6/03/2007 02:03:00 AM
Edit This
6/03/2007 12:25:00 AM
Edit This
DAY 10 of the Bonding Period - I can't believe that I've know Alexis only 10 days. It's hard to understand how a stranger can put a child in your arms and a few days later you truly feel like their Mom. But that's just how I feel. I know I didn't give birth to her but I feel completely responsible for her and am totally in love with her. There is no doubt that she is mine and I can hardly wait to get her home to meet everyone.
Her bites are even better today which makes me feel better about leaving her there but it's not easy. They do their best but two women caring for 12 one year olds just can't give them all the attention they deserve. Soon I'll take Lexie out of there but unfortunately that just makes room for another child. This baby house is much brighter, cleaner and cheerier than I expected. Someone painted a lot of Disney characters on the walls of the halls and the kids play rooms and recently they received donations for all new highchairs in Alexis' room and Rosa said her daughter's room of 3 year olds had all new beds so this new director must really have connections or know how to fund raise.
They do have funny ideas about germs and viruses here though. Lexie has had a runny noise for the last week or so and I was really afraid they would blame us or the fact that I've left her in just her diaper as much as possible and then put her in very cool clothes. But so far they haven't said anything. Then a couple of days ago Lexie thought it would be funny to lick Mommy's face starting with my mouth (we are going to have to work on her social skills) so I've come down with her cold. Zina said it was not that but because I was in the air conditioner too much (in this heat I don't believe that is possible and I might add their version of air conditioners is more like a swap cooler - it never really gets cold but it's better than just leaving the windows open.) Then when I drank water with ice this morning she said I'd get worse not better. So she is going to take me to the pharmacy to get what they use for colds. I figure it can't hurt at this point since I'll still take the Tylenol Cold I brought with me. That is the one thing I think anyone coming over here should bring. Drugs. They simply don't have what we have available to us and I've already had to dip into our little medicine kit several times. Forget the dark clothes, the toilet paper (even though a couple of rolls to start out with would be fine)utensils, a pot for boiling water and babies items like diapers & formula. They have all that here. Just bring drugs, books, DVD's (or do what I did and buy them from ITunes then just download them to an external hard drive so you don't have to use too much space in you suitcases or worry about damaging them) and baby toys. They have some here but they are VERY expensive. A simple rattle which would be about $5 in the US is about $35 here. I'm not kidding. I'm glad we brought what we did but I wish I'd brought more for her to play with. Right now she is very happy with what I have but I'm not sure she will still be entertained with them a month for now. We'll see or I'll break out the VISA and make some Kazakh storekeeper very happy.
On Friday we went to their open market which was really great. It's not actually "open" but a pink stucco building with a tin roof that has some areas open to keep it cooler (I'd say it was only 95 degrees in there so it was much cooler than outside.) There were amazing fruits and veggies and some meat but no horse or dog (I really don't think they eat dog here just horse) but mainly fish. There was this wonderful older woman selling newspapers so I bought one from her and then had Zina ask if I could take her picture. She said DA and after I showed it to her Zina said she asked "who is that woman?" Clearly she hadn't looked in a mirror recently or didn't understand digital cameras. She was really beautiful and when I said Paka paka waving good-bye she blow me a kiss. I'm having the picture developed and I'll give it to her the next time we go. (I didn't put her picture on my zip drive so I'll put them on next time.)
We got a lot of different fruits and some nuts and of course bread and then headed back to the van, I mean Lemo, where Flora was waiting for us. She had bought some camels milk and asked if we wanted to try it as she pulled this jar out of her bag about the size of a pickle jar with what looked like sour milk. Stuff was floating on the top and I just couldn't bring myself to try it. Zina said it tasted like sour milk but it's very good. Maybe before I leave I can get up the nerve but I'm not there yet. I've got to ask the question though. How do you milk a camel?
An update first on our apartment situation. Yes the electricity was working when we got home last night so that was a blessing. The fan we bought yesterday at the mall really helped make sleeping more comfortable even if Zina and ReNot did laughed at me as I loaded it in the van and then carried it up our 66 steps to the apartment. I'll donate it to the Baby House or leave it at apt for the next spoiled Americans that come here. More good news is that our "technical water" is working again so we can flush the toilet without filling up a bucket but our hot water is lukewarm at best. That is just fine with us. We just wish we had Internet at the apartment and then everything would be perfect (relatively speaking!) Tomorrow Zina is going to call the Nusat office again and ask if one of the "guys" could come to my apartment to see if they can figure out why my computer worked fine at the Nursat office but not at the apt. And yes we did try Zina's computer at my apartment using the same phone cord and hers worked great. I don't get it but if anyone has any ideas please email me at louannquast@yahoo.com. That's it for today. Take care and God Bless.
