Death by Gas, Flood, Mountain Hiking, Drunk Police Officer Driving, or Parasite....Hmmmm...What Would You Choose?

There are so many things I've been dying to post since Christmas! There are always little random things happening to me. Some are funny, some ridiculous, some crazy, and some are just down right unbelievable! Things like the two syringes that have been sitting on our apartment building steps for two months that I discovered initially by almost stepping on (most of the stairwell is not lit). Or getting asked out or proposed to by my "taxi" driver. And then there are all the adorable little neighborhood children that always say "hello" (in English) and then giggle, when I come home from school everyday. Unfortunately I barely have any free time and so I have not been able to post. Until now.

Death by gas or flood...thankfully it didn't even come close to that, but I guess it could have. My one roommate, R, has been saying the last couple of weeks that our other roommate and I are trying to kill her (teasing us, of course.) It all started when I went on a baking spree. One day I made chocolate Chip cookies for my class, another day I made chocolate chip cookies for English Club, and yet another day I made brownies for my class. They tasted great, but each time I forgot to turn off the oven and my roommate, R, discovered it hours later. Oops! (I don't usually forget to turn it off...just in case you were concerned...this was an unusual occurrence.)

Well, right after this incident, R was sitting in our living room at about 1:30AM with the door closed when she became puzzled by some rushing water sounds she was hearing. She looked out the window and saw that it wasn't raining. "What on earth could be making that sound?" she wondered. She decided to go check it out. She opened the door and stared in shock at the river of inch deep water running down the entire length of our hallway from the bedroom to the kitchen! Recovering, she hollered for our other roommate, J. J quickly opened the bedroom door and almost stepped into the river before she saw it. After unsuccessfully trying to get our crippled mop to work, they used every spare towel, cloth, washcloth, etc. that we have to sop up the water.

Where was I in all of this excitement? Sound asleep of course! And my sweet roommates did not awaken me. Of course I was a little puzzled when I got up in the morning and stepped in a puddle on my way to the kitchen...that is until I heard the story from my roommates when they got up! How did the flood start? Well, because of how we get hot water here, we have to run the water for about 30 min. before it gets hot. So we'll get up, turn the shower on, do stuff for 30 min., and then shower. Well, apparently J was warming up the water for a shower and forgot about it. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but then the shower head broke, pulled away from the wall, and began pouring the water on our bathroom floor which then spilled like a waterfall into the hall, making a very nice river after awhile! Thank G for linoleum flooring!

Death by Mountain Hiking...My local friends invited me to go on a hike up to Big Almaty Lake (Bolshoye Almatinskoye Ozero) up in the Tien Shan Mountains. I was thrilled! It presented another opportunity to strengthen my relationships with my local friends as well as seeing the mountains, which I have been wanting so badly to do since I arrived in Almaty. So, of course I agreed and this past Sunday, a group of about 15 of us went. Had I known what lay in store, I probably never would have left my apartment that morning.

But I was blissfully unaware of what I had gotten myself into, so I happily set out with my friends. I should have gotten a clue when it took us 1 hour and 30 min. to walk the dirt road from the bus stop on the outskirts of the mountains into the heart of them where would begin our hike up the mountain! Live an learn. I knew I was in trouble, however, when one of my friends pointed into the distance and said, "Look! There it is!" And there it was. Stretching at a steep incline (it looked vertical) up the mountain peak ahead was the pipeline we were to climb all the way to the lake. My heart sank. How in the world was I going to manage climbing that? It's a good thing I didn't know that that was barely a fraction of the pipeline we were climbing.

Now, I could go on and on about my trecherous, agonizing, painful, and exhausting climb up the mountain, but I'll spare you. I'll just summarize. The pipes are enormous! They are suspended above the ground with enough space to crawl underneath them, and they are about 5-6 feet in diameter. We made our way up the mountain the majority of the time balancing atop this pipeline. Of course there were places where it was too steep and we had to climb up the rocks beside it. I love hiking, but I did not enjoy this climb very much most of the way. (I also suffered from a little bit of elevation sickness which didn't help.) Suffice it to say, I felt like sitting down and crying about 6 times. I didn't though! I pressed on! I thought about what I've been telling my students about perseverence. I thought about Paul talking about pressing on toward the goal. I knew I had to make it to the top, although I was seriously beginning to wonder if I would die in the attempt.

I'll tell you a very revealing secret if you promise not to tell...for a good part of the hike I say the "Climbin' My Mountain" song from Psalty the Singing Songbook. "I'm climbin' my mountain, day by day. I'm climbin' my mountain, all the way. I'm climbin' my mountain--I'm gonna make it! One step at a time, one step at a time, with Jesus by my side. One step at a time, one step at a time. I'm climbin' my mountain, one step at a time!" I don't think I would have made it otherwise. Yarping and singing helped me change my attitude and I soon began to enjoy the hike in spite of all the pain and exhaustion. I even made up a song with two of my friends about "This is the pipe that never ends..." We sang that enthusiastically until we completely ran out of spare breath.

FINALLY! The top! The end is in sight! We climbed the final rise and...there before us lay Big Almaty Lake, a glittering, sparkling, crystal expanse under a brilliant blue sky and surrounded on all sides by majestic mountain peaks that were dazzling in the bright sunlight. It was absolutely breathtaking. In my heart I grudgingly admitted all the agony was probably worth it. So, 4 hours after we started hiking and 2, 511 meters (8,238 feet) above sea level, we stopped and ate our picnic lunch (which was by this time our supper.)

It was one of those moments in life that is absolutely perfect and you wish that you could freeze it and save it forever and take it out and experience it again. Friends, food, and fellowship, high in the mountains above a beautiful lake in the sunshine.

Sadly, it had to end. So, after a trip to the ladies' room (some bushes higher up the mountain), I set off once again with my friends, this time down the mountain. I was anticipating the way down to be much easier. And in some ways it was. But in other ways it was harder than the way up. I didn't find out until later a couple days later that it is considered to be a treacherous hike by some who routinely hike in various countries. I found out why. About the last quarter of our way down the mountainside, the loose rocks (that's the footing we had going down in the places it was too steep to walk the pipe) suddenly gave way beneath my foot and I skidded a couple of feet straight toward my friend, A, below me, and the 9 or 10 people below her! I was able to stop myself just before reaching her, but in the process I twisted my knee. Thankfully we were almost back to the section where we could walk the pipe the rest of the way to the road. So, I hobbled down the pipe as best as I could, getting more exhausted with each step (and by this time, with increasing pain.) At the end, 2 of my good friends, A and C, noticed that I was limping and asked what happened. So I explained it and after our group photo, they each slung one of my arms over their shoulders, and helped support me.

Well, it was very slow going and pretty soon all the rest of the group was far up ahead on the road. A, kept trying to catch a ride for us every time a car drove past on its way down the mountain, but none of the cars would stop. Eventually the idea came to me that they probably thought I was drunk. I tried to limp more noticeably so that they would know I was hurt and not drunk. Finally, a car pulled over. There were two guys in front, the driver and his friend. We three girls carefully piled into the back with me in the middle. Well, it wasn't long before we realized HORROR OF HORRORS: the driver was DRUNK! Our ride down the mountain road was anything but smooth and all three of us were silently yarping that we would reach the end of it safely!

Our driver was very talkative and kept saying how much he loved Canadians (he thought I was Canadian like my friend C.) He told us all kinds of interesting things...repeatedly. The one he repeated most, was the fact that he was a police officer. (This frightened us further, because police are not necessarily good here, especially if you are a foreigner, so as a general rule, Expats avoid them.) He kept showing us his badge (which we kept exclaiming over and complimenting) and saying we couldn't hold it but we could look as much as we wished! This entire time he kept letting go of the steering wheel and turning completely around to face us in the back seat, gesturing wildly to illustrate what he was talking about. I couldn't believe we stayed on the road as much as we did! Not to mention not hitting the cars in front of us! As we came to the end of the road, he asked us where we were headed and said he would like to take us wherever we wanted to go and he wouldn't charge us. Well, we looked at each other...thought about it...and decided to just go for it. After all, my house wasn't that far of a drive and A and C would walk home from my apartment. So, we agreed. This stretch of the drive continued almost the same as before except for two things. First, instead of going over the edge of the road being a major worry, the major worry was hitting another car now that we were on the major highways and streets. Second, every time we said something and especially when we gave directions, our drunk police officer driver would take both hands off of the steering wheel, putting one on top of his head to pretend it was his police hat and saluting with his other hand. We tried to ask him not to but he insisted he had to since he was a police officer. One thing that seemed very important to him was that we understand that he was a good person even though he was breaking the law by being drunk (apparently police are not supposed to drink, or at least get drunk, so they go up on the mountain to do it.)

Well, finally we arrived at my apartment, and filled with relief and gratitude we said goodbye to our very friendly drunk police officer! And, true to his word, he did not charge us a single tenge. Upon reflection and talking about it with C, we decided that this could be an example of a modern day Good Samaritan. Police officers here are feared and despised; the pond scum of society in a way. And yet who was it who stopped to help three girls in need when everyone else passed them by? It was the most despised and least likely person of all. G still works in mysterious ways and I hope that I shall remember not to be influenced by society's ideas about people.

Death by Parasite...so I had been sick to my stomach and having other stomach problems for roughly 1 month and after I returned from China my symptoms got much worse and after
about 3 weeks with no improvement, the school nurse (as well as many of the teachers at the school) said that I should go see a doctor at the International Medical Clinic (IMC) because I might have a parasite. So, I made an appointment and arranged for a sub to teach for me in the afternoon the following day (the clinic is only open during teaching hours unfortunately.) Dr. Vitaliy was very nice and after examining me and consulting with the foreign doctor said that he did not think I had a parasite, rather I had some type of bacterial or viral infection that my body just couldn't shake. He wrote down some diet changes and the names of two different medications that he wanted me to take. So, I stopped at the apteka (pharmacy) on my way home and got my medicine (it's very convenient that you don't need prescriptions for anything here.)

Now, my roommate, R, had been having stomach problems all week too and decided that she would go to the (IMC) the next week. Well, that weekend she got really freaked out and grossed out because she expelled a worm! So, as soon as the clinic opened on Monday, she went in and got examined and the doctor told what medicine to pick up for it. So, it turned out that my roommate was the one that experienced the "M initiation" of having worms, while I was just sick...thankfully!

Congratulations! You made it to the end! I bet you never thought this moment would come! Well, it has, and I hope that even though it was rather long you enjoyed hearing some more of my adventures! :)

Hanging Onto Him,
Elicia