A Wet Adventure

Monday, June 19th

Today we had a little bit of the kid type fun stuff. We got together with Karen, Brett and Marot along with their friend Nastia. She met us at our apartment along with her nephew Igor to go to the park together. It was nice for Stella because Igor is nine also and they got along nicely since Marot thinks Sasha belongs to him. We went to the Zoom on our way to get some money since they have an ATM machine and we got some baseball caps since it is so hot outside. Then we went to the park. It is a bit of a walk but a little exercise was much needed. Sasha did let us know though that he was hot. We went to the lake in the park and the kids wanted to ride on a boat….no….throw rocks in the water…no…put their feet in the water yeah…that’s it!

We went down to where the water is more beach-like and the kids were quick to get their shoes and socks off and get in the water right away. We asked them to be careful not to get their clothes wet and they came up with a great idea. They could take their clothes off and swim! Well to be honest this is not the type of place I would ever let kids swim in at home. There is garbage sprinkled about and broken glass in places but…there were people everywhere swimming and kids having a great time and it was hot… ok we caved! Those kids were stripped down to their undies in nothing flat!

I have been to a beautiful beach in Spain and seen a lot at that location as far as the type and lack of clothing but I was introduced to a totally different look here. There were adults walking around and swimming in their underwear! It was bizarre and I don’t mean GREEN! I have seen lots of women with see through shirts on with clear views of their bras but this was still quite shocking to me. Seeing a couple walking hand in hand on a stretch of dirt beach, her in white panties and bra, him in black underwear, it made it quite natural for my two to run around in their undies. I think it is that whole flexibility in a foreign country thing. Or when in Rome… I said a quick prayer of protection over the kids as they disappeared into the water. All four kids had such a good time and they played for about 30 minutes then we reeled them in and tried drying off as best we could.

It was quite funny the whole thing. I know one day I will look back on this and think what was I thinking!?! Even Nastia said she does not normally let her nephew swim in the lake and her parents who are doctors would be very upset with her but hey, why not! After all this wet, we had to get them dry, so we put them on the spin cycle of one of the rides in the park and then they went on the “Slow Thriller” Ferris Wheel. It is so slow that you only go around once! You can get some nice pictures of the surrounding Karaganda area through.

We realized that we were getting very close to dinner time and we needed to let them know we would not get back in time so we asked Nastia if she could call but her cell phone was out of minutes so we had to hurry to find a phone. Now some of you may have to think back in time a long, long time ago when there were no cell phones and one would have to look for a pay phone. Now people have cell phones in abundance here but most of them seem to buy minutes and add them to their phones. By the time we walked back to town and found a pay phone we realized it was not the old slap a tenge in a make a call type but you needed a phone card!!! A man in front of us was trying to make a call with a card and I could tell he was a little frustrated when he hurled his card into the air and walked away muttering something in a strange tongue. There was a post office nearby and Nastia said they would have a phone but when we went in they said it was on the other side of the building…so we walked to the other side and found them. We walked into a large room and there was a row of closet phone booths on our right and a large counter with glass to separate us from them. We then proceeded to stand in line to buy two minutes of talk time on the pay phones! It was about now that I was thinking boy I sure am glad I got to experience this part of Kazakhstan. Garrett said this business would not go well in America. The thing is you would have to know they were there. They are so tucked away we would have never found it. But we did make our phone call which was good. Mission accomplished! Then we went to have some chicken at Café Ancara and finished off our evening with a little late night Zoom shopping for a few gifts for the mamas and kids at the orphanage. We caught a taxi ride home thanks to our bilingual son and were in the apartment and in our jammies playing gameboy in no time…after showers of course!!! We had to wash the lake off the kids. It was our last Monday in Karaganda and a good one. Thanks be to God!