"I carry 30 liters of water on my back to my apartment. It's up eight
flights of stairs. Even when the city pumps in the weekly water ration,
there's not enough pressure to reach my floor. I scrub the clothes in the
bathtup with cold water and some soap I get from a
humanitarian aid
center. I heat the water on the stove when I can get wood, but that's
almost never: All the wood, from trees to park benches, has already been
used up. After scrubbing, I take the clothes down to the Miljacka River,
wade in and rinse everything out. The river is really cold, but I don't
care because I look forward to clean clothes." - Aida Ceric, 29
How do you take a shower?
"I stand in the tub and pour water over myself with a cup. It's usually
cold water. If I want hot, I have to heat it on top of a punctured tin
can, by burning bits of paper. Otherwsise, I wait for the power to come
on, but that happens only once a week, for four hours, and you never know
when. Plus, the bathroom has to be free, and I have two sisters. So I
actually get to take a hot shower about every 40 days. That's why I
usually just stand in the tub." - Nesho Malic, 18
How do you get tampons?
"I don't. I don't have any money for them. I just take a piece of sponge - you know, the kind you use for cleaning dishes - and put that up me. It's the one thing that I'd really like somebody to send me. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends abroad." - Daniella Milutinovic, 19
How do you meet boys?
"In the bomb shelters. When the attacks were really bad we sometimes went
underground for three months at a time. You get to know people really
well." - Aido Chavdar
How do you meet girls?
"I go to the cafe next to my house, where my sister works, and look for girls wearing glasses, since I wear them too. For me an affair means a coupld of hours of friendly conversation. I buy them a drink and bore them to death. (I talk to much.) Sometimes they don't like my name - their skin crawls when they hear it. I'm a Serb, that's a fact. I have about one-in-five chance of succeeding, and that's only when there's no other guy around." - Nesho Malic
Where do you get condoms?
"At Makale, the main market in Sarajevo. You can pick the dealers easily. Some of them wear earings with condoms hanging from them. Others yell, "Ono za ono," which means "Condoms for sale," in Sarajevo slang. They sell three for DM1 (US$.60), but you can trade cigarettes for them, too. When it's not safe to go outside because of shelling, some guys make them by cutting the fingers off surgical gloves." - Amir Hrelja, 25
How about going to the bathroom?
"The worst is when there is no toilet paper, which happens a lot. We just use soap and water. To flush I always keep buckets of water in the bathroom for pouring down the toilet. It works fine." - Anna Kunovac, 25
Do people tell jokes?
"Cigarettes are very expensive in Sarajevo. A pack of Marlboros sometimes costs DM30 (US$20). There's one joke about a man who decides to run across 'Sniper Alley' with a half smoked cigarette in his mouth. All of a sudden he gets shot. Everybody rushes over to help pull him away before the sniper finishes him off, and he says, 'Never mind me, save the cigarette.'" - Sani Isovic, 28
How do you excercise?
"I play football and jog, even on days when the Serbs are shelling. If
I'm going to be killed, I want to be doing what I love. Not long ago a
grenade exploded about five meters behind me. People saw it happen and
didn't even react. Nothing fazes people in this town anymore." - Zoran
Andric, 24
"I haven't consciously tried to excercise since the war started. The trams aren't running, there's no fuel for the cars and taxis are too expensive. You walk everywhere, so you lose weight without even thinking about it. I used to swim a lot in the river, but it's really close to the frontline." - Alicia Hrelja, 22
Where do you go for a pizza?
"Castello Pizzeria, where we work as waitresses. But don't come before 5PM. That's when the boss turns on the fuel generator that powers the pizza oven. And you have to leave before 9. We'd like people to stay, but everybody has to be home by 10 because of the curfew. It's not so bad, though: It used to be an hour earlier." - Nisveta and Ifeta Sehovic, 21
How do you feed your pet?
"The smart dogs hang out at the Holiday Inn. The foreign journalists and UN personnel there always give them leftovers. Dogs here in Sarajevo eat meat just about every day, which is more than most people can say." - Boba Lisdek, 29
Do people watch TV?
"Almost never. You only get electricity once a week, and when you do, you have to do the essentials, like cleaning the house and cooking food for the next week. Anyway, if I get electricity during the day, I can't watch TV because I am at work." - Fadil Dobraca, 29
Where do you get a tatoo?
"There's a guy who has a tatoo gun hooked up to a car battery. Once he
was working on one of my tatoos and the battery ran out. I went home,
waited for him to recharge and went back later. Of course, sterilization
is impossible - it's like the middle ages in Sarajevo. But I don't care.
It's great if I get some disease: Then I don't have to go to the front. I
get a holiday instead." Sasha Milutinovic, 27
How do you dye your hair red?
"It's impossible to get dye in Sarajevo. I use a mix of henna and camomile, which grows wild in some of the suburbs that waren't occupied by the Serbs. Every day, I eat four carrots, which I grow on the balcony of my apartment. It seems to help. And sometimes, my best friend send me dye from Zagreb, but it hardly ever makes it here: The postal system usually isn't working becasue of the fighting." - Lejla Cisic, 23
What about music?
"The most popular singers left Sarajevo at the beginning, though I'm sure
they'll come back and be stars again. The ones that stayed practice all
the time. My friend Edin and I have a band called Beat House Project.
The thing I hate most is when the power goes off in the middle of
recording. It happens all the time." - Mahir Sulejmanovic, 21 is also
known by his stage name Mackee D.
How do you make money?
"I work for an undertaker. I've gotten pretty comfortable with the corpses. The pay isn't bad either; DM 150-200 (US$100-130) a month when it's busy. The hardest part is after heavy shelling. Then there are lots of death certificates to deal with and funerals to organize." - Edin Zekic, 22
What about hobbies?
"I spend my spare time on my balcony, taking care of my marijuana plants.
I told my parents that it's good for headaches. Now everybody can't wait
to get a headache. Before the war I used to buy it in Dolac Malta, a
suburb outside of Sarajevo. Everybody grows it now. It's the only way to
get it." - Besim Smjecanin, 20
What do you do with your friends?
"Most of my friends have gone abroad, but there are four or five people I know from high school who are still here. We usually go to a cafe to swap stories about the past. They make the same stupid old jokes like, "Hey, Marijana, when are we going to go to your beach house? When are we going to have a picnic in the hills again?" We all know that the highway to the beach is closed and the hills are controlled by Serbs. Before the war we could just get in a car and head for the coast like normal people." - Marijana Arsin, 24