Andranik and Zoya got married 19 years ago and started to do the same job: trash pick-up. Zoyan starts sweeping the streets as soon as she wakes up in the morning and Andranik picks up the trash on the streets with his truck. He hopes that they will get some income that month and will get to set food on the table for their three children-macaroni and potatoes.
However, they rarely receive their salaries on time and sometimes they don’t get anything at all. “The children are at an age when they are hungry day and night. But since they don’t give our salaries on time, we suffer a little. I go here and there just so my kids won’t starve-give them some rice to eat. We have no relatives to help us out. After all, people no longer help each other out,” says 43-year old Andranik Sargsyan.
The wrinkles on 38-year old Zoya confuse one about her real age. As for 43-year old Andranik, the main thing that is shown on his face is the issue facing his family for the past ten years-not having their own home. Thirteen years ago, Andranik got a few items and moved to the city of Berd from Navur village with his wife and children (the two places are in the Tavush Marz) due to the fact that he had been fed up with his stepmother and his family not getting along together. Andranik changed homes in Berd seven times. He has either lived on rent or in temporarily empty houses. Currently, the Sargsyans live in a room in the half-basement of a half destructed hotel in the city. There is no sink, no bathroom and no shower. There are four beds in the humid and dark room, one table and a black/white television set on the drawer which doesn’t work.
“This place is not for rent, but the owner of the hotel will kick us out sooner or later. Well, we have to find another place to live, or else we will stay out in the streets again. Despite the fact that we can’t really stand living on this cement,” says Zoya as she stares in your eyes. “It is very cold in the winter-5 cubic meters of wood are not enough for us. My intestines got sick from the cold. I am so weak that when I lift a cup, I almost drop it. I am weak all over. Perhaps my thoughts and feelings also have to do with that. I can’t take it anymore.”
According to Andranik, he and his 18 year old son Karen often go out to the streets after work to see who wants their wood cut so that they can earn some money. Karen is freed from military service due to his mental defects. The other two boys are still in school. They help their father in collecting wood for the winter, break the wood, bring water home and light a heater. Fifteen-year old Armen is learning how to drive a tractor in a school somewhere. As for 12 year-old Arsen, whose smile shows that he is the youngest in the family, is in the 3rd grade when he really should have been at least in the 5th grade. In the summer, Arsen’s parents don’t really “take care of him” that much. He spends most of his days at the neighbor’s house. He picks cornel, mulberries and pears from the trees and then distils vodka with the neighbors. At the end of the day, he has supper there. The neighbors love Arsen. Mrs. Manushak says that he is an honest and smart kid and, most importantly, trustworthy. “It’s too bad that his family is poor and can’t send him to a school. But they are good people,” she says.
The only thing that the family is happy about is how the older son earned enough money to buy a stereo for the home and the stereo is the joy for 12-year old Arsen. Everyone, including the neighbors, knows that young Arsen has a dream to become a singer, but he doesn’t like to talk about that. When he talks about his dreams, his eyes don’t shine from joy, but rather, his tears fill up in his eyes and make them shine.
“I don’t dream anymore,” says Arsen who is not happy with the life that he lives. He will turn 13 on January 1st. After being silent for a while, he says: “I want a normal house just like others. I also want to have my own bicycle and go to a good school. What more could I want?”
P.S. After publishing the article, we found out that the Sargsyan family has been kicked out of their 8th home. Now they are in a half-torn apart small home in even worse conditions.