Go to the banya after work (1932)
Sunday's are banya days for most families in Kazakhstan. If you live in an apartment, you have indoor plumbing, but probably don't bath any more often. It is different in the cities. Volunteers in the cities, I've been told, have a daily shower routine. Since arriving in 6 months ago, I've showered only once a week. I haven't gotten into a discussion on how much water costs, but I suspect the reason is economical. At least for smaller towns, this is part of the culture. If you go for a walk Saturday or Sunday (especially Sunday) you will notice a lot of smoke in the air, caused by everyone heating their banyas (sauna) with wood or coal. I feel like if someone went without a shower for week in the states, people would take notice. But the Kazakh people are well kept people and in appearance, you would never guess this is the case. It's just part of the life here. It hasn't been hard to adjust, but I'll confess that there have been some weeks when I was waiting for Sunday to arrive.
I found this poster today and thought I'd share it, since today is wash day.
If you want to be like me, just train! (1951)
Of course the Olympics have been going on for a week now. I haven't heard one peep out of anybody about them. Keep in mind I'm in a small town of 8,000-10,000 and the TV is in the other room and I don't watch it. But I expect to hear something at least. I just brought it up to my host mom and asked if they were popular here. She said she has watched some of it while she was on a recent trip to Karaganda and it really depends on if people are into winter sports as to whether they follow the Olympics. She told me that KZ won a silver metal too- which I had not heard yet.
Elena Khrustaleva won a silver metal in the women's 15km individual biathlon. I just read an article on her and "she shot perfectly in a race where every miss is punished by a severe one-minute penalty and she made a big jump from her 11th-place finish in the sprint on Saturday with a silver in the grueling individual." So KZ is on the metal board. She was born in Russia and competed for Russia in the Junior World Championships, then changed her citizenship and competed with Belarus in the 2002 Winter Olympics, and now has changed her citizenship and competed with Kazakhstan in this years Winter Olympics. I'm sure she has a legitimate claim to each of these countries- I just find it interesting. In the span of 10 years, she has competed for 3 separate counties. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. And now she has won Kazakhstan only its 6th Winter Olympics metal in their history and their 45th overall Olympic metal.
The finish line ribbon says, "All world records must to be ours" (1935)
So at least in Karkaraly, I don't feel like the Olympics are a huge deal. People are definitely aware of what is happening though. My host mom knew that Evan Lysacek won the gold in figure skating and Gambrill's family mentioned their was a controversy over it, as reported on the news. But my host mom was also a little shocked when I told her that nearly every family in America was watching the Olympics and that it is very, very popular.
Let's work, and build and never whine! (1933)
About these posters. They are obviously Soviet. For those that don't know, Kazakhstan was the largest part of the Soviet Union, outside of Russia itself. For many reasons, but primarily because the two countries shared so much of the past 100 years together (and still do in many ways), I thought it would be interesting to show some old Soviet posters from time to time. I find them really interesting.
Also, to make pictures larger, you must right click on it and "open in new tab/window". I'm sorry for posting multiple times. The text keeps messing up on me- sometimes its white, other times its black. I'll get it...eventually.
