I think I may have slept 3 hours at most. I was still jet lagged. Sharif and Tamara’s home was spacious with a large courtyard, and structure separate from the main residence in which our room was located. Their son and youngest child, Balot (17), had a room just next to us. I actually never learned the total number of children that Sharif and Tamara had, but I did meet their daughter several days later who also lived in the complex. I also know that they had at least 1 adult child (because their grand-kids would come by) living locally and at least 1 married child working in Russia. A more accurate term to describe the residence would be “compound”. Of course the video will describe better than I :
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0KCrzsL2IQ&w=560&h=315]
The home was actually located in the village of Bel , just adjacent to Borbash. The youth club was about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) away.
As I said, I (or my ego) promised to go jogging with Balot that morning. We had both come in late the previous night, but I didn’t sleep much so I was up at 800 AM and waiting for him outside in the courtyard. He awoke about 20-30 min later and we headed out. I would estimate the distance I ran was between 2.0-2.5 miles. The run started out flat but with a rather steep hill at about 1/4 mile. Balot was in very good shape and I could not keep up with him, so I told him (with body language) to go ahead after we reached the top of the hill. I figured I would follow until I saw him coming back, but there was a fork in the road and I wasn’t sure which way he went, so I turned around and waited for him at the top of the hill (unsure of the way back to the house). I’m sure I was just very out of shape, but in my head rationalized that it was the high elevation that made the running difficult 😛 .
The morning run, although a miserable physical experience for me, was a great introduction to the village of Bel. The local people were out and about early, and friendly! It’s rare to see someone jogging I’m guessing, and even more rare to see a foreigner jogging in the morning. The locals were friendly, with one guy in a car stopping to speak to me in Russian, of which I only knew a few words and phrases. I told him I spoke English and was from the USA. I guess he got the answer he wanted since he drove off after that.
Balot, came back from the jog and we proceeded back to his home. There was no plumbing in the home which is typical. I was accustomed to this having done a trip to the Mongolian steppe 2 years earlier. Tamara, had heated some water for me and I took a bath in what I thought was a Russian style “Banya“, but later learned it was just a bathing room. Actually I just had a bucket of hot water that I rinsed off with. there was no bathtub- It’s hard to explain. I had a proper shave outside, near the outhouse at the gravity drip faucet.
Gary woke and joined us for the morning meal. It was our first meal at the home-stay and seemed very festive as there were many people there. There were especially a lot of young children. I wondered where they had all come from at that time of the morning (~930-1000AM). I realized later, that as grandparents, Tamara & Sharif’s home was kind of a central meeting point for the local kids. They would come by daily and there would be other kids hanging around, working and helping with chores, playing or learning/studying (as they would on this day). There were also a few adults who stopped in that morning and I just can’t remember everybody. It seemed everyone was curious about and wanting to meet the new foreigners in the area.
I had learned the previous night of the actual plight (or motivation) for the youth club. It seems that most of the parents in the village were migrant workers who had taken jobs in Russia. They would be away from their children for months at a time. In almost all cases, the grandparents were raising the children.
I’ll write more about this in the next post which will cover the late morning/afternoon (it was a full day!), but here’s a brief explanation:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6ynQZloIQ&w=560&h=315]
Well, I’m feeling like this is a long post. I’ll follow up with the second half of the day.
Please share with anyone you know (as I’m trying to increase exposure to the area/subject). Please also comment and subscribe as its good feedback for me 🙂 !
Thanks for reading!
-The Rover
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