Letters home

The ceasefire. I stood in the corridor of the bytovka with the phone card and I waited for mama to pick up. She picked up on the second ring. She said "Allo?" and I could not say anything. She said "Erkin, is it you? Say something, I can hear that it is you." I said "Mama".

She told me about the cellar, about the windows, about the dog who was shy of the shots and now is shy of everyone. She is fine. Thank God and thank you all who prayed.

Aunt Saule and her family are alive and well. Her house has no glass in the windows but who needs glass in summer, she says. That is my aunt.

I sent money for the windows. Our brigade made a collection for the Talas families of our boys, 41,000 roubles. The Tajik and Uzbek guys also gave. People are people.

Every night I read the news from home in the internet club near the metro. The Russian news says very little. Our people here are all on the phone to Talas, the cards finish, they buy more cards.

Bekzhan from Talas writes he is OK. Thank you brother. If anyone sees my aunt Saule near the Temir-Kapka gate in Talas please write here.

In Iyık Janyl mama says it is quiet. Aigerim says the bazaar is empty, people buy flour and stay home. Pray for Talas.

Mahmud's cousin works in a café on the Kazan station. People from all the countries go through, and he hears the news. He told me today in the cabin that in Nurzhan they proclaimed "the zone". I said: what zone? He said the new thing, ISEZ, I think. He did not know more. I did not know more.

The Russian TV says almost nothing. The internet club says more, but everyone writes something different. I will wait for Aigerim.

New Year in Moscow. Minus 26 today. The concrete does not set, so no work four days, so no money four days. We sit in the bytovka and play cards and the Tajik guys cook plov on the electric plate. Not bad plov, but not our plov.

Mama, I will try to come in summer. The ticket to Tashkent is 9,000 roubles now. We will see.