Tuesday May 9th: Victory Day

Yes, today was Victory Day. It started out windy and cloudy somewhat appropriate for a day of remembrance of the Patriotic War and soldiers lost over 60 years ago and of thanks for those that survive to this day. Igor and Olga met us outside around 10 this morning tohead down to the eternal flame (pictured here) and obelisk war memorial for the celebration. Olga (II) also made her way down to the car so we could all go together. Igor gave Laura a bunch of red tulips. It is tradition here to leave flowers at the memorial as well as any war memorials (and there are many) throughout the city. We arrived and made our way passed many buses and vans which carried the veterans to the site. People were streaming through the streets, with flowers in their hands, all going to this one special place of remembrance. We gathered together and the main area was barricaded off to allow room for the representative military troops to line up for their ceremonial procession. Traditional Kazakh music and songs were played over a loud speaker and a stage was set up near the flame for dignitaries to give their speeches of thanks. As you can see from this collage, the crowd was made up of young and old. Here you can see two elders dressed in traditional Kazakh clothing and what I thought was a cute kid wearing something like an “Easy Rider” outfit – too bad you can’t see her bunny rabbit backpack as it added to the shot! We also saw the woman from the Ministry of Education who attended our pre-court hearing!

After speeches from the mayor and some veterans, each troop paraded past the dignitary stage. Each troop was represented by a different style and color of uniform, from olive green to a soft blue camouflage (not sure where they would find a blue environment to blend in with but it was interesting to see). It was a very impressive display and wonderful to watch their synchronized marching. You can see here the Kazakh flag and some soldiers which would carry it around the memorial. There were thousands of people there and most of them awaited their turn to lay flowers at the memorial to the soldiers. After they left their flowers and paid their respects they would file past the memorial wall. In this next photo you can see another troop parading with the wall in the background with their Kazakh flag flapping in the wind. As we understand, the busts of soldiers depicted on this wall are of soldiers from Uralsk. Between the wind and clouds, the threat of rain and reflective music, it really put you in the mood of the day. Although we arrived on time the event did not really kick off until 11:00, Olga told us we could visit Joseph longer in the afternoon if we wished. As it would give him an extra nap time we decided this would be okay and give us an opportunity to see more of things here. We did not file past the memorial as it would have been probably another hour before our turn would come so we decided to take Laura’s flowers to another memorial. On our way back to meet Igor, we met up with a congregation of Russian Orthodox clergy who had just paid their respects. In this group I recognized the young priest who gave us our personal tour of the old church in the cemetery when we first arrived in Uralsk! I am not sure who he was, perhaps a high ranking clergy, but he was approached by many of the elderly women who wanted to kiss his hand as a sign of respect. You see here the women and to the right the recipient of their affection and respect. This was really a great treat for us only marginally diminished for me by the two Benedryl pills I took for my allergies prior to leaving the apartment (zzzzzzz….). Igor met us, we dropped off Olga (II) and made our way to the big park for a celebration for the veterans and perhaps for soldier’s porridge.

We arrived at the park along many other people. The weather was still overcast and with the blowing trees made for a continuation of the mood here in the park. Near the river’s edge, Laura and Olga paused at a memorial to the 1919 revolution and left their tulips there. You can see part of the river in the background. When we return here with Joseph it will hopefully be sunny and I will get a good photo of the river and the trees. We then meandered our way around the grounds, passing by a few food vendors, beer tents and some amusement rides as we did the other day. This time we did grab some cotton candy and from we got from Olga their translation would be more wool than cotton. It had more of a vanilla flavor than what I would expect from ours at home. It was only 50 tenge (not sure if we had mentioned that the exchange rate is about 122 tenge per $1). As we made our way around Olga told us that none of the food was particularly good here so we did not try anything and kept looking for the soldier’s porridge which we heard about earlier. It is a very pretty park with lots of trees covering every path and this particular one led us to an opening where we saw tables and something being prepared. The tables we saw were for veterans who were arriving for lunch. It was very interesting to see how many women were there along with the men and not as their spouses, although they may have been, but wearing their own medals indicating their participation. If you look at each of them even in regular suits you can see the medals hanging from their chests. Not too far from these tables were several military looking vehicles with lots of steam pouring from the top of them. As you can see from the next photo they were some sort of military food trucks. This photo shows the soldiers pushing a huge tray/container into the side of the truck. I assume it was to keep it warm as they were cooking something in a big kettle over a fire. This was the elusive soldier’s porridge but it was not for the masses that we could tell but for the veterans only. Although we would have tasted it, I can tell you that watching the soldier’s open and empty cans of some kind of meat into the kettle did not look too appetizing! On the way back to the car we met Igor and he pointed out several statues to us. In particular was this statue of Lenin, which was huge. He told us that before the break up of the Soviet Union this statue was on the main street. After the break up, they moved it here and as you can see, people have left flowers at the foot of it. It is difficult to truly gauge the sentiment of the independent Kazakhstan at times. Sometimes it feels like people are happy with it and many times people seem to miss the strong USSR – perhaps it depends if you are more ethnically Kazakh or Russian.

After our visit to the park we stopped at the apartment to change, take a short nap, and gather our afternoon activities so we could visit Joseph. When we got to the baby house we were greeted by a smiling little boy. Unfortunately for me, I was not having a good allergy day and with a headache to deal with I was not so much fun. This meant that Laura was on full tilt as I sat there like a lump trying to smile and interact. Laura of course has boundless energy for Joseph and danced, sang and just about everything else to keep him entertained. You can see from this photo that Laura and Joseph have a future on Dancing with the Stars. Joseph sometimes, as here, has this look he gives which makes you feel like either you are being ridiculous or …REALLY ridiculous. I have a feeling I will be seeing that look quite a bit especially when I am reunited with Bacio and Luigi! Although Joseph is doing better each day, he still tends to get cranky near the end of the hour. About the same time it feels like his fever kicks in a bit as well so we get a chance to practice our soothing technique. He definitely likes to be held at these times and usually likes to be up high and preferably walking around. This of course we are glad to do – at least for now – but wonder how this preference will serve us on the two long airplane flights we have in our future.

Tonight we settled in for some good old hamburgers, pea pods and mashed potatoes. It may not sound that great to you but boy it was delicious – especially the pea pods, a green vegetable! You might have thought some dinner, CNN and some iTunes and we would be off to bed and say good bye to Victory Day but not true. At around 10pm the fireworks started just down the street from our apartment and you could see them from our bedroom window (we had to peer in-between our handing laundry) – Roman candles bursting above the neighboring buildings followed a second later by the big boom! It was a great Victory Day celebration here in Uralsk.