More Cups of Tea, Plates of Meat, and Lack of Sleep Than I Can Count: My Family Arrives!

Family Reunion: Almaty

My family arrived at 5 AM.  We went back to the apartment to take a short nap.  They liked to say that I let them sleep an hour after we got to the apartment.  That is not true; I gave them a solid hour and a half.

After that long sleep, we walked around the city, starting Panfilov Park and the Green Bazaar.  Four days before, I had been on the same path with the Tufts students, this was like round two.  Particularly with my family, it felt as if I were sharing a story with them.  They had read and heard so much about this place and now were there and it was new for them, but part of my relatively regular spectrum of activities.  From the Green Bazaar, we went to the Peace Corps office and met Victor, the PC doctor.  Then, back to the center and lunch with Sherali at a tasty little place across from the Bazaar.  We walked the same street back and forth from our apartment to the bazaar so many times that day that they knew it as well as Maple and Orchard.  Then, an afternoon siesta.  I really wanted to visit Bayan in Talgar, but we were unable to get in touch.  After the afternoon siesta, we went to Glen Pub for dinner.  A wonderful Scottish restaurant in the middle of Kazakhstan.  It makes perfect sense.  The lamb chops were great, though I particularly liked the horse goulash.

The next day, we started with seeing the Jewish community offices and meeting with members of the Jewish community.  After our brief Jewish tour and a review of my last week, with much cooler temperatures, we hiked Medeu and drove up to Chimbulak.  We decided to eat lunch before heading up to the glacier but when we finished lunch it was raining and the temperature had dropped to 11C.  Chimbulak is a ski resort up in the mountains, but 11C is still really cold, especially when three of us were wearing shorts and t-shirts.  We manage to grab a taxi on its way down, who took us all the way to our apartment across town, avoiding more rain.

That night we met my friend Diana for dinner and an evening tour of the city.  She took us to a wonderful Uzbek restaurant.  It was a whole dance, song, and acrobatic show.  We ate in traditional Uzbek robes, watching a high wire act, and lots of singing and dancing.  I liked the girl dancing with a goat carcass, followed up by a guy jump-roping on a high-wire without any safety.  The plouf and shashlich complimented the show well.  The nighttime tour of Almaty was beautiful after dinner, although I think the 10-hour time change definitely started to catch-up with them.

The next day was our first “out-of-city” experience: Charyn Canyon.  Kazakhstanis bill it as their “Grand Canyon”.  While not as large as our chasm of the States, the Kazakhstani version is absolutely stunning.  The silence adds to the beauty.  Only around 250 km outside of Almaty but barely any other tourists walking through the canyon.  My friend Alina arranged the minibus and we went to the canyon with some of her volunteers from her volunteer center and some friends from Almaty.  One of them, Rustan, had been to the canyon many times.  He was sitting in the back of the bus and as we got closer to the canyon, we passed a sign noting “Dangerous For Life”.  This seemed like a good sign, particularly as we could not see over the next hill of the road.  We all thought, including Rustan, that the driver would slow down.  He did not.  After a stressful five more minutes of driving, we stopped a couple meters from the edge of a big drop.  Beautiful.

After a solid hike through the canyon and no one falling off the unguarded edge, we had a nice classic Kazakhstani picnic lunch: chicken, potatoes, nuts, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, water, and more.  There are a few main differences between how KZ national parks are managed and the American version.  In America, there are guardrails along the edge of cliffs.  There are usually lots of signs detailing the danger of getting to close to the edge.  There would be a ranger station at the entrance with a high entrance fee and rangers who can answer questions.  And lots of tourists.

In Kazakhstan, guardrails are as elusive as a Starbucks in the steppe.  There are signs, but not nearly as many in the States, and with much less instructive information.  The entrance to the park was “guarded” by a building that looked to have less sturdy walls than a Dodge Neon and with two guys in military fatigues who did not seem to be brimming with knowledge about the park.  The entrance cost was around $2.00 per person.  There were less tourists at Charyn while we were there than students on a slow day of a senior seminar.  I loved it.  That evening we had dinner at “Kosher”, the first Kosher restaurant in Central Asia – very tasty and apparently growing in popularity among the general community.

Arbus and Kumis: Shymkent

The next day we took an early flight to Shymkent.  Fortunately, our Southern apartment had air conditioning and, unlike our Almaty apartment, there was a vent in the bathroom so it didn’t turn into a sauna every time you closed the door.  After getting settled, we found our way to Turkestan, one of the holiest Muslim sites.  Kazakhstani and Central Asian Muslims consider three pilgrimages to Turkestan to equal one Hajj to Mecca.  In Turkestan is buried a holy Suffi sage in a huge and grand mausoleum built by Timur.

There are multiple ways to get to Turkestan from Shymkent: taxi, bus, marshutka (minibus), or train.  We opted to take a marshutka there, especially only being a two-hour ride.  I thought it would be a good experience for us to experience this common mode of transportation.  We managed to find one that was just getting full.  My parents and sister got the three seats in the back and I struggled to retain my aisle seat right in front of them.  A father and his 3 or 4 year old daughter on his lap sat next to me in the window seat.  They started off quiet and uninterested in me.  Then, about 30 minutes into the ride, we shared our gum with them.  After the father handed a half piece to his daughter, it started.  The tickling did not stop for another hour and a half.

She immediately exploded.  All I tried to do was protect myself without hurting her.  I would have tickled her back, but she had the unfair advantage of sitting on her father’s lap.  If I tickled her, we were all so close that I would basically be tickling her father as well – and I did not want two against one.  The whole time, he just sat there, smiling shyly to himself.  I am sure he was more than happy that his daughter found another preoccupation after finishing her ice cream rather than him having to entertain her.  Finally, she stopped.  I turned around to talk to my family and suddenly hands are again jutting to my sides and all over my face.  It apparently is particularly fun to stick one’s hands in someone else’s face and try to get them in their mouth, after failing to win sunglasses and a hat.  We took a taxi for the way back.

The next day we traveled to Aksu-Jabagly to spend two nights in a small village.  Danny, another PCV, arranged the home stay with his old host family, as well as our excursion into the Natural Reserve, a particularly difficult feat.  Kazakhstan has an extensive system of natural reserves that are generally closed to the public.  These reserves are in place for conservation purposes with only limited opportunity to hike into them.  Yet, the government is also trying to encourage more natural tourism.  It’s an interesting dynamic and one we saw first hand.  To get into the reserve (zapovednik in Russian), we needed direct permission from the Director of the zapovednik.  Danny had arranged it all ahead of time, but even with that, there were issues.  The Director told us we would have to take a local guide with us, even though our “guide” only went to the reserve maybe once a year.  Then the Director informed Danny that he would have to pay.  Then the Assistant Director told Danny he could not come with us.  Then, the Director changed his mind and told us Danny could go for free and could come.  In our small off-road jeep, we fit 7: the driver, my dad in the front, 4 in the back, and me in the narrow jeep trunk with the arbus and dina (watermelons and melons).  The hour bumpy, hilly drive wasn’t too bad, especially because we stopped at a small village on the way up the mountain.

The village has a population of likely only around 200 people.  In the winter, the only way to get out is by horse, if they can even make it through the snow.  We delivered the fruit and were then invited in for kumis and nan.  Fresh horse milk, fresh bread, and a fresh milk cream for the bread.  We were invited in to sit around a low table and the hostess brought in the bucket of kumis.  Asking for a small amount of kumis didn’t accomplish anything, our hostess served each of us a full cup of the horse milk.  While we drank, she scooped and churned the milk.  Kumis lasts for about a day; it tasted fresh.  Our driver explained it as the “Kazakh beer” and the dried yogurt and salt balls curt as the “Kazakh beer peanuts”, due to the alcohol in the kumis from fermentation.  It was very comfortable to hear our driver explain about the alcohol content in the kumis as he’s drinking his second cup of “Kazakh beer” and we still have to drive the rest of the way up the twisty road on the mountain.

The zapovednik is beautiful and the challenges to get there were definitely worth it.  A much different canyon from Charyn, nobody besides us, and absolutely stunning.  Our host family in Aksu-Jabagly was wonderful.  The food was very tasty and they were very kind.  The last night in the village, we all had dinner together: beshparmak with kanina.  After a few days in Kazakhstan, we all agreed horsemeat is the tastiest.  As is traditional for beshparmak, my sister and I ate the oily noodles, onions, and meat with our hands.  My parents decided to retain their cutlery.

We returned to Shymkent the next morning and took the cross-town bus to go to a big bazaar on the outskirts of the city to go souvenir shopping with one of my local friends as a guide.  On the way back, my mom was confronted with a conversation about the Iraq War from the guy sitting next to her, in Russian.  She seemed to think it strange that he continued to talk to her in Russian after she clearly did not understand.  As I’ve learned, total language barriers are no barrier to international relations and foreign policy discussions.

The Last Month: Shalom Almaty!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Aktobe

Aktobe Shock

The shock of returning to Aktobe after almost a month of traveling around Kazakhstan and volunteering in Almaty felt even stronger than when I first arrived in Aktobe.  The last two weeks I toured around the country with my family.  The week and a half prior to that, I spent in Almaty staffing a trip from Tufts University Hillel, working together with Almaty Jewish university students.  Boarding the bus on Monday back here at home was jolting.

While my family took the city bus to go to the big bazaar in the outskirts of Shymkent, the last month of no rush hour bus wrestling clearly impacted my capacity for aggressive boarding.  I stood with the crowd boarding Bus #1, then quickly stepped out of the way of the crushing wave of morning travelers getting on colliding with those trying to get off the bus.  It turned out to be a good move.  Waiting another three minutes cleared the bus and I got a peaceful back of the bus seat.

There’s a lot to cover from the past month, so I’ll start with the Jewish trip and work forward from there.

Where Volunteerism, Judaism, and Social Services Collide

I landed in Almaty July 21st to begin almost a month of adventuring around Kazakhstan.  About two months ago, a friend from the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint), called me to find out more information about Kazakhstan for a new Tufts Hillel trip to Kazakhstan in late July.  I had participated on a similar trip to Kharkov, Ukraine, the first university trip to the former Soviet Union with the Joint, a few years ago, so in addition to KZ, I had a little experience with the type of program.  The trip would bring 20 American university students to Almaty to do community service with Kazakhstani Jewish students while building global Jewish peoplehood.  The idea sounded wonderful and coincided with my work, a Peace Corps meeting, and my family’s trip to KZ, so I volunteered to come down and help out.

The first three days were pre-planning.  The trip coordinator, Naomi, and I met with the various KZ organizers who she had been working with for months, saw examples of homes of the elderly whom the students would be visiting, began our Almaty taste-fest, and started to get a feel for the Almaty Jewish community.  I ended up translating a lot from Russian to English and reverse.  I’d been speaking and working in Russian for almost a year, but hadn’t had to translate this intensely and over the course of three days.  My head hurt the end of each day, but it was wonderful. Needing to translate was really good for language.  Thank you Sherali.

Our hotel, Zhetysu, had a great location, right near one of the main pedestrian streets.  The hotel also tried to be convenient in other ways.  In classic Soviet style, you register every time you enter and leave on your floor and check your heavy metal key.  Additionally, ten minutes after checking in every evening, I would get a call asking if I spoke English.  “Yes”.  This was followed by “Do you want a girl?”  “No thank you.”  “Are you sure?” Hang-up.  Regardless of what time I arrived, the call was waiting.

Then the students arrived.  The plane ride had apparently been quite the experience, with a Jewish tour of Kiev before arriving in Almaty.  Then, the Ukraine-KZ flight experienced some power issues, sitting on the runway for a few hours as the lights flickered on and off.  It was good preparation for KZ.

After the students arrived, Naomi and I moved out of our classy hotel and up into a sanatorium, “Ak Kain”, in the brisk mountain air.  The air was considerably cooler and fresher than down in Almaty’s pollution valley.  It also rained the first two or three days.  This was a nice change of weather from stuffy city living, except that I only brought one long-sleeve shirt as I expected hot weather the entire time.  Fortunately, it’s a nice shirt as I’m wearing the shirt in a lot of pictures.

During Soviet times, “Ak Kain” was a sanatorium for sick people, then it was relatively recently renovated as a vacation area and campsite.  We stayed in cabins; the Americans and Kazakhstanis living together in each cabin.  Then, the staff had their own cabin on the top of the hill.  The parking lot just outside our cabin also hosted the nightly dance parties and Shashlich fest.  Prime real estate.

This was the Joint’s first university trip to Kazakhstan and the first time the Kazakhstani Jewish community has done anything of this nature.  A lot of planning went into it and a lot continued over the week.  There were three American staff: Naomi (Joint), Ethan (Tufts Hillel), and me.  A team also managed the trip from the KZ side: Galina (Joint), Inessa (JCC), and Vika (JCC).  We also worked with the Hesed Director to arrange the home care visits (the community service component), various other community leaders for different activities, and the head of the Jewish community and President of the Mitzvah Association (the umbrella Jewish community organization in KZ), Alexander Baron.

Unlike my trip experiences with the Uruguayan and Ukrainian Jewish communities (though possibly because I was on the staff side here), the entire Jewish community, from the top leadership to volunteers was on hand for a large portion of the trip and it was easy to see the importance of this trip to the community.  This must have been one of the largest (if not the largest) groups of American Jews coming to KZ in its history, and the only group of students that has come for this type of program.

I saw the trip as having two main goals: (1) building global Jewish peoplehood, and (2) community service.  The friendships and connections made between the students and that I made are incredibly important.  Additionally, the increased understanding of the Jewish communities and of different countries is vital as a window to understand the world.  Unlike a few years ago, now all of the participants have Internet access.  Internet means Facebook and translation programs.  While Facebook isn’t as popular in KZ as in the States (they tend to use vkontakte, Moi Mir, and Odeenclassniki here), it’s easy to sign-up and can provide easier, faster, and more colorful interactions across the world.  Within a day of returning home, it seems that all of the Tufts students had already friended each other and the Kazakhstanis and within two days, all of the Kazakhstanis not previously on Facebook signed-up.

The community service consisted of visiting and working at the homes of elderly Jews in Almaty.  We cleaned, organized, ate, and provided company.  Americans and KZs working together.  Hesed sends home care workers to each of the clients we visited (along with many more) multiple times a week, and these home care workers were with the client when we were there.  We worked for three days, about four hours each, eight groups of four to six people each day.

I visited three women.  In the first apartment, small and well maintained, we cleaned everywhere.  The amount of dust, grime, and dirt took hours to get through.  Then, we spent some time talking with her.  But, she was hard of hearing and the conversation was very difficult.

The second woman’s place was an old house near the bus station.  No running water (it had to be fetched from a pump 30 seconds away), and an outdoor toilet.  There was the house proper, a covered outdoor area, then a back area that included a toilet, overgrown garden, and a good deal of shed space (with the roof looking like it would collapse soon over part of it).  We reorganized the back shed space so it looked cleaner, clipped down the prickly trees, installed new dividers between sections of the property (new big blue heavy tarps), cleaned the house, organized the covered outdoor area, and installed a new, clean toilet seat (and tarp cover).  The woman was wonderful, so friendly, fed us watermelon, and it was incredibly sad how bad of a condition her house was in.

The third woman I worked with had a beautiful apartment.  She used to be an internal medicine doctor and volunteered at Hesed following retirement, but then got cancer.  Since then, she has had so much difficulty even moving around the apartment.  Despite her health, however, she had chai with us and we talked for a while.

This aspect of the trip clarified a few issues of the Jewish community in Almaty.  The community does a lot to help the elderly, both those halachically Jewish and those connected with Judaism through a spouse or family history.  There are a lot of poor Jews and poor people in general, in Almaty.  Especially in Almaty, it’s easy to not see poverty.  New Porsches, Mercedes, Hummers, Bentleys, and BMWs provide a nice mask over the lack of running water, minimal heating, poor medical treatment, and lonely elderly.  One block you have the tastiest hot chocolate I have ever had and the block over is an 80-year-old man living alone, with no family to care for him, and difficulty paying for necessary medicine and food.

The week included lots of time for everyone to get to know each other, learn about the country and the community, eat shashlich, and build ladders over language barriers.  Fortunately, a good number of the Kazakhstani students spoke very good English, making my translation work much easier, especially as there were lots of new words last week, particularly those related to religious discussions and astronomy.

Then the students left and I had some Peace Corps meetings.  This was the first time since PST last August to November that I had been with so many Americans and in such a close environment where I needed to say goodbye.  They were all great, the USers and KZies – it was a tough goodbye and I still miss them.  At least I have had the chance to hang out with and get to know better some of the Kazakhstanis while I had more time in Almaty.

After a day of Peace Corps meetings, my family arrived on Sunday, August 3.  Two days in one week I had to be at the airport at 5 AM.  I love the Almaty airport and the road to the airport is beautiful.  There are as many car dealerships along from the city to the airport as on Orchard Lake Road and more SUVs in Almaty then in Detroit.

В Актобе к американскому сыну

В Актобе к американскому сыну

Супруги Марк и Джули Тайчер две недели путешествовали по Казахстану и на прошлой неделе добрались в Актобе. Здесь теперь живет их сын.

Альмира Алишбаева

Выпуск № 34 (759) от 21.08.2008

Больше всего, говорят гости, нас порадовало казахское гостеприимство, а огорчили горы мусора. Они у вас даже в степи, недоумевают американцы.

Об экстремальном такси, и не только

К этой поездке Марк и Джули готовились давно. Обычно свой отпуск они проводили, путешествуя по США, в этом году решили поехать в Казахстан. Здесь теперь живет их сын.

– Перри говорил, что Казахстан – это степь, и здесь очень жарко, – рассказывает 52-летняя Джули, – но  плюс 45 в Шымкенте, наше путешествие началось оттуда, было трудно выдержать. Но даже в такую жару мы не сидели дома. Первым делом поехали в Туркестан, были на каньонах, общались в аулах с местными жителями. У вас очень гостеприимный народ. Совершенно незнакомые люди приглашали нас в гости, накрывали для нас дастархан. С самого начала мы решили не создавать себе особых условий. Останавливались не в гостинице, а у местных жителей, отказались от такси и ездили на автобусах и маршрутках. Конечно, ваш общественный транспорт запомнится нам надолго. Он, – Джули задумывается, чтобы подобрать подходящее слово, потом выдает: – Экстремальный.

У мужа Джулии Марка и дочери Зеры, которая путешествует с ними, это вызывает громкий смех.

– Мы были в Алматы, Астане  и вот теперь приехали в Актобе, – говорит Марк. – Сын нас встретил в Алматы и везде сопровождал. Перри – волонтер Корпуса Мира, работает в вашем городе с инвалидами [«Д» рассказывал о нем в №23 от 5.06.08г.]. Коллеги сына работают в других областях, мы были у них в гостях. Перри в Актобе уже свой парень, от него мы многое знаем о ваших людях и вашем городе. Он всегда говорит, что люди здесь добрые. Когда мы узнали, что Корпус Мира направил Перри в Казахстан, не стали из-за этого расстраиваться. Здесь спокойно, есть телефонная связь, электронная почта, и всегда можно быть в курсе дел. Нам нравится то, чем занимается наш сын.  Другие волонтеры работают СПИД-центрах, заповеднике Кургальджин,  это тоже очень нужное дело.

Семейная благотворительность

Джули и Марк Тайчер в Америке тоже не сидят сложа руки. Сейчас они готовят к отправке в Актобе 68 колясок и тросточек для наших инвалидов. До этого они прислали пробные модели, и они оказались намного удобнее тех, что поставляют инвалидам по линии управления соцзащиты.

– Перри написал, что больным людям нужны коляски. Мы обратились в наши медицинские и благотворительные организации, и они откликнулись, – говорит Марк. – Сейчас оформляются документы, и вскоре коляски будут здесь. Мы рады, что тоже чем-то можем помочь вашим инвалидам. Знаем, что они очень активные. Перри высылал нам видеозапись с конкурса, где они танцуют с Викой Квашей вальс. Девушка танцевала, сидя в коляске. Я подумал: «Она – звезда», а Джули плакала. И остальные родственники плакали.

Как заметил Марк, в Америке у инвалидов тоже есть свои проблемы. Главным образом, с трудоустройством. Зато в жилых домах, государственных зданиях  – везде есть пандусы, и это норма.

Главное, у вас есть свобода

– Мы общались с вашими людьми. Многие огорчены, что рухнул Союз, – рассказывают гости. – Нет бесплатного образования для всех, лечения, не гарантирована работа, но теперь у вас есть главное – свобода.

– Казахстан – очень красивая страна, – вступает в разговор Зера. Она студентка, музыкант. – Я играю на валторне, но мне очень понравилась ваша домбра. Вот бы на ней научиться играть! Обязательно куплю домбру себе на память. И кухня у вас вкусная – бешбармак, плов, шашлык… Нас быстро научили кушать руками, а первое казахское слово, которое мы запомнили, «рахмет».

Как рассказывают гости, им очень понравилась Астана. Больше всего – берег Ишима. Американским путешественникам, как они сами говорят, столица напомнила родной Детройт.

– Только у вас река лучше, – смеется Джули.

Американский кризис породил безработицу

Пользуясь случаем, «Д» решил узнать, как отразился американский кризис на самих жителях США.

– Я профессор в юридическом университете.  Муж – юрист, – ответила Джули. – Мы можем на свою зарплату позволить себе такую дальнюю поездку, хотя это и недешево. Зар­плата в стране разная, но юристы получают от 50 до 70 тысяч долларов в год. У нас сейчас сложности в экономике. Вырос уровень безработицы. В Детройте сократило штаты крупнейшее предприятие General Motors, из-за этого свернули работу многие мелкие предприятия. Они были связаны с ним. Без работы сейчас 8% населения. Но мне это не грозит – я юрист по банкротству.

Мы не любим мусор

– А что огорчило вас в нашей стране?  – интересуюсь я у гостей.

– Мусор, – отвечает Джули. – Он у вас везде – и в городе, и даже в степи. Это и в Алматы, и в Шымкенте, и в других городах.

Кто-то из присутствующих на встрече тут же похвастался, что аким Актобе недавно заключил договор с американской компанией, теперь она будет заниматься у нас вывозом мусора.

– Это зависит не от компании, а от людей, – возразила Джули.

Как тут не согласиться?

published in Diapazon, Thursday August 21, 2008 (http://diapazon.kz/?nom=79&rub=19&news=1975)

In Aktobe to Visit Their American Son

Husband and wife Mark and Julie Teicher traveled to Kazakhstan for two weeks and last week arrived in Aktobe, where their son now lives.

The first thing our American guests noticed and what stuck with them throughout their travels was the incredible kindness of Kazakh hospitality.  As they said, all of the Kazakhstani people they spent time with greeted them with great hospitality.  They also noted, however, the mountains of rubbish that also greeted them throughout travels.  This greeting was not quite as friendly.  It felt very strange to see piles of trash, even in the steppe, the Americans thought.

Regarding extreme taxis and other public transportation

Mark and Julie prepared for this visit for quite a long time.  Most of their vacations have been spent traveling in the U.S., however, because their son is living in Kazakhstan, they decided it was important to see the country where their son lives.

Perry had said that Kazakhstan is largely steppe and is very hot, said 52-year old Julie, but plus 45C in Shymkent, was somewhat difficult to endure.  But, even in such heat, we did not just sit at home.  We first went to Turkistan, then to Aksu-Jabagly and the canyon their, and spent time in small villages with local residents.  You have a very hospital people, Julie noted.  Even strangers invited us in as guests and served us at their table.  From the beginning, we decided we needed to experience as much of the country as we could.  We did not usually stay in hotels, but in home stays, and took taxis, buses, and minibuses.  Of course, we will remember your public transportation for a long time.  It is, and Julie paused to find a suitable word, “extreme”.

Mark and Zara, their daughter, laugh at the description.

We were in Almaty, Astana and now have arrived in Aktobe, Mark said.  Our son met us in Almaty and we have traveled together throughout the country.  Perry, a Peace Corps volunteer, is working in Aktobe with people with disabilities ["D" told about it in № 23 of 5.06.08].  Our son’s colleagues are working in other areas and we have been fortunate to see a variety of the work of Peace Corps Volunteers.  Perry has already been in Aktobe a year and has got to know the city well.  He has always said that there are very good people here.  When we learned that the Peace Corps sent Perry to Kazakhstan, we were not upset but excited.  In Aktobe there are telephones and e-mail and it is relatively easy to stay in touch and keep abreast of affairs around the world.  We are very proud of what our son is doing.  Other volunteers are also working in very necessary causes, including HIV/AIDS center and a number of nature reserves, some of which we visited.

Family charity

In America, Julie and Mark Teicher do not sit idly by while their son works here.  They are currently preparing to send 68 wheelchairs and more canes to Aktobe to help our people with disabilities.  Prior to this shipment, a test model of another wheelchair was sent to Aktobe and has proved much more convenient for disabled people than other models.

“Perry wrote that disabled people needed more wheelchairs.  So, we contacted our medical and charitable organizations, and they responded,” Mark said. “We are currently working on documents and we hope that soon the wheelchairs will be shipped.  We are very pleased that we can do something to help disabled people here, as well.  We know that they are very active. Perry sent us a video from the dance competition he was in with Vika Kvasha where they danced the waltz.  Vika was dancing, sitting in her wheelchair.”  Julie jumped in, “I thought, ‘She is a star’, and then I cried.  All of our relatives who were watching with us cried as well”.

“People with disabilities in America also have problems,” Mark said.  “Mainly, these problems are issues related to employment.  Access is better.  All public buildings are required by law to have ramps to provide access to people with disabilities.”

The main thing is you have freedom

“Many people that we spoke with were sad when the Soviet Union collapsed,” our guests said.  “People said that unlike during Soviet times, there is now no free education and health care for all, but now you have a key thing – freedom.”

“Kazakhstan is a beautiful country,” Zara says.  She is a student and a musician.  “I play French horn, but I really like the dombra.  I am looking forward to learning to play the Kazakh national instrument.  I plan to buy a dombra while I’m here to take back to the States.  Along with music, the cuisine is very tasty – beshbarmak, plouf, and shashlich – all very good.  We quickly learned to eat with our hands.”  The first Kazakh word our guests remembered is “raxhmet” (thank you).

The Teicher family liked Astana, particularly the riverbank.  The capital reminded them of Detroit.  “Only you have a better river,” Julie said while laughing.

The American crisis caused increased unemployment

Taking this opportunity, “D” decided to find out how the financial crisis has affected our guests and the U.S.A.

“I am a professor at a law university and my husband is also a lawyer,” Julie said. “At our salary, we can afford such a long trip, although the trip costs real money.  Wages in the country vary, but lawyers in our area typically make between fifty and seventy thousand dollars a year.  The economy is now in very difficult times.  There is increased unemployment all over the country as well as particularly in Detroit.  In our city, increased unemployment is largely due to lay-offs at General Motors and the effect of plant closings on other small businesses working with the car company.  Unemployment in the Detroit area is now around 8%.  As a bankruptcy attorney, I have seen work increase.”

We do not love junk

“Is there anything in our country that disappoints you?” I ask our interesting guests.

“Rubbish,” Julie says.  “Trash is everyone, in the cities and even in the steppe.  Almaty, Shymkent, and other cities all have a lot of trash.”

One of the other people sitting with us immediately boasts that the Aktobe mayor recently signed a contract with an American company to handle garbage collection in our city.

“Keeping the city clean does not depend on us, it must come from people,” Julie said.

How can one not agree?