The picture above shows the piece of junk washing machine (agitator) that I used today. I was in dire straits- back from a 20 day trip with nothing clean. My new host mom, Aliya, kept postponing wash day but I finally told her enough was enough- today was the day.
The machine ate my clothes. I don't have many shirts here. The machine ate two of them.
My laundry days are over. I'm going to ask around and find some old babushka (grandmother) to wash my clothes for me. Obviously these 50 year old machines have a temper and I don't have the patience to learn about them. So I'll have these shirts patched (3 of my shirts will now be patched and 1 of my pants). Hard times. I'm not too happy, especially since these old machines don't clean anything (they just make your clothes smell like detergent) and I still have a pile of dirty clothes needing wash.
Fall colors have come to Karkaraly. It has felt like fall since July...but the change of colors make it official. There have been forest fires in the park for a couple of weeks and the skies are filled with smoke when the winds are blowing in the right direction. I don't know the specifics on the fires but I will ask tomorrow when I return to work.
