Only in Kazakhstan...

Please note: this post was posted first on my other blog in October 2006. Please see: http://lulu-ahimsa.zaadz.com/blog

Well, if this month started badly with the landlady trying to raise the rent 33% two days before rent is due, it certainly has not improved…First of all, I think bad things usually happen in 3's, don't they? Not in Kazakhstan.

Well, first, my electricity went off. It happens all the time, so the first day I didn't do anything because they usually fix it in a few hours. The next morning, however, I woke up and the puddle of water on the floor in my kitchen indicated that the electricity hadn't come back on, and my freezer was defrosted! The good news is that I finally got that old bottle of vodka that had been frozen into my freezer out…I made a very tasty penne alla vodka…So, I was leaving for work, and realized that all my neighbors had electricity, so it wasn't my building, it was my apartment. Ick. so, I called the electrician, and then waited all day (worse than America, because I had no gaurantee he was gonna show up at all…) Finally at 6:30, the electrician shows up, tells me he needs 1500 tenge, and I panick. I was told it was free, and I was super short of money this month…I called Diana's house and her grandmother talked to the electrician. Finally, she said that he wasn't trying to rip me off, and that I should pay him. Damn. He fixed it, in about two and a half minutes, and then told me that if I wanted him to come in to the apartment (the fuse box, which was apparently the problem, was in the hallway) it was going to be another 500 tenge. I told him to get out of my house. Electricity here is really bad. The walls of this building are concrete, and then the wires are kind of loose and outlet plate is no longer fitting in the hole, so its a mess. But if i paid him another 500 tenge I would be eating beans for the rest of the month….
If you count the rent as bad thing #1, this makes bad thing #2….Then, my boss accidentally gave my laptop a virus. It was on her flash drive. Now it is in my computer, and her IT guy is coming over and I am waiting to see if I am going to loose everything in my computer (because of course, I have not backed anything up…I know! I know!!!) 28 GB of music…ahhhhhh….and the volunteers who gave me so much music have gone back to the US….not to mention my journals since having been here (over 120 pages of my thoughts, etc on this whole experience) pictures, (which i have luckily backed up almost all of) my writing that I have been doing here, including the first 58 pages of a story I was writing…you get the idea. It could be very sad for me…My booker prize winning novel may be lost to the incidious virus now rampaging unchecked in my poor computer's brain…so that would be bad thing #3….

but, since I am in Kazakhstan, bad things don't come in 3's… so…Now, and most comically, bad thing #4….

All of you in America know that dogs do not roam the streets wildly, because dog catchers come and pick them up. Who among us has not felt terrible about those poor dogs, ten days in the pound, and then they are killed…Well, in Kazakhstan, dogs roam free. No one ever gets their pets spayed or neutered (I guess because they don't have Bob Barker from the Price is Right reminding us to get out pets spayed and neutered at the end of every episode of Price is Right on TV) So they walk the streets, both wild dogs and dogs with owners who let them out all day without supervision. No “poop disposal laws” here!! Watch your step, America, there's poopoo there….Dogs roam in packs, rummaging in garbage cans, chasing cars, basically living their own lives with their own agendas. People here are generally not very nice to them. The kids throw things at them, and do other not so nice things that I have seen. Puppies are just left to take care of themselves. At first, I would think, oh, poor puppy, and if i had a little food, give some food to the puppy. Then one almost bit my hand off, so i stopped feeding them. But i had a generally benevolent attitude towards wild dogs of Almaty. Until today….

Well, I was walking to work, enjoying the gorgeous Autumn weather (leaves falling, air crisp and slightly chilly, oh i love autumn…) and i realized there had been an accident on the street i was walking on. I was just looking over my left shoulder to see if anyone was hurt, when a dog, not quite a puppy but not full grown, ran up behind me and bit me in the back of my leg below the knee. I didn't see the dog before it bit me, and i was so surprised that I screamed out loud. (I am pretty jumpy if someone comes up behind me and says “hi”, so imagine how loud I screamed at the dog biting me…) Of course, the devil dog ran away, so when the 60 or so people rubber necking the accident on the street swiveled their heads in my direction, there was nothing to see except me with my mouth in an “O” from the shock. I weakly said, “Sabaka kusaisa menya” which means roughly “dog bit me” and everyone went back to looking at the accident. Apparently this happens a lot. (So do traffic accidents, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, traffic accidents are more interesting to look at.) Luckily when we got to K-stan, I was the recipient of about 60 shots and one of them was rabies…so now I only have to get the booster twice instead of much much worse…

I am hoping that the rapid approach of October will bring better events for me, and perhaps the cold weather will cause the wild dogs of Almaty to hibernate….If not, I hope to employ quicker reflexes and quick kicks to protect my health…