I worked there during the war and we used to sit only in the basements or cellars. On March the 2nd the first parents was killed. Later, on May the 20th the three-year-old daughter of that man and an 8th grade boy were killed. When bombing began, we used to sit between the doors in order to not let something happen to the children. All people left for Romania, for other places, only we together with the children continued our lessons until the 20th of May. On the 24th of May they took because the racket broke in front of the house and I had an appendicitis attack. I was taken to Dubasari. There they didn't have anesthesia and I was transported to Tiraspol.
I was forced to lie about my work place; I didn't say I was a teacher of Romanian and that I was a member of the Popular Front. And I said that I worked at the factory of manufacture from Dubasari, and that's what they wrote in my medical certificate. I returned home but it still wasn't over. On the 1st-2nd of June I was back home but we were still living in the cellar and when autumn came the whole village was divided into parts: one with Moldova, one with Transnistria. They came and ordered us to get out of school because the school was with Moldova. The principal was fired and I was threatened and summoned fro several times to a committee of 15 people and I was told that I had two choices: whether I deny Romanian as a citizen of Transnistria, or I write my resignation. They came at school with dogs and they forced us to get out of the school and they took us to the House of Culture, so that it would be unanimous. We, all the teachers were defending the school, the village, but there were people who rose to put us down. So the school was taken to Dubasari, the principal was dismissed and I was expelled. Not after a long time my husband was killed by separatists because he was a teacher of Romanian too. My children didn't want to leave me in that village where I had built a house, where I had spent all my youth and that's why I came to town. My children are grown-ups, my daughter lives in Causani, she is married and has two children, the other daughter lives in Chisinau, and she works together with her husband at the Kindergarten 41.
I.M. - So what keeps you here?
E.A. - My son-in-law always asks me: "why did you come to "wonderland"? Why didn't you come to Chisinau?" I could have definitely left and after all that had happened, I mean after my husband had been killed and I had been threatened and fired, I could have received an apartment there, but I have an elder sister here and my children brought me here, because thy had been afraid to leave me because I could have been killed too. I have remarried and my husband doesn't let me go anywhere. That's why I remained to live in Tiraspol.
I.M. - But you have preserved you beliefs.
E.A. - Yes I have preserved my beliefs.
I.M. -How do you think, will these conflicts ever end?
E.A. - I don't know, I don't know, it is difficult to say. I have been working in this school for 8 years and since then I have been a leader. The staff, everyone seemed to be very excited about t a strike against the government, everyone spoke but nobody wanted to go. I was sick, I had a fever, but still only the principal and me from our school participated at the strike. There were problems with the salary those days and all the schools went so we went too, because we still belong to this Ministry and we had to go.
I.M. - How do you think is it possible that being mediators Russia and the Ukraine will somehow solve something?
E.A. - Maybe, but this is only talking. They need too much time for reaching a compromise and really solve something.
I.M. - What about UNO, OSCE, NATO, will they be able to do something?
E.A. - if they wanted, they could, they would do. If they had wanted, they would have done it long time ago. They have been coming for eight years, but still nothing changes.