The experience of war is anything but good. This experience always includes pain. It always gives us negativity, related to loss. War usually implies physical, material loss and when you lose your loved ones. For me, speaking and retelling about the war is sad and difficult, and a lot of responsibility. When the war began in Sokhumi, I was not in Sokhumi. I was together with university students from Sokhumi university in an exchange program and I was in Vilnius, Lithuania. Some students of high academic standing were waiting to visit Sokhumi University. We were planning to return to Sokhumi and we were happy and discussing the Lithuanian students visit to Sokhumi. But when they heard about the war, they were shocked and of course these plans of visiting were canceled. Of course, we were so confused when we learned about the war, because we weren’t ready for this situation. We really couldn’t think of what to do. I was not a student from Sokhumi university, I accompanied the group of students as a doctor, and I was older than the students. The university in Vilnius offered for the Sokhumi university students to stay there and take shelter in Lithuania, but everyone wanted to go back to their homes, their relatives, their homeland. So, we all agreed, as a group, to go back to Sokhumi. Yes, there is war there, but we want to go back to our homes and to our parents. Within the first 13 days that I stayed in Sokhumi, and I didn’t have any desire to leave. No one could convince me to leave my beloved Sokhumi because I was totally sure that nothing bag or tragic would happen in this city that could harm me or my relatives. I could not believe that we could lose Sokhumi. I can tell lots of different stories about that terrible time, but as I have said about the beginning of the war, now I would like to tell you about the last day of the war. It is September 26th, 1993. The attack on Sokhumi was very intense that day. The mountains of Sokhumi were surrounded by snipers, and they were hunting down different groups of people in all due actions. I could hear the sound of bullets shooting, through the walls of my house. One of my friends who was involved in this battle, he was vising and checking up on us to make sure we were all alive and that our home was ok, and then he left to continue fighting in the battle. He was checking up on us after every bombing, then returning to battle. On the last day of this war, he came and was very sad and low mood. We were getting ready for dinner and he announced that we had to leave the place and go to Agudzera. We didn’t want to leave Sokhumi for Agudzera but he insisted and we realized that something very serious was happening here. Of course, he was a soldier and fighting in that war so he knew the situation quite well, so he insisted for us to leave our house and he said “don’t worry, in 2 or 3 days you can come back to your home”. My father decided that my mom, sister, and I had to leave the houses (just the women). So, we were taken to Agudzera, the countryside of Sokhumi, but it was safer than Sokhumi. We took our documents with us, some food, but we didn’t take any clothes, only the clothes on our backs. That’s all. That evening, in Agudzera, I stayed on the first floor so I could watch and see what was happening in Sokhumi. The next day on September 27th, the day when Sokhumi fell, my friend came again and said we have to leave Agudzera and go to Svaneti through Kodori valley. People were fleeing towards Kodori valley, and we joined them. But I insisted to see my father. He gave me different excuses because he didn’t want me to go see my father, and when I insisted, he became angry and left me where I was and went back to Sokhumi. Near the house where we stayed was a military hospital and lots of wounded soldiers and dead soldiers were brought to this hospital. On the harbor there were Ukrainian military ships, and they were evacuating people from this Agudzera military hospital. I went to the military hospital yard and I thought I was in the battlefield of WWII because there were so many dead bodies lying everywhere. And so many wounded and dead people lying on stretchers, I felt like I was in a WWII movie, it was a terrible picture. Some soldiers were conscious, and some were unconscious. Some of them had just been operated on. And the dead soldiers were covered in special cloths. Despite the fact that I am a doctor, and I deal with sick people but this terrible situation in the hospital yard was so strange that I couldn’t even imagine I was there in real life. I felt like I was watching everything from the screens. Then I saw huge smoke of something burning from far away, from the last floor of the house we were staying in. we realized that something exploded but we were trying to guess what it might be, but we didn’t know. In the evening the hospital yard was emptied and our hosts offered to go to the sea because there might be some boats or ships that we could flee on. We were thinking of all kinds of possibilities but these military ships were so crowded. People were using all possibilities to evacuate the area. When we got to the Agudzera shore, a cargo ship came full of flour. The captain of the ship helped us get on and we fled on this ship with the flour, so it didn’t have any safety measures because this ship was usually for cargo and not people. The ship captain was a kind man and he helped other people and their pets. From the ship, on the sea, we could see the government building in Sokhumi was burning. The farther we sailed and the farther we moved away from the sea the more I froze emotionally. I mean due to my profession in extreme situations I always used to be very active and did my job, as you know I am a doctor and in this particular situation, I was not able to do anything—this was so stressful for me. We were sitting with so many people on the cargo ship, and no one said anything. We were all in silence and the ship sailed out to the middle of the sea. When it got dark, Ukrainian war ships started circling around us. These Ukrainian military ships were ensuring our safe travel. When it got dark, you know ships have lights, and we noticed different colored lights and could hear signals from military ships. We realized that these signals were kind of warnings and the situation was not really peaceful. Our ship captain baked bread on the ship, as you remember there was a lot of flour on the cargo ship. And he gave away bread to everyone. There were some women with little kids. Some people in the ship cooked different foods from the flour, and children were fed this. I want to point out the kindness and generosity of the captain. He really took great care of us. That time this assistance seemed very simple to us, or ordinary, but later we realized how kindly and generously that captain treated us—he was our hero. Later we heard a noise from a captain's cabin. It turned out that according to the agreement between the Ukrainian fleet and Abkhazian government, the Ukrainian fleet had to withdraw some of its ships or vessels. And our cargo ship, that’s name was Gatserelia, also some other boats were not included in the agreement list. So, the Abkhazian military authorities demanded to withdraw all ships and boats which were not on this list. That meant that all the ships and boats that were not in the list would be sunk, submerged. The Ukrainian head of the fleet refused to accept this order. He said that all the ships and boats would be used for people's transportation and they were not going to leave any of them and would continue to sail. The Abkhazian side didn't like this refuse from the Ukrainian Fleet. Soon we saw helicopters above us. But the Ukrainian fleet reacted very quickly to this and said to Abkhazian military: "Don't think that we are the Georgian army, as soon as your helicopters approach us, we will open fire on you". So, this bravery of the Ukrainian captain saved hundreds of people's lives on that day. Very early the next morning we arrived safely in Poti. In this troublesome situation it took us longer to cover the distance from Sukhumi to Poti. So, this was how I spent the last day of the war, on the cargo ship. On September 28,1993 we arrived in Zugdidi from Poti. Zugdidi is my hometown on my mom’s side. I stayed with my aunt, my mom’s sister. My aunt didn't have any information about us, so she didn't know if we were dead or alive. So, we had a very emotional meeting. I stayed in Zugdidi, and my mom and sister went to Tbilisi. This year on September 28, it will be 30 years since I have been living in Zugdidi. Very soon I started working as a doctor in Zugdidi Hospital. I worked there for 15 years. Within these 30 years there has been a lot of changes. We lived during that time expecting that we would return home soon. I arrived in Zugdidi with the feeling that I would return soon back to Sukhumi. But this never happened. Soon I made friends here in Zugdidi. I worked with different organizations in my profession, and changed my workplace many times. I could build my career. And when I reached an older age, when people normally don't change their lives, I decided to change my life and I got married. And this was a new stage, new step in my life after my Abkhazian life. 5 years later I again decided to face a new challenge. I quit my job, my profession, and started a small business. Then I again changed my work, and finally 4 years ago I started a job that was for me a fun, pleasurable, and relaxing and at the same time it became a source of income for me. Today people know me as “Ms. Kope Shoni". Maybe they don't know my full name but they know the name "Kope Shoni", that is the name of the company which I founded. My company produces non- standard products. I produce different types of sweets from vegetables. These 30 years of my life have been very diverse: full of various emotions, experiences, gaining new knowledge, so I can say that I spent these years more or less interestingly. The last years of my life are especially interesting when I started a new career. I have made new friends, relations, connections, and new possibilities have opened in front of me. Today at my age I am a student, and am attending a college and studying a profession that I need to run my business. I hope that soon we will have a better future, and we will live in a better country. Most importantly I do hope that I will definitely return back to my home. Two houses are waiting for me in Abkhazia—my parents' house in Sukhumi, where I was born and grew up, and my husband's house in Gagra. My husband's house was destroyed—it was burnt. I am sure we will return to Abkhazia with dignity and we will live friendly with Abkhazians, and with old friends, whom I spent a lot of years.