Thursday evening I noticed that Sophia's brand new, extra warm, dirt-cheap winter boots were starting to fall apart--the sole off one foot was coming off. She has two other pairs of shoes--two weak, thin Mary-Jane type shoes, and one of those pairs she keeps at school for PE. So Friday morning I put her in the falling-apart boots, and as we left the apartment, I noticed that they were flip-flapping quite a bit. So I ran back inside to bring her extra pair of shoes with her.
I had plenty of people asking me why I hadn't gotten them fixed--come on, I just noticed it last night, it wasn't that bad last night, and anyways I have no idea of where to go to get them fixed! Luckily, the principal told me there was a place near our home and he would take me there after the field trip.
When we were dropped off, we forgot about shoe repair until we got home. Shoot. I texted Valerie, whose fiance had said he knew where the place was. He was at an interview and Valerie didn't know. I called the principal, who gave me directions that I attempted to follow. Finally, I called Christie, who gave me directions that worked.
The shoe repair place is located on the first floor of the same building that Valerie lives in, on a little street that is more like a back alleyway, behind the supermarket. We opened the door to a big surprise--it was no more than a closet, and there was barely room for us to step in and close the door behind us.
The shoe repairman is deaf, and there was another man there, who I guess worked as his translator. Except that he spoke no English, and so I communicated just as well with the repairman himself as I did with the translator. (Which is to say, rather poorly.) I showed them Sophia's boots. I had made a list of Russian words I might need--'shoe,' 'fix', 'today', 'tomorrow' and the days of the week (in case they told me to come back on such-and-such day.) But whatever it was they were trying to tell me, I was clueless.
I think he simply was trying to tell me that he was going to sew the sole back on, and that he didn't have the same color thread that the boot had originally been sewn in. Who cares? I just want Sophia's feet to be warm.
A young woman came in who spoke minimal English and we communicated a bit better through her. They told her that the boots would be ready "zavtra," which she translated as "yesterday," which I found a bit humorous. Luckily, I had justed looked up the word for 'tomorrow' which is 'zavtra," so I understood.
The also said the cost was 500 Tenge, under $4. Not bad.
Friday evening I came back to pick up the boots. They recognized me and smiled as they returned my boots and I paid the money.
So far, I am pleased with the results--and the cost. That puts the total cost of Sophia's boots at 4000 Tenge, still a bargain.
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