A Rainy Sunday in Almaty

Yesterday was the day of the shower and this morning was for doing laundry in that same space. The washing machine in the apartment here in Almaty is different from that in Uralsk and according to the hand written instructions would take about 2 hours for cycle. As it looked like it may not run or run well we decided to break out the travel Woolite and dive into laundry duties for Joseph’s clothes. Joseph’s bathtub made a great wash basin and so Laura and I took turns washing and drying clothes. Here is a nice photo of Laura getting into the washing – I guess it is better than smashing them against a river rock but right now we would be very happy to see our machine at home. After the wash was finished, it was time to get them into the dryer…well this is what we called the clotheslines which were strung between the windows, as shown in the next photo, or across the bathroom. I should not make it sound like we were out in the back woods as we actually had a more sophisticated dryer than this. At the bottom of the clothesline photo you can see two examples of our laundry rotolo or “rolled laundry”. We first rolled up our laundry in our quick drying towels to act like our “spin cycle”. The clothes are then transferred to the line for drying. It worked pretty well although the down pour of rain outside did not help with moisture removal!

This morning we were to go to Gorky Park but we had to cancel. First, Joseph did not sleep well last night and did not take much of a nap this morning so it would not have been an un pleasant trip for him so I cancelled with Kirill. Just after canceling it poured again like crazy so it was good timing for us. Although very tired, Joseph would not give in and would go from being a happy laughing kid – shown here playing with me on his blanket - to a not so happy boy who was difficult to comfort. Boy this really made us tired as well and so we thought we would probably spend the entire day inside and so I made another run to the beautiful grocery store next door. I did not mention it yesterday but there is more to this grocery store. If you watch closely you notice that the shelves are always ‘faced’. I can walk in there, purchase a bottle on my way down the aisle towards the back of the store but then when I turn around to come back, the empty space I created has already been filled. This goes on all day. There are people stationed almost every 10 feet to help you and several other people going around cleaning – it is an impressive operation.

After lunch and a bunch more rain the sun came out and Joseph seemed to be feeling better so we thought we would attempt an escape from the apartment and go for a walk. With our overpriced stroller in hand, we set out down the avenue towards the artist’s street and the Tsum store, the reported mecca of souvenirs! I started out pushing Joseph in the stroller and this photo is what my view was like. It seemed Joseph liked sticking one foot – with Kazakh shoe – up in the air as we walked. He seemed pretty content and so were we to be outside. The sidewalks were a bit bumpy and we had to do some stairs but our crappy stroller did okay especially as we added some padding for his bum. The sun was coming out and it was getting warmer but we tried to keep him appearing bundled up for fear of the babushkas stopping us. He had on his Kazakh knit hat which he does not seem to mind and we believe pleases those that walk past us. There were two parks on the way down to the store and here you see Laura pushing Joseph passed one of them. We each took turns so Joseph could see us and it was not until nearing the store that he became a bit fussy. This we are pretty sure was due to the heat or rather than induced by the clothing! When we removed his hat he was sweaty, so we loosely put it on until we could get inside the big store. I think I previously mentioned to you how clean Uralsk was and that they had many garbage cans along every street while something similar can be seen here but then one step better. Along our route we saw many trash receptacles that allowed you to recycle! These were public cans on the street! It was great to see and hopefully someday Chicago will have something similar. The area surrounding the store had many vendors selling food and drinks – not to mention lottery tickets. It was a Sunday and there were many people with their families either walking around or sitting on a bench. It was a great pedestrian area and we wanted to just relax BUT, we knew we wanted to check out some of the Kazakh stuff and did not know how long it would be before Joseph wanted to get back home so in we went.

The building contained many stores spread out amongst three or four floors. The third floor was essentially all Kazakh and Russian stuff mainly for souvenirs but not all. There were beautiful Kazakh robes and coats, hats and a bunch of jewelry, as well as fabrics for dresses etc. We did some “damage” between some wooden bowls, yurts, odds and ends and my Kazakh slippers! Yes the photo here shows my Kazakh slippers made of wool with curled pointed toes – my own pair of genie slippers. We had a good time shopping as Joseph was all smiles and flirting with the sales women. It was funny in one store, Laura was looking at jewelry and I was looking at saddles for horses. You would think the funny part was a store selling both amber jewelry for Laura and horse saddles but you would be wrong. The sales person, who was fairly young, was assisting Laura when she stepped a bit to the side, bent down and pulled Josephs pant leg down as his calf/ankle was exposed! This seemed even excessive for a babushka but this was a young woman and we were inside a store which itself is inside of a building on an 80 degree day! It should be noted that many of the nearby store personnel had fans running to keep them cool! After hitting a few stores we were tapped out of tenge so we headed back and on the way, Joseph became fussy so Laura picked him up and he fell asleep! A sleep he needed badly but it would have been better for us had he done this in the stroller. Oh well….

When we got back home, Laura worked on getting Joseph settled as he decided he had enough sleep on the way back in her arms! While she was doing this, I hopped over to the store and got everything we need for burgers including American Cheese Singles and Heinz ketchup (very good for Kazakhstan to use Heinz!). When I got back home we all ate and just kicked back to relax on this Sunday evening. The photo here shows Joseph taking it easy on my lap as things were winding down. You can call him Stogie Joe. Tomorrow the medical exam at the U.S. Embassy and hopefully some outdoor time too!

Da Zavtra!