchen, which is open to all.
Watch repairmen are working, as are the opticians, locksmiths, electricians, plumbers, carpenters--they will visit your home, if only you can find them. Be ready to pay in hard currency.
PLEASE SEE:
DART GAME--The beginning
THE ESSENTIALS--Everyday life
DIVERSIONS
FUTURE AND PAST--End of the beginning
A COOKBOOK FOR WAR
OR RETURN TO:
THE INTRODUCTION