The Never-Ending Journey

June 17, 2010 · Filed under Uncategorized

What an incredible day! We started off the morning by picking up a friend of Abigail’s mom, Michelle, at the Ramstore (PAMCTOP) so that she could take all of us to visit a promising babushka: Paulina. We’ve been having lots of trouble getting in touch with Evdokia ever since she got sick, so we’ve tried to find another babushka to focus on. Paulina lives in a house, not an apartment, and she was so exciting, full of life, and enthusiastic! The first thing she asked me when she saw me was if I was married! I quickly told her no. 5 minutes later, when she asked how old I was, she was incredulous and insisted I must be only 12 or 13. I’m not sure exactly what her reasoning was on thinking I was a child bride, but I went along with it. She took us past an aggressive dog to a tiny, tiny shed the back of her yard, where she had stored apples, tomatoes, and potatoes for the winter. Most of them were looking pretty rotten at that point, and she picked out the worst of them for a compost heap. She also got out a dusty jar filled with pickled tomatoes. I will admit, I was VERY hesitant about these. But I tried one when we got back inside, I was pleasantly surprised and ate two more! Paulina gave us homemade chicken noodle soup, bread, some sort of french-fry-like potato thing, more pickled tomatoes, and chai tea with raspberry leaves from her garden. To our surprise/confusion/delight (?), she pulled out a bottle of alcohol and set it on the table, whereupon she literally made us take lunchtime shots with her!! She also played us some music on the balalaika after lunch, which was incredible! So excited to get back to Houston and learn the songs on Bubbie and Cardo’s balalaika. All in all, we had a great visit with Paulina and got some amazing “active babushka” footage. We left after lunch and read books while Zhenya transcribed one of our tapes.

Next was a series of what we like to call “KazFails”. We took the camera to the Gingerbread Church park to get shots of the war memorial. After that, I was going to visit the nearby Instrument Museum and Abigail was going to get a manicure. We would meet at the house and then leave to go to Koktobe, a strange hilltop amusement park/vantage point, with some young people we’ve met here to watch the sunset. When I got to the instrument museum, the security card made an X with his arms and said NO. I said in Russian that I didn’t understand, and he repeated his NO gesture. Could I buy a ticket? NO. What? Where do I buy a ticket? How much? 200 TENGE. 200? Where? NO.

Frustrated, I went outside to look at the hours. They were open until 6, and it was only 5:35. I tried to explain this to the guard. NO. So I left. Little did I know that Abigail was also experiencing a Kazfail of her own with a manicure that needed severe retouching. When she finally got home, we were running late and hailed a car to take us to the gondola that would bring us up to Koktobe. We made it after a precarious ride up the hill! I set up the camera and got some incredible shots of the sun setting over the expansive steppe. Great stuff. Then we walked around the amusement park until 10 PM, a very strange and otherworldly place.

We fatefully decided not to take the gondola back down. Instead, we walked down the hill and began a never ending journey that we had anticipated would only take 30 minutes. We ended up walking across the city for an hour and a half… Finally, our feet sore and our stomachs grumbling (we hadn’t eaten dinner), we were home sweet home at almost midnight. One of our busiest days so far!