I have officially been in Taraz, Kazakhstan for an entire month as of today! Wow, it doesn’t seem like four weeks have passed. It feels like yesterday I was having the scariest car ride of my life on the way to Taraz from Almaty with my new found friend Yurnar. Time has really seemed to fly by. I just hope the up coming weeks go as fast as these last four.
Alina still has a cold but she seems to be ok. She doesn’t have a fever and it seems she doesn’t feel bad at all. I ran after her all day today. She still has a loose congestive cough and a runny nose. She is receiving medicine for it along with her entire group. One of the caretakers told us today that everyone in her group has it because they went swimming last week. Um…when did water cause a cold? Isn’t a cold caused by a virus? Hmmm….I guess the Kazakhs believe in old wise tales too (is it wise or wives tales…I can‘t remember…I‘ve seen it both ways???)…hehe. I brought her orange juice to drink today to get some vitamin C in her even it if was only from a juice box. Hey, every little bit helps. She found the snack bag in my purse and only wanted to eat the chocolate cookies I brought (I only brought two because I knew as soon as she saw them that’s all she would want). Those were consumed most hastily and then we moved on to the two taffy sweets. One was dropped on the gazebo floor and thrown away, much to the disappointment of Alina, and the other was eaten. We then continued to eat what was left in the bag which were these round pretzels shaped like O’s. I put one on my finger and she thought that was funny and proceeded to do the same.
We went for two walks today, just Alina and me. It was good Mama and Me time. We played in the sand and built little sand castles, filled our stacking cups up, dumped them out, filled them up, and dumped them out again…and again…and again. Hey, whatever makes the munchkin happy! She loves to play in the sand (HINT…HINT to Grandma and Grandpa ; ) )!!!!
Janette and Shirin have been asking Alina to recite a few poems that the children learn at the orphanage since the day I met Alina. She has refused to do so until today. The poem she sang today was about Mama. None of us knew what she was singing about. The only word we understood was Mama. She started singing this without any prompting from Janette or Shirin. She started singing a song about her Mama….that’s me! It was very cute and heartwarming. She kept singing it over and over for a good 10 minutes.
Another thing that Alina does is that whenever someone comes up to the gazebo that we are in, she says hello to them first and then she points to me and says, “This is my mother”. She will even do this to the orphanage staff and especially to her group if they are passing by. Shirin tells me that she gets very jealous if I talk to another one of the children in her group. I think she might be afraid I would trade her for another. NO WAY! You’re stuck with me kiddo…for life!!!
We actually had a two hour visit today. Alina did not see her group go in for lunch so she didn’t know it was time to eat. I pushed the time limit a little and kept her with me until 11:45. I knew it was past the time to take her back to her group but I knew I wouldn’t be seeing her for three days so I wanted to stretch this visit out as much as possible. I finally conceded to the watch on my wrist and took her to her group at 11:50. They have moved across the hall from the old room into another room. They must do this every now and then just to keep things from getting boring. Everyone was in their undies and sitting at their tables in their tiny little chairs. I kissed Alina on the cheek and put her down at the doorway. The caretaker told her to go and take her clothes off and then come and eat. She turned around and went back out the door and sat on a little bench just outside the main room. I helped her take her T-shirt off, her pants, and her shoes. She went to eat and I went back down the stairs and out to the gazebo.
Janette was inside talking to the administration so Shirin, Iema (Janette’s daughter), and me waited in the gazebo. Iema just returned to Kaz from the US. She was working at a hotel in Virginia Beach. She always wants to talk to me about America and American ways. It’s quite amusing and interesting to have a foreigners take on America.
That’s all for now. Thanks everyone!
Cheers,
Kim and Alina Jean
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