Kazakhstan 6

Johnny Jones, 6 July 2002

Although I went back after a week, Bryan stayed in Kazakhstan for an additional week. And although my layover in London was scheduled for only one hour, his was 23 hours.

So he went to London for a day.

For those of you who don't know, Bryan seems to us to be blessed by the Lord. So many times things just work out for him.

So, without any plan or timing or knowing what he was doing, he got in on some of the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. He took some pictures of a golden carriage that looked like it belonged in the Cinderella story, and some men on horseback who looked like they were just coming in from a foxhunt. He stumbled onto Parliament and Big Ben, and saw Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus. Someone was selling tickets to Les Miserables, so he bought them after checking to make sure the train could get him back to the airport. He caught the one fifteen minutes before they stopped running for the night.

While he was still in Kazakhstan, he figured out the Russian alphabet, and he decided to try to get around Almaty on his own.

He couldn't find what he was looking for, and couldn't even find a restaurant, but it was an adventure ­ more so when you realize there are no city maps and no published transit information. After walking and being lost, he had a time planned with a friend.

It for to walk. The first thing she said was, "I usually outwalk most people."

Oops!

But he was able to hold up.

It's no wonder we liked Almaty; walking with socialization, rather than a destination in mind, even has a word. That's "gulyat." When Tonya's son wasn't at dinner, he was on a gulyat with friends. After graduations, friends gulyat all night. When we went to the airport, people were out walking at 5 am. Since few people have cars, walking is a way of life.

And you know that fits us!

There were interesting things we saw on gulyats. One of the worst was the policeman who kicked over a babushka's potatoes she had stacked neatly for sale.

But there were also parks and wide boulevards with shady trees. There were children dressed in caps and sweaters (when I was in shorts!), and men playing chess underneath a canvas shade on a table with lots of bottles of liquor (were there bets?), and a ping pong table that was always in use just outside Mark and Melissa's apartment.

Bryan spent his time, when he wasn't on a gulyat, running or on bike rides. He got to see the countryside by riding bikes with Mark and Kazakh friends. He went to English Club with Mark and of course to church.

It was a full and rich experience. And after just a week at home, we went to the Rockies. What a contrast!