Camel from Kyzylkum

The Precious Gifts of Life

JUST WHEN IT FEELS LIKE everything has been lost, life brings surprises with its precious gifts, like it wants to provide assurance that the world is big and life is so full of unpredictable beauty and inexplicable wonders.

In November 2014, I met (via the Internet) my dear friend Valya, my kindred spirit. She is the daughter of my friend Lydia from the time before I left the Soviet Union, who lives in Russia now. Valya wanted to improve her English language skills by communicating in English, and I agreed to help her. We started to communicate, and very soon I discovered a beautiful soul, a curious mind, a powerful spirit, a great imagination. Our interaction is ongoing and gives me a feeling of great connections of our souls and spirits, something not easily found in this world. Since the time we first met, Valya has become an English teacher and advanced her career to a management position in the college. Here is an excerpt from her latest email to me:

It is always such a pleasure to get your emails! I read them at once and then reread and think how lucky I am. There are so many people all around, but hardly ever is there somebody who understands you and can talk to you about everything. I found you, my dear friend, on the other side of our planet and can’t stop needing you in my life. Thank you, Lara! You are an amazing person. My achievements for these seven years mostly belong to you. Really. I learn your stories, see your photos with you smiling in them—and that gives me a great power for going on. I want you to be happy, you are very important to me...

When I read these words, I could not hold my tears back. I thought about my daughter; I wanted to hear those words from her! I wanted to have Valya as my daughter! She is a splendid gift in my life.

I developed strong bonds with my favorite niece Oksana and her little boy, Nik. Oksana became like a daughter to me, and Nik calls me “grandma”. They live in Belarus, but we talk via Skype very often. Every year I send them packages with wonderful things from America. It makes me happy when they can enjoy my gifts.

And of course, I’m so lucky to have my husband Sparky—he stood by me when I felt that I was “losing the ground beneath my feet,” when I felt I would rather be on the moon.

When our beloved dog, Sasha, passed away in October 2017, we mourned him for a long time—he was a family member for more than seventeen years. Then, after one year passed, we decided to get a new puppy. Charlie, a black miniature poodle, came into our lives in the fall of 2018 when he was nine weeks old. His personality differs greatly from Sasha’s—Sasha was a sweet dog who liked to cuddle, to always be close to us, and to show his love and affection to us. Charlie, in contrast, is “Mister Independent,” but he likes to play games and be trained to do different tricks. He makes our life so enthralling. For us, Charlie is a precious gift of life, too.

Since we retired and moved to Valencia Lakes—55+ Active Adults Community in southwest Florida—our life, before the COVID-19 pandemic started, was very interesting; we traveled to faraway and fascinating countries and amazing places near us; our travels painted our life in dazzling colors. When we traveled, we made a lot of pictures and video clips and I always wrote my travel notes about places we visited. Upon returning home, I was busy editing my pictures and notes, then creating videos I published on YouTube. These activities have always given me a sense of fulfillment and purpose in life—the knowledge that something will be left of me after I’m gone. I started my video creation a long time ago—my first video was a gift for Sparky’s 60th birthday and an attempt to tell a picture story of his life from his earlier years to the day when he turned sixty years old. Since that time, I have created a video for every family event and every trip we have taken. I have a channel on YouTube—Lgelya. It is still my favorite pastime activity.

Once upon a time, already being here in the United States, I Googled my name, and to my amusement, I found an article about Zarafshan and about me, actually regarding my video that I created in February 2011 about our life in the Kyzylkum Desert.

The article was named “In Zarafshan” and written on October 27, 2011, by Tyler Olsen. He incorrectly stated that I lived in North Dakota—at the time I was in Northern Virginia. Olsen wrote about Googling Zarafshan:

Cruising and boozing around Uzbekistan, a Canadian reporter winds up in a place that gives no logical reason to visit, where the question Why? has no answer. Fortunately, virtual travel remains risk-free, except for all the beer.

The orange sand slides away beneath me as I meander down a long boulevard, the harsh sun stabbing at me from behind the trees. The ground soon turns to pavement as I cross four lanes of deserted, unused roadway and find myself alone in the middle of a massive, barren public square. Is this place abandoned or, markedly worse, inhabited by zombies? I think, as I walk to the fridge to grab another beer.

Finally, an hour into my journey, my heroic determination and perseverance pays off as I meet Lgelya (a.k.a. Lara) on YouTube. In a photo slideshow, Lara, who now lives in North Dakota, takes me from Zarafshan’s beginning as a mining city that sprung from the desert in the 1960s to more recent times, when the city was considered the center of Uzbekistan’s gold industry and the home base for the nearby Muruntau open pit mine. Lara lived for 20 years in the city, and the photos show a family building snowmen, working in the mines, and sharing meals. There are camels (!), more turtles (!!) and some smiling people (!!!). Back in the day, there were motorcycle races and swimming races and people selling food. So, if you physically follow in my digital footsteps, it is possible you will find people there. Poor them. Poor you.

He said “Poor them. Poor you” due to his impressions from his virtual travel there. But for us, Zarafshan and the Kyzylkum Desert were part of our lives, a very logical place for us to live and we did not know different. A harsh environment was offset by the special spirit and friendship of people. In a way, it was a gift of life, too.

After we visited China and Hong Kong in 2012, I published “My China Diary” on the Internet, but now I’m thinking of making a book from it, as well as from my travel notes to other countries.

From the period of time from 2000 to present we have traveled to the following countries: Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Columbia, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean Islands. Alaska was the most memorable trip inside the United States. I think travel is the only thing that makes one richer for the money spent.

Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

I believe that when you can do things you love, it is a precious gift of life, too. I’m so grateful for all these precious gifts of my life.