Page 1 Hello to you, I am Vartan and this is my story as told to you with the help of a family member, on my behalf. I had a vacation from school by the end of January 1999. I am a student of computer science at the Yerevan College of Calculating Machines and Computing. I moved to Yerevan for school in 1997 and lived with my grandpa and grandma. So, I was going to visit my mom in my home-city of Giumri-Leninakan. I love my mom dearly, but my heart didn't lie to this trip at all. Anyway, off I went on February 2nd, 1999. I never made it to home. I had taken a public van, and through a sweet nap I was looking forward to playing my new computer games, a recent gift from my grandpa. I had noticed that the driver had shut off the ignition and was sliding on zero gear at about 80 km per hour. It's a lot for our bumpy roads, and dangerous, too. I am just learning to drive, my uncle is my instructor. But the driver is a stranger, this is his van. I was in that gentle nap when two bombs exploded right in myself, one in my hip, the other in my head. It was about 3pm. (Later my family was informed that police didn't recognize the driver guilty for the accident. Have to assume it was all my fault that I took that van, that trip. Bribes do work here.) I came to my senses in a hospital three hours later. I had no idea about anything. Still have no idea how I had got that hospital, who found me and took in there. I was all in blood and bruises, especially my back and the left side of my face. I had lost a lot of blood because of my broken hip. Most of all it hurt in my belly. But my mind was clear. I gave the doctors my mom's phone number in Giumri and my grandparents' numbers in Yerevan. Soon all my loved ones were surrounding me. It didn't make the pain in my belly less but I was sure nothing bad would happen to me, not any more, they'd save me. I was told I must have a surgery for my fractured hip. The hospital where I had appeared was in Ashtarak, a satellite city of our capital Yerevan. My family decided to take me to Yerevan for a better equipped hospital. It was not possible to do it right away. All of Armenia is still kind of in ruins after the earthquake in 1988 and after the Soviets left. It took a lot of work for my uncle to arrange an ambulance for the next morning to move me to a contemporary ICU in Yerevan, well as contemporary as it goes in Armenia. I couldn't sleep that whole night, it tasted horrible in my mouth, the pain in my belly wouldn't ease for a second. I was hungry and not allowed to eat. The Ashtarak hospital lacked relevant medications, and I slipped into posttraumatic shock. Still I could reason fine, and notwithstanding all that pain, I knew I'd soon get back to my classes, before they would start. I realized I am going to waste my vacation but that was nothing compared to the waste of my computer and the recent gift from the grandpa .*S* I was dead worried about them being shattered into a thousand pieces in the car crash! (Much later, or in this time of mine which is out of time, someone I think told me the computer and games are found alright, but for some reason it didn't matter much).
Hello to you, I am Vartan and this is my story as told to you with the help of a family member, on my behalf. I had a vacation from school by the end of January 1999. I am a student of computer science at the Yerevan College of Calculating Machines and Computing. I moved to Yerevan for school in 1997 and lived with my grandpa and grandma. So, I was going to visit my mom in my home-city of Giumri-Leninakan. I love my mom dearly, but my heart didn't lie to this trip at all. Anyway, off I went on February 2nd, 1999. I never made it to home. I had taken a public van, and through a sweet nap I was looking forward to playing my new computer games, a recent gift from my grandpa. I had noticed that the driver had shut off the ignition and was sliding on zero gear at about 80 km per hour. It's a lot for our bumpy roads, and dangerous, too. I am just learning to drive, my uncle is my instructor. But the driver is a stranger, this is his van. I was in that gentle nap when two bombs exploded right in myself, one in my hip, the other in my head. It was about 3pm. (Later my family was informed that police didn't recognize the driver guilty for the accident. Have to assume it was all my fault that I took that van, that trip. Bribes do work here.) I came to my senses in a hospital three hours later. I had no idea about anything. Still have no idea how I had got that hospital, who found me and took in there. I was all in blood and bruises, especially my back and the left side of my face. I had lost a lot of blood because of my broken hip. Most of all it hurt in my belly. But my mind was clear. I gave the doctors my mom's phone number in Giumri and my grandparents' numbers in Yerevan. Soon all my loved ones were surrounding me. It didn't make the pain in my belly less but I was sure nothing bad would happen to me, not any more, they'd save me. I was told I must have a surgery for my fractured hip. The hospital where I had appeared was in Ashtarak, a satellite city of our capital Yerevan. My family decided to take me to Yerevan for a better equipped hospital. It was not possible to do it right away. All of Armenia is still kind of in ruins after the earthquake in 1988 and after the Soviets left. It took a lot of work for my uncle to arrange an ambulance for the next morning to move me to a contemporary ICU in Yerevan, well as contemporary as it goes in Armenia. I couldn't sleep that whole night, it tasted horrible in my mouth, the pain in my belly wouldn't ease for a second. I was hungry and not allowed to eat. The Ashtarak hospital lacked relevant medications, and I slipped into posttraumatic shock. Still I could reason fine, and notwithstanding all that pain, I knew I'd soon get back to my classes, before they would start. I realized I am going to waste my vacation but that was nothing compared to the waste of my computer and the recent gift from the grandpa .*S* I was dead worried about them being shattered into a thousand pieces in the car crash! (Much later, or in this time of mine which is out of time, someone I think told me the computer and games are found alright, but for some reason it didn't matter much).
I came to my senses in a hospital three hours later. I had no idea about anything. Still have no idea how I had got that hospital, who found me and took in there. I was all in blood and bruises, especially my back and the left side of my face. I had lost a lot of blood because of my broken hip. Most of all it hurt in my belly. But my mind was clear. I gave the doctors my mom's phone number in Giumri and my grandparents' numbers in Yerevan. Soon all my loved ones were surrounding me. It didn't make the pain in my belly less but I was sure nothing bad would happen to me, not any more, they'd save me.
I was told I must have a surgery for my fractured hip. The hospital where I had appeared was in Ashtarak, a satellite city of our capital Yerevan. My family decided to take me to Yerevan for a better equipped hospital. It was not possible to do it right away. All of Armenia is still kind of in ruins after the earthquake in 1988 and after the Soviets left. It took a lot of work for my uncle to arrange an ambulance for the next morning to move me to a contemporary ICU in Yerevan, well as contemporary as it goes in Armenia.
I couldn't sleep that whole night, it tasted horrible in my mouth, the pain in my belly wouldn't ease for a second. I was hungry and not allowed to eat. The Ashtarak hospital lacked relevant medications, and I slipped into posttraumatic shock.
Still I could reason fine, and notwithstanding all that pain, I knew I'd soon get back to my classes, before they would start. I realized I am going to waste my vacation but that was nothing compared to the waste of my computer and the recent gift from the grandpa .*S* I was dead worried about them being shattered into a thousand pieces in the car crash! (Much later, or in this time of mine which is out of time, someone I think told me the computer and games are found alright, but for some reason it didn't matter much).
