The same kind of celebration occurred on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Tuzla. The city lies in a valley shrouded in an ever-present haze that has a pungent, stinging odor lacing it. The culprit is a coal-fired power plant whose emissions sting the eyes of foreigners. Local residents seem unfazed, but medical reports indicate the pollution has taken a toll on them over the long term. Power for electricity has been fleeting in the city for the last few years.
Lights regularly flicker out.
So does telephone service, which is only local. Water is rationed and is only pumped into homes twice a day. Buckets of stored water are the norm. But on New Year's Eve, the hardships from the war were hidden for the most part. Men, dressed in expensive dark suits, and women, with heavy makeup, sleek dresses and stacked heels, and cloaked in furs, streamed into the Hotel Tuzla for a New Year's Eve party.