This picture is of the Olympic training center for children. It was right across the street from our apartment. Many days we watched the young athletes working out -- bike riders taking off in large groups -- runners heading out early in the morning for their runs. We would have liked to go inside but we never felt comfortable enough --it was a very busy place some nights with parents picking up and dropping off children.
The workers below were a common sight on our walks around the city. We saw a few backhoes doing some of the digging but more often than not the digging was manual. The people of Kazakhstan were very hard workers. There were several buildings being remodeled around town -- the workers were there from early morning to dark. During our time in Uralsk we watched the restoration of several building fronts.
This picture shows you the changes happening in Uralsk. When we were there 9 years ago most of the houses were like the one you see in the front. Behind it is the new, modern houses/apartments that are going up around the city. We were told that the newer homes are often owned by oil field workers. If you look close at the old home you can see what the walls were made of -- wood with dirt inbetween for insulation. The homes were very small -- when we looked inside we could see 3 rooms but no bathroom.
I took this picture while we were being driven to the orphanage. The street is very busy and we're traveling about 45 miles an hour. If you look close you can see the white lines in the middle of the 2 lane road -- do you see where we are? Definitely not in the right or left lane -- we've created our own center lane ...........
Hailee thought this was the strangest thing to do but after a week or so she was an expert at it. Before we would eat any fruit or vegetable we grabbed our bottle of vodka (bodka)and a paper towel and proceeded to wash them all down. After a few minutes of washing we'd rinse with our bottled water and enjoy! The fruit was worth the extra time spent doing this -- it was fantastic, especially the apples!
2 comments:
How interesting to WASH your fruit with Vodka! I thought you were a non drinker Cheryl. I'm sure my brother offered to do this often. Just kidding you guys, did this sanitize the fruit? An interesting thing, did someone tell you to do this, or how did you know?I remember you told me about the water, I guess that is the answer right there. The photos are great, wish you would have gone into the training building, would have been neat to see how they treat their athletes. I'm sure not as much luxury ours are used too. Any news from the adoption agency? Are you still considering going forward, or waiting for awhile. Well enough for now, I guess I should call you and get the answers.
Talk to you soon, love and hugs..
Those pictures bring back lots of memories. In fact, I wished I had taken a photo of Yerlan creating his own lane. Could you please email me that photo? I'd love to do a post on what it was like being a backseat driver in Uralsk.
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