February 16
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In which we ponder the people.

In about the seventy-fifth hour of carting around seven (or so) kilograms of baby, your mind gets a bit random.  Today's dilemma:  To baby-sit or not to baby-sit?

With five American couples calling Kazakhstan home, your social calendar can get more full than you'd think.  Take today, for example.  We were down to our last tenge and there's only one ATM in town.  It was time to make a trek to the Tsum Store.  But here's the rub:  The Murphys called to ask if we wanted to go to tchassliki dinner tonight.

Would Lyuba babysit twice in one day with such short notice?

After we missed the Valentine's Dance, Inna apologized profusely and assured us, translating madly for Lyuba as she did, that arranging evening babysitting hours was no problem.  Still, by American standards, zero notice for a night out isn't acceptable.

But we aren't in America anymore.

Where else can you get a driver and an interpreter for $45 a day (all day) and a housekeeper, chips, soda, juice, beer and bottled water included in your $50-100 day rent?  All of these folks work seven days a week, no vacations. 

And the service is top notch.  Inna is on call for us virtually 24 hours.  Every time one of the American couples in her charge walks here to visit, she calls to make sure they arrive safely.  Likewise, Lyuba literally scrubs the shower (not to mention the rest of the cottage) top to bottom every day and then presses our clothes-- including the unmentionables.  And, in both cases, if you pad the payment with a couple extra tenge, they insist you take your money back.  (Not four hours ago I was arguing with Lyuba that I owed her 1,000 more tenge-- less than $7-- for an hour of babysitting.  She wouldn't take it.  We finally split the difference and she took 500.)

Still, by local standards, they have fairly posh salaries.  Inna, at 25, probably makes more in a week than most people her senior make in a month.  Shepherding two couples, she can double that.  She'll tell you she has her dream job (it would just be more dreamy in Almaty).

It all depends, however, on the babies.

Adoption's definitely a cottage industry in Kokshetau.  The fees one couple pays will support up to three people's annual salary and that's before we hire driver or interpreter or pay for room and board.  The incidentals for every couple's 6-week stay easily support a Kazakhstan citizen's annual salary.

But when there aren't any babies to adopt, the funds can dry up.

So back to the babysitting question.  Is it worse to impose upon Lyuba with a last minute request to baby-sit or is it worse to deny her the additional income?  Robin and I decided to split the difference-- we asked the Murphys if we could do tchassliki on Friday and invited them and the other families to the cottage tonight.

It's been a good reminder of how well we have it.

If, however, our bosses are reading this, it doesn't mean we don't want raises.
Robin and I stopped in the Tsum store cafe for lunch-- 2 beers and a pastry.  It was 240 tenge-- $1.84.
Enlarge this picture by clicking on it, and check out the stiletto heels on this Kazakh fashionista.  She did better on the ice than we did.
The Amerikanyetc gather for dinner at the cottage.  Clockwise from the empty chair are Adrienne and Jim Connolly, Robin, Lisa and Mike McCall, Tracey Stannard, Amy and Robert Murphy and Mike Stannard.
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