The First Real Snow Day in Shymkent!

            Today was the first real snowy day in Shymkent. We’ve had a dusting of snow that did not stick to the ground, especially the streets, for long, but last night we had an accumulation of snow. Of course, I thought that I would come here and buy boots for winter, but come to find out my feet are too big for the shoes they offer, so I’ve been stuck. It would have been handy to have those boots today because I walked through quite a bit of slushy snow to get around my building and to the street to find a taxi. Thankfully, the taxi driver we’ve been using quite frequently was there waiting for me. I walked right up and got in his toasty warm car (bonus to not having to warm up my own car!).

Those tiny dots just above the light post are people.

            The roads were thick with slushy snow and we started on our way. Along the sides of the streets is a ditch about half a meter (1.5 feet) deep. As we were driving I kept thinking, “I can’t really see that ditch and it is pretty slick out here. I wonder if anyone ever slides right into one.” The taxi driver took his time along the roads and didn’t rush up on anyone and even let someone merge from the side of the road, so I knew that I would make it to school safely. Just like at home, there is no one to shovel off sidewalks, so a lot of people were walking along side the road. Several of them looked as if they’d been splashed by the mud and snow. Also, I think this is true for most days, but there were a lot of cars just parked on the side of the road. It’s more noticeable when two lanes become one and everyone is squeezing around those parked awkwardly on the side.

            The windshield wiper on my side didn’t quite clear the whole windshield so I was left with blurry snow vision all the way, but I tried to squint out to see where we were headed. It’s still pitch black here at 7:30 am, so that was a trial too. Half way to school I saw three plows going along the other side of the road; I can only imagine those guys have been out all night!

Out the window of my office.

            As we approached one stop light the taxi slide a little bit and the driver made the classic mistake of NOT turning into the slide. He quickly corrected the wheel and by the time we were done sliding the car was still facing the right way. At the bottom of the hill from school I could see a group of people huddled around a car. Once we were close enough I could see that the front passenger wheel of the car was in one of those huge ditches, well, that answers my previous quandary! It is difficult to discern what happened but I can assume that the driver was attempting to turn from one street to the next and under estimated the location of the ditch. Bummer!

            The road in front of the school was jammed packed with cars going up and down. Two cars sat facing the same way but on opposite sides of the road and directly across from each other, thereby creating a one-way street between them. As we turned onto the road we got stuck behind a line of cars waiting to pass through the one-way. I could see the road was very slick here. Our line began to move and we crept passed the two cars and up the hill. About half-way up we had to stop again, but this time the car wasn’t having it and we were stuck. The driver tried with all his might – uh, pushing the gas pedal as hard as he could – but our tires just spun like crazy with no traction. I figured he would try to back up and start again, but he just looked at me and raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders. That means it’s time for me to get out. I paid the fare, stepped out into a snow bank, and trekked the rest of the way up the hill to school. No complaints here, at least I made it that far without incident!

The school courtyard.

            The hillside trek wasn’t too bad, even in my sneakers. There was a nice path right up the middle of the sidewalk carefully carved out by all the walkers before me. I stepped into line with several other people and tried to keep pace. I survived and have lived to tell this tale, and that’s the story of my first snow day in Kazakhstan.

(PS Through the weekend it will be in the 40s and by Monday it will be back in the 50s again, so pretty much just like Denver!)

That's a chilly jungle gym!