6th July

6^th July

Just back from an afternoon at the lake, on a day that must have been 35degrees. Lovely way to spend the afternoon, alternating between swimming, reading and babysitting.

On the way there, I saw a sight that I have only read about. An eagle, of which there are many here, heck, in the national animal and even on the flag, was being attacked by a few smaller birds. It is a defence strategy that seemed to have worked, as the eagle flew off, and it was very interesting to see in real life. The smaller birds would dive-bomb the eagle incessantly, never actually touching him, but causing enough bother to make him leave.

There is a story I have been telling people that has universally been found funny, so I thought I would share it. It happened at the birthday lunch last Friday at school that I mentioned. There were a number of Russians present, so some of the dishes were pork based, and there was a big bowl of smoked pork fat in front of me. I, of course, didn’t touch it! However, when I declined an offer to tuck in from the Kazakh handyman next to me, he asked me if I was a Muslim. What made this funny was that I had a shot of vodka in my hand, ready for the birthday toast! It also highlights something that I have also talked about earlier, that being the Kazakh (and other ex-Soviet states) ability to basically remove ‘drinking alcohol’ from the DON’T list of Islam. Most will not eat pork and find it disdainful and ‘un-Islamic’, but alcohol simply doesn’t factor. Our director, who came to visit, is leaving Kazakhstan and moving to Jordan, and there, Peace Corps Volunteers are banned from drinking alcohol for their entire service, due to the far stricter following of Islam there. Such a contrast just struck me as interesting. And I suppose Christianity has such varied contrasts, based as much on geography and local history, as location. I know Buddhism does.