Some Random Thoughts For A Quiet Sunday

Another Otis-less Sunday, but we’ll put a picture up for you diehards. Yesterday we took 160+ pictures and saw lots; today we did essentially nothing. (DJ—Sagat was supposed to pick us up at 1:30, when he hadn’t showed by 1:50, I called him, he said he’d pick us up at 2:20, I told him to forget about it. We checked out another local mall.) So time for some accumulated stories and some more pictures from yesterday.

Regarding Shoes. For the last several days, I (Candace) have been thinking about a post that would be entitled “For Karen.” (There several Karens who might reasonably think they were being saluted.) This post would consist of nothing but pictures of shoes. Unfortunately, the plan has proved difficult to execute. It is very hard to sneak up on someone and take a picture of her shoes. Further, even if I knew how to say, “Excuse me, may I take a picture of your shoes?” in Russian, it strikes me as a somewhat odd question. So I am introducing an occasional narrative feature called Shoe of the Day. To introduce it, two pairs of noteworthy shoes:·

• Scarlet and white spectators with chunky 2 inch heels, pointy toes and no backs. (There must be a name for this type of shoe, but because I don’t know what it is, it is very popular here, and it looks like a backless slingback, these will henceforth be known as “slingbacklesses.”)·
• The following may actually be a Shoe of the Year. Lemon yellow, pointy-toed ankle boots with four inch stiletto heels, gathered at the ankle, and with the toe area cut out to expose beautifully pedicured toes. These were worn by a woman in her mid-30’s otherwise attired in matching bright green, jungle print short shorts, blouse, and head schmatte.

Nationality/Ethnicity. I do not think it is going to be possible to get a good handle on people’s feelings about ethnicity, which they call “nationality” (there’s a clue), in the time that we are here. Rather, we continue to observe, and record the stories. Maybe in the end, it will make some sort of sense. As we have said, it is a diverse population, and everyone seems to get along easily, with more groups of mixed friends than not, and plenty of mixed relationships and marriages. Nonetheless, at least among the 40-50 year olds with whom we’re spending most of our time, nationality is generally the first thing that is asked about, especially when we mention a friend or colleague with a possibly former USSR surname. So some more stories:

• We have tried to explain to both Zoya and Sagat the American concept of mixed ethnicity (or for that matter, single ethnicity) of which one may be proud while still being primarily American. It is an impossible concept to get across. For them, “American” is, as far as I can tell, a single ethnicity, which since ethnicity = nationality here, at some level makes sense. (The OD made a passing comment when we first met her that suggested that for some sophisticated Kazakhstanis, the concept of “American” may include the potential for there to be two American ethnicities (nationalities?) – white and black.
• I asked Zoya what nationality is assigned to people born in KZ who are the product of mixed marriages. Big shrug.
• Yesterday, Max described himself as being (on his mother’s side) “a fifth generation Russian in Kazakhstan.” [Small digression here. (Apologies to all for what is doubtless a butchered version of the history. Anyone who knows this history better than me, which would be pretty much anyone, please correct me): After the Russian serfs were emancipated in 1861, there was apparently some period of time in which landowners (ex-serf owners) were vocally pissed, especially about the need to settle plots of land on the former serfs. In the early 20th century, the Russian statesman, Stolypin, successfully pushed the idea of giving land in Central Asia and Siberia to the ex-serfs. The parallels to our own history are pretty striking, as are the present day results – with the obvious differences being the racial dimensions of poverty in late 19th/early 20th century America and the vastly greater numbers, weaponry and organization of the Central Asian native people vis a vis those in America.] Anyway, the point of that digression was that Max’s grandfather’s grandfather was one of those enterprising ex-serfs. Yet, all these years later, Max is a “Russian.”
• Two thirds of the Museum of Musical Instruments (see yesterday’s post), is given over to Kazakh instruments and traditions. In the remaining third of the museum, the instruments and traditions of Russians, Uighers, Uzbeks, etc. (i.e. those who live here) are given exactly the same quality of treatment as the traditions of Italians, Poles, Indians, and Estonians. (Given that, it was not clear to me why many other musical traditions were entirely ignored, aside from a lack of space.)
• DJ—Re the Russian/Kazakh issue, it is worth noting that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakh was designated the official language of Kazakhstan and Russian the language of national discourse. What this means is anybody’s guess; all of the court documents we have signed have been in Russian. You see as much English signage as you do Kazakh. This is a country that voluntarily tied itself to Russia in the 1730’s and almost 400 years later has never really forgiven itself for it, as far as I can tell.