Bill's Blog

I changed diapers for 8 consecutive years! That was the time from when our first son was born in 2002 to our daughter getting out of diapers in 2010. I could have avoided much of that if we had encountered an Uzbek beshik. Last weekend I went to the big Chorsu Bazaar in Tashkent looking for some aluminum buckets for Nadia’s classroom. I noticed many of these wooden structures and I guessed they were baby cribs. A little research turned up the YouTube video below.

The beshik was invented before disposable diapers came around and people settled in cities. The hole in the bottom of the cradle is for waste, both #1 and #2. I can see the functionality of them although I would have a hard time strapping down the babies. I guess they get used to it and from the little scholarly research on benefits or harm of using beshiks, it seemed not to have an impact on normal child development. I laugh that the children in the thumbnail of the video are holding onto the “catheters”. I wonder how many people in Tashkent still use the beshik. There were plenty for sale, but I sense it is more ceremonial rather that useful. I always encounter new things living in exotic countries!

Patterned ceramic tiles are a big deal in Islamic architecture. Nadia is looking for tiles to put in a coffee table she is designing so we stopped a the workshop of a friend. It was located in an old school building . They were working on the tiles for a new Islamic library that is being built here in Tashkent. As you can see in the photo on the far left, the intricate patterns require many tiles. The scale of the building is immense. One of the masters is holding up one tile in front of a diagram of that one portion of the library wall. We found a couple tiles we liked although they were charging us a bit too much, so Nadia will continue looking for some less expensive tiles. It is cool that there are ceramic workshops like this throughout Uzbekistan.

I end this post with a sunset photo of the Minor Mosque, my favorite mosque in Tashkent. It is a modern mosque, completed only a few years ago. It is located at the end of the biking trail on the canal and it never ceases to awe me with its beauty. This was taken from the back side as I cycled around the grounds of the mosque.

The weather is finally starting to cool a bit with day time temperatures in the high 80s, low 90s and nights cooling to the 70s. Perfect blue skies and a nice breeze!

For the first time since 2019, we had a regular first day of school! It was so nice not to wear masks, be concerned about physical spacing, and wonder if we would even have everyone on campus. Oliver is starting grade 11, and Ocean is starting grade 9. We are down to only high schoolers in the house. 😦 Our dog Obi was sad to see us leave as he enjoyed having people in the house all day. Nadia will teach grade 1 this year, and I am starting my fourth year as the director. We look forward to a school year rich in activities, events, and, most importantly, learning! Oliver is ready for the challenge of the IB Diploma Programme and Ocean to high school. Nadia and I are trying to savor the time we have left with children in the house. Our eldest son Owen will be starting school next week at Northern Michigan University. It is a family tradition to take photos on the opening day in our garden or doorstep.

I am trying to exercise more during the work week. It is stress relieving and helps me think through issues I deal with as a leader of a school community. It also is good for my physical health. I went for a bike ride one morning and took this photo above. The People’s Democratic Party Headquarters which I think is the political party of the current President. It has a serene, large reflection pool and fountain that works on special occasions. The classic Roman architecture and reflection pool reminds me of Washington DC. Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and has many government buildings. The building has a 24/7 police/national guard presence but it would be nice to tour some of the government buildings and museums this year.

I was curious to see the completion of the lake and park between the National Park of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi and the Magic City Park. I often walk Obi in the National Park and for th epast three years, a corregated metal fence has blocked the view from the park to the Magic City Shopping Mall. The mall is an homage to Disneyland as you can see. The trails around the ponds were still off limits but I took. a couple of photos the other evening. We’ll go back once the park fully opens.

Growing up a fan of James Bond films, I’ve always had a romanticized vision of what it would be like to have a career in espionage. Of course, the 007 franchise is not a realistic depiction of what spies do and the iconic spy novelist John Le Carre’s books are closer to the truth than any Bond film. Agent Running in the Field was his last novel to be published before his death. The book didn’t feel like he wrote the book in his 80s and it was a turn-paging thriller for me. He is such a good writer that his books are more than a standard thriller, and his character development and description of scenes and emotions are interesting as well. 

One takeaway from this book is that spies deceive for a living. I know that is obvious, but the story helped me understand the impact of lies on the double agents spies manage and their families and colleagues. It is not glamorous, but seedy. I know the CIA or MI6 are big organizations and government intelligence is important. I would rather have governments know what their rival nations are doing and thinking rather than be in the dark. There are also many jobs in the intelligence service and I think I could work behind the scenes or intelligence collecting through other means that supporting traitors.

There were a few quotes in the book that hit close to home.

“Our daughter Steff, as we were soon calling her, would never become the kind of diplomatic brat we had seen too many of, over-nannied and shuffled from country to country and school to school in the wake of their mothers and fathers.” – This was after his the spy’s wife insisted she stayed in the UK and her daughter attend a public school.

“Well, now I was home from the sea, as Dom had kindly said. It hadn’t been easy for either of us, Prue particularly, and she had every reason to hope that I was back on dry land for good and looking for a new life in what she referred to, a little too often, as the real world.” – My wife Nadia often refers to the expatriate life as “not real”.

“For as long as I was a diplomat abroad, I at least had status. Back in the mother country, I was part of the grey mass.” – One of the reasons I chose a life abroad was to escape the ordinary. Expats live above the standards of life back at home.

“Nothing went wrong. I have houses in Petersburg and Tbilisi. However, as an internationalist I love best my Karlovy Vary. We have an Orthodox Cathedral. Pious Russian crooks worship in it once a week. when I am dead I shall join them. I have a trophy wife, very young. All my friends want to f… her. What more should I want from life? he demands in low swift tones. – A life lived abroad allows you to feel comfortable and happy living in several different countries. I always say that every place I lived has its good and bad aspects.

New vocabulary – tarmacadam (paving material made of rock, tar and sand) / emetic (something that causes vomiting) / redoubtable (causing fear or alarm; formidable)

I got the book through the Great Lakes Digital Library and so it was free. The app, Libby is like a Kindle and pretty good. It has statistics of how long it took you to read the book or at least how long I had the App open with the book. It recorded over 8 hours.

I love John LeCarre books because he understands expatriate life and can tell a good story. He died in 2020 but left behind 32 books published from 1961 to 2021.

It is a Kralovec family tradition for us to go on a hike before Owen or one of our children leaves for university. Oliver, Owen, and I did a 5-kilometer hike on the Ge Che Trails the Ottawa Lake Nature Area. I used to cross-country ski these trails often and it was nice to re-visit them . We hiked from Ottawa Lake to Hagerman Lake and then looped back to Ottawa Lake. The public beach at the Ottawa Lake Campgrounds was deserted, and we saw no one on the trails. With only 11,000 people living in Iron County, we have much of the place to ourselves. No one apparently was enjoying the beautiful Ottawa Lake on a perfect, sunny Monday afternoon in late July. 

We then had a final tennis game on the Nelson Field Courts. We played a lot of tennis while in Caspian and always found open courts. On this day, some older people were playing pickleball and the tennis courts were not being used as usual. Oliver improved quite a bit with his daily playing. Often, he would play his cousin Beau, and I would play against Owen. Today we played the best of 5 game sets and rotated. This was a great day and the perfect ending to summer holidays in Iron County.

I am staying this week at my childhood home and while decluttering the house, I came across my father’s notebook record of his career in education. He worked for 35 years in education in Stambaugh Public Schools and when the district consolidated in the 1967-1968 school year, West Iron County. He started as a teacher at the Caspian Elementary School and after 7 years, became Principal of the school. Sadly for him and me, the Caspian Elementary School closed after the 1969-1970 school year, the year before I was to start kindergarten. It would have been nice to walk to school and have my dad as the principal of the school. Charlie was the last principal of Caspian Elementary School, serving for 5 years from 1965 to 1970. The closure of the Caspian Elementary School was probably because of declining enrollment and cost savings. The building was vacant for years, into the 1980s before being torn down and replaced with a state employment office. The depopulation of Iron County and declining youth enrollment in schools continues today. I see another consolidation in the future, like in 1967 when Stambaugh, Bates Township and Iron River consolidated to form West Iron County High School. Perhaps West Iron County will merge with Forest Park (a consolidation of Crystal Falls, Amasa, Alpha) on the east side of Iron County. The challenge for a possible future Iron County Public Schools is distance. Iron County is large and commuting times would increase.

With the closure of the Caspian Elementary School, my father was transferred to the Stambaugh Elementary School, just up the hill from Caspian. He was my teacher in the 1975-1976 school year when I was a grade 5 student. I went to his classroom for science and social studies. He taught at Stambaugh Elementary School for the next 14 years, teaching mostly grade 5. In 1984-1985, he was transferred again to the Bates Township Elementary School where he was the lead teacher for 3 years.

The Bates Township Elementary School eventually closed and he was transferred back to Stambaugh Elementary School to teach an additional 6 years in grade 4. He retired after the 1992-1993 school year. His career spanned 5 decades (1950s to 1990s) and two school districts (Stambaugh/West Iron County) and three campuses (Caspian,Stambaugh, Bates Township). He was a principal or lead teacher for 9 years total. He taught Grades 4-8 and he also led federal programs for Special Education and Head Start. Most importantly, he influenced the lives of thousands of students in his 35 years in education.

Last weekend we visited Houghton/Hancock, the sister cities in the center of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The peninsula is the “ear” of the rabbit that juts out into Lake Superior on the northernmost part of the UP. The drive from Iron River is just under 2 hours. We were there to participate in the 47th annual Canal Run. Proceeds from the run support a non-profit organization that reaches out to senior citizens.

I was surprised at how many people were running in the races. We decided to run the 5-mile race. A bus dropped us off 5 miles out of the town of Hancock. We started on top of a big hill overlooking the Portage Canal that runs through the peninsula. As you can see from the results, all of us completed the race. I finished 35th out of 184 and my time of 42:49 was the best time in the men’s 50-59 year old age group. My nephew Beau finished just ahead of me in 34th place and a time of 42:20. My son Owen finished in 42nd place with a time of 44:10. Oliver finished 47th and a time of 44:42. Ocean finished in 102nd place with a time of 53:51. Nadia was the final Kralovec family member to finish with a time of 58:34 in 127th place. We all liked the course because the first portion was downhill and in shade and there were some nice views of the canal coming into Hancock.

On Friday night Nadia and I drove south to the Ojibwe Indian Reservation near the town of Baraga. She won $300 on the roulette machines! We also filled up with gas because reservation prices are much cheaper without state or federal taxes. We paid $2.99 a gallon when it is usually over $4.00 a gallon. Lake Superior is so big, cold and beautiful so we did stop a couple of times for photos and on Saturday a swim.

We also watched my nephews Tony and Beau play for the Iron Mountain Golds against the Copper Country team in American Legion baseball. The game was at Houghton High School. They got beat by the mercy rule but was good to see them play.

I would like to thank the officials responsible for the making of the Apple Blossom bike trail between Iron River and Caspian. I also appreciate the newer trail from Caspian to Chicagoan Lake. I’ve ridden the entire trail several times during my holiday. It is convenient from my house and good for encouraging people to exercise. A couple of nights ago, Nadia and my sister-in-law Chantal joined me in a ride to the lake and back. The path is paved and runs alongside Highway 424, and cycling from the Iron County Museum in Caspian to the Chicagoan Inn Hotel and back is around 23 kilometers. A good workout!

Most of the ride is through a forest or alongside the road. There is not much traffic so crossing the road is not dangerous. A few hills provide good exercise but are not leg or lung crushing. There are benches periodically along the trail to stop and rest. I combined the trail with going on the George Young Fat Tire Bike Trails that are located near the path and go around Scott Lake. You can also connect to the old railway grade, now ATV/snowmobile trail back to Caspian to make a long loop.

The girls are shown above on another trail from the Chicagoan Lake Boat Landing to the public beach. We met the boys there and I went for a swim. I spent many a summer afternoon growing up at Pentoga Park, the public beach on the lake.

This summer, I have been interested in demographics and the role it plays in the culture, economy, education, and future implications. What sparked my interest was the release of population data last month from the Uzbekistan State Statistics Committee. I used Vizzlo to convert the data into a population pyramid. Uzbekistan is a very young country, and as you can see, the bulk of the population is under 40, and very few older people. I was especially taken aback by the fact that 60% of the population is under 30 years old. The total population of Uzbekistan is between 34-35 million people so that is over 15 million young people. No wonder there were fewer deaths in Uzbekistan than in more developed countries.

The demographics in Uzbekistan are much different from my previous school in Osaka, Japan, and much of the Western, industrialized, developed world. As you can see below in the pyramids from Population-Pyramids.net, the Japanese population pyramid looks much different and presents countries with different challenges. In Uzbekistan, the problem will be finding jobs for the big cohorts moving through working age, especially the 0-9 cohort. Japan is in trouble because it will have a decreasing number of working people to support a top-heavy, retired cohort. The USA looked like Uzbekistan in the 1950s and 1960s, but fortunately, through immigration, the USA has been able to have a stable cohort of younger workers coming up through the system, unlike Japan.

I also listened to the Sam Harris podcast interview with Ian Bremmer and Peter Zeihan “The End of the Global Order.” Bremmer and Zeihan are experts in global politics and they both said China is in trouble because the 1-child policy has warped their population pyramid. They will be facing a huge retirement cohort and few workers to support them. The population will be half (700 million) in 2100 what the population is today. The population pyramid website that a neat feature that projects the populations into the future. Here are some countries in the year 2087. I picked 2087 because that is the peak year of retirees in China. Looking like a mushroom is not good. It will be fascinating to see how humanity reacts to declining populations in most nations over the next couple of centuries.

Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer’s USA Facts has a lot of good demographic data for the USA. The USA increased population from 2010-2020 by 7% overall. The increase was uneven with gains in the south, Texas, LA, Phoenix, Miami and North Carolina and losses in the north, Detroit, Illionis, Pittsburgh, Long Island. People are moving to warmer weather with the exceptions of Denver and Seattle. I was curious to see that in the 2020 census, 60% of Americans (197 million) are white. The next largest groups are Latinos (61 million), African-Americans (38 million) and Asians (15 million). My home state of Michigan increased 1%, although the Upper Peninsula (UP) lost population. Iron County, where I am from, lost .3% over the last 10 years, and is down to 11,000. The peak of Iron County was during the iron ore boom years and the 1920 census counted over 22,000. Iron County is projected to lose even more over the next 10 years as over 30% of population is 65 years or older. This is in contrast to the US average of 17% 65+ cohort. The most populous and economically viable county in the UP is Marquette. They only lost 1.6% and has a population of 65+ at 20%.

The entire Kralovec family participated in today’s “Run Your Bass Off” Road Race. The 2022 version was the 41st annual race and I ran in the first race in 1981. The race is part of the Bass Festival which is held at Runkle Lake Park in Crystal Falls, Michigan. Crystal Falls is the seat of Iron County and one of our sports rivals was Forest Park High School, the school district for the east side of Iron County. I ran the 10KM race and the rest of the family completed the “Half Bass” 5KM race.

I was pleased with my performance. I don’t run often because I want to preserve my knees but I am glad I can still crank out a 10KM at a decent pace. With some training, I think I could have done better and I used the race as a training run. I always joke the name of the town should be Crystal Hills instead of Crystal Falls. There was a long hill at the 8-kilometer mark that really slowed me down as you can see with my splits below.

Once we get the official times, I”ll post them. I finished third in my age group. Owen finished 13th, Oliver 12th, Ocean 7th, Nadia 8th in their age groups.

I can see why Utah is one of the fastest-growing states in the USA and the Mountain West (Boise, Denver) is also growing so rapidly. It is the quality of life. The dry climate and sunny skies are so much better than wet climates with many overcast days. The views and access to outdoor pursuits are also world-class so I see why people are deciding to leave Ohio/Indiana/Pennsylvania etc and set up a life in places like Salt Lake City. Much of the growth is internal because LDS members marry young and are encouraged to have many children, although this is changing. The growth in population has brought diversity and the percentage of LDS members is probably around 50%. It is still a very white, conservative place. I would like to see the state maintain its unique characteristics and manage growth so it doesn’t ruin the place. A threat to the great lifestyle here is drought and the possibility of Utah and Salt Lakes drying up, which would add to the already growing concern of low air quality.

We spent the 4th of July at a classic backyard BBQ with friends in the suburb of Highland. It is closer to the Wasatch Range and with the backdrop of mountains on three sides, pure blue skies and a large pool and green lawn, it made for a stunning backdrop to a fun day. We discovered the sport of cornhole, which I want to bring back to our school in Tashkent. It is similar to horseshoes and can be played by anyone. We also ate hamburgers from the grill, potato salad, and an ice cream/popsicle mix called “Creamies” which is famous in Utah. I love regional differences and besides creamies, we also discovered that Utah specializes in french fry sauces. Thanks to the MacPherson family for hosting us!

We’ve been playing a lot of tennis on the courts in the development. We haven’t seen anyone else playing tennis and Owen and I are always surprised that Americans do not do more exercise and use the free courts. In Tashkent, we need to reserve courts and pay a fee and sometimes they are difficult to get court times. I feel like we are playing our Indian Wells Masters tournament with the desert environment around the courts. Attending the Indian Wells Masters is on my bucket list but the tourney is usually in March when we are in school.

Last night we went to the soccer field of a local high school that overlooks the SLC valley. We watched literally hundreds of fireworks ignited by private citizens. It was quite a stunning scene and the cool mountain breeze made it a perfect evening to watch. The highlight was a fire that was most likely caused by fireworks gone astray. I think it was in Centerville and I got the photo below from the city’s Facebook page. The city did not have an official fireworks display this year because of the drought conditions. We saw several firetrucks speeding down the freeway to the fire.