Sunday June 22 Well, we're at the beach again. Larissa, Anton, Sasha, Larissa's brother, Marina, Sasha's daughter, Joan and I, piled into Sasha's 4 WD vehicle with a boat similar to the one that Uncle Bob keeps at the cabin in Canada, in tow. They've made a tent-like shade structure from the boat covering stretched between the trailer and the car. I've spent most of the time under is as I am a bit burned from yesterday. Their boat is maybe 15 feet long, painted blue on the hull and red on the deck. It's not very comfortable, but is very functional and can pull a water-skier. I haven't tried that yet and probably won't. It is hot and bright here with that huge sky stretching everywhere. In the shade it is quite pleasant, almost cool. Across the lake which is almost too large to see across, loom the Tien Shan mountains, a huge, snow-capped range that fill a quarter of the horizon. We are going camping there next weekend and hope to have a lot of fun. Yesterday morning I was quite hung over and not happy about it. Luckily I was saved by Kazak language class which we now only have on Saturdays. Out teacher, Shamshanur, and another teacher conspired to have a meal at chai time, which really saved my bacon in terms of feeling better. We had p'loff, a kind of spicy rice, meat, and veggies dish along with fruit and sliced veggies and, of course, lots of tea! We practiced our Kazak toasts and blessings as well as a Kazak song. The other teacher teaches Kazak singing and songs and gave an impromptu performance. She then called on us to reply in kind; some people (there were about ten of us) sang some songs. I stood up and sang the first two verses of a Spanish song I am learning called 'Gracias a la vida' - quite successfully I might add. At 12:30, [after class,] we all piled into our buses and headed off to the lake. After a quick swim at the beach at an old Pioneer (sort of Communist Boy Scouts) Camp, we got on the boat. It was in fairly good condition and laid out quite well for tourism with multiple decks and a bar down below. There were maybe 70- 80 people: a combination of VITs, PCVs, staff, host families, and friends. Once afloat, those of us who had paid the 180T chowed down on 'Kahktakl', a large fish, quite famous here. They split the fish in half, spread it out skin down, cover it with onions, tomatoes and some kind of sauce, and then smoke/cook it for a long time. Once you fight through the six-inch long bones, it is incredibly good. Eight people to a fish sat there sucking down hot, fresh fish with their hands while using bread as a napkin as well as filler. It was wonderful and apparently not a common treat. During the meal, we cruised the lake to a relatively isolated beach where we gently grounded ourselves. What followed was joyous leaping and diving from all levels of the ship, from up to 20 feet above the water. There should be some good photos of group jumps; I'll try to get a copy as my camera is acting up and needs to be taken into Almaty to get fixed. We cruised back after that and headed home. We lounged around for most of the day until around 9:30 pm when we went to the Cafe Firefly to meet people for milkshakes and cards, although we never got around to playing. The milkshakes are not even close to American, but make a nice change. The most interesting thing that happened there was also quite disturbing. No one quite figured out why it was happening, but basically, a young boy (maybe 9 or 10) was hitting and kicking, in the face, an older (maybe 50) man when he was either sitting down or after he fell down. It was very disturbing, but nobody did anything. The man was either very drunk or in some way incapacitated. Some VITs said they heard the boy saying something about 'home' in Russian, as in maybe 'go home.' After the man stumbled off in the dark, the kid and his partner came back to the outdoor patio and hung around in a threatening manner. It seems strange to feel threatened by two little kids, but we did. Hopefully they are not the future of Kazakstan. We got back around 11:30 and were going to go to bed, but Vlodia and Larissa had Margarita (the woman who organized all the host families and a good friend of our host mom) and another friend, Olga, over for vodka and some snacks. We, at first, did not want to participate, but they really wanted us to sit with them and socialize, and we haven't been doing much of that anyways, so we stayed up with them. I only had a 'choot choot' shot of vodka. 'Choot choot' means 'a little' or 'small.' After that I stuck with cold water. It was quite fun to hang out with them, especially Olga, who got louder and more outspoken. Around 12:30 am they took off, and we went to bed. It's now been three weeks-'Wow, I'm at Lake Kapchigai, looking at the Tien Shan Mountains in Kazakstan, Central Asia.' I never would have thought it a year ago. To think we have two more years plus is quite a thought. I think with caution and compromise we will be okay. There'll be tough times and probably some bad things, but I'm confident that the pros will outweigh the cons. Anyways, what good does worrying about the bad things do? There's no way to avoid them. Well, on that note-I'm outta here. Love, Rich