Spring

Its spring in Kazakhstan and..

• the tulips are out on Navoi and Alfa Rabi. Sara Nazarbaev likes flowers.
  
• the gai (traffic cops) have blossomed by the road sides, wearing their gay yellow raincoats, waving their luminous red batons and collecting Alfa Rabis (kazakhstan currency has pictures of the Persian poet and scientist Alfa Rabi)
  
• the rain water rushes down city streets where there are no gutters, flooding the roads and turning the pot holes and cracks in chasms - Lada killers (ladas are small , low soviet cars)
• the mountains appear with a fresh coat of white snow on a sunny moring after the rain.
• the buds are out on the trees and allergy season is with us -red runny noses and itchy red eyes.
• the traffic jam outside the Expeditsyia bazaar is bigger because people want to buy plants for their gardens - Yelkas (fir trees) add value to your house if you plant them we have been told.
• the spring banquet is on and the smell of hairspray, nail polish  fill the house and the eyeliner smeared cotton swabs line the bathroom bin.
• Spring sale is on at Tien Shan school  - come swap your trash for my trash, your treasure for my treasure but hang on to your purses this year.
• Time to plant tomatoes and lettuce, flowers and trees while the water is still turned on in our street. It should go off starting in June.
• the mud is so thick on the back road that the mud splashes hit the roof of the subaru and I can go mudding (Horsleys say its a great spring passtime in Alabama after a dinner date with your girl - preferably with a pickup truck -that's " a ute" in Australia)
• the cows, sheep and horses from Chapai come down to our orchard and start grazing.
• St Littletons in the field - Anglican/Episcopalian breakfast picnics start under the apple trees in the orchard up the hill.
• SAT exams are being sat so all the Tien Shan kids can go to college in other countries.
• Seniorititis is being felt acutely by all Tien Shan 12th graders.
• Rafts are built and are going on rafting expeditions for all leaving  Kazakhstan (R=Reconciliation A=Affirmation F=Farewells T= Thinking destination - process recommended for all third culture kids or adults who are planning on leaving and going "home" or onto a next destination -)
• The wild red poppies (like in Flanders) are blooming on the Jailau (summer pastures) between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
• The ticks are waking up in the Tien Shan mountains and the vaccination clinic is giving shots against Russian spring summer encephalitis.
• The mares are being milked and their kulans (baby horses) are held back while the apais (older women) milk them every 2 hrs to make Kumyss (fermented mares milk)
• Students from local universities are slipping tengy (local currency) in their exam papers so they will get 5/5 in their exams.
• Yurts appear in the front of schools, universities and other government buildings and people dress in national dress and dance and play dombras and drink kojhe (porridge made of 7 ingredients) because its Persian New Year - spring solstice - Nayruz.

It's my last spring in Kazakhstan.....