Bekzhan's corner

Things I know from the logs of a bank machine, without knowing a single customer's name:

• On the 1st and 15th of the month the queue is long and the machine is happy.


• The most common amount is 50 som. The second most common is "everything".


• Many people take the card out before the money. The machine beeps. The people do not hear it.


• At 3 a.m. the most common customer is a taxi driver.


• Very few people read the screen. Everyone presses the green button.

That last one is my fault, I helped design the screens.

It is 03:20. I'm writing this in the dark kitchen after a night call. An ATM at the railway station refused cards. Remote check: nothing. I took a taxi to the station (the driver asked if I was a doctor), opened the machine in front of two sleepy people with suitcases, and found a piece of chewing gum in the card slot.

Case closed. Taxi: 14 som. Salary for this call: zero. Chewing gum: still in the evidence bag.

Sorry, no posts for a long time. Since November I work in the IT department of Talasbank, in the group that looks after the ATMs. When an ATM in Talas does not give money, it is my phone that rings. At 3 in the morning too.

Good salary (for Talas). Bad sleep.

For July and August I work in a computer club behind the TSU stadium: 8 to 16, five days a week. My job is to take the money, fix the computers when they break, and to tell fourteen-year-old boys that no, they cannot play that game on the one that is only for Word.

An hour is 4 som. A game of "Counter" costs the boys nothing but their ears. There is a sign on the wall: "Please do not shout." There is another sign under it: "Please." It was added after the first week.