REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DAMASCUS -- Um Bashir said she had never experienced any worse than the last four years of her 50 years in life after the grinding conflict haunted her and her family, down from one place to another, leaving her in under-construction building near Damascus with her husband unable to lift a bag due to his spinal disk.

Um Bashir along with her husband and two of their kids are now staying in an unfinished house at the eastern outskirts of Damascus after having to move three times from rebel-held areas during the four-year-old crisis, now entering its fifth year with no concrete solution insight.

Wearing a shabby black loose-fitting gown and gray headscarf, the war-weary woman and her husband sat in a gray-walled room on a thin rug, whose dusty color mingled with that of the unfinished flooring, adding to the gloomy atmosphere of that place.

"The crisis has stripped me of every beautiful memory I have ever had. I had a big house in Ghouta of four rooms and big saloon but now look at this," she said, her voice shaking, recounting how she and her husband were nearly hit when a wall in her current dwelling collapsed when a mortar shell hit the upper part of it a couple of days ago.

The woman was turning her face sideways with every question about her feelings as if she was trying to bury her feelings and vulnerability deep inside of her.

"I have two sons in the military service and two brothers which I had lost during this crisis when they ventured out to bring some food in our rebel-held neighborhood in Ghouta," she continued, throwing an arm to hide her face when tears started to spill down her cheeks before dashing them away.

"I have lost everything, I lost my house in Ghouta and lost my stuff and when I moved to Hama province the war haunted me down to that place and I had to leave. I arrived in Dukhaniyeh in Damascus and now I am here wanting to wake up from this nightmare," she recounted, her tone reflecting deep bitterness.

Her husband said he was working in construction before the breakout of the crisis but now he is staying with his wife hopelessly living on the relief aid humanitarian organization distribute for those in dire need for help.

"I hope that I would close my eyes and open them again and find the crisis was over," he said.

Even those who didn't have to leave their homes, have turned their homes into a tiny motel for their relatives who had to flee their rebel-held areas.

Aby Tawfiq (66) said he was fortunate enough that his house in the old quarter of Damascus was still standing as the area is still under the government control and didn't witness conflicts nearby.

He, however, said that he had to host three of his daughters along with their families in his room of three bedrooms and one bathroom.

"I work as a tailor in the morning but I had to find another job because I need to cover the expenses of my three daughters and I am currently working as a taxi driver in the afternoon, because I need the job and I cannot stay indoors and watch the lives of my daughters being frozen with no hope insight," he recounted.

He said his sons in law are currently staying with almost no jobs, adding that this issue has added to his economic hardship.

By the end of August 2014, the UN estimated 6.5 million people had been displaced in Syria, while more than 3 million refugees had fled to countries such as Lebanon (1.14 million), Jordan (608, 000) and Turkey (815,000). Another 35,000 refugees were awaiting registration, while estimates of several hundreds of thousands more were not included in official figures as they were unregistered.

While the displacement seems one of the biggest issues facing the Syrians in their long-running conflict, the crisis has also changed the way the teenagers think or digest the details around them.

Amal is an 18-year-old teenager. She said she didn't have to leave her house in central Damascus, but called herself and the young people of her age the "new generation of war."

"We have grown from an early age on this crisis and we grew with this crisis and I personally felt every minute of it. The young people feel the details of their surroundings even more than the grownups," she said.

She, however, described herself as a "tough" girl because she grew up in tough situation.

"I am studying hard and working on enhancing my skills because in my mind I believe that I and the young generation of this country will be the one that will rebuild this country," she said, flashing a defiant smile and walking in her way back from school.

Just a couple of meters away in the al-Hamra Street in the heart of Damascus, an old man was sitting on a plastic chair selling some second-hand cloth on the sidewalk.

The 57-year-old man said the crisis had deprived him of his shop in Damascus' countryside, leaving him working as a street vendor.

"I have lost my shop in Hajjira near Damascus... the gangs stole it and was later destroyed. I also lost my house in Zamalka. Now, I am working as a street vendor and currently living in a shared house with other families."

The man said his current situation is miserable due to the lack of money and the losses he suffered after losing his house and shop, as having those two things is one the main things most Syrians work long times in their lives to achieve.

"Losing my house and shop was the most devastating thing I have ever had to deal with in my whole life. I was a business man and this kind of loss is big because I worked hard in my life to buy a house and a shop and now I feel like someone stripped me off my clothes and left me naked on an empty street," he said.

The stories of the affected people could be heard almost everywhere across Syria, as the war hasn't left a beautiful memory for the people to hold on to. To the Syrians, this war has left nothing but sorrow and grief in the details of the last four years.

The talk of the people now is how the crisis left no one in the country without a scar, as some lost his brother, or had to say goodbye to his sister or daughter. They say it's a lose-lose situation for everyone.

There is no precise figures on the number of destroyed homes in Syria, but certainly entire villages or cities were reduced to rubble such as in the provinces of Aleppo and Homs, where entire neighborhoods have been reduced to the ground.

Activists said the crisis has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people during the last four years.

(Uu.C003)

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