Happy Anniversary in Almaty!

Written on Sunday, December 20, 2009
Today we celebrated our wedding anniversary by doing a little site seeing. When we said our vows 12 years ago, I can assure you I would never have imagined then that my life would take me here. I feel grateful to have followed my heart to this place that enabled Gary and I to celebrate 12 years of marriage in Almaty.

As today was a Sunday, we did not have a visit with Batyrhan. We had the opportunity offered to us to visit Lake Almaty with our translator and two other Belgian couples. Due to a few factors, one being my car sickness issue (in general and specifically here with leaded fumes) and the poor roads one hour up and then back the mountain, we decided that the lake, a beautiful glacial water, would not be something we see this time. I was torn about it until I googled a map of it which actually showed the road to get there from an aerial view. The squiggles alone made me ill. In fact, the driver called them “serpentine.”

So Gary and I stayed closer to the hotel and went to Kok Tobe, a recreation facility 10 minutes up a mountain on a cable car with some carnival games (closed), restaurants, a small sad zoo, ping pong, souvenir stores, look out points and a huge children’s play area. It’s a tourist place that a lot of families here visit with their children and a lot of adoptive families have visited. It gave us a chance to see the city of Almaty from up above the smog filled skyline. Due to the weather or holiday time, most of the things were closed. Even still, we spent 2 hours there door to door and it was a very pleasant time. I was hoping the smell in the air would be even more fresh but I guess we are not high enough up yet to get some good clean oxygen. We did a really fun tobagon ride. I’m usually chicken about these things but it was self regulated and there were no steep drops. It was fun to share the tobogan as well — a good date activity!

Later on, we went to the Mega Center, a new mall constructed recently and the largest mall of it’s kind in Central Asia. The actual shopping experience is not as large as malls I know (not as many stores but yet all lovely), but the mall extends because there are very large additional stores within the mall. For example, there is a store called Booking — a small version of a book and music and technology store. There is something that appears (in Russian) to say “Techdom” — and looks exactly like a Best Buy, replete with staff in orange wearing orange Santa style hats. They sell every electronic thing you can imagine here and it’s quite nice. As well, there is a full bowling alley, movie theater and Babylon Magic Park, a huge indoor children’s play facility that I can’t properly equate to anything I have ever seen. Perhaps a play center you might find near Disney. It was a paradise for children and teens – new, clean, fantastic facilities — including a restaurant, photo studio, entire Little Gym or gymboree style jungle gym inside as well as carnival spinning rides. It was truly beautiful and impressive. I was like “Ohhhh, how I would love to have Emma and Eden’s birthday parties here!” 😉

We ate at Assorti, a great Russian restaurant, in the mall. Gary had a wonderful salmon dish with spinach and sauteed vegetables. I had a dish with cubed chicken, peppers, onions and button mushrooms in a light cream sauce made of what appeared to be a thin sour cream with cumin. It was an extremely tasty meal and the server was a nice Russian guy who was happy to practice his English.

This is the bogus part of Almaty — taking advantage of perceived “rich” Americans. We were told by a young woman at the reception desk that to go to the mall by the hotel taxi it would be 1000 tenge (about $7) (in fact she told us this same price the day before when we inquired), and we should walk to that Mercedes right out front (Yes, some of the cars are very nice here.) When we got to the car, the driver told us it would be 2000 Tenge (about $14) to get to the mall. When we spoke about the conflict in price, we were followed back into the hotel where a discussion in Russian ensued. The young receptionist then told us, “No, I told you 2000 Tenge” yet her eyes were darting back and forth slightly when she spoke. I said “That wasn’t what you said – You said it will be 1000 Tenge with that white Mercedes over there.” She said no, that wasn’t what she said, and eventually we said no thanks. On the street we found a taxi for 1000 Tenge with a driver who spoke no English but was helpful. He did not even take the 500 Tenge Gary offered as a tip for his hospitality.

Let me talk a little about the women’s fashion in Almaty. They obviously care very much about fashion as every single time there is a TV on, in a restaurant or in the common area at the mall, it is on a Fashion Network. It is almost like a uniform the way they dress and it is quite attractive. The uniform on 99% of the younger women from their teens to 30’s is, in this weather, a jacket that is shiny and cropped or wool and fitted, often with a belt and perhaps a furry collar. 100% of the women wear fitted skinny jeans or leggings or tights under a short shirt. 99.5% of women wear black boots with a heel, often stiletto, with the boot coming to their knee. The streets here go up when we approach the mountains and it is not an easy walk. Additionally, the streets often have pot holes and motes or huge holes you can get lost in in the dark and cobbled bricks. I do not know how they do it. The other .5% of women wear a high black boot with a flat heel with their fitted jeans. A smaller percentage, the young teens, can be seen in Emu or Uggs, and they give the appearance of the Long Island girls I see in the malls at home. Walking in the mall or along the cobbled streets, I am amazed by the endurance and abilities of these women teetering on such tiny heels. Only they don’t look to be teetering at all. Hand bags are held in the crook of their arm, often a shiny material, either man-made material or a patent leather with an attractive embellishment. Most of their jeans look nothing like mine, boot legged and casual — Their jeans have embellishments on their pockets or thigh area. Studs or rhinestones or metallic stitching. Often the boots will have studs or buckles on the side or near the zipper. None of this is too much – in fact, it is tastefully done as everything is dark and looks sophisticated and almost ready for a date night. The women are all slim, neat and often tall. I said to Gary “I have much to learn from these Kazakh women!” Though I will stick to the flat boots 😉

I have also noticed that many young girls enjoy walking the streets of Almaty linking arms or holding hands casually. It looks like a very friendly thing to do. I did see two boys hanging in a group of other boys with their arms linked too. It did not give the appearance of a relationship other than friendship, and it was interesting to see how very open they are with affection.

Where Gary and I usually feel we stick out like sore thumbs in the streets here and are often stared at, I felt much more comfortable in the mall. I was approached, just like at home, by 2 groups of English speaking Jehovah’s Witnesses who wanted to provide me with “reading material.” I felt comfortable to just hang out and eat my ice cream, even when Gary stepped away for a bit.

This tiny ice cream “ball” was $4. No wonder the Kazakh women are so slim. I have much to learn from the Kazakhs about portion control.

Walking into the stores and browsing or smelling the soaps at LUSH made me feel at home. There are an awful lot of security guards or policemen in the mall and streets. I said to Gary, do you feel like you will be arrested for something? After watching these documentaries on HBO, I do feel it could happen. Gary said, it did cross my mind that in this place where we don’t speak the language and everyone talks about corruption that we might unwittingly do something stupid and be arrested. That is a terrible feeling to walk the streets with, but it appears we both felt it.

In the new and bright Ramstore, which is the big supermarket attached to the Mega Center and is quite an impressive supermarket (the types of breads alone will floor you), we met an American mother and daughter. The mother is from Colorado and is visiting her daughter (in her 30s) who lives in Almaty. When asked we told them we were adopting a baby and the daughter (Jahnna) told us she works in Baby House #1 with orphans soon to be released, teaching them life and work skills. The kids here, if not adopted, get released from between age 14-18. If they do not have proper work skills to make money, they will turn to prostitution. She also told us that there is an extremely high rate of suicide among children newly released into the world. She said “You are saving one from this.” I was amazed by her story, so wish we could have gotten more information and spoken more than the 15 minutes we chatted. She began visiting the orphanages in Russia when she was just 15 years old on a church youth mission group. She then went once a year for 8 years until she was 22. She told her mother from a very early age, “One day I will live over seas and I will help these orphans.” Her interest was further reinforced because her best friend at home as a teen was a girl who was adopted at age 15 from Russia. In college, she traveled to Russia and then to Kazakhstan and she and her husband both do the same type of work with the organization that helps them after they are released. She has a two year old son and also has a 19 year old girl living with her who was released from the orphanage but did not have a place to go to. Here is a woman who, to quote our Aunt Esther, is “doing God’s work.” I was so impressed, so very impressed. I kept telling her “what you are doing is so wonderful, just amazing.” And she replied with “You are doing the same. Blessings to you on this adoption.” Gary and I spoke and we want to find her again and help her with her cause in some small way. We will not leave this country unchanged.