10/14/04-Riding the Karaganda roadways...

No travel dialog would be complete without a discussion of the local drivers. I would not say that Kazakhstan drivers are bad. I think the term would be closer to scary. In fact, they are very good at being scary. When one is a passenger, it is better that one does not really watch. Just trust that you are going to get where you are going in one piece. You basically do when you look at that the fact they you don’t see many cars with dents in them. So, somehow it works.

Some things that are important to know when driving in Kazakhstan:

1. The lines are more like guidelines. People generally try to follow them, unless they are inconvenient. Basically, your lane is defined by one inch outside the boundaries of you car.

2. If there is not a lane to you suit your needs, create one. If a car is going a little slow and there is room between it and the car on the left, then suddenly, you have a three lane road. If you are coming to a left turn and the line is long, ride up on the right and create a new turn line. The same can be done on the left.

3. The right of way is defined by the size of the vehicle. In Kazakhstan, might makes right. And always remember, when you are pedestrian, you are the smallest vehicle on the road. I am amazed at how close the pedestrians and the cars get as they pass. If we were not already obvious outsiders, you could easily tell we Americans by the fact that we flinch when a car rushes by us.

As I said, in spite of all this, I see very little to damage to the cars, so I generally trust we will get where we are going.

As for our day, things were fine today. The kids were in good moods up to the end. I think we wore them out today, so they looked tired at the end. In the morning we were in the Music Room, which is nice room with new wood floors and a nice rug. In the afternoon, we were back in our main room. The temperature really dropped in the afternoon. When we left, it was freezing. It feels like the heat is on in the room, though we stupidly left a window open, so we may have to wait for some warmth.

We are moving along on the process. Mary Jo was filling out some more paperwork today. Today, she did the applications for the kids’ passports. That starts to make it more real.

Today we have a few pictures. Also, there are two new videos.
Today’s Pictures
Video 1 – Grace with Lena
Video 2 – The world at Jack’s level