Days of “fiasco” are approaching
A father of four infants Vardan is saying that not only do they not look forward to the Christmas holidays but claim that these are days of “fiasco and shame” for them.
The Christmas holidays are making Vardan not to look in the eyes of his children and not to answer many of their questions. He usually disappears in one corner of his room trying to avoid the ungratified expectations of his children. “There is nothing surprising; I am not the only one. There are plenty of people like me. Back in the day, we would really try hard to buy some presents for children but things got really difficult because we had more babies born. During these past years there is almost no chance to hold parties,” says a father of four Vardan, who was literally hugging the heater in the house.
A resident of house 49 of Shahumyan 4th street of Malatia-Sebastia community Vardan says that assures that in the event of having a permanent job he’d still have three children because when getting married they decided to have seven. After listening to husband’s remark his wife Hermine smiles and opposes him, “We have decided so but I totally stepped back from that decision. I am not going to have babies no more. If he wants it let him have his own children. It is really difficult to raise children now especially now. I would agree if Vardan had a normal job. He doesn’t have a decent job and is working on construction. Especially in winters he stays unemployed. Last year he went to Russia twice but after some time came back without any money because they used him and didn’t pay him.”
“These poor people should realize that they flee to Russia to make money but they use them as slaves and kick them out afterwards. People just die out because of this deadlock situation. We don’t want any alms from this government. All we want is a normal job to stay and work here,” says Vardan, who witnesses his own mother gathering paper boxes from stores in order to warm up the house by burning in the fireplace. This family of seven survives with 16,000 pension of the mother and 44,000 welfare subsidy. After receiving this money they give it away to the stores to pay their debts. “My Gevorg is eight years old and goes to school. He is the only one going to school now but when I imagine that we are going to have three more kids going to school I go crazy. Now the government encourages a lot to have more babies in order to provide growth of population. But belie me many multi-household member families are having real difficulties in their daily lives,” says Hermine, 26 and assures that they didn’t have four babies because they’d relied on the state support. They really wanted many children.
“Life gets unbearable the more it goes”
Grandma Lusik is ashamed to describe their lifestyle. All she says is that they are indigent. “During all these years we haven’t able to collect any money. I go collect all kinds of papers and cartons to bring home to burn in the heater. We cannot gather any money to pay for gasification. The more it goes the more unbearable life gets. Back in the day, people like us would work and live with dignity but now it’s impossible. We have become miserable with the whole family. Several people just can’t wait for the holidays and we are counting the days to get rid of it.” The elderly woman also asks our officials not to deride the pensioners. After widespread inflation the few thousand dram increase of pensions the government demeans the elderly population of the country.
Vardan says that of course he’s never had the chance to receive normal education but has great expectations from the future of his children. Now he understands that the education of his children depend on him. In order to have a good education children must have a mid-class family and parent. All I do is think about the daily bread winning for my children. It is hard to say what kind of dreams the children of Vardan have, who live in a house without doors and a roof. His son Gevorg, 8 really gets mad when the father says they won’t be celebrating the holidays. “It’s ok we’ll put up the Christmas tree and get happy. Last year there were presents under our pillow but we know there are no real Santas. This year Santa won’t come either,” he says and runs out from the room.
By Lusine Stepanyan
