Aigerim writes: in Iyık Janyl the light is only some hours, the water pump does not work, they carry water from the Naryn in buckets like grandmother did. And I am in Khimki in a warm cabin with an electric heater all night. It is not fair.
They say the dam is on the other side of the line and the riders keep the water. I don't understand all this politics. I understand that my mother carries buckets.
The building stopped. The developer has "the crisis". Two months no salary. Half of the brigade went home, the Uzbeks went home. I stay because there is a new object in Khimki from January, they promise. Promise.
I eat buckwheat and I send nothing home this month. Sorry mama. Sorry.
The Feast, the third one far away: in 2006 I was on the 14th floor, now on the 16th. The brigade knows the date, Zoya Pavlovna made me a pie for it, "for your saint". The Tajik guys do not know who St Janyl is, but they know it is a holiday, so they sat with me at the table. Mahmud asked how the hermit lived on the hill. I said: in a cave, with a goat. He said: that is a good friend, the goat.
Today I phoned mama and asked her to put the phone at the cathedral door. She did. I heard the bell.
The dollar became 8.40 som, they say on the phone. For the people at home it is a bad thing, for me, one might say, a good one. The money I send, converted from roubles through dollars into som, is now worth more than in February. Mama laughed and said "your hands earn the exchange rate".
But I know what her shopping bag costs now. I will send a bit more this month, from the overtime. A man should not be glad of what hurts his family, even if it helps him.
Two New Years in Moscow. The tree on the site is made from a pipe, wrapped with the wire and some tinsel from the Tajik canteen. Nikolai Fyodorovich gave each of us a bottle of lemonade (for us) and a bottle of something else (for him). We sang. The Uzbeks sang something with "ay-ay-ay", the Russians a song about a birch, I sang the song about the little duck, and then everybody sang it with me, without knowing the words.
Aigerim says at home the light is on at New Year until midnight. A present.