It was fairly clear I was a bit of a novelty in town and this enterprising young lad – Irun (11) - called me over and convinced me to take a photo of the family. The tranquility of our friendly mutual incomprehension was destroyed when his sister exploded around the corner.
I continued my walk and Irun and Samal tagged along, at first following at a distance, but later becoming my guides. Initially Irun tried to lead, being the big brother, but Samal was irripressable and brought handfulls of energy and good humour to our 'tour'. The girl could dance, busting some moves that no 9-year-old has any right to pull! Their English was only fractionally more advanced than my Kazakh, but it felt like we made some useful communication. They taught me to count to 10 in Kazakh but by the evening I'd lost it.
Markhaba (right) approached me earlier in the day as I left the market and requested a chance to practice her English. I agreed and we met again in the evening with her friend Yeltay (left) around 20:00, which turned out to be a lovely time of day because the air is really nice as the intensity of the heat goes out of the day and the trees were full of birds singing out the end of the day. Both are medical students at different stages in a different town, but were back home for holidays. Both are Couch Surfers! I wouldn't have expected that. Also surprising is that Yeltay has a friend studying in Dundee! The friend says Dundee has the same wind as Kazakhstan!? I'm not sure what aspect of the Dundee wind the friend is referring to, but as they weren't there I couldn't chase up that interesting comparison. They made me feel very welcome, taking me for a drink and then a tour of local monuments and public spaces of interest.
Economically caped with plastic bags, heroes of the future race around the Soviet era 'Hero Mothers' monument - dedicated to those brave women who bore and raised 10 or more children for the Soviet nation!
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