I arrived in Astana in March. We had hot water for about a week, then it went to lukewarm, then cold. The building controls the heater, including when it is turned on, off and how hot it is. We cannot turn the heat up or down. They also control the hot water. After a month, I said something to our liaison about not having hot water, who scolded me for not telling her sooner. It seems some of the pipes were being flushed out and they somehow neglected to turn the hot water on for us. So we had hot water for a week. Then back to cold. Finally, on June 5 our landlady installed a hot water heater in the bathroom. Hooray! A continuous flow of hot water for showers! So thankful for that.
The weather this summer month has been hot and dry, rainy and cool, windy and calm. A little of everything. The twilight begins around 3:50am, the sun rises around 4:30. It sets around 9:30, but twilight lasts until around 10:15 or so. That's a long day!
On the 14th the Astana Outdoor Adventurers took a trip to Torgai to see the balbals. Balbals are stone monuments carved sometime during the Bronze Age. People have been living on the steppe for about 40,000 years. These are not that old, possibly from the 6th to 8th Century, but are indications of some kind of settlement thousands of years ago. Perhaps they were graves, or markers of battles or territory markers. No one is sure what they are.
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| You can see these two are really out in the middle of nowhere. |
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| A little river. I don't know how long it's been there, but if it was there during the 6th Century, perhaps this was a place for the nomads to graze and water their herds. |
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| This one fell down. Its face was very worn. The box behind the balbals may be a grave. |
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| These two were the best preserved. |
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| You can see a cup in one hand and a weapon in the other. The cup is supposed to have held sacred water. He also has a mustache. |
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| And an earring. The cup and weapon are supposed to indicate this was a leader. |
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| The other balbals were not this tall. I'm 5'2". |
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| The grass sea - or Saryarka in Kazakh. No Dothrakis here, though. |
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During the Stalin era, the Soviets decided to make Kazakhstan into a really large wheat field. It didn't work, but in the process of plowing up all that land, many balbals were plowed under, broken up and destroyed. Some are in museums and only a few are left standing. For more information on balbals see
this link.
The wind was blowing all day. Far off in the distance there were wind turbines. Kazakhstan is introducing alternative power sources to the population. Wind power is a good choice here.
June 12th was a big day. High school graduation. We had 5 graduates. The American ambassador gave the commencement speech. It was a lovely ceremony.
On Monday, none of our classrooms had chairs. Not one! The graduates were guarding the doors to the gym. As a prank, they had taken every chair in the school and done this:
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| It says "Seniors 15" although the 15 is kind of cut out of the picture. |
And now you're caught up on the month of June in Astana.
