"aw, fiddle sticks!"

Second long email- written Sunday, July 20, 2008

The adventure continues. On my last email I left off on July 8th in Balkhash early in the morning having just survived a long, hot bus ride, but I have to go back to tell you about the incredible sky that breathed down on us at the "rest stops." I have never, ever, ever seen such a magnificent sky! The big dipper was HUGE! The constellations jumped out at us. The North Star was right above us. That's what happens when you stand on the 52nd parallel out in the middle of a dessert. I'll never forget the brilliant scene. That was awesome!

We arrived in Balkhash after a very long, hot bus ride, at 5:45 AM. Two Peace Corps Volunteers (Alex Bystryn from New York and Drew Stinson from Maryland) met us and took us to a wonderful apartment for $30 for the night. We slept the morning and met Alex and Drew for lunch on the beach. We had a beautiful view of Lake Balkhash. This lake is very interesting for it is half fresh and half salt water. Currently it is the 4th largest lake in Central Asia but soon will be the 3rd largest since the Aral Sea is shrinking (thanks to human's desire to tap the water for irrigation without realizing or caring about the consequences).

Alex and Drew are both incredible young men. They are talented, resourceful, energetic, optimistic hard-workers. I truly admire their maturity and outlook on life. They are not looking through "rose colored lenses" for they shared their frustrations and struggles. But they, like the other Peace Corps Volunteers we've met are putting their ideals and beliefs to work for others.

As we walked through this industrial city we saw many large billboards saying "Happy Birthday Astana" with a picture of Nazerbaev, Kazakhstan's president. We ended up seeing his picture all over the nation. There are more billboards of him than any other person, place or thing.

We had a little scare getting back to the apartment. After saying goodbye to Alex and Drew we headed back down the main street, but then we weren't exactly sure where we had cut through earlier that day. We had not left bread crumbs to find our way and we were too engrossed in our conversation to take particular care in noting landmarks. I am usually good at directions, but we didn't even know the address of our temporary home. Thank God for Philip, his Russian language skills and his cell phone. He called Alex who directed us home.

That evening Ann Marie stayed back to rest while the boys and I headed to the beach. We cut through back alleys and paths but I was making sure I noticed every landmark. The water was cold but a beautiful rich blue like I had never seen before. The sunset came behind us. The sand was littered with broken bottles and trash so we didn't do much running and frolicking on the beach. Philip cut his big toe pretty badly on a rock which was only the beginnings of his physical concerns.

That night (July 8th) Philip got violently sick. He said he had not been that sick since training when he had food poisoning. I really didn't think he would be that sick of us that soon! We felt terrible for him, of course, but what were WE to do without HIM? Stephen had been learning one Russian phrase a day (although they included mostly translated phrases like, “The system is down,” and “Aw, fiddle sticks!”), so we decided if Philip went down Stephen would then be in charge of taking care of his parents.

Philip lived through the night and we kept our appointment with Alex's host mother and host sister who were providing "tea" at 9 AM. Now one thing I have learned about Kazakh hospitality is that "tea" is not just tea and cookies. It is a full meal and I mean FULL. This was our first of many traditional Kazakh meals with cheese, sausage, plof (a rice and meat dish), salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions in mayonnaise) and tea. Did I mention the wine?

The toasts, which there were several, were consecrated with a clink of the glasses and a downing of the liquid. Philip said my toast was too short (but I made up for that later- but that is another day's email). Philip was a great sport to sit at the table with us feeling as poorly as he did. Alex's host mother was rather insistent that Philip eat, but he was positive she didn't want him throwing up on her beautiful table.

Alex and Philip both served as translators. I ate my fill and THEN came the spiral cakes, cookies and chocolates. We had a delightful morning, went back to the apartment and stayed close to home until we caught the train to Astana.

I'll write more soon. Stephen has been able to talk with Sarah 4 or 5 times a week and we've enjoyed calls from Michael and Mom and Dad.

We're off to see Philip's school and maybe see the Mosque at prayer time.

Sure do love you,
David