Night in my hometown Sterlitamak (Russia)

I live in Australia, but I was born in a country town of Russia. It is called Sterlitamak. I have many memories about my home town when I was a kid. It is pretty called in winter, compare to Australia. The temperature can get to -40 outside. I remember when it happened the school got closed and all the students had to stay home. But no one really did that, we all went outside and slid down the show hill. Sterlitamak is not a very rich town; I believe because of corruption in general therefore small pathways for pedestrians could be covered in snow very high and people had difficulties walking through in the morning. But for children it was a really fun thing when we had to wade through the snow hills that could reach our bum. We were never scared of cold. My brother fell through the ice when he went to feed ducks once. He was 7, but he managed to get out of the river, get home and kept in secret for a bit what happened to him. I was proud of him.

When I look at this picture I have memories about my teenage, going for a walk with my girlfriends and cold weather. This picture was taken by me 2 years ago. It is not a usual thing to see sunset in winter because the sky is covered by the clouds, but that day was special and I could see the dusk. People are got home and you can see the light in some of the apartments. I was always wondering how are they all living? What do they have for dinner? Is their dinner nicer then mine? What are they thinking about? Are they happy? Can they be happy? The closest building on the picture has a few windows with light. That is because parents always tell their children to turn off the light when they leave a room. It costs money.

Evening is a very nice time in Sterlitamak. It has a soul. It is the time when everyone is at home and we, as a whole family, sit in the same room. My dad used to watch TV, my mom made us some food for the next couple days. Yes, we usually had same food for few days. Yes, we hated it, but we did not have a choice. Me and my brother played a game, or I talked to my friend via phone, and he played a computer game.

That probably what is happening in those windows on the pictures. Everyone is doing their own thing in the same apartment, but mentally we know we are family, we are safe.

Far away on the distance you can see factories, as a symbol of tomorrow. They are telling us “ you happiness wont last long, ho-ho-ho, you are going back to work tomorrow again”. And they are right. Family goes to sleep at 10 o’clock in shared room. My family was pretty wealthy for that time, we had a two-bedroom apartment, many people did not have that and whole family had to leave in a studio. However, I still shared a tiny room with my brother, parents slept in another room.

Next day parents woke up at 6 o’clock to go to work. Factories poisoned our air, our streets, our lives, but people did not have a choice. They could not leave it because they had kids and they need to eat.

The story and my memories about my hometown have mix fillings, as much as the picture where family, cosy home atmosphere and sunset covered by smoking factories and hopeless future.