Living in a war-torn country \u2014 well, it\u2019s not something that fits neatly into a sentence. It’s not like in the movies, not even close. There’s no soundtrack swelling in the background. It\u2019s quiet, but not the peaceful kind \u2014 more like the kind of quiet that suffocates, that hisses in your ears right before a distant mortar cracks open the sky like a rotten egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, days start with dust. Not sunrise. Just dust \u2014 floating, sticking to your skin, getting in your mouth, gritty between your teeth like sandpaper. And then, maybe a scream. Or not. Some mornings, it\u2019s eerily calm, too calm, like everything\u2019s holding its breath. That\u2019s when people get nervous. Because peace doesn\u2019t feel real anymore. It feels like bait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time doesn\u2019t just pass \u2014 it crawls, then leaps.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You think it\u2019s Tuesday. It\u2019s Saturday. Or next month. Calendars become more like decorations, reminders of a world that once ran on appointments and birthdays. You stop planning. Honestly, you forget how. I mean\u2014what’s the point of making tea when there might be a drone overhead by noon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember once… there was this boy, Samir, maybe 9? He asked me if summer still existed in other countries. Not weather-wise \u2014 emotionally. That floored me. What kind of child equates “summer” with a feeling? But he wasn\u2019t wrong. Seasons don’t feel like seasons anymore. Just more time, more heat or cold, more waiting for the next disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food isn\u2019t food. It\u2019s currency. It\u2019s hope. It\u2019s leverage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And forget cravings \u2014 you eat what you can find. A tin of beans feels like a feast. There was a week when a neighbor traded half a bottle of aspirin for two potatoes. That\u2019s how you measure value now \u2014 not dollars, but desperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And water? God. Clean water is like a rumor \u2014 you hear someone found it, but you’re not sure it’s true. You drink what’s there. You pretend not to taste the metal. Or the dirt. You stop asking questions. You just hope your kids don\u2019t throw up after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The soundscape is… surreal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not loud, not exactly. More like unpredictable. You hear laughter and you flinch. A door slams, and your body \u2014 without asking your permission \u2014 dives for cover. One minute there\u2019s music playing from a broken phone, next minute the walls shake, and your lungs tighten so hard it feels like your ribs are folding inward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sleep? You don’t sleep. You close your eyes and practice lying still. If you drift off, it\u2019s for five minutes at a time, in strange places \u2014 behind refrigerators, under tables, on rooftops. Dreams, when they come, are almost worse than waking. Because sometimes, they show you peace. A lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schools become shadows.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some try to keep teaching, you know? Brave souls with books and chalk, holding class in abandoned garages or basements. But how do you teach multiplication when there\u2019s sniper fire outside? Children learn how to identify artillery before they learn how to spell “apple.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jobs? Ha. That word feels ancient. Most people hustle. Trade, patch clothes, sell cigarettes, run messages \u2014 whatever. If you still have a job from before<\/em>, you’re either lucky… or in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And trust\u2014God, trust is dead.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You look at your neighbor, and you wonder. Is he spying? Is she going to report you for that joke you made? Paranoia isn\u2019t irrational anymore \u2014 it\u2019s a survival mechanism. You don’t confide. You don\u2019t vent. You bottle. It\u2019s safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that makes things heavier. Emotionally. Like your soul is carrying bricks. You want to scream sometimes, but who has the energy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grief is not a moment. It\u2019s an atmosphere.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n People vanish. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don\u2019t. You don\u2019t get closure. You get rumors. Or worse, silence. I once found out my cousin died through a passing merchant. \u201cSorry about Kareem,\u201d he said. Just that. And moved on. I nodded, as if I already knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Funerals are rushed. Sometimes they\u2019re whispered affairs. No flowers. No prayers out loud. Just a hole and a shovel and someone crying quietly into their sleeve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But weirdly, you do adjust. Humans are stubborn that way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You normalize chaos. Kids play near rubble. Women plant tiny gardens in buckets \u2014 dry, cracked soil with stubborn little sprouts poking up. It\u2019s like defiance. A middle finger to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s kindness, too \u2014 small but powerful. A stranger gives you half their bread. Someone risks their life to help an injured man off the street. These things feel holy. Bigger than religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faith… sometimes becomes everything. Other times, nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n People either cling harder or drift away. Some pray more. Others curse the sky. And some do both. In the same breath. Contradictions become habits. I\u2019ve seen a woman light candles, then throw a stone at the church doors. Love and rage, faith and fury \u2014 they swirl together, impossible to separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then… the war ends. Or pauses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You think that\u2019s the finish line? No. That’s when the ghosts start to speak. The rebuilding isn’t just bricks. It\u2019s brains, hearts, memories. You have to remember how to live without flinching. Without checking the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kids don\u2019t know what normal is. They draw tanks in crayon. They panic if they hear fireworks. PTSD isn’t a diagnosis \u2014 it\u2019s a neighborhood. The whole block has it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in war doesn\u2019t make you strong. It makes you hollow first. Then \u2014 maybe \u2014 if you\u2019re lucky, you rebuild. Brick by emotional brick. You carry on. Not because it\u2019s noble. But because that\u2019s what breathing people do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even when the air tastes like ash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living in a war-torn country \u2014 well, it\u2019s not something that fits neatly into a sentence. It’s not like in the movies, not even close. There’s no soundtrack swelling in the background. It\u2019s quiet, but not the peaceful kind \u2014 more like the kind of quiet that suffocates, that hisses in your ears right before a distant mortar cracks open the sky like a rotten egg. Sometimes, days start with dust. Not sunrise. Just dust \u2014 floating,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26,45,65,40,12,62,313,24,312],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-prepared","tag-disasters","tag-earthquake","tag-home-defense","tag-prepare","tag-prepared","tag-prepping-supplies","tag-real-survival","tag-survival","tag-war-ravaged"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesurvivalguide.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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