March 31

Math Word Problem for Today:
How fast does a 6 room flat on the 8th floor of a 9-story apartment building fill with smoke from a burning pot of rice if the kitchen window facing east is open and a moderate breeze is blowing? Tune in tomorrow for this and the answer to many other “burning questions” about life in Taraz!

Needless to say, I’ve found cooking to be a challenge. I have no idea what the elevation is here in Taraz, but I’m used to high altitude cooking with an American stove. With the combination of the match-light Russian stove and the low altitude, a teapot full of water boils in just a few minutes. Rice burns.

I hope some of you took notice to our earlier hint and are buying banana futures. I’m not sure if you can overdose on potassium but I think we’re the family that’s going to find out if it’s possible.

Russ had a touch of “Lenin’s Revenge” today (no doubt in response to his comments about Lenin’s headless monument and knowledge of world geography). Too many carbs and not enough veggies is beginning to take its toll.

I’ve informed Russ that I can only stay for 7 more days – then I’ll run out of my PG Tips (British tea). There’s only so much a person can take and that will be the end for me! Luckily Kazakhs are serious tea drinkers so I have a large selection of other teas to test as a back-up.

Tomorrow is April 1st and April Fools Day here is celebrated by turning off all the hot water. It’s a 6-month prank the city pulls on all the residents every year. We were hoping not to be here to celebrate this momentous occasion, but here we are. The good news is, tomorrow is also the official “plug in the hot water heater” day here at the flat.

Tonight the kids and I met Sara and Beth at the Georgian restaurant for supper. The food is always good and it’s the longest walk from the flat. With 4 preteens kids, we’re always looking for energy burning activities and long walks to nice restaurants work nicely. On the way back, the city’s colorful lights came on in the square and the music started for roller blading. It’s really beautiful, Vasya and Julia enjoyed seeing it. We stopped for ice cream at an ice cream cart and had an enjoyable walk home.
Wendy

Looking for America on Lenin's globe 

March 30

Wendy and the Kaz kids took a little trip over to Interlink Resources this morning while Brooke, Paige and I slaved away over schoolwork. Motivation was a bit of an issue, but we finally got the morning’s work done. I think we’re staying up too late over here, but Kazakhstan in general gets up later in the morning and stays up later at night.

Tonight Bibi took us to the bowling alley in Taraz. It’s 4 lanes, with very nice computerized scorekeeping, all in English. All 7 of us bowled for 2000 tenge (about $15) an hour with no charge for the shoes. She said that people don’t bowl a lot here because it is expensive, but we thought it was pretty reasonable. Neither Vasya nor Julia had ever been bowling before, so it was a new experience and they liked it very much. It was a fun family activity, and good for us because it felt like a normal American evening out.

One thing I underestimated was the toll that “normal” life takes on you when you can’t read or speak the language. Everything is difficult and uncomfortable. I have new respect for folks who immigrate to the US without English. I wonder if anyone over 40 ever feels like anything but an alien. In spite of trying our best to lay low and dress like the locals, we may as well have big American flags sewn on our jackets. For one thing our shoes are wrong. Men and women over here are all wearing these really pointy shoes that make a plain old size 9 foot appear to be about 18 inches long. We privately think they look like something a Genie would wear and are entertained as they try to walk around and not trip over the six inches of empty shoe tip on the fronts of their shoes. They kind of have to go with that “heels first” walk that circus clowns use. At least their current batch of silly fashions don’t involve permanent disfigurement. Not much piercing or tattooing here.

We picked more prints at the photo place today, and our print envelope just had “the Americans” written in Russian in the name and address field. Of course, we’ve been to that place a half dozen times, so they know us by now.

On our way to the bazaar, we walked past the old monument to the father of Soviet Communism, V.I. Lenin. At one point, it had a bust of Lenin looking down on a globe that prominently featured the Soviet Union. Someone knocked his head off the top of the monument a few years ago. We looked at the other side of the globe and found it hilarious that in Soviet reality, the North American continent did not exist. One wave of the Communism wand and “PHOOF”, no more America.
Russ

March 29

Another beautiful day here in Taraz. The kids played on the playground in the morning and in the afternoon we headed back to the bazaar. We walked there and back to use up some of their energy! This time we saw another side of the bazaar we missed on the first trip. I think we could go back each day and see more but it's too exhausting. We were looking for some souvenirs and found a few but we've been told the best place to buy souvenirs is a shop in Almaty. So we'll have to shop there next week.

We're planning to leave for Almaty this weekend. It will be hard to leave Taraz, we know the city center pretty well by now and we have many friends here, but we're definitely ready to move on. Some people have noticed that we haven't started calling Vasya by his new name yet. We plan to make that switch in Almaty. Going there will be a big deal for them, we don't think they've ever been to that city and they've never been to a hotel before. Julia was on a train once but Vasya has never been on one so he's pretty excited.

Wendy


Traffic here is a pretty accurate picture of Kazakhstan at this point in time. This really hit home to me the other day as I saw a Mercedes S600 roar past a little wagon pulled by a donkey. It’s like the wild west with a well entrenched bureaucracy. Wyatt Earp would fit right in if he could stand the paperwork.
Their driving habits are built around either maximizing efficiency or terrifying foreigners, perhaps both. Here are the rules of the road:
· Traffic lanes are a fluid thing—a two lane road can become a four lane road if two vehicles can fit in one lane, then move to a five or six lane road if no one is immediately in the oncoming lane.

· It is preferable to risk death in a head on collision than to hit a pothole They do have some very impressive potholes here, but it’s unnerving to swerve far into oncoming traffic to avoid what we consider to the lesser of two evils. Slowing way down to carefully bump through the pothole is not an option.

· A yellow light is as good as a green—for cross traffic. If you run a yellow here, you are going to be in an accident. Yellows display on both halves of the intersection, so when they appear, the folks who have been stopped immediately take off.

· The horn button is a powerful tool, and must be used often. This is appropriate when anyone has the audacity to stop or impede your progress in any matter whatsoever. We witnessed a bus giving two deafening, 10-second horn lasts to two unfazed pedestrians who were visiting as they serenely crossed the street. All the subsequent cars were honking at the bus. The city bus system here is heavily used and appears to be really efficient transportation. It seems pretty obvious to me that a city bus is going to stop often and take on and discharge passengers. Folks here get stuck behind them and honk at them every time they stop

· We don’t need no stinkin’ emission controls. Anyone with money drives a German car, there are a moderate number of Japanese cars and most of the still upwardly mobile are stuck with old Soviet junk— Lada’s, Volga’s and Mocoviches. We got behind a Volga that was belching white smoke and our driver said “old….Krushchev, Breshnev". They drive them well past their expiration date. Our coordinator told me stories of the Moscovich he owned 20 years ago “I had to take out the…umm…. engine to rebuild three times because of the knocking, and the transmission two time because of the (high pitched humming sound) and then again because of the (low pitched humming sound) and the…ummm….differential as well because of the leaking.” It seemed like the Soviet goal was not to build reliable transportation, but to provide on the job training for the largest cadre of auto mechanics in the world. Roadside repairs are a common sight.
· Community standards work pretty well as long as everyone is aware of the standard. We’ve only seen one fender bender since we’ve been here. We don’t understand the standard, so we still have to run like Chicken Little every time we want to cross the street. We decided early on that sacrificing dignity for survival was a worthwhile trade. We tried the strategy of following a Kazakh and crossing when they cross, but they don’t seem to have a problem with standing in the middle of the street while cars and busses race by 8 inches to either side of them.

The ultimate irony--We cheated death by car once more on our way to an amusement park, went to the Bumper Car ride and saw the kids drive around in slow, well spaced, orderly circles. Textbook defensive driving. They probably all had their hands at the 10:00 and 2:00 position on the steering wheel. No bumping going on here. We were appalled. Since we figured it was our only chance at revenge, we all bought tickets and wreaked absolute havoc.

Russ

March 28

With all of our official duties completed, we decided to relax today. We walked to the Tsoom store at noon and bought Vasya and Julia new shirts and then we walked to the outside bazaar to buy more bananas and apples. At some point I think they will grow tired of apples and bananas, but the end is nowhere in sight. Within 2 hours, all the bananas were gone and we’re down to 1 apple. When I got the can of peas out for supper they were both leaping for joy. I’m beginning to wonder how they’ll react when they see the produce section at King Soopers at home.

Today we started talking about “Strange American Habits”. The cultures of our two countries are very different, neither one is better than the other, but we explained they’re Americans now so they need to start learning our culture. That statement brought 2 great big smiles. They’re very eager to learn so we decided to focus on 3 things to start with:
Americans bathe everyday
Americans wear different clothes everyday, and
Americans don’t bump into each other in a crowd without saying “excuse me”

In Kazakhstan, people wear the same clothes several days in a row. There’s nothing wrong with that, just not done in our part of America. Very few families have washing machines so you might as well wear it until it’s completely dirty!

I’m not sure how often the kids bathed in the orphanage, but they’ve been doing pretty well here in the flat. They love to use the hair dryer so that must be something completely new. In Kazakhstan, bumping into others and trying to get in front of someone else is how things are done. There are many more differences we’ll need to work on but we’re going to approach it slowly otherwise it will be too overwhelming.

We’ll start table manners at home. They’re both pretty good (in a Kazakh way) but double dipping here is the only way to eat. Serving spoons aren’t used, we’re still working on that concept. So please forgive our table manners at the beginning.

Russ started working on English with Vasya and decided that English is a very difficult language. Just look at the work “circus” and try to explain that pronunciation. In Russian, the c always makes the s sound and the k always makes the k sound. A word like circus is unexplainable. Vasya knows the alphabet and can sound out words (similar to my Russian) so now we just need to work on vocabulary. Sentence structure will be difficult because they put their words in a different order, but we’ll get there.
Wendy

Kids at the playground 

March 27

The weather in Taraz is trying to make us feel right at home. Like most Easter Sundays in Colorado, Easter in Taraz brought snow. At home, we generally have wonderful weather leading up to the holiday and then a cold front invariably sweeps in to the state.
It has been so warm here that nothing accumulated.
Our day was mostly centered around buying food. We’re now expecting to be in Taraz for most of the week, so Vasya and I went to the really nice grocery store named “Gross”. In spite of sounding….well, gross, it’s really the best general purpose store in Taraz, very US like (clean, wide aisles, actual shopping carts and a good selection of groceries, electronics and sporting goods) and everyone is very much impressed with it. It’s pretty far from the apartment, and the weather was awful, so Vasya and I got a cab, negotiated a fare, and went to the store. It’s really nice to have a native Russian speaker in the family when you are in a Russian speaking country.
We made the mistake of going into the weekend with only large denomination tenge bills, so we had to patronize the more expensive places that can make change. Change is not easy here—hand a street vendor a $2000 tenge note (about $16) and you’re likely to get a big sigh as they trudge off to see if any of their other little co-vendors can help them change this enormous bill.

This afternoon was our party at the orphanage. We took some rotisserie chickens that are very popular here, some bread, cake and Coca-cola. Since our kids were from two separate groups we took in enough food for about 25 kids. We were treated like honored guests, and given gifts by the Julia’s group. Each girl made a little speech. It was very touching and at the same time just about tore our hearts out, especially when they told us that the last girl to be adopted from that family group left in 2003. Most of them know they have very little chance of being adopted, but there’s still that little flicker of hope. Every kid in the family group was above average, and many of them were outstanding. Sarymoldava is packed with really great kids. They do everything they can for them, but they can’t give them parents. The orphanage director asked us to tell the people we know about the kids we know there, so that others may be adopted.
It was kind of hard on the kids to say goodbye, but now we’re done with the orphanage and ready for the next phase. Hopefully our paperwork process will pick back up so we can get home soon.
Russ

March 26

Today we went to the bazaar. It started out not so crowded and then became a madhouse. It’s an outside flea market with very narrow “streets”, many covered with tarps which turn the place into a maze of tunnels. Russ said the fire marshal would shut it down in 10 seconds in the US. We tried our best to stay together amid the pushing crowds and we were only separated momentarily a few times. I may kiss the ground at Walmart upon our return! I We got some clothes for the kids but it was difficult because they are so small. I estimate Julia wears a 7 slim, not sure about Vasya because I’m unfamiliar with boy sizes but he’s small.

After the bazaar, we came home exhausted but had to prepare for our 2nd dinner party. Those of you in Colorado know how we love to entertain and being half way around the world in a country where we barely speak 50 words hasn’t stopped us. Shopan cooked Montee and made a wonderful salad. Vasya and Russ went for a cake and some other items before the guests arrived. We normally type into the translation software what we need and then Vasya becomes our interpreter and guide to go get what we need.

Vasya and Julia’s older sister Ira and her husband and daughter came, along with their other sister Anna and her son. With our interpreter Bibi, we had 12 people. It was a fun night but I think Bibi was exhausted at the end of it, trying to keep up translating for all of us. Russ and I finished up the evening with a mountain of dishes.

Vasya and Julia are still very excited about having a family and living in a flat, but we’re starting to use phrases like “quiet, please” and “be nice” and “can you turn that down a little?” We know we need to give them some time to adjust but we're also kindly teaching them the "house rules". They catch on very quickly by watching how Brooke and Paige respond and we normally only have to explain something once.

We didn’t expect to have to each them about littering. People here just throw trash everywhere so it’s become their culture to litter. We explained that in America we don’t litter and there’s a fine from the police if you do it. Now both of them go to great lengths to show us they’re putting their trash in the trashcans. If we say something isn’t done in America, that’s pretty much the end of it.

Tomorrow is the party at the orphanage and then we won’t be going back. I think they’re excited about saying the final goodbye.

We’ve been here 3 weeks now and we’re really ready to go home. As any international adoptive parent can tell you, this starts to feel like it will never end! We learned today that the ONLY person who can sign the forms for the passports is on a 3 day conference in Astana. So that means the plane reservations we just made yesterday for April 5th will have to be changed. But, we were happy to learn this while we’re still here in Taraz, in our flat where it’s inexpensive to live. We’re hoping and praying for no delays when we finally move over to Almaty. In Almaty, we’ll have to rent 2 hotel rooms and eat out every meal.
Wendy

March 25

We bought bananas last night and once today and as I scan the kitchen now, they appear to be all gone. Any Potassium deficiencies that Vasya and Julia have should soon be a thing of the past. Apples are also a big hit, and they ate most of a huge can of peas that we had as part of supper.
Today was our first full day of independence from the “detsky dom”, so of course, we went back to meet with the director at 3:00. Since the kids were true orphans, the state set aside a small pension for them so they would have enough cash to find a place to live when they “graduated” from the orphanage. When a child is adopted the pension reverts to the state, unless specific provision is made to assign it to the orphanage. The director asked that we make the assignment. We were happy to agree—they do so much with so little.

Everything we read led us to believe that we would be eating a lot of meat here. Since we have our apartment and can cook for ourselves, the opposite has been true. Just seeing sun dried pig liver can dampen your enthusiasm for meat products for a day or two. If Dr Atkins could see what we eat, he’d be spinning in his grave. We’re on the Carbohydrate and fruit diet….lots of bread, rice, samsas (local fast food, similar to a turnover), pears, bananas, apples, fresh pineapple, and incredibly sweet little oranges. We keep asking where the oranges come from, and no one seems to know. The only things in short supply at this time of year are perishable veggies. We haven’t seen a lettuce leaf since London, but they’ve got lots of carrots, potatoes, cabbage and onions.


Russ

Saturday, we’re going to the bazaar to buy some clothes for the kids and some souvenirs. Then tonight we’ve invited the kids’sisters over for supper. Shopan is cooking her wonderful Montee. This may be the last time they see their sister from Aktobe before she returns on Monday. Tomorrow we’re having a party at the orphanage for all their friends and that should be the last time we visit there. So things are starting to wind down here in Taraz. We left home 3 weeks ago and we’re ready to return. We should leave for Almaty at some point next week, but we don’t know what day. Things happen when they happen, and we’ve learned to accept that, as frustrating as it is.Wendy

March 24

March 24, 2005

Today was the kid’s last day at the orphanage. I went over early in the day to go through the elaborate process of giving gifts. The kids each had 8 caregivers, the orphanage director, doctor, secretaries and the head nanny (who always wears a headscarf and is referred to as the “Muslim woman”).
We expressed a desire to do an orphanage gift, and the caregivers had a vigorous discussion about what they needed most. We gave them a budget of about $200, and I and two caregivers set off to the bazaar. The bazaar is an absolutely huge flea market and you can literally buy just about anything—rugs, fabric, bales of wool (fresh off the sheep) screws, clothes, light fixtures, homemade shovel handles, a rear leaf spring for a 1968 Lada. It also takes a long time to spend $200 there when you are getting “detsky dom” (children’s house) rates. We bought a huge carpet runner, 2 light fixtures, pillow fabric, probably 15 yards of upholstery fabric, a tea set, numerous bowls, buckets, doormats and brooms. The caregivers were having a ball, and I played the part of the illiterate, silent sugar daddy. They’d bargain, write down the numbers and I would pull bills from my pocket. I was definitely a stranger in a strange land, but it was nice to go back to the orphanage and see everything in place.
We went back to the orphanage at 3:00 to pick up the kids. I had a really nice untranslated conversation with one of Vasya’s caregivers—mostly in Russian with about 6 English words. I didn’t get the details, but the concept came through loud and clear. She sincerely thanked us for adopting these kids, especially because adoption is a foreign concept in Kazakhstan. She had two daughters and was interested in adopting a son, but her husband would not permit it.
The kids packed up and we left with all their possessions in a half full shopping bag. They took one change of clothes. We were happy to have that.
We went out to supper of shaslik, the kids were delighted to go out. By the way they act, I’d be surprised if they’ve been out to eat more than a half dozen times in their lives. We’re trying not to spoil them, but everything seem extravagant to someone who has had nothing. Things that we take for granted are a big deal to these kids. McDonalds drive thru will be a cause for celebration. Actually, McDonalds sounds pretty good to me right now too.
We did learn that if given the opportunity, these kids can eat. They may double their body weight by the time we get home.
Russ

court day 

March 23

Court day: For those of you who just want the box score, WE WON ! Keep reading for the play by play.
We were a little nervous because we were the first case on the docket after Nauryz, and that’s similar to having to go back to work on Jan.2. We figured everyone would be grumpy, but they weren’t.The process itself is naturally intimidating-- it’s official, the stakes are high and it’s conducted in a language we don’t understand. In retrospect, they went pretty easy on us but we were still nervous. We were asked why we were adopting when we already had two children, how many rooms we had in our house, and what our plans were for these children. The judge talked to Vasya and Julia and both of their older sisters. We were impressed that their sister Anya took a 2 day train trip from Oktobe to be here. The kids hadn’t seen her in 3 years and were delighted to have her there. Everyone said they approved of the adoption, the judge said we were approved and everyone clapped. We all went outside, took pictures and then….the kids went back to the orphanage and we went back to the apartment, ready to be summoned for additional paperwork at any time. Not exactly a storybook ending to the day, but the approval of the adoption and actual custody are separate issues. Our coordinator went back over to the orphanage in the afternoon to talk to the director. Julia spotted him, ran downstairs and started grilling him with “When can we go, when can we go?” We completed the name changes and birth certificate requests at the Office of Records at 5:30 pm, so we should get custody today. We’re planning to move them out of the orphanage this afternoon. I have a feeling that their bags have been packed since yesterday.

March 22

March 22
Just a quick note. We had a great time with Vasya and Julia today and they didn’t want to return to the orphanage and we didn’t want to take them back. Hopefully it will be just a few more days and they can come to our flat.

It was a very warm day with lots of sunshine. We walked to the square and then the park and saw some of the New Years celebration. But it was very crowded so we decided to come back to the flat. The kids had a great time playing on the playground here at the apartment complex. We’ll have to write more about that later.

Shopan cooked the National Dish of Kazakhstan for us and we invited Jim and Anne and Sara and the Knauss girls over to share it with us. It’s a wonderful homemade noodle with horse meat. So yes, we did eat a horse! You eat it with your hands so that was quite interesting.

Tomorrow is court for both Jim and Anne and us so please keep all of us in your prayers.
Wendy

What a great few days we’ve had. It’s been fun figuring out the dynamics of this new family structure. We’re all learning what’s expected of us.
We bought a bunch of food and are encouraging them to eat hearty and often! That’s going to be a common theme.
Hopefully, we’ll know a little more about our immediate future after court today. I’m not sure when we’ll actually take custody of the kids.

Kaz factoid of the day:
The heating system for everything in the city is centralized. They pick a date to turn everyone’s heat on in the Fall and off in the Spring, and if you have unseasonable weather you have to counter with either a sweater or open a window. Right now the heat is on, and if we have a day in the 60’s and keep the windows closed, the thermometer in the apartment can hit to 85 degrees. Now we have unlimited, instant hot water, but when they shut the heat off for the summer, it also ends the hot water supply. Cold showers for everyone until October! I told our coordinator that Americans would riot in the streets if faced with that. Our apartment has a small auxiliary hot water heater for summertime use, and that’s becoming pretty common for those who can afford it.

Russ

March 21

March 21

Our coordinator called early this morning to tell us that he’d made arrangements with the orphanage director so that we could keep Vasya and Julia overnight. So at 2pm our driver arrived and we went to the orphanage to get them. They packed a few things in a plastic bag and we were off. We stopped at the Gross Market for some more food and then it was back to the flat.

We’d purchased a small basketball hoop that hangs over a door a few days ago and they both really enjoyed playing with that and watching some videos. We walked to Damdez for supper and they seemed to enjoy that too. Our kids were the only children there – families do not seem to go out for dinner here.

We stopped on the way home to purchase a cake (tort) for the New Year celebration. It looks delicious but we were too stuffed to eat it so we’re saving it for tomorrow.

Vasya wanted to type when we got back so we pulled up the translation software and had a nice chat. They were curious about school in Colorado. After about 30 minutes of questions and answers, we decided to play a computer game.

When it was time for bed, we planned to put Vasya and Julia on the bunk beds and Brooke and Paige on the couch. But Julia really wanted to sleep with Brooke so we pulled the mattresses off the bunk beds and put everyone in the living room. After many “Ya Lublue Tebas” (I love yous) everyone was tucked in for the night.

It was the first of many challenging days and evenings without an interpreter, but with the dictionary, the translation software and charades, we made it through.
Wendy

March 20

March 20, 2005

We were invited over to the Westbrook’s house today where all the Interlink families were gathering. It was an enjoyable time, we’re always happy to spend time with them. We had to leave a little early to get back to the apartment for our sightseeing tour. Sergei arranged another driver with an older vanagon. It had the back seat and 2 dining room armchairs in it along with the front bench seat. Not something you’d find in the US, but hey, we aren’t in the US!

Vasya and Julia didn’t know we were going anywhere so this was pretty exciting for them. We went to a small park where we rode Ferris wheel, the bumper cars and a swing ride. They are very polite here in the bumper cars, barely touching one another. Vasya will LOVE the American version!!!

Then we were off to several architectural sites in the Taraz area. First we stopped at a Russian Orthodox Church. There were several old ladies sitting outside along the fence. Vasya came running up to me saying “Mom, Mom – coins!”. So I gave him the few coins I had and he immediately ran up and gave them to the first old lady. Interesting that an orphan would recognize the needs of an old woman.

Inside the church was beautiful. They were holding a service, so we couldn’t take any pictures. The singing was wonderful. I had to cover my head once inside. Then we were off to the Muslim sites.

The first site was a small drive outside of town. The architecture on this place was remarkable when you think it was built 1,000 years ago. It’s in perfect condition so they must be maintaining it. There were numerous people listening as the leader chanted the Koran and prayed. Then we went inside and he chanted and prayed and gave us 7 loaves of bread and wished us peace (Bibi our translator is Muslim so she provided an explanation after we left the site). Then we went outside and asked someone to take our picture. After that they asked if they could have their picture taken with us, so we were feeling like celebrities. I guess we were the first Americans they had seen.

I was impressed with all the children’s behavior. We spent a large part of the day visiting religious sites where they had to sit or stand and remain perfectly quiet. They all did very well.

At the last site back in town, Vasya became excited because it was near a place where they used to live. He showed us the place and then got a chance to say goodbye to some old neighbors. The neighbors thanked us for taking care of them.

After we dropped the children off at the orphanage, we came back to the flat where the New Year clean-up continues. We’re happy to report that almost all the trash is gone from around this complex of 3 apartments. We think they should have New Years once a month!! And with all the sunshine, the mud is gone.
Wendy

March 19

Today was mostly with Vasya. Julia's group went to dance class earlier in the day and things ran a little longer than expected.
Our translator had to go out of town to a wedding, so we were on our own at the children's house. I have a nifty Russian-English translator on my laptop that will do real time translation as I type. I put a set of Russian keyboard letter stickers on my keys and installed the Russian alphabet option that comes bundled in Windows, so now I've got a system that will translate back and forth between Russian and English. Pretty cool. I took the laptop in so we could communicate. It works pretty well--it doesn't exactly churn out Shakespeare, but it gets the idea across. I don't think Vasya had ever seen a laptop computer before, and he was very enthusiastic. We spent the first few minutes writing about the court process. The bottom line there is that they want to know *when* they can move in with us--they're ready! I explained that it would be up to the judge and we hoped it would be immediately after court. he wrote that he hoped so too.....then paused and wrote "does this computer have games?". He's going to fit right in to this family. We played pinball for a while--I ran the right flipper, he put the ball in play and ran the left flipper.

We posted a picture of one of the bedrooms at the “detsky dom”. The other day, Paige’s friend Lena showed her how they arrange their pillows. They grab one corner and spin the pillow up into a triangle shape that makes it look like a Hershey’s kiss. The pillows are really thick and square here. I can’t use my pillow in the apartment, because the bed is six feet long and I am six feet tall. If I try to accommodate that huge fluffy marshmallow pillow under my head, my feet hang out over the foot board and I’m pretty uncomfortable
Russ

It was another beautiful day in Taraz. We walked to the AGFA photo store before lunch to pick up our photos. This shop is close to a university and we're always fortunate to find another customer (a college student) who speaks English to help us. Kazakhstan is starting a real push for their population to learn English but it's mainly the younger people who are learning it.

When we got home from the orphanage, we walked to the Damdez and had pizza (again). I have to admit it's really good pizza, their crust is excellent!

Our coordinator stopped by the flat this evening and said he'd arranged for Vasya and Julia to go with us tomorrow afternoon to visit the ancient tourist sites. Our driver is trying to locate a minivan so we can all ride more comfortably. We've had 7 people (5 adults and Brooke and Paige) in Sergei's Mazda, but I wouldn't want to do that for any extended period of time! With Bibi (our translator) there will be 8 of us so that's kindof pushing it for seating in the Mazda. We should have some really good photos of Taraz tomorrow!
Wendy

bedroom at the children's house 

March 18

After the school and work portion of our day, we walked to a indoor flea market kind of place where many vendors had booths with new merchandise in the same building. We bought a few items for the kids so we would have something different to do at the orphanage today.
When Sergei picked us up at 2, our coordinator was with him and said that the city guardianship council had passed a new rule, and we had to sign a form agreeing to provide written updates on the kids at 3 months post-adoption and annually after that. We were going to stop at a notary on the on the way over to see the kids and get the document sealed. “No problem”, we thought. Boy were we wrong….the notary was an hour late, and then wanted to argue with our coordinator over every sentence in the document. We kept looking at our watches, watching our visitation time slip away. Two hours later, we were finally free. We are going to have to tactfully let everyone know that our time with the kids needs to be off limits to other things. While paperwork and singing groups are necessary and fine, the kids are the reason we are here and those few hours are the best part of our day.

Some of you have asked about sending things over here. Unfortunately, with the cost of shipping and the high duties the govt. charges on "imports", about the only way to get something here affordably is to send it as baggage in somebody's suitcase.
Russ

Shortly after we got back to the flat, the phone rang and it was Shopan. Her husband works for Interlink and live on the 4th floor of this building. She said she’d come up in 1 minute. True to her word, she showed up about 1 minute later with the Kazakh meal she had cooked for us. It’s always interesting trying to speak with Shopan and Abyem because they speak Kazkah, a little Russian and a little English. With many hand gestures, we can usually communicate. We thanked them, she said “Bon Appetite!” and we sat down to eat our dinner. It was steamed dumplings with meat, potatoes, onions and carrots inside. It was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. You dip the dumplings in a room temperature fresh tomato puree.

We washed her dishes and Brooke and I went down on to the 4th floor and used the few Kazakh words we know to say “Thank You” and very good. Then we invited their 3 daughters to come up to our flat to watch some Looney Tune cartoons. After walking them back to the 4th floor, we called it a night.

As part of the apartment arrangement, Shopan cleans once a week and she’s prepared a menu with prices where we can order dinners. After last night’s meal, we’ll definitely be ordering some more meals!

Wendy

March 17

For the last day or two, many people have been out cleaning the streets in preparation for Nauryz (pronounced Nours), the Muslim New Year celebration on March 22nd. Taraz is a very nice city, unfortunately this would easily be overlooked by foreigners because of all the trash in the streets. They need to create a better trash service and then really push civic pride in keeping the town clean. If you just ignore the trash, it’s a nice place. We were excited to see they are cleaning up.

Nauryz is a national holiday and there’s a big celebration. There’ll be many activities in the town square and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to take Vasya and Julia to the celebration. We’re not sure if that will be allowed, but we thought we’d ask. There are feasts during this celebration, with any luck our lovely rooster friend will “actively” participate in one of these feasts!

Right now our court date is set for March 23rd but like most things here, that’s subject to change. At some point after that, we’ll bring Vasya and Julia to our flat here in the center of the city. Then we’re planning to visit the museums and some of the tourist sites. We think Vasya and Julia have seen some of these places but we thought it would be nicer to visit them as a family so we’re waiting for the time when we can go together.

Yesterday we had a nice visit. We spent some time watching the Russian “Finding Nemo” we purchased at the Gross market. That was interesting! Our translator asked us many questions about what “Crush” the sea turtle was saying. We tried to explain that he was talking in American slang. She especially liked “Dude” and was trying to figure out when she could say that to someone!

It’s interesting (and sad) that their perception of America is what they see on music videos and hear in music. The other night we saw a segment of a Madonna video on the news and we were embarrassed. We’ve explained to our translator that most Americans do not act that way or talk using language the “rappers” use. And most Americans find that behavior and language inappropriate. The good news is that the children from the orphanage don’t see the music videos and don’t hear American music, so Vasya and Julia are pretty much oblivious to it.

Well, Brooke is anxious to write on her blog so that’s all for today.
Wendy

March 15&16

March 15
Today during our visiting time we all took a walk to a photo place that is a few blocks from the orphanage to get more passport pictures of the kids taken. It was fun because it was the first chance we’ve had to do anything with them outside of the visiting room. Vasya wanted to take the shortcut, but the rest of the expeditionary force insisted that it was better to walk a half block further on mostly paved surfaces than to venture off into ankle deep mud. On the way there, we passed up an opportunity to buy two whole pig forelegs (complete with feet), some liver and stomach that were laid out on the ground on top of a nice clean piece of cardboard. Our translator, Bibi saw us looking and said, “If you want to buy meat, it is better to get it at the market…..here it is not so clean” We thanked her for that excellent advice and moved on down the street. There was no real need to mention that we would never, under any circumstances, buy sun-dried pig liver. We did tell her we were impressed at the industriousness of the people here. On many street corners there are folks with a little bucket of produce, eggs or milk to sell to people passing by. Supermarket milk here is boiled, has a ‘sell by’ date of June 1 and tastes funny to us. Fresh milk here can come from a cow, mare, goat or camel, and we saw the vendor “manually inflate” the partially collapsed, recycled 2 liter bottles she was pouring the milk into.

Russ

March 16
Guardianship Council was rescheduled for 4pm today, so we were only going to be able to see the kids from 2-3:30. We were there about 50 minutes when the caregivers wanted to take us somewhere – for a festival. We noticed driving into the detsky dom that flags had been added to the fence polls and the place looked really festive. The caregivers said Vasya and Julia had to stay but we should go with them. We tried to explain that we had to leave in 30 minutes but our translator was at the city hall getting the last of the paperwork in order so we just followed along across the play area to the other building. The boys were all dressed in their suits and were directing people upstairs to a small theatre. The room was decorated beautifully, there was a main table with large flower arrangements and a womens choir was on the risers. The caregivers made people move so the “Americans” could sit down. We felt really out of place. Members of the choir kept looking out the window so we suspected someone important was coming.

Finally, about 3:25 (5 minutes before we had to leave) the guests of honor came in. One woman was obviously the main guest. Two young girls in evening gowns introduced the people seated at the main table and everyone applauded after each person was introduced. After that the choir began singing. We stayed until 3:35 and then slipped out the back, trying not to be too obvious but 4 Americans do stick out in a crowd. We have NO idea what that was all about, maybe we will find out tomorrow. We’ve asked our translator to please explain why we had to be so disrespectful and leave such an important gathering.

Guardianship Council is a meeting with the city leaders. There were 4 women and 1 man. They asked the obvious questions, why did we want 2 more children when we already had 2? How would they attend school? Would they attend university? Could we afford to take care of 4 children? They asked questions to our coordinator, did she observe us with the children, were we bonding well, etc. We were there less than 10 minutes and they wished us good luck and best wishes.

Sergie and Bibi brought us back to the apartment and we decided to eat out to celebrate. So we walked to the Damdas restaurant (our favorite place) where the girls had their usual cheese pizza, Russ tried the Chicken Shashlik (it was good but the lamb was better!) and I tried the Pellmini – a rigatoni type noodle in chicken broth. Awching fkooska (very tasty). Almost all of the restaurants here are Turkish and the food is very good.

Today was a beautiful, partly cloudy day but patches of blue sky and sun. The sun set was beautiful. We hope the nice weather continues. And we can’t wait to see Vasya and Julia again tomorrow since our time was cut so short today.

Wendy

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tiddlywinks 

March 13&14

March 13, 2005

We spent much of today running errands. Our coordinator advised that pictures of us with the kids would be helpful for the Guardianship Council hearing and Court. We found a Photography shop that could develop pictures off a digital memory card, and I quickly picked 15 or 20 pictures and had double prints made. I left one set for the kids at the orphanage.
We generally do our bonding time in Julia’s “family group” common area, so we can have from 2-12 extra kids in there while we’re there. They love the digital camera, because they can see the results right away. We’ve taken 150 pictures picture of us with all of them—individually, in groups, making silly faces, etc. Thank goodness we discovered Lithium AA camera batteries before we left!
It was rainy and a weekend (no school) so we had a bunch of kids there today. We bought Julia a coloring book today and she shared it and the Crayons we brought from the US with her friends. I now know that it’s possible for 6 girls to work on one coloring book at the same time and not have any squabbles. They also like to practice reading their English, and some of the older kids are not too bad. We had a lot of fun with the “th” sound—there’s no equivalent in Russian, so everything comes out “tr” or “sr”.
I learned, ‘wiz’ great interest, that trouble usually comes in ‘trees’ .
Russ

March 14

We finally got a little break from the rain today. After Brooke and Paige’s ‘school’, we walked to the grocery store to stock up on supplies and had lunch at a local restaurant.
Visiting time at the orphanage today was challenging, but fun, because our coordinator and translator had to make a quick exit to take care of some paperwork and certification that had to be done before our Guardianship council appearance. We did really well—it’s amazing how much you can understand with proper motivation, a picture book and a Russian-English dictionary. We learned that Julia likes raspberries, Vasya likes watermelon and they learned that I grew up on a farm. Julia wanted to look at pictures of her room at our house again and get the English words for what things are so they could start writing down their own Russian=English translation charts.
We really hate to leave the Children’ House when our visiting time is up, and are looking forward to phase 2 of this process where we can have them all the time at our place.

I lost a big chunk of one of my molars tonight while eating a piece of really sticky caramel candy (what was I thinking!) but will have to tough it out until I get home. They don’t appear to do porcelain tooth crowning here, so everyone over 35 has a mouthful of gold teeth. My impression of medical care here was formed as one of our friends was giving me a drive-by tour of the places I would need to know about in Taraz….”to the right is the grocery store… photo place… clothing store. That is the Hospital—never go there”.

Russ

March 11&12

It rained nearly all day today, and that made things muddy in Taraz city. Street drainage was obviously not a high priority with Soviet city planners, and it’s unfortunate, because it keeps their streets potholed and the sidewalks muddy The custom here is to remove your shoes before you enter a house, and it’s a very practical custom at this time of the year. Since we are guests at the Children’s house, they don’t hold us to the “shoes off” rule, but we take them off anyway. The caregivers and kids keep the place so clean that we don’t want to be the ones to track in dirt.

We are very impressed with the Saramoldaeva Children’s house. The director there has created an environment that emanates kindness and empathy. The kids really look out for each other and we’re amazed at the tendency they have to share. We had heard some stories of adoptive kids being territorial about food to the point of hoarding a stash in their room, but anytime we have given the kids any food they have ended up sharing it with someone else.

We spent time today playing dominoes and tiddlywinks, and working on some English letters.
The local news ran a segment on the woodshop that Interlink Resources donated and set up for the boys at Saramoldaeva. Alex, one of the very nice boys we’ve met was on camera running a belt sander. The boys made a truckload of school desks and benches to donate to another Children’s house in Taraz.


March 12
Rain again, and by the pictures we are seeing on the news it is causing some flooding in the countryside. In Taraz, it just makes more mud.

Our big job today was to get names worked out for the kids. We presented Yulya with the possibility of “Julia” several days ago and she immediately liked it. She said she would like to keep her patronymic name so we moved it to the middle and she will be “Julia Tsymbalova Peterson”. She gave us a huge smile on hearing that.
We like Vasya’s name but had been warned by a few folks who work in schools that it was uncommon enough to invite some teasing. We approached Vasya with a list of possible American sounding middle names, and explained that in America, he could go by initials or whichever name he wanted to call himself. He looked at what we had written down, weighed his options and said in Russian “I think people in America will find my name difficult to pronounce, so I would like to be called “Jack”. So he will be “Jack Vasily Tsymbalov Peterson”

We have to meet with the Taraz Guardianship council on Monday for their approval to adopt. People here can’t comprehend why we would come halfway around the world to adopt 2 kids when we already have 2 bio children. Wendy had to give the sales pitch to the caregivers the first day we were here and mentioned that we wanted a larger family, were too old to have more naturally, we thought every child should be able to have a family…..and just got uncomprehending stares. Then she said that my Mom once told her that we needed to have more children so we could have a son, and they all smiled and clapped. Apparently, that is the correct button to push. So even though I’ve never actually felt any need to have a son, while we’re in Kazakhstan, that’s going to be my official motivation.

March 10, 2005

Today followed our normal routine. In the morning, Russ teaches Brooke and Paige while I dial in for work. At noon, Sara stopped by to pick up the remaining items for the Interlink group. She also took Russ over to the Gasovik so we could find it this evening when we meet Jim & Anne for dinner.

Sergei was here at 2pm and we were off to the orphanage. Julia was waiting in her family room and Vasya came in soon after we arrived. We played dominoes and showed Vasya our John Fielder book on Colorado. It did not seem as if they had played dominoes before, but both figured it out really quickly. We brought some games that don’t require language (tiddlywinks, dominoes and checkers) and they have been fun things to do together.

We asked them both many questions, favorite foods, what they wanted to do in America, how they will like having a sabaka (dog). Julia’s favorite food is sweets, Vasya’s is plov (rice dish), both have no idea what they’d like to do in America, but Vasya would like to see a dolphin. They both love the idea of having a dog (so Zoe gets 2 more adoring fans!!)

Vasya asked if Colorado gets snow and when we said yes, he said good, he could throw a snowball at Julia. We warned him that Julia will have 2 sisters to help gang up on him and he said he’d take Papa and Mamma and the dog so it would be even. He also said it was his dream to go to America (he’s actually had dreams of going to the US) and was smiling ear to ear. He’s not sure he’ll enjoy the airplane but he’s looking forward to traveling to the US. He enjoyed the postcards of the Denver skyline that we brought along.

At the end of our visit, we gave both of them the portable CD players and Rush Into English CDs. You would’ve thought we‘d handed them each a bar of solid gold. Their eyes were huge and they immediately started listening and repeating English after the speaker. Wonder how they’ll react to the gameboys?? In spite of the copious amount of luggage that we brought, (sorry Craig!) we keep wishing we’d brought more of particular things to leave with the caregivers and teachers for the other kids, especially materials for teaching English. Any side-by-side translation tools (dictionaries, Russian Child Talk, Rush in to English, etc.) are highly regarded items.

We had a wonderful time with Jim and Anne and ate a delicious meal at the Georgian restaurant. Anne showed us around the square so now we know our way to several shops and more restaurants.

We can finally stay awake past 8pm so we’re adjusting to the local time. It’s also nice not to be wide-awake at 3am. The rooster is still an issue, but we’re working through that!

March 9, 2005

Today started with that rooster again at 3am. The other interesting thing about the apartment is we’re at the top of the trees where many large black birds perch for the night. When the sun does come up, they all start flying around and chirping. Birds in stereo!!

After school and work (Russ teaches Brooke and Paige while I dial in for work) we decided to venture out and walk back to the bazaar where Sara took us the other day. We went to a supermarket and bought a few more things including Tide (they also had Barf and Mudd brands, but we decided to stick with Tide) There were many American brand items. One day we’re going to try to find the Gross Market, which is supposed to have more US items.

At 2pm Sergei came and took us to the orphanage. We saw Julia again but Vasya was at school. In order to accommodate all the children, they go to school in shifts. Younger kids in the morning, older kids in the afternoon. Most of the other girls were at school too so we got to spend more time with Julia. We looked at our First 1,000 Words in Russian book, she taught us the Russian word while we taught her the English. All the children want to speak English and are immediately glued to anything with Russian/English translations. Our Russian/English phrase book is very popular. Julia lives in a family group that is sponsored by Interlink. Interlink provides English classes so the girls are learning English. They are very excited to try to talk to us in English and see if we understand.

Bulat completed the official paperwork to register us with the Ministry today and then came over to the orphanage. We met with the orphanage director to make our official statement. We waited for a few minutes in the outer office and then went in to the director’s office. She is a very nice woman. Bulat spoke to her a lot in Kazakh, telling her why we wanted to adopt children from Kazakhstan. Then we all stood up and Russ made the statement that after seeing many wonderful children, our family wanted to adopt Vasya and Julia. She congratulated us and told us they were both wonderful children. Then we went back to say our good byes and returned to the apartment.

We talked to Anne (& Jim) who are at the Gasovik. We’ll be getting together with them tomorrow evening. It will be nice to visit with another adoptive family. Their bonding time is also going well.
That’s all for today.

Vasya, Julia, Brooke and Paige 

Mar 8

Sleep is still a little bit of an issue. The cell phone Bulat gave us rang in the middle of the night, apparently a wrong number since they were speaking Russian. There’s an extremely confused rooster who starts to crow at least one hour before the sun comes up and then continues to crow throughout the morning. It’s amazing to be in an 8-story apartment building in city center and have a rooster wake you up. Russ was dreaming of a nice, fresh chicken dinner!

We worked on some school work today and Sara came over to introduce us to Abyet and Chopan, the Kazakh family who lives on the 4th floor of this building. Abyet works for Interlink. Chopan will clean the apartment for us and also cook meals if we’d like her to. They have 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy. The girls are studying English and enjoyed “talking” to Brooke and Paige.

After that, Sara walked along with us to a small bazaar where we could purchase some food. We came back to the apartment just in time to leave for the orphanage. Today is a Kazakh holiday “International Day of Women”. Bulat gave flowers to Brooke, Paige and I. We had purchased some flowers for Julia and we also stopped and bought candy and some sweets. This holiday is a combination of Mother’s Day and Valentines Day and is a BIG deal here.

We visited with Julia today, Vasya went with the other boys on a small field trip and we only got to see him for a few minutes. Julia and the girls from her group enjoyed looking at Paige’s Colorado history textbook, a John Fielder book of Colorado in the fall, and the camera of course!

The internet connection here is very unpredictable – many times we have to dial over and over to get connected. We’re keeping a daily journal on WORD but may not be able to post each day since we aren’t sure we can get a connection. So you may see a few days post at the same time. Tonight we tried to connect for 1.5 hours and finally gave up. Mornings seem to be the best time to connect, and we’re still working on getting those circadian rhythms back into synch, so we’ll probably end up doing most of our postings then.
Everything here is going well. We’ve had no problems at all. We’re getting comfortable enough to do some short excursions on foot. We’ve got the Kazakh equivalent of a small strip mall about 10 minutes walk from the apartment, so we can get what we need and still find our way home. We are soooo glad that we got this apartment instead of a hotel. The extra rooms and the kitchen are going to make this a lot more like home.

Vasya and Julia 

Mar 7--Arrival and 1st Orphanage visit

We were able to sleep fairly well on the train and arrived in Taraz right on time at 4am. Sara from Interlink was there, just as she said she would be. We collected our luggage and went to the cars. Our driver Sergei was also there and with Sara’s car we were able to get everything to the apartment. Bulat and Sergei left with instructions to be ready at noon to go to the orphanage. Sara stayed for about an hour so we could visit and unpack some of the items that we brought for the Interlink families. Then she left so we could get some sleep. It was still very dark at 6:30am. The sun rises about 7:30.

We couldn’t sleep right away so we unpacked and cooked some breakfast (Sara had purchased some food for us). After that, we watched the sun rise and then decided we’d better rest a little.

We were ready at noon and we all piled into the Mazda (Sergei, Bulat, Russ, Brooke, Paige and I). Bulat gave us a cell phone to use here in Taraz. We got to see some of Taraz as we drove to the orphanage. The weather was quite warm, probably in the 60s.

The orphanage consists of 2 buildings, in good condition with lots of colorfully painted playground equipment. Inside, there are wooden floors and lots of colorful sheer curtains. There are many plants in the windows. We were taken upstairs to a room, like a living area of a college dorm. Many children peeked at us while we sat there.

Suddenly Julia walked in, grinning from ear to ear. She’s very tiny. We gave her hugs and then started showing her the pictures that we brought. She has a very quiet voice. We learned that Vasya was at school and would not return until 2pm. So we visited with Julia and the rest of the girls in her group while we waited.

Vasya came in and was also small. He was wearing an oversized blue pinstriped suit and white shirt. He gave us hugs and immediately started looking at pictures.

We also met a boy named Alex who another family is planning to adopt. I went to visit with Alex’s caregiver and Russ stayed with Vasya, Julia and the girls from her group. The digital camera is a HUGE hit! They would pose for a picture and then run over to the camera to see it. They’re also amazed by the video camera. We’re going to see if we can figure out a way to print off some pictures for them.

We arrived back at the apartment in time to call Sara. Interlink hosted a SuperBowl party that evening (we had brought a video of the game). Beth picked us up and we went to Brett’s home and ate pizza, french fries, nachos, etc. - all the great football foods. We met the rest of the Interlink families and a young man with the Peace Corps along with several Kazakh people. Trying to explain American football to them was challenging.

Brooke and Paige fell asleep so we left when the game ended. Beth brought us back to the apartment and crashed. The end of a very full first day in Taraz.

March 6, 2005

March 4th finally arrived and we were whisked off to the airport with our huge amount of luggage (thanks Craig!) We had no problems with the luggage; they didn’t even weigh it, which was a slight disappointment after all the time we spent making sure we were within the weight limits. The British Air flight “across the pond” was superb. The service and food were excellent. We had a short layover at Heathrow in London where we walked around to stretch and then boarded the flight to Almaty.

It was very cold and snowing in Ekaterinberg where we stopped to refuel. Then on to Almaty. We quickly sailed through the Almaty airport. Customs counted our money but that was all. Our coordinator met us immediately. He arranged a junior suite at the Hotel Aiser to accommodate all four of us. We just returned to the room after enjoying a very good Sunday brunch at the restaurant. Everything was delicious so it doesn’t look like the Kazakhstani diet is going to work out the way I’d planned. We get to rest for a few hours and then we’ll leave at 4pm to board the train for Taraz.

We’re on the 6th floor of the hotel. Thankfully it has an elevator, but it’s the size of a shower stall. Our room here is interesting. It’s one large room with a full bed and a sleeper sofa. The bathroom has beautiful tile. There’s a 2nd small room with a twin bed. Russ is amused at the knee high light switches and the fact that code appears to allow only one outlet per room. That outlet is placed as far from the telephone line as possible to make dialing in while actually plugged into the wall completely impossible.

Almaty looks a lot like Denver, almost surrounded by snow capped mountains. But there are no foothills; the mountains are right on the edge of the city. Not many people can speak English but they sure try hard and smile at our feeble attempts at Russian. We were surprised at all the English advertising and the magazines in English here in our room.

We purchased some pills called “No-Jet-Lag” from the luggage store at the mall and they worked remarkably well. With only a few hours of sleep, we’re not feeling all that bad. We highly recommend them.

That’s all for now. We’ll write again tomorrow from Taraz