Around town

Walking around Ust is fascinating in many ways. For one, Russians (caucasians) and Kazakhs (asians), as far as I can tell, have totally meshed here. I think I said this in a past post. This is evident not only in the way they all live/work together, but in their features. I can't help but look twice when I see a blue-eyed, jet-black-haired asian man, sitting on the park bench with his red-haired russian wife, and their blond-haired, almond-eyed child!

Anyhow, I don't have many photos of the people because I feel awkward interrupting regular people to take their photos. But there are lots of other surprises here too. Picking thru a dumpster is not just for the homeless (hmm what have my neighbors left for me today). Ok, I did once take a plant that the Philipps' had set out for pick-up, but that's not a habit of mine. Broken side walks and over grown grass adjacent to meticulously maintained, expansive rose gardens. Perfectly ok for a male child to pee into the grass, not ok to step on it. We were reprimanded (army dude blowing whistle at us). Enormous attention paid to fashion--it's like Fashion TV on the streets. Also a photo of a shooting gallery. These are found on neighborhood streets. No idea why. I haven't seen anything other than a policeman pistol since I got here. The photo of the turquoise booklet is Nicholas' birth certificate and next to it, his adoption decree, with his new name: Nicholas Peter Holland (the "h" in Holland is written as an "X" here; the "p" in Peter is the symbol for Pi). The little log cabin in the flowers is a tiny Christian church.

As far as my plans, Sunday night I hope to be at the Hyatt in Almaty for a one-night mental health day. Just FYI, those Brits still haven't gotten me my luggage. I'm such a baby, but feel legitimately sad that I have no gifts to give, rum-pa-pa-pum.

However, I now understand that the lost bag is God looking out for us. The Friday, June 29th flight which was completely sold out (no chance of being done as originally scheduled, on 26th). But since Justin has been calling British Airways daily to find out about the bag, he was able to use the lost bag as leverage for a little special treatment. We have seats on the full flight. I'm always amazed by how I see the verse "What man intends for evil (or just screws up), God uses for good!" Amen.