During pauses in the heavy shelling of her neighborhood, Lejla Dzirlo, 10, used to spend hours contentedly watching tropical fish dart about in her aquarium.
But Serb nationalists shelling the Bosnian capital cut power and water supplies to the center of this besieged city, where the child`s Muslim family lives in a second-floor apartment.
Without a working filter and fresh water, Lejla`s school of fish steadily dwindled to two sad little survivors she kept alive in a plastic bag.
”They`re all that`s left,” she smiled one day. Lejla cared for them until they, too, died.
For tens of thousands of children still trapped among Sarajevo`s 400,000 survivors, the face of war has become all too familiar since the first shots were fired in early April.
Sniper attacks and shelling rain down on civilians from the mountains every day. They have killed and maimed hundreds of youngsters.
Thanks to a changing history of domination from east, west and south, Sarajevo is home to an uneasy mix of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Muslim ethnic groups. Kept in check by a strong federal government until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, old hatreds have boiled over.
But the Dzilros are determined to stay in their home. All they have is here, and if they leave, they know the Serbs will take it from them.
And trying to escape from the war is as dangerous as staying. Last week, five buses carrying 297 women and children managed to get safe passage out through Serb lines, with the help of a local group, the Children`s Embassy. And plans have been made to move 800 women and children today.
But two weeks ago, a run for freedom by a bus carrying 50 children from an orphanage was fired upon by Serb snipers, and two children died.
The Dzirlo family`s faith gives them the strength to stay. The children cry when the stress becomes unbearable. But this is home, and the family is determined to survive.
Lejla`s twin brothers, Malik and Mahir, 14, venture out for water. And at dusk, when the guns fall silent, Lejla and sister Meliha, 16, light a candle on the piano. They practice, the music flowing through the home they will not abandon.
