FICA

Forgot to write this in the last post...as we were leaving after our second visit we noticed a bunch of the baby house workers, including the director and doctor, walking from one of the outbuildings back into the baby house carrying plastic grocery sacks. The sacks seemed fairly heavy and Jim noticed that they were first weighing things on a scale on the sidewalk before carrying them inside. I thought maybe it was a load of potatoes or something and they were weighing out portions for the kitchen, although why they wouldn't just do that in the kitchen I couldn't figure out. Then this guy got out a big hatchet knife and started hacking away and we realized it was some kind of raw meat. By this time Vera arrived and we asked her what was up. She said that she heard they had bought a whole cow at the bazaar (you can buy an entire butchered cow or sheep) and were dividing it up. It is more economical that way and I guess the babyhouse pays for the cow so the workers don't have to pay for the meat at the time of purchase--the wages on their next paycheck will be garnished (no pun intended) to pay for their share.

Kind of like FICA.

Overkill

We had a good visit with Alex today. When Vera brought him in she said that he has a cough and runny nose (which he has had for the past few days) so we couldn't take him outside or get him too hot because then he would sweat and that would give him a chill as they walked through the halls. She said that if the cough and sniffles didn't clear up the doctor said they would have to give him a shot, which shocked us. Vera told us that going to the doctor here was a pretty regular occurence and it seems that they use the doctor almost like we would use a pharmacy--just go in for some routine thing. After the visit we went to Interlingua for some more classes on Kazakh history and culture and I mentioned it to Adilya, our teacher. She said that they would probably give him antibiotics. I couldn't believe it. I told her that in the US a cough and sniffles would barely even be remarked upon, much less cause to go to the doctor and get a shot. Anyway, we are going with the Kazakh flow on this one. He didn't sound any better during the second visit so maybe a good round of penicillin will clear it up...ya think?

We feel like we are officially locals. When we were grabbing lunch at a cafe before the Interlingua classes Karina (one of Slava's daughters/our Korean friend) showed up at the cafe with two of her university classmates. What fun to run into familiar faces out and about! We had a great chicken pizza that also had some corn and peas on top. It was yummy but I had to quote what Sam would have said if he had been with us--"Eeeeeeeeeeew! That's yuck!"

Vera says she knows that the missing judge for Guardianship Court is on her way back to Taraz so we should have court tomorrow. Then we can schedule final court. Pray that final court will be on the 23rd, partly so we can have plenty of time to get back to Almaty to fly home (possibly a few days early) and partly since the "Spanish train" (by far the nicest and newest train in KZ) will be running that night. We can return to Almaty in style!

Court Delay

We ended up not having court today as the head of the court had to go on a business trip to Almaty. She will be back tomorrow and we'll have court on Wednesday. This gives us a one day delay in our overall plan. We have to have Guardianship Court before we can get a final court date. We can't apply for our final court date until after our 14 day visiting period ends, which is Tuesday. So we were going to file for final court Wednesday morning but since we have to wait for Guardianship Court we won't be able to file until Thursday. It is fine since we have a few extra days built into our travel time but we were hoping to get a final court date for the 21st or 23rd (the 22nd is a holiday) and be able to come home a few days earlier than we had planned as we are really missing Sam. However, it looks as if the 27th is a more likely return date for us.

Alex is getting stronger by the day. We are trying to teach him to roll over from back to front and hopefully he will have it perfected before we leave so he won't spend so much time on his back while he is in the nursery. He does pretty well rolling front to back, but a lot of times that is accidental. We are also trying to teach him to take a regular bottle. The boy does not know how to suck, which I know all babies are born knowing how to do. He'll chew on the bottle and get a few drops in his mouth and swallow them (I guess) but he doesn't know how to take a bottle otherwise. I think it is because the holes in the nipples of the bottles he is used to are so large the milk just pours out of them. We may just move straight to the sippy cup, which is fine with me. Sam never took a bottle either so we skipped the aggravating stage of moving from bottle to cup.

We are trying to venture out a bit in the eating department. There are about 4 restaurants here that have menus in English and they are all owned by Turks and they all have basically the same menu, save the Georgian restaurant which is FABULOUS! Anyway, we decided to go into this nice looking place today to see if we could stumble through a menu entirely in Russian. And stumble we did! I decided that I would order some kind of soup since that seems a pretty safe choice no matter where you are. We started out confusing the waiter by ordering water to drink and then asking for a minute to look over the menu. Every place we've been they want to take your entire order practically the minute you sit down. We mimed that we needed a minute to look at the menu and we couldn't figure out much since it felt like we were under pressure to choose something. The waiter came over and we said, "Soup?" and he pointed out the soups on the menu, then started reading them off the menu. The only soups we know of in Russian are borscht and solyanka, neither of which he said. When we heard "Goulash" we decided we had a winner. We ordered two bowls of goulash and waited.

Waiting is usually a fun-filled time for us because we are bombarded by either Kazakh rap, Russian pop or American tunes. Once there was even a DJ singing karaoke for the entire restuarant. This time we heard an instrumental version of Lionel Richie's "Hello" followed by the original version, which is more Lionel Richie than I've heard since 1985. We also heard a live version of "Hotel California" and some oldie I can't recall along the lines of "Blueberry Hill". About 10 minutes later our goulash arrived. It wasn't like any goulash I've ever known--clear chicken broth with potatoes, carrots, green beans and a few chunks of beef seasoned with plenty of dill. It was really good (the dill made is especially tasty) but not the thick, hearty goulash we were planning on. Oh, well. We'll take our Russian dictionary along next time and try harder.

We were convinced that the hotel housekeeper was mad at us because for 3 days she left only one big bath towel and 2 smaller hand towels for us. I had a theory that since we were using some of the towel hooks for drying socks and such she didn't leave a second large towel because we were hanging stuff on the hook it usually hangs on. Not that there isn't plenty of room to leave a big towel somewhere--on the bed, desk, back of the toilet, perhaps. We tested out the theory by removing all the drying laundry from the hooks before we left the hotel this morning. Et voila, a second towel appeared in the appropriate spot!

Dinner Guests

Last night we had dinner at the home of Ulia and her family. The father, Slava, cooked shashlik out on the 'barbie', thus underscoring my theory that outdoor grilling is an inherently male event. His shashlik rocked. The table was covered in food as we'd seen at the birthday party. I wondered how the drinking would go when Slava broke the seal on the vodka, but it was mainly used for making a mercifully small number of toasts. It was very clear that they had gone out of their way to present us with a feast. Being hospitable folk, they encouraged us to eat tons of it. We happily obliged and really paid the price for it today with overexpanded stomachs.

Ulia's translation skills were wonderful, so we're hoping to connect her with our translator to see if that could prove mutually beneficial for a job. Conversation ranged from sharing family photo albums to life in Dallas to life under Soviet rule to music to work. Slava has four jobs currently which really put in perspective how tough life must be for the middle class here in Taraz. When I told him about my work, he mentioned that he and some of his associates had talked about putting together something like an ISP that might be able to offer Internet voice (VoIP) services. I told him we would definitely be interested in helping out.

When we found out that Karina, the middle daughter, and Slava both play guitar, I had to hear them play. They pulled out a guitar that I would assume is Russian, brand named "Western." Slava strummed out a few chords. Then they wanted to hear what I could play for them. The action was pretty high which made playing a task. I used a credit card as a pick and played a few songs, including "House of the Rising Sun." It wasn't Eminem or Linkin Park, so they didn't recognize it. Karina took a turn and sang beautifully with her two sisters. Throughout the whole evening, Zhenya, the youngest daughter, drew wonderful pictures of birds. Her skill was really pretty amazing for being only 7 yrs old. We also found out that she stays up til 10 p.m. on schoolnights and 2 - 3 a.m. on the weekend watching MTV and horror movies, amongst other things. I was blown away that she didn't get nightmares or have trouble getting up in the morning.

The house, while being described by Slava as "not rich," seemed very roomy to us. As with nearly all of the private houses we've seen, they have a wall surrounding their property with a very heavy metal door to allow in cars or guests. Once inside, they have a nice main house, a few covered patio areas, a garage, an addition that Slava built, a large garden (tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.) with multiple fruit trees (apple, apricot), berry bushes and a walnut tree, a chicken coop, a dog run complete with German shepherd, and a variety of storage sheds.

Through talking about our driver Medet and translator Vera, we found out that Slava's relative Marlin went to school with Medet. This just confirms that Medet truly knows EVERYONE in Taraz. The guy is amazing. We also found out that Marlin's wife Natasha, who led so many additional toasts at our table at the birthday party, "doesn't drink." We pressed this point and Ulia confirmed that Natasha would raise her glass but didn't actually drink. So, it would appear we fell for the oldest trick in the Russian book. Silly Americanskis!

New Rules

We got to the baby house yesterday to see Alex and Vera told us that we needed to make sure he stayed awake during our entire visit. Usually he falls asleep while we are with him because the end of our visit bumps up against the start of nap time. His falling asleep with us was causing problems back in 'the crib' since he would wake up when Vera would take him back to his nannies and he wouldn't fall back asleep. He was getting upset and wanting to be held all the time and that just didn't work with their program. So for our morning visit we kept him up and awake just fine. In the afternoon it was more of a problem since we visit from 3-5 and nap time starts at 4. He was getting really cranky toward the end of the afternoon visit and we asked Vera if in the future we could cut that visit short, to 4:30, for Alex's sake and ours. She said that the afternoons weren't as much of a problem and it would be OK for him to fall asleep with us during that visit. We'll put that into effect Tuesday since we won't have afternoon visits today or tomorrow.

Tomorrow we go to Guardianship Court, the first of two court appearances we'll make while we are here. It is a court of 5-12 people (I guess it depends who shows up that day) made up of community leaders who determine if they think we are worthy of moving on through the process. Honestly, we aren't sure what it is about but it will be good practice for the final court hearing when we will be officially named Alex's parents.

Forgot to write that the day before yesterday we went to the class on Kazakh culture and traditions at a language school here called Interligua. It was very interesting and we are going back Tuesday to learn some more. This is a new program and we were the first to participate. We learned about what life is like for the Kazakhs who lived in nomadic tribes prior to the Soviet takeover. Most interesting was hearing our teacher, Adilya, talk about her mother who remembered what it was like when the Soviets took over and forced the Kazakhs into collectivisation. Adilya's grandfather had been a fairly well-off fur trader, which didn't sit well with the Soviets. The came and took their furniture, other possessions, and finally their house simply because her grandfather 'had too much' and was therefore an 'evil' person. He packed up his family and fled their village rather than wait for the Soviets come back to kill them. They travelled for 3 days and were finally taken in by another village. They eventually came to Taraz and set up a good life. Adilya's mother married a man who became a judge so was fairly well taken care of during the Soviet times but she couldn't talk about her family having been in the fur trade and basically capitalists in the past for fear that it would ruin her husband's career. Adilya surprised us by saying that growing up in Soviet times wasn't all bad--they had good education, free healthcare, the kids were fed 3 times a day at school. She put it well when she said it was all free, but perhaps the price they paid was in their inability to say certain things for fear of imprisonment. All in all it was an eye-opener and we are looking forward to our next class.

Sling

We tried to put Alex in the baby sling we borrowed from a friend (thanks, Rachel!) and he kind of liked it. It would have helped if I had been able to remember the right way to do it. Here are the results:



By the way, I highly recommend the sling if you can figure it out. It is a great back-saver and leaves both hands free to do whatever. I wish I had used one with Sam.

Still rainy this morning. Last night we went to the Knauss' house. David Knauss is the head of Interlink here in Taraz. Every Friday night they have family night--pizza and movies. We watched "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" (is that the title?) with the usual Interlink suspects. Good movie, good pizza, good times. Beth and Sara also came over earlier in the day bearing gifts--a loaner guitar for Jim and some coffee. The timing was perfect since he had just run out of the Starbucks he had packed. He has been brewing it in a French press we brought over.

This And That

Sorry for no posts. Our icard expired and we had to figure out how to get the new one set up. Nursat Guy to the rescue?

Alex continues to make progress with every visit. His legs are much stronger than when we first arrived and he is able to support weight on them for longer periods of time. Even his nannies have remarked to Vera that he uses his legs a lot more. He also used to always have his fists clenched and his arms held tightly to his body but yesterday when Vera brought him in one of his arms was down, loosely across his chest and that hand was spread out which was a first. He is also able to hold his head up while on his tummy a lot longer than he was able to when we first met him and he has become very vocal. Yesterday he talked up a storm and was very fond of blowing raspberries. He really loves to 'converse' with us as we try to mimic his noises.

We walked to the 'Gros' supermarket the other day after lunch and, amazingly, were not trailed throughout the store by the security force. Perhaps we are blending in?

Jim has gone jogging a few mornings and gets curious looks from the locals who are heading off to work. The sun doesn't come up here until about 7:30 so that is when he goes. Vera also took us to a gym that is at the soccer stadium and Jim bought a month-long pass. It is small but has free weights and such and is just what Jim was looking for. There are usually only about 4 or 5 people there working out (it is pretty expensive by Kazakh standards--our pass was about $25). As with everything else here, it doesn't open until 9 a.m. so Jim has to work out after our visits and before dinner.

Last night we met up with the Petersons for dinner at Sakartvello, the Georgian restaurant. After dinner we walked to their apartment with them so we would know exactly where it is. The building itself is crumbling and looks like a place you wouldn't want to be after dark (although it is safe--we asked Vera and Medet and they said it was fine and they would have told us if it weren't). The 'lobby' was also depressing, just what you'd think a Soviet apartment building would be like--lit by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and without a paint job in years. We rode the refrigerator-size elevator (it took 2 trips to get us all upstairs) to the 8th floor and saw that their apartment is actually quite nice. The thinking is that since the people now own their apartments they really take care of them but since they don't own the building itself--who cares! The apartment was large with a livng room, dining room, bath, 2 bedrooms and kitchen. Since they are on the 8th floor they had an amazing view of the city. And did I mention the practically brand-new washer? We had a great time and hopefully helped them somewhat with their jetlag, keeping up until almost 10 o'clock.

Today between visits we are going to take a class in Kazakh culture at Interlingua, a language school here in Taraz. We are going to be guinea pigs as I think we are the first to take the courses. They are offering 5 weeks of classes, 2 classes per week, on the history of Kazakhstan (nomadic roots, Silk Road, Soviet control; Kazakhstan today (independence, current government and economic status); traditions and customs; national food and drink; and language (Kazakh and Russian). Since we only have about 1 1/2 weeks left in Taraz we have asked if we can just start with the customs and traditions and maybe do a little language.

Yesterday we got together with Zhanibek ("you can call me Johnny"), a local college student who enjoys practicing his English with Interlink's Sara, for a trip to the bazaar. And what a bazaar it was! You could buy anything there, from clothes and shoes to sheep head and intestine (let's just say the 'meat pavilion' is not for the faint of heart). My favorites were the women selling spices--paprika, curry, etc. in smallish burlap bags and you buy spices by the scoop--and the people selling cookies and sweets, all stacked up neatly and tons of them. It was very interesting and we'll have to go back and take our camera. We bought some dried apricots, almonds and chocolates as well as a few souvenirs. We ate lunch there, too.
They sell these triangle shaped savory pastries called 'samsas' from little kiosks or on the street The ones we happened to buy came straight out of an old Soviet oven that looked to be of the same generation as our trusty O'Keefe and Merritt back home. The pastry is very flaky, like phyllo dough (yum!) and they triangle-shaped and as big as your hand. You can get chicken, lamb or cheese and we've heard that sometimes they are just filled with fat (Kazakhs love fat). We had one of each and the cheese was the best! Each samsa cost 20 tenge, about 15 cents, and are worth every penny. Very delicious.

This morning we have rain for the first time since we've been here. This will mess up my laundry schedule since I'm sure our things won't dry at all, the good news being that the hotel has a laundry service that is pretty reasonably priced. I typically do a small load in the morning in the bathtub, wring it out and rinse in the sink, then hang to dry on the window sill. All the wringing, etc. is doing wonders for my biceps! Today I was sewing a small hole in Jim's sweater and thinking, "What's next...darning socks??"

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Women's Day

We found out that there are so many chicken photo booths because it is the year of the chicken.

The street fair was very fun. There were 'shashliknis' serving shashliks (kebabs) and plov (like rice pilaf). We sat down at one of the temporary outdoor cafes and ordered a plate. This is not a throw away society--our food came on actual ceramic plates even though it was an outdoor, one day only event. There was an old Russian woman at the back of the booth with a big pan of suds washing every dish. Seemingly everybody in Taraz got their shot at singing a song in the town square, karaoke-style. Some enterprising Kazakh had also brought a full-size air hockey table and set it up. The older kids had fun with that while the younger ones played on an inflatable bounce house. Sound familiar? Our driver warned us that it was OK to go to the fair during the day but to not go out at night because, as he said, the Kazakhs like to fight when they have had too much to drink. So we ate in the hotel last night (borscht!) and holed up in our room. The local police and military were having a grand time last night, cranking up their sirens and driving around the square for hours. For a while we thought there was a riot or something but they were just showing off their manpower.

Yesterday was overcast for the first time since we've been here. Today looks to be the same. The good thing is that makes the clothes we brought (wool sweaters, etc.) bearable. The bad thing is our laundry (washed in the bathtub, dried on the window ledge) doesn't dry nearly as quickly.

Alex gets stronger by the day. Yesterday we were doing push-ups with him to strengthen his tummy muscles. He has started to mimic us so I got down on the floor and pushed up and he would do the same. Then I would drop down and he would, too. We did that a few times and it was really funny. He has also started to support more weight on his legs and enjoys 'standing' with our help. When we first started visiting he wouldn't put any weight on his legs at all. Progress!

Forgot to write about the Super Bowl party. It was very fun. The Interlink office was there (American families and singles), a Peace Corp guy, some Kazakh families and the Petersons, who had arrived that morning from Denver to adopt a brother and sister who are 12 and 13. They have two biological daughters who are 10 and 11 and were shocked to see how small the new siblings were in comparison. The Petersons had brought the Super Bowl video and we sat down to some wonderful homemade pizzas, thanks to Sara, popcorn and nachos. Interlink has found people in the village who make tortillas so rest assured that Taco Bell will be in Kazakhstan soon. We had a great time meeting everybody and hope to get together with the Petersons soon for dinner and a walk around town. And also because they are in an apartment that has a clothes washer :)

Na Zdrovia!

Our translator warned us: "Oh, a Korean party? You will definitely eat and drink A LOT."

The anniversary party turned out to be a birthday party for another Korean fellow also named Slava (no relation to Natalia's uncle's cousin). It was the best party we've ever been to and we sat at the best table in the place. Part banquet, part disco, part circus, and part variety show, they left little undone from an entertainment perspective. The Russian MC could easily pass for a morning show DJ in the U.S. He joked, cajoled, and generally got everyone to loosen up. He opened with, "We're not going to make this a boring Korean party, are we??" and kept the festivities rolling. There were tons and tons of speeches. One guy in particular had a voice that could rival Sominex for its numbing power. They had everything: traditional national dances, a Cirque de Soleil type Chinese contortionist, dances with birds, a kid who won the Kazakh version of American idol (amazing voice), ballroom dances, and two professional singers belting out tunes full blast.

We sat with Ulia, her mother & father Slava, her uncle Marlin & his wife Natasha, and friends of theirs. The table was creaking under the weight of the food and they refused to see our plates empty. We enjoyed dish after dish of Korean, Russian, and Kazakh food. After about an hour, they told us the FIRST main course was about to come out. But, the real killer is the vodka. Raising our glasses in a toast every five minutes didn't seem to have much of an effect on us... initially. When Natasha started encouraging even more toasts, it caught up pretty quickly.

We were asked to get up in front of the guests to make a toast to the 'birthday boy' whom we'd met just minutes before. I said what I could in Russian but then switched to English with Ulia translating for me. Ours was by far the shortest speech of the evening. We also found out that it's customary for a man to sing or dance to show his appreciation/respect to the person whose birthday it is. So, before we knew it, the Russian MC was booming through the mike that now these two are gonna show us how
they dance in America. Thank God for our swing dancing lessons. Later they had people do skits, so I lip synched a duet in Russian with a Korean woman. Another fellow in our skit, a sweet older guy who could totally boogie, had been given a natty wig to cover his bald scalp so he could impersonate one of the current heartthrobs. Man, did he ever get down! Later in the evening, he twice gave me big bear hugs and proclaimed "You are my brother!" At these parties, everyone dances and there is no inhibition. You only look odd if you don't dance.

As it was getting late, we were ready to leave and Slava was happy to take us home whenever we were ready. However, we thought we wouldn't be able to leave, because at one point a woman joined our table and we found out she had been trying to leave but Natasha had made her stay. Additionally, we started scanning the house to figure out who we did not want driving us home. The Russian MC would have been a good candidate since he'd refused encouragements to drink since he had to drive. When we said we had to go the entire table came down with us to see us off. Slava hailed a cab, so he and Ulia could accompany us back to our hotel. It was approaching midnight, but Ulia asked us a few times: "Do you always go to bed so early??" (Everyone here, children included, tend to stay up til midnight or later and don't wake up until 7-8am.) Then they took the cab back to the party to pick up Ulia's mother.

All in all, it was a fantastic time. Natalia - your family is very, very sweet and considerate. And they're fire on the dance floor! Na Zdrovia!!

From left to right: Ulia, her father (Slava), her mother, birthday boy Slava and some strange Americanski.
The appetizers. After this there were two 'main' courses and then the cake.

More photos later--they take forever to upload at 26.4 kbps!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!!!!!!

Party

We had a fantastic time at the birthday party last night and we have the photos and grogginess to prove it. I'm going to let Jim write eloquently about it later since he has that gift. I will just say here that it was a big party, about 120 people, that was equal parts banquet, circus, variety show and disco. The people we met were fantastic and we felt like part of the family. We hope to run into some of our new friends around town before we leave and have plans to get together with Slava and his family a few more times before we leave Taraz.

The town square is being scrubbed in prepartion for Women's Day and the street surrounding the square has been blocked off so we can actually cross it without taking our lives into our own hands. It is pretty quiet today as it is an official holiday. A few people have set up booths that I assume are for taking photos. They are very ornate and most of them feature a large yellow chicken (?) and they have little couches for mom and dad to sit on for the photo as well as ride-on vehicles, mainly motorcycles, for the kids. I'll take a photo soon and post it so you can see what I mean and I'm sure we'll have the booth owners take photos of us as well.

Saw Alex this morning and he is as cute and smiley as ever. We have figured out his cues for "I'm tired"--mainly he gets fairly vocal, and rubs his face in your chest. He likes us to rub his back as he looks over our shoulder and then you have to pick the exact moment to move him to the 'football hold' across the front and then he falls asleep. Very cute.

I'm at the internet cafe so can't post photos from here. I decided to get out while Jim took a little nap. Plus, it is fun to be among the locals. And at a dollar an hour for internet access you can't go wrong!

A Tour Of The Baby House

NOTE: Ran out of time before we could post all the photos...more coming soon. Now we're off to tonight's anniversary party!

Today we got to the baby house and were able to go up to Alex's room, which he currently shares with 4 other babies. Since it is Sunday the schedule is a bit relaxed and we got there as they were about to feed Alex. We got to wander around a bit and take photos of his area so I'll let those do the talking...


The large playroom where the babies have 'free time'. To the left of the mural on the back wall is the kitchen area for the babies and to the right is the bathroom.


The sleeping room. Alex's crib is to the right in this photo, behind the plant and below the a/c unit. There are ten cribs in the room but only five babies at this time.


Playpen--all the babies lie around and grab at toys strung on the ribbons. That's Alex on the left. We didn't recognize him at first due to his very feminine clothes!


This is Alex with one of his nannies.


And this is how they feed the babies--bowl under chin and shovel it in. The entire feeding took about 2 minutes. He didn't eat all of it but I don't think he was able to take a breath the entire time, they go that fast.

We got to see his medical chart and on 2/22, his 7 month check-up, he weighed 14 lbs. 4 oz. and was 25 3/4" tall.

We only had one visit today as it was Sunday and everyone takes it easy. We are fortunate to be able to visit on Sundays and have it count toward our 14 day bonding period as there are other baby houses that won't allow visits on Sundays. We are even more fortunate that the three-day Women's Day holiday won't affect our visitation schedule. Instead of our second visit, Vera and Medet took us on a tour of three mausoleums that are nearby. Very beautiful and the view of the mountains was wonderful. As usual, today was sunny and dry, very mild. The weather is great!

One week down, three to go!

How Do You Say "Social Butterfly" In Russian?

Alex becomes more vocal and communicative each time we visit. The first few times we saw him he tended to just look and smile and not make much noise. These past few days he babbles and coos much more and lets us know when he isn't happy. We got his schedule today--wake up, 'free time', eat, nap at two hour intervals all day and a bath in the evening before bedtime. Wake up time is 6 a.m. which is going to change once we get back to Texas! We usually get him right after feeding time and by the time we are done he is usually sleeping in our arms since nap time is the next thing on his schedule.





Did we mention that Alex is supremely ticklish? When you tickle him under his arms this is the face you get:



Tonight we got to meet the family of Natalia (our Russian friend in the U. S.) who live here in Taraz. Her uncle's cousin (Slava) and his two older daughters (Ulia, 21 and Karina, 18) met us at the hotel restaurant for a drink and conversation. They have invited us to a friend's 50th anniversary party tomorrow night and we are going to put on our 10 gallon hats and two-step til dawn! The family is very nice and the girls look like they stepped off the SMU campus. We didn't get to meet the mother and 7 year old sister but will probably do so tomorrow. Ulia, the eldest daughter, speaks wonderful English. During the conversation we were talking about holidays and the younger daughter asked us about Groundhog Day, which was funny because many adoptive couples eventually comment that being in Kazakhstan and visiting the baby house day after day tends to be like the movie "Groundhog Day" (which is apparently pretty popular here). Same routine each day--breakfast, visit baby, lunch, visit baby, dinner, sleep and the next day the same thing all over again. So we all had a good laugh about that.

We also met Sara today. She is with Interlink Resources, a humanitarian aid organization based in Muncie that has an outpost here. (Now that I'm looking at their website, that's Sara above the "Employees" tab). They do a lot of work with the orphanages for older children in the region. Sara speaks Kazakh, which is quite a feat. She brought us a packet with lots of info about Taraz--where to eat, shop, what to see and local customs. They also have a list of about 200 DVDs that they loan out to adoptive families--nice! Another family is coming later this week and they are bringing a VHS copy of the Superbowl so Interlink is going to have a Super Bowl party Monday night. Between that and the anniversary party our social calendar is full! And since the treats are so tasty here I realized that we won't miss the Thin Mints I stowed away so I gave them to Sara for the Interlink staffers. Sara knows a number of students at the University who are dying to practice their English so we are going to get set up with one of them to take us to the bazaar one afternoon.

The hotel staff seemed to be scrubbing up the place over the past few days--washing the stair runners, etc. We found out that the Minister of the Interior is going to be staying here for a bit. As we were walking back from lunch we witnessed his arrival--many police cars, a convoy of nicer vehicles, uniformed men and women milling about looking official. We were worried that they wouldn't let us in the door of the hotel as we had to walk past armed security people. But we must have looked tame because they didn't stop us or even check to see if we had a room key. I'm guessing they had our photos on file from our passports and knew by sight who belonged and who didn't.

Forgot to write the other day that when we got to the baby house for our visit we were invited to see an older group of children (3-4 years old) perform a music and dance program for the workers. I think it had something to do with Women's Day, which is on the 8th and it was mainly traditional songs and they also acted out the play of the Little Red Hen (she gets the wheat, grinds it, makes bread while the other animals play and when the bread is ready the other animals want to eat even though they did nothing to help). It was all very cute and I caught almost all of it on video. There were about 12 kids and they were all gorgeous, well-behaved and bright. There was a very spirited little boy, Kazakh, who had enough personality for the entire room. Our translator told us he was unadoptable because he has a mother. Apparently when life gets too rough or money is too tight a family might drop their child off at the baby house temporarily. This little boy didn't seem to mind, though! There was also a set of twin girls, also Kazakh, who seemed older (and much taller) than the other children. We found out that they had been brought to the baby house just about a month ago. Yesterday while we were visiting they were tranferred to Ulan, the house for older kids (5 years and up) because they were 5 1/2 years old. Medet (our driver) and Vera (translator) took them since Medet is kind of considered and unofficial taxi for the baby house. Vera said the girls were very upset and crying because they were afraid their grandmother wouldn't know where they were and wouldn't be able to find them to visit. It was all very sad but good to know that they do have family available and that this is a temporarly situation for the girls.

Photos!

Baby Alex!



Baby Alex sleeping. We have almost this exact photo of Sam sleeping--they look identical. Of course, Sam was only about a month old at the time. And yes, I know I look like I haven't slept in days!

Nursat Guy To The Rescue!

So we bought this icard (like a phone card but you use it to buy time on the internet) from Nursat (the telecom company of KZ) and we were having trouble getting Jim's computer to dial into the access number so we could go online from our hotel room. He had tried all kinds of combinations of country codes, dial-up numbers and other tricks but couldn't make it work. Having total confidence in his Russian skills, Jim called Nursat customer service to find out what we were doing wrong. Yes, you read it right--he called customer service in Kazakhstan. What follows is a factual and true account of what happened--no exaggerations and nothing made up.

Jim calls customer service and gets the one guy who speaks no English. He passes Jim off to a woman who speaks some English but it was slow going. She kept telling him to go to www.nursat.kz to get help, not understanding that we couldn't get on the internet in the first place. Once she understood the predicament she asked where we were, what hotel, etc. and said she was going to send a tech support guy to our hotel room the following morning at 9 a.m. Jim gets off the phone and tells me this and I immediately go into paranoia mode, to paraphrase: "So you just told a perfect stranger in a foreign country who we are, where we are staying and when we will be here and you really believe Nursat is going to send some guy here just to set up our internet connection?!?!" So we decided that in the morning we would tell the hotel front desk not to let anyone up to our room for any reason whatsoever for fear that they would just rob us blind.

About 1/2 hour later we are turning off the lights to go out to dinner and there is a knock on the door. Jokingly, I said "There's your Nursat guy" and opened the door....to the Nursat guy! Seriously, that was the first thing out out of his mouth--"Nursat." We were immediately comforted by the fact that he looked like that guy from the movie Office Space and he got straight to work on the computer without casing the room for valuables. He was here about 10 minutes setting up our internet connection, showing us that we had it right but hadn't put in a few commas that were needed to dial in correctly. He showed us how to enter the login and password that were on the icard and also told us we had won a prize (!) from some scratch-off thing on the icard. We don't know what the prize is or how to claim it but we were pretty excited. Then he was off to free the world of connectivity problems! Thanks, Nursat Guy!

By the way, yes it was totally free. Can you imagine your ISP sending a tech guy for free, within 1/2 hour, to help you connect to the internet? We didn't even have to go through the annoying "Turn your computer completely off and unplug the phone line. Now turn your computer on. Now attach the phone line. Now let me do an online diagnosis of your computer. It must be a software problem (if you call hardware people). It must be a hardware problem (if you call the software people). We can send someone out next Tuesday between 9 and 3 at a cost of $149." Kazakhstan is awesome!

Photos coming soon! Let me figure it out!