Zach:
Hi superfans. I knew we'd catch heat if we didn't post (Jentay). So, just a quick note, it's pretty late here. The days are very slow, we've got a lot of time left in Taldy. We're trying to stay busy though there's not a whole lot to do.
Kai and I went for a morning walk and played with a soccer ball with one of the neighborhood kids in a courtyard out back of our apartment building. A lot of the kids play here during the long summer days. It's a frightening place actually. In the middle of the yard are the remains of a building. Only the concrete foundation is left, great slabs of concrete jutting up out of the hard dirt. There are rusted skeletons of playground equipment throughout this and every courtyard. The Soviets designed this neighborhood with children in mind. That's evident from the playgrounds as well as the short, narrow roads that slow any auto traffic. The tragic thing is that everything is in such a dismal state of disrepair and neglect - from the playground to the curbs, to the apartments themselves. The trees and the hordes of children are the only bright lights immediately visible.
I see these kids navigate the neighborhood hazards - the broken glass, the jagged rebar, the crumbling concrete, the rusted jungle gyms... I want to take their fathers by the scruff of the neck and get them working on cleaning up the mess. (I can't leave out two foot high pile of hardened asphalt that guards the vertical pipes the kids use as a goal.)
It pisses me off because so many things seem so obvious and easy to take care of, make better. Am I being elitist? Is it just an American mentality to expect constant improvement in everything? (Yes, I know we have squalor, poverty, corruption, shitty sports facilities, stale milk duds, etc. in our country too- but we're trying to do something about it ...right?) Maybe the courtyard is a metaphor for this country in general. Do the Kazakhs have that drive for, and expectation of, bettering their situation in life? Isn't the "American Dream" universal?
We visited the yard again in the afternoon where met up with some more kids. Kai is getting good at kicking the ball, sometimes picks it up and heaves it. The kids are very aware of Kai and pass the ball gently to him. One of the boys picked up Kai after he had stumbled, palms down onto the packed ground. He kissed Kai's hands, set him back down
and handed him the ball.
Love to all.
Z
