Wednesday, May 17th

The weather has changed dramatically, for the worse, it’s 30 degrees colder, windy and rainy, which means no walk for Sam and I, which in turn means we’re house bound for the day. We have found a Russian channel that was having a rhythmic gymnastics competition and Sam loved to watch them dance with the ball. It’s a nice break from the news and it’s amazing what these young girls can do with their bodies. I love how they, and ballerinas, can make the most difficult moves seem effortless. Of course, with the bad weather, comes the sporadic power surges for the lights and the television, so I made sure I took my shower first thing today for fear of the hot water not functioning. We are going to dinner with the Blewer family at their hotel tonight as they leave for Almaty tomorrow morning. Sam loves their daughter, Reagan, and it will be good to see them once again. I’m still hoping to leave on Firday morning for Almaty, I talked to Anjanette and I guess there are no night flights to Almaty, so the best I can do is for Friday. She also said there are no hotel rooms available this week-end, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. I know the other American families that left yesterday were given the option of a crash pad at an apartment in Almaty while they had a 14 hour lay-over. So I’m hoping if worse comes to worse and there are no hotels, possibly there will be an apartment available to rent on a day by day basis. Blogger has been a bit of a pain lately as it won’t let me post photos lately. I’ll try to post some today, as I know it makes reading the blogs much more fun and interesting.

Had dinner tonight with Ronnie, Anjanette, Reagan, Olga, Luda,(Olga’s daughter) and Elena, (Anjanette’s translator) We ate at the Hotel Cosmonaut where the food was quite tasty. I had Thai Fried Rice, but nothing was fried and it was delicious. Sam had white rice, and cut up meat and apple that I brought from home. I know that sounds and is tacky, but I figured if Anjanette has been doing it for Reagan for 3 wks, I could do it with Sam for one night! Sam of course was well behaved and Anjanette gave him 3 toy cars so he was in heaven!! After dinner I knew that Olga lived in the opposite direction from where I needed to go, so I figured Sam and I would take the #6 van to our apartment. This would have been no problem had the street that the Cosmonaut is located not been completely closed off to all traffic. Our driver had to literally drive through the city park to find some back road to gain access to the hotel!! He was driving his Honda minivan as if it were a Hummer.

Elena said she’d walk me to the next bus stop and I was game as Sam and I hadn’t walked as of yet because of the rain earlier in the day. Elena, from MAPS, is awesome, so sweet and kind, speaks English very well and gave me a true insight about life in Kazakhstan now and when it was part of the Soviet regime. She stated that although Kazakhstan has a long way to go things are much better now than before. Now people have a chance to do better, but still it’s a struggle. People now often joke about 2030. 2030 is they’re slogan/goal to have their country be like the US as far as standard of living and general infrastructure. As an example they use military time, so people will make jokes and say, ah, it’s 2030 and we’re still living as we are, what’s the deal?? She says most people are not very confident this will happen, but overall life has improved a great deal. She says she can remember a time under Soviet rule where you could easily have gone to prison for making such a joke about a political goal/party/person in the govt. She said she has never been “hungry”, but that her mother and grandmother had known real hunger in the Ukraine just before the WWII. She also said she can remember a time under the Soviet Regime where if you went into a grocery store all you could by was flour,sugar, bread and eggs and if there was meat or cheese available, you would have to wait in long lines for several hours. She stated the worst time she has experienced was right when the Soviet Union fell and they had one winter when there was no gas, no electricity, or hot water, except sporadically. In her apartment, she only had these things from 0300-0600 so she would have to get up, take a shower, cook for the day and turn on the heat full blast and hope it would keep the house warm enough for the day. She remembers her daughter having to do her homework by candlelight and with mittens because it was so cold. She also says there is a definitely separation from Russians and Kazakhs, in regards to higher level jobs and relationships. Friendships a-ok, dating and marriage, that’s a different story. It was almost a bit too surreal as she was speaking of all of this and stating how improved everything was and yet we’re walking down a sidewalk that is half dirt, half potholes, next to decrepit apartment complexes, as cars and buses whiz by spurting mass amounts of exhaust fumes, and old babushka’s are sweeping the streets with brooms made out of sticks.

The good news is that Sam and I will be on a plane to Almaty on Friday morning and hope to get everything done by Tuesday afternoon so that we can catch the Wednesday 0115/0145 flight to Frankfurt and be Westward Bound!! YEE HAW!!! Again, I won’t feel comfortable until Sam and I are air bound and en route for Deutschland, but wow, would it be great to be in the States one week from today!!! I hope to be able to post some photos today