Meeting Baba Tonya

In Kazakhstan most apartment buildings are comprised of several stairwells that open to the outside at the back of the building.  Those stairwells each go to the top floor and have two or three apartments off of each level.  Since my entire building is located above a dentist office, the first level of the stairwell has no doors (the dentist office has a large entrance on the front side of the building).  My apartment building has about six stairwells.  I am on the top floor of the third stairwell.  Each apartment has a separate owner.  The owners come together to pay for things like cleaning the stairwells or cleaning the yard outside the apartment.

Yesterday I met Baba Tonya.  Baba is the affectionate term for grandmother in Russian and is often used to show respect to someone that is of grandmother age, even if they aren't related to you.  She lives one floor down on the opposite side of the hall.  She is the governor of our stairwell.  She collects the money to pay the yard cleaners.  She also informed me that since people don't want to hire someone to clean the stairwell, everyone is responsible for the stairs on their floor.  Usually the two people on the floor each take turns. However, Baba Tonya informed me that the people opposite me are not good about cleaning.  I assured her that I would make sure our level of stairs were clean each week.  This task consists of sprinkling some water on the steps (to keep the dust down) and then sweeping the steps.  I will plan on doing this once a week, starting tomorrow

It's good to know that Baba Tonya is always around and keeping an eye on things.  She knows everyone and is aware of everything that is going on.  I never mind having someone like her around.  It will be a bit hard to communicate (since she only speaks Russian), but I hope to gain her approval by keeping my stairs clean.