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
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
posted by The Petersons at 6:43 PM
5 Comments:
Russ and Wendy,
Your writings are wonderful. Russ, as you so brilliantly describe the life there, you show your dry sense of humor and this is very entertaining to us. Wendy, you are so good at explaining the details of the day and all that you must do. Reading your blog is the highlight of our day. We love you!
Dale and Laura
Wendy and Russ,
Your diary is awesome! I can't wait to get into it everyday to see what's new with the Peterson family ... all 6 of you. Russ, I haven't heard you mention the rooster lately ... have you had a chicken dinner lately?? You are going to have to continue this when you get back to the States for all of us that all further away. It would be like reading a good book and you never got to find out the outcome if you don't continue for a period of time.
My prayers are with you all.
Suz McCarron
State Farm
Atlanta, GA
I only have 1 question: I hear they give away 32 inch plasma TV's over there - one a day. Is this true?
-Guess who
If you find out where this woodworking training place for the boys is located and give me an address, I think I have a few duplicate tools that I would be willing to ship.
Jay
PS. If you get one of those plasma TV's someone posted about previously, bring it home. I need to give it away.
If you find out where this woodworking training place for the boys is located and give me an address, I think I have a few duplicate tools that I would be willing to ship.
Jay
PS. If you get one of those plasma TV's someone posted about previously, bring it home. I need to give it away.
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