In a once-graceful building, Myanmar's story is told by the residents of 12 tiny apartments

In this Nov 1, 2013 photo, a resident peeps in to morning street-market from a second-floor window of a little apartment building at 41st street, Yangon, Myanmar. The building whispers of a past of solid middle-class lives of a cosmopolitan, colonial city that was once a great Asian crossroad, the capital of a country once called Burma. But that was a long time ago. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe)(The Associated Press)

In this Jan. 22, 2014 photo, a man pulls a rickshaw with a passenger through a street market on the 41st Street passing by a little apartment building in Yangon, Myanmar. The building whispers of a past of solid middle-class lives of a cosmopolitan, colonial city that was once a great Asian crossroad, the capital of a country once called Burma. But that was a long time ago. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe)(The Associated Press)

In this Aug. 25, 2014 photo, weeds and mold grow on the facade of a little apartment building on 41st Street in Yangon, Myanmar. There is an elegance in the arched windows now covered with grime. Its in the ornamental pillars, coated with paint so faded that its hard to say if the building is yellow or white. Its in the wide windows kept open through the endless hot months, bringing in the breeze from the Yangon River. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)(The Associated Press)

In this Aug. 28, 2014 photo, residents gather around an elderly man who mediates a dispute among neighbors as others watch through windows and doorways from a little apartment building on 41st Street in Yangon, Myanmar. This is the story of one apartment building, two stairwells, 12 tiny apartments and the 60 or so people who live in them. In some ways, it's also the story of a country wavering between a decades-long era of brutal military rule and the promise of some vague new golden age. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)(The Associated Press)

In this Aug. 28, 2014 photo, some residents look out of their windows as the night falls at a little apartment building on 41st Street in Yangon, Myanmar. This is the story of one apartment building, two stairwells, 12 tiny apartments and the 60 or so people who live in them. In some ways, it's also the story of a country wavering between a decades-long era of brutal military rule and the promise of some vague new golden age. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe)(The Associated Press)

YANGON, Myanmar The little apartment building was graceful once. Maybe even beautiful. There is an elegance in the arched windows now covered with grime. It's in the ornamental pillars, coated with paint so faded that it's hard to say if the building is yellow or white. It's in wide windows kept open through the endless hot months, bringing in the breeze from the Yangon River.

The building whispers of a past. Of middle-class lives. Of a cosmopolitan, colonial city that was once a great Asian crossroad, the capital of a country once called Burma. But that was a long time ago.

Now, in the late afternoons when the breeze starts to pick up, two old friends carry out plastic chairs to sit in front of a building battered by time, monsoons and history. They talk about the neighborhood and their children. They worry about money.

U Tin Win has spent 67 years in the building on 41st Street, moving in when he was 6 years old. His friend Round Namar isn't sure how long it's been. Sixty-five years? Seventy? "All I know," Namar says, "is my mother told me I was born here."

All those years the two have lived next door to one another, in ground-floor apartments each a little bigger than a shipping container.

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In a once-graceful building, Myanmar's story is told by the residents of 12 tiny apartments