My Weekend Adventure

So last weekend I had quite and adventure. My host mom took me to a village one hour from where I am staying to spend the night and meet some of her other family members. Now Im not sure how they are related to her, she tried to explain it to me, but I didn’t really understand. Yay Russian…lol. Anyway, she called the woman who picked us up on Saturday night her sister, which is weird bc this woman looked about the same age as my host mother’s mother. I tried to ask if it was her father’s daughter…anyway I didn’t get clarity, but onto the story.

I forget the sister’s name, but lets call her Tilla. Also remember that my host mom’s name is Gulnara.

Around 7pm on Saturday night Tilla came to pick us (Gulnara, her son Telman, and me) up and drive us to her village. Tilla didn’t actually drive, her son did, and I forget his name too, so lets call him…Dan…lol. I tried to think of a Kazakh name but Im drawing blanks.

Side bar…my host mom and her family is actually Azerbaijanian, from the country of Azerbaijan (look it up). Her mom bought her to Kazakhstan when she was 3 years old. Back to the story…

Dan is completely deaf. Now I never actually thought about if deaf people are allowed to drive in the US, but I guess they can…right? Well, the only thing I was concerned about was that Dan wouldn’t be able to hear any horns, or speak to the police if we got pulled over. It turns out that Dan is actually a very good driver. We actually did get pulled over by the police on the way, not for speeding or anything, I think it was just like a check point or something. No worries I had my passport. Anyway…it turns out that there is a Russian sign language, which I never thought about either. For some reason I assumed that sign language was an international thing, but that doesn’t make sense bc we all have different alphabets. Thanks for opening my eyes Kazakhstan! Lol. Also I should mention that driving in Kazakhstan is a bit like how NYC taxis drive, so I wasn’t surprised.

Dan got us to our destination safely. I met the family, which consisted of Tilla, her husband, and their son Dan. Also in at the house were some friends, Taofeek, his wife, and their 2 children. In addition there was a cat and 3 dogs. They gave me my own room and I was very grateful.

Lets go back a little, before we left Gulnara told me that Tilla’s husband (lets call him Rich) was "chur-ney" (black). So I guess part of the reason they wanted me to come visit was to meet him. Gulnara told me that he called me his "sister"…lol. Well, it turns out that Rich is not black. He is a little tanned and I think they told me that someone from his family is from Guatemala. But I guess they consider anyone who is a little tanned black. Actually, that makes sense bc whenever I show them pictures of my mom (who is light skinned) they don’t believe that she is black…lol.

Everyone was very nice to me. I did my best to converse, which was hard bc I couldn’t bring my dictionary to the table (not culturally cool). Surprisngly, the person I was able to understand the most was Dan, who couldn’t speak or hear, let alone speak English! He was able to make gestures and draw examples of things to helped me understand. I guess this is how he communicates on a daily basis, so it was easier for us to relate. We ate, conversed, had chi (tea) and went to bed.

The next day I woke up and had breakfast, Tilla’s mom came over to meet me, lets call her Anna. (I need to get better @ remembering names). She was really sweet. We they then proceeded to take me for a tour of the village, they would point to things and say a name, and I would have no clue what the building was. I did make out the school though. Then we went to some visit some Americans who live in the village. Turns out there are two couples living there working for an NGO focusing on agricultural work. One of them is an RPCV from the pacific islands. It was really great to meet them.

After meeting the Americans, I went to Taofeek’s house to visit. The first thing I see when I walk into the front yard is a dead sheep! Thank god I missed the actual killing. But they did want me to help skin it. So I did. Then Taofeek’s wife bought me into the house to help clean out the intestines. It was still warm, and there was a lot of poop I had to clean out. What an experience!!! I then pealed some potatoes with my host mom.

Ill post all these pics in another blog

We then went to Anna’s house, where I had some chi and then we saw a tobacco field for Phillip Morrison cigarettes. It was fun

We then went back to Taofeek’s house for lunch. It was a difficult lunch to eat. Lets just say there were a lot of flys. I did my best, but I ended up not eating a lot, which is hard when everyone wants the American to eat their food. But I had great company. Everyone was really nice to me and did their best to talk despite my horrible Russian.

After lunch I went home for a nap. Then I woke up and had a nice Banya. Now a banya is pretty much a sauna. It gets really hot and there is a bucket of water that you are supposed to use to wash yourself. People usually stay in there for hours. It really a cleansing experience and I had a great time. But Im still happy I have a working shower at home.

We then went to Taofeek’s house for dinner. Dinner was much better than lunch, not many flys. There were more people, and of course the vodka came out. Lets just say that men will be men in any culture. 2 of them ended up getting drunk and there was a fight. Of course I left soon after that. I really have no idea what the fight was about, but it had something to do with Obama and Vlad Putin. Whatever…

We then went home....and that was that.

All the pics should be posted above.

Be Blessed
Erica