I’m sitting in our living room in Shushi looking out the window at the beautiful scenery which is only possible from a vantage point approximately 2,000 meters above sea level (approx 4,500 ft). Our house is on the lower part of Shushi. In the old Soviet days, the lower part was inhabited by the Azeris and the upper part by the Armenians. But today, it is all Armenian. We live in a small alley way up from the Naregatsi Art Institute which is currently being build. Our house looks like a barn from the outside, but inside it has an entire wall of small white wooden windows. You can look out and see the mountains and green valleys that surround Shushi. Just below is what the locals call “Juderduz” which in Turkish means flat and plain field. Just the other day Gayane and Anush, two local women we are friends with, took me to Juderduz. We walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down on the rock mountains that climb high above the river that flows in the middle.
Back at home, I have the electric heater on because at night it gets really cold in Shushi, even at the end of April. I’m having some home-made yogurt which our caretaker, Valet (his real name is Vlademir), brought for us last night along with milk. We had to boil the milk before drinking it because it comes from his farm, so it is not pasteurized.
On my way home from the old university, where I teach photography and English, I was greeted by little children on their way home from school. What keeps on amazing me is their resilience. Most of them are refugees from Azerbaijan or other parts of the former Soviet Union. But they have great pride that allows them to perceiver. What is more important is that they do not place a barrier between “them and us” like they do back in Yerevan. Here, they view us as their equals.
As I walked through the mist that hovers over Shushi before the rain falls down I could not even see the big white church that is in the center of the village. Shushi is such a mystical place. I can’t help but wonder about the lives lost while I walk by burned up buildings.
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