A day in the life....

While living abroad there are always little things that cause you to shake your head (or worse).  Today these things came in force.  Work was slow this morning, so I decided to walk to the bank.  Upon arriving, I was told that the bank was out of money.  This happens a lot here.  It is the only bank in town as well, so when they are out of money, you are too.  I was told that there would be money after lunch.  Later, as I was walking home I passed the bank and saw the car that was delivering more money.  We are used to seeing an armored truck with lots of security.  The Kazakhstan variety is a beat up purple Lada with the name of the bank written on the door in green electric tape.  They delivered the money in cardboard candy boxes.  I saw them pile back in the Lada.  To their credit, they were at least wearing bullet proof vests, though one can't help thinking that Kazakhstan would be a good place to be a bank robber (there is a lot of steppe out there to have problems).  

Gambrill had a break in her day and was walking to the post office, so I tagged along.  For the past month, she has been trying to mail letters, but they keep telling her they can't because a problem with "a new computer program".  We didn't used to have this problem.  The woman who had always helped us had been vacant from her desk for the exact time we'd been having troubles.  It has caused a lot of aggravation.  I did manage to mail a couple of packages recently but with no thanks to the ladies at the post office.  They had to call the woman who used to work there because they didn't know how to mail a package to America.  They told us to wait and we did.  Finally the woman showed up and informed us that she no longer works at the post office (is a cleaning woman now) and only came to the post office to mail my boxes, because the other women don't know how.  When she was done with us, she put her coat back on and went home. 

Fast forward to today and Gambrill wants to mail a letter home.  They tell her again that they can't because there is a problem with the computer program.  So she asks simply for stamps.  The woman informs her that there are no stamps.  Then Gambrill asks for a box.  The woman informs her that there are no boxes.  At that point we said ok and left.  

So banks without money and post offices without stamps or the ability to send a letter.  It was sad walk home.  On the way, we saw a traffic jam caused by 20-30 horses who were taking up the entire street and refusing to budge to the cars.  This is Karkaraly. :)