Friday, July 10, 2009

I think I’m actually getting over my jet lag (not that I had that much of it) and getting used to the time change. I’m still hitting the hay rather early (9:30/10 pm and for those who know me, that’s really early for me as I’ve said before). As a result, I’m waking up around 5:30 am every morning and I’m not able to go back to sleep but I make myself stay in bed at least until 7:00 so I can continue to get myself on somewhat of a schedule. I’m hoping this schedule will last because I imagine this will be the schedule that Alina and I will be on when we get back to Memphis. I’ve never been a morning person but having a child to take care of and get to school on time will probably change that…no not probably …WILL! Lord, help me!!!
We were off to the orphanage by 9:30 again this morning. Janette is very punctual and so is Janine. We arrive and go searching for Alina’s group. They are outside once again in their shelter. Alina comes running toward me with arms flung open. I pick her up, smooch on those pudgy cherub cheeks, say hello to her playmates and off we go to have our visit. Since the tea was a big hit yesterday, I bring Alina her very own bottle today. Once again the word “tup-te-a” is said after every drink. But, this time, there is a cute little “ahhhhh” after every drink or so. It’s so damn cute! I bring back the usual toys and we laugh, giggle, tickle and chase each other around the gazebo. Alina is actually making more eye contact with me now and that is a good sign that she is bonding to me. She actually wanted to sit in my lap today. I didn’t have to coax her or ask her or just pick her up and place her in my lap. She crawled onto my lap on her own. I almost started crying. She sat there for a good three minutes or so and then it was off to do something else. Very typical of five year olds so I didn’t protest. I’ll take whatever she wants to hand out right now.
At one point, I sat down on the floor of the gazebo just to be eye to eye with Alina as she was walking around. She actually sat down right in front of me facing me. Another good bonding sign. We rolled the ball back and forth to each other until she became bored with that. Then, she came and sat down right between my legs with her picture book in hand. We looked at the pictures and, once again, named all the children in them. Then, I grabbed her by her waist and flipped her upside down so her face was right in front of mine (upside down of course). She laughed so hard! I kissed her on the cheek and let her back down. We did this about three times and then that was enough. But, again, good for bonding.
She was actually clean today. We had asked that she be given a bath on Thursday. I understand that they have a lot of children to take care of but a bath at least every other day should be done. She has had the same dirt rings around her neck for three days now and her little feet are so dusty and dirty. I know they are trying to do their best. Anyway, our request was met even though she still had a few dirt rings around her neck. I wasn’t going to complain. They were better than I had ever seen them. I brought some Wet Ones with me so I’ll get her in the next couple of days. Her cold is also better and she has a sore in the corner of her left eye that looked better today too. I hope they are treating that. I believe it’s from her cold. Her whole eye is crusty but she won’t let me touch it. It’s probably pretty sore so we, again, won’t push the issue. She still won’t let me put any type of lotion on her arms and legs. I think this is also a trust thing so, we will not push it. Only when she is ready.
It was nearly time to go so we were packing up and getting ready to take Alina inside to her group. Janine and I had noticed a man wearing a white coat coming in and out of the orphanage front door during the last two hours. He would come out and sit on a bench near our gazebo. He was very strange. I figured out that he was one of the doctors that the other adoptive parents had told me about. I was told he was not a very nice man and now I have had the “pleasure” of experiencing his nastiness. As we are packing up, he comes over to Janine and tells her that we need to take Alina back inside because she needs to eat…it is time for her to eat. I have no idea what Janine said but she told me what he said. As we have packed everything and are heading toward the front doors, he threatens us by saying that if we didn’t take Alina in right now that he wouldn’t allow us to see her tomorrow. Who the f*** is this guy to say something like this to a prospective adoptive parent? Go f*** yourself buddy! I WISH I could speak enough Kazak to tell this bastard off but….I bite my tongue (as I have to play by their rules for now) and we take Alina upstairs to her room where her playmates are already seated at their little tables in the tiniest chairs you’ve ever seen! They are awaiting their lunch which consists of bread and soup. Alina is once again peeled out of my arms crying Mama…Maaamamaaa. I turn and go down the stairs as quickly as I can. Again, my heart aches for her.
Janine and I head out the front doors of Umit and meet up with Janette. Janine tells Janette what happened with the male doctor. I don’t even have to know what Janette said about him. I could tell by her body language. She said to not pay any attention to him as he has no control over when anyone can see their child. She went inside and told somebody in the administration and they told her the same thing. I tell you something…I would NOT want to be on Janette’s bad side. She knows what she wants and she gets it no matter what. If she thinks something isn’t right, she will tell someone about it. I’m so glad she’s on my side. Janette has also spoken to the administration of Umit about having a birthday party for Alina on Sunday, the 12th. Janette told me that we are allowed to bring cookies, sweets and juice. I want to treat her entire group which consists of 25 kids. You know these precious little babies don’t get treats very often so I wanted to make sure they got something as well as Alina. It was all set and we will shop for the goodies on Saturday. Janette is taking me to a supermarket that has better prices than Gros. I believe she shops there.
Now we are back in the car and headed to the hotel. Janine asks me if I am still interested in going to the Café Istanbul and the Bazaar. I say yes but I would like to put some shorts on first as it is getting quite hot outside and we will be walking to all of these places. We get back to the hotel, I change and Janine and I are off on our adventure. We go out the front doors of the hotel and take a left. We walk down to the end of the block and cross the street (which is just as dangerous as riding in a car!!!). We are walking in the town square which consists of a monument of a man on a horse surrounded by beautiful flowers (and weeds!) and very large three story official looking buildings. I ask Janine what the building were and she did not know. On the other side of the street, there is a museum of Kazak culture and what we would call a courthouse. It is the place where couples go to get their marriage license, etc. Also, just after the town square is a theatre. Can you believe it! I can walk out the front door of my hotel, look to the left and see a theatre! I ask Janine about the theatre and she told me that they have their own company of actors (so it’s not a roadhouse) and they do plays, musicals, and children’s theatre. It’s a really nice building and house a great courtyard. I do want to at least walk into the building once before I leave. Continuing down the street, we get to the corner and take a right. Café Istanbul is just a few steps away. We go in, get seated, and are handed menus.
I told Janine earlier that I would be delighted to buy her lunch. She would not have it. She said she wasn’t hungry. She had to be! It was 1:00 and we had been at the orphanage all morning but I could not convince her to order something for herself. So, I ordered the Margarita pizza and a litre of Coke. As we are waiting on the pizza, Janine proceeds to pour me a glass of soda and then herself. They don’t believe in ice here so your drinks are, at most, cool not cold. Now, when us Americans think pizza, we think…ahhhh large pan pizza with the works right? Well, in Kazakhstan, the pizza might be a little bigger than a salad plate and had a very thin crust. But, it was the best damn thing I had put in my mouth since I have been here. It was sooo good! The crust was made from scratch, baked in a pizza oven, covered in three kinds of cheese topped with a half slice of tomato on each little (by American pizza standards) piece. And all for three bucks!!! It was fabulous!! I did get Janine to eat one little slice and she didn’t even finish that. She was very humble throughout the entire meal. We sat and talked about her University and other things. It was very pleasant and I love getting to know her better.
After lunch, we go to the corner of the street and take a right. We are headed to the famous Bazaar. We walk past a park and many houses with their ornate gates and fences all the while trying to carry on a conversation over the noise of the busy street. I found out on our walk that she has a brother and a sister, all younger than her, and that her baby brother is spoiled because he is the boy of the family. Her birthday is November 22...very close to mine. The place that she wants to visit the most is the beach…my favorite place in the world is the beach. It just keeps going on and on. She feels me in on the Kazak culture and ways of thinking. It’s very informational not to mention fascinating.
As we get closer to the Bazaar, the streets become lined with businesses that sell phones, computer, clothing, and just about anything you can think of. There are shoe cobblers lining the sidewalks! I couldn’t believe it! I only wish my Dad had been there to see it. Maybe we can make a trip to the Bazaar when they come in. We keep walking and I think any minute we are going to turn into one of the side allies that I see that has to be a part of the Bazaar. Finally, we do take a right into one of them. Janine asks me what I would like to buy first and I said let’s buy a toy for Alina’s birthday. This Bazaar is probably two city blocks big. It’s absolutely packed with people selling everything from bread to tea pots and everything in between. Janine knew her way around (thank God!) and so she starting leading me to where the toys would be located. There is no such thing as personal space in Kaz. People are in your face, bumping into you, passing close by you, 24/7. You should see how close they walk up to moving cars when they are crossing the street! It really is un-nerving sometimes. Well, the Bazaar was no different. It’s a huge place. Think American flea-market times 2000! This Bazaar is the WalMart of Taraz! It was mind blowing to say the least. As Janine is weaving her way around people, carts hauling bread, bricks, etc., and isles and isles of goods, we come upon the toy section. Kazaks like to shop around for deals as well. We stopped at one place and I found some stacking toys that I liked. Janine asked how much….1600 Tenge (ten-geah)…that’s about $10.50 American. Janine thinks that’s to much so we start walking around and looking at other places that have about the same type of toy. We find one vendor that has almost the same type of toy and she wants 750 Tenge. It’s a deal and I have just bought my daughter her first birthday present. We walk around some more and I see a soft plastic ball (that you could get at our WalMart) that is much smaller than the beach ball. It is covered in Ladybugs and Daisy’s and I think it is too cute to pass up so I buy it for less than $1. I also buy a coffee cup (a very pretty porcelain cup with lilacs on it) , a spoon (so I can have cereal and have something to stir my coffee with), and an alarm clock, all for the very low price of $2.50! What an experience! It was so cool! There was fresh baked bread, all kinds of teas, fresh from the garden vegetables (picked that morning), fresh herbs, fabric, cell phones, music, traditional Kazak clothing, shoes, anything and everything you could think of!!! I hope to go back with the other families return. I’ve been warned NOT to go by yourself and now I know why. That place is so huge and it’s just like a maze. If you didn’t know your way around, you could very easily spend hours just trying to get out! I was so glad Janine was with me.
As she leads us out of the maze along the dirt pathways between the sellers and buyers, we end up back on the same street we came in on. By this time, we’ve been out in the sun for about 2 hours. Janine is worried she is “getting black” as she calls it. She is worried about becoming darker due to the sun. “I want to be white” she says. I told her I would kill to have her coloring!! It was a very interesting comment from her. I want to ask her why she wants to be “white” sometime. We cross the street and are walking back toward the hotel. As I said, we’ve been walking for about 2 hours now. I bet we’ve walked at least a five miles and now, we are walking back. I’m holding up ok but I can tell my feet are becoming angry with me. They haven’t done this much walking at one time in years! I keep up with Janine. She points out their drugstore which has a what we would call a clinic located above it. We keep walking on the opposite side of the street until we come to her university. It is being re-furbished during summer break. It sits on the outskirts of a park. It’s absolutely stunning architecturally speaking and very old to boot. We walk through the park which has many trees and, of course, lots of weeds along with lots of beautiful flowers. There are carnival type rides for children everywhere along with brightly painted jungle jims and other playground equipment. It is shaded so I welcome getting out of the hot sun and Janine is happy that she isn’t getting “black”. We stroll through the park on a diagonal enjoying watching all the kids play. I love the looks that I’m getting as I walk through. They’ve got to know that I’m not Russian and I don’t quite know if they have ever seen a person quite as heavy as I am. There are no snide remarks or even odd looks. Kazak people are very nice. It’s just I can tell by the way they first look at me that they don’t know quite what to think. It doesn’t bother me at all. As I said, the people here are nice and humble and probably would never say anything to me about my weight. In fact, I’ve been called beautiful three times since I’ve been here!
Anyway, I digress….we finally get through the park and Janine asks me if I want to go to Gros, the big grocery store located a short walk from the hotel. I’m game, even though my feet are saying, “take me back to the hotel!!”. We walk about five minutes more and we are at Gros. You cannot carry your purse into the store. You have to put it in a locker and hang on to the key that locks the locker. I get some instant coffee, sugar, sausage, laundry detergent, and a few other things. I heard that upstairs is an electronics store so I wanted to go up there to buy a hot pot. After I purchased the groceries, we went upstairs to the appliance and electronics section. We looked around and I found a cheep hot pot 3248 Tenge (about $22.50). I bought it even though I thought the price was a little steep. I’m going to be here for three months and I NEED my coffee in the mornings! Here’s how I had to buy the hot pot: I couldn’t even pick up and carry the hot pot box itself. A salesperson came over and picked a pot up for me. He proceeded to take it to a counter, plugged it in to make sure it worked, and filled out the warranty card right then and there. He gave me a receipt which I then took over to the cashier where I paid in Tenge for the hot pot. I then went over to a small table beside the stairwell where my salesperson and hotpot were waiting for me. I had to show them that I had indeed paid for it, my receipt was stamped (they like to stamp everything around here), and I was on my way. It was an very interesting process. One I think that America should adopt.
Janine and I head back downstairs to collect our purses and we are finally off to the hotel. My dogs are really screaming now and I am ready to have a rest as well. I didn’t buy a lot at Gros because we were walking. We walk for another 15 minutes or so and we are back at the town square. Took a right and we are back at the hotel. Janine helped me carry my bags up to my air conditioned room. We said goodbye and we would see each other in the morning. All in all, we were walking for a total of four hours! My poor left foot was done for! It has a blister on it the size of a matchbook just under my toes. And wow, does it hurt! I didn’t notice it when I was walking….only after. It’s doctored, bandaged, and I need to stay off of it as much as possible for the next few days. I’ll live.
I get to move to a smaller room tomorrow for a smaller price as well. It’s just across the hall so no lugging suitcases up and down stairs. Oh yeah…did I mention that there are no elevators in any buildings in Kaz? Just saying.
Until tomorrow my wonderful peeps