Day 22

Yesterday was Constitution Day. I have not found anyone who knows exactly what it is for except it gives them a 3 day weekend. I assume it is the day they got their independence from Russia in 1991. They had a parade at the main park in town, but I didn't find out about it until afterwards. We drove by the park and it was filled with flags and many men in military uniforms. Throughout the town, there were a lot of blue and yellow/gold banners hanging. The streets were filled with people outside walking. Most stores were still open. Today is their day off so I am not sure how many stores will be open today. They had a celebration Friday at the baby house. The music room was decorated with flowers and later I saw the caretakers in there having a small party.

I haven't posted pictures of the girls dresses yet. These are the Kazakhstani traditional outfits. They wear them for celebrations. I found one I really liked and they were able to hand make a copy in a little over a week. These are 100% hand sewn. All the red is small hand sewn on beads. The workmanship is very good. the dresses and vests are lined and are very nice.
I decided to go with 2 different hats. The one one the left was made to go with the material of the vest.

I just loved the beading and design on the one on the right. I thought I could go with identical dresses and then different hats and keept the girls happy that way.

I tried to get a closeup of the beading, but it is very detailed and didn't show up the greatest. I think they will probably fit the girls when they are 5. I wanted to have them for when they were older and will understand the history of the outfits better. Now I just have to get them home without getting them crushed!

Day 21 continued

The trip to the bazaar today was fun. Last time it was HOT. Today was comfortable, but even more crowded than last time since it is a 3 day weekend and many people from nearby villages came into Shymkent to do shopping today.
I did find the prized Kazakh souvenir- a doll sized model of the traditional Kazkh cradle. The cover is used in winter and a lighter one is used in summer to keep the bugs out.

I saw a full sized one in one of the souvenir stores, but this one will be good for dolls. It is still fairly large so I only got one and the girls will need to share. They are very colorful and it does rock. I was also able to get what I needed for the escort so my shopping should be done. I have to start packing and make sure I can fit all my souvenirs in my luggage.

Since it is the weekend and I didn't post much yesterday, I will continue with things in Shymkent and other random thoughts. One neat thing is the blogger sign in page in russian.

When you sign in the blog appears in english, but the log in page is all russian!

The milk is also strange. You can get fresh regular milk, but it is in rinsed out pop bottles or you can bring your own container and they will fill it for you. Since I can't be sure what kind of milk it is, i bought the stuff at the store. It is good for 6 months! It tastes kind of like milk, but different. I'm not sure what they do to it, but it does not taste like powdered milk so ???? I assume from the cows on the box(yes box) that it is cow milk.

Of course, I have to post my favorite snack for when I am missing the US. Nacho Dorritos(in Russian of course)

There are many different kinds of ice cream bars here. I ususally get these at the grocery store next to my apartment. They have all benn good, except for one which was just strange. It was vanilla ice cream with poppy seeds in it covered with a carmel coating with sesame in it-weird.

I ran out of listerine mouth wash and went to get some other type. I had my choice as best as I could figure out between Daisy flavored, pine branch and nut flavor or pine cone and honey suckle flower flavor. I chose pine cone and honey suckle thinking it surely could not taste like that, but it does. Very strange, but it works well.

This is the girls favorite swing at the baby house(the red one). I looked at Target on line and they have one just like it except it is Winnie the pooh. I will be buying them one as soon as I get home. They will probably decide they hate it now, but maybe they will play with the box.
I keep trying to get a good picture of the mountains. Today you could see them fairly well, but they don't show up great in the photo. This is on the way back from the bazaar.

You can see the mountains in this picture. Also there is some of the new construction that seems to be going on everywhere here.

Since I have been here, they have been working on improving the area. The are restuccoing/plastering the nearby building. They also put up the edging in the alleyway about 2 weeks ago.

However the big event was yesterday, they decided to pave the alley way. As you can see this was a big event and a lot of the neighbors came out to watch. There are a lot of alleys in town, but very few are paved. The government owns the alleys and yards and sidewalks. They decided this year to invest in cleaning up the outside areas in town.

In the distance is one of the banks next door. It has a nice little park area with benches and roses out front. Every morning, a park employee using a twig broom sweeps these sidewalks.

The grass out front has automatic sprinklers in it that water the grass every day. The grass is rather scraggly, but they work hard at it. One day while I was waiting for my ride, I saw 2 guys on each side of the street with hand scyles cutting the grass. They worked their way down the street doing all the yards as they went. They stopped occassionally and took out sharpening stones to sharpen their scycles. Very old method of cutting grass mixed in this very modern neighborhood, but it explains why the grass doesn't look very even.

On the other side of my apartment is another bank and seems to be ATM central. This is early Sunday morning, but ususally there are groups of people waiting for the ATMs. There is a constant flow of cars and taxis dropping people off and picking people up. It is considered rude to take someones picture here without permission so it is hard to find times to take photos of these places.

They take their rain gutters very seriously here. they line all the streets and almost none are covered. they are over a foot across and about 2 ft deep.

Here is another view of some of the grass outside my apartment (hey it's the weekend and no pictures of the girls so you get what you get!)

This is one of the typical roads in the city. The center divide is usually filled with trees or roses or some ornaments. The blue banners have recently been put out all over the city. They represent the Kazakhstan flag. On the way to the baby house each day, you see the government park? employees on the edges of these roads sweeping them with the twig brooms. Cars are going by at 60 mph and they just walk down the edge of the road sweeping and all the cars seem to swerve and miss them. I have one of these ladies on video tape as we drove quickly by.

Day 21

I am feeling better today. I am planning on going to the Bazaar later this morning so I will probably add to this post as the day progresses. The following pictures are from Ruth and Abby's visit to the Bazaar. I never remember to take pictures.

There are several bazaars around the city. We go to the one on the edge of the city as it is very large and has the best prices. Each aisle is for a specific item- material, toys, hats etc

There is a section for fruits and vegetables. There is supposed to be a meat section, but I have not been there (on purpose)

Some places are actual little shops, some are just stands. People sell different foods to eat in the aisle ways. It is a very busy place.

Day 20

To quote Abby-" I'm done". As I enter week 4 and not able to see the girls, I have quickly changed from having a good time, to really just wanting to go home. Up until now it seems like everyday I was doing something new or seeing something new or had something to look forward to. After my visit yesterday, I just felt like it was time to go home. I know it is mainly because I only get to see the girls for 1 more hour and that will not be for 4 more days.
Yesterday my DSL kept kicking out so it was hard to do anything on the internet. So I went to the Mall to look around some and ended up having a fever when I got home. I feel better today, but I hope they can get everything taken care of next week and I can go home on time. There is still a lot of paperwork to complete(not by me, by my coordinator) and several issues to resolve. Court seems set for Tuesday so I hope that goes well.
Update=Well, I think the real reason I am in a bad mood is that I am sick still. I was feeling better this morning, but now feel bad again. So I guess I should be glad that I have a few days to recover before court and seeing the girls again.

Day 19

The day started out with lots of paperwork. Leeza decided to help me fill some of it out.


I was filling out paperwork when the girls came in. Balzhan went to help Sasha into the swing while I was busy. Sasha did not want Balzhan's help and started crying until mama went and got her and put her in the swing and all was well. Even though the paperwork took up some of our time, I am glad we did it today. Abby spent much of her last time with Jake filling the paperwork out. I'd rather do it today then next Wednesday.

Sashsa looked like she had picked a fight with some mosquitos and lost. She had about 5 red marks on her little face. They looked like mosquito bites.

Leeza saw mama blowing up the balls so she had to try also. She actually got a little bit of air in this one. She had fun trying anyway.

While I was distracted, Leeza finally claimed the camera for a few minutes. This is the first photo she took, a close up shot. Mama took it back from her after a couple minutes.
The last 10 minutes of the hour, I decided to try bubbles again. The first time did not go well and the girls seemed afraid of them. They did not seem to like the bubbles when I was blowing them at first. Eventually, they seemed to like them although they did not want to pop them. However, the minute I stopped, they had to have the bubble equipment. All was well, until Leeza tried to eat the bubble wand and Sasha looked like she was about to unscrew the bubble liquid jar. The bad mama took the bubble stuff away to many tears on Sasha's part and pouting on Leeza's. Unfortunately, that was how our day ended in tears. The tears of course dried up quickly as they were led away. Now I do not get to see them until WEDNESDAY. So no more photos until then.

Day 18

This post should be titled "The Good, The Bad, But No Ugly" The good is that the girls are having fun with mama. Sasha said "mme" today which I am saying sounds enough like mama for me! She also clearly said dog in kazakh. Both girls seem to love looking at pictures of Frosty. Frosty had better get ready for them!!!!! Sasha did a lot of talking babbling today, but those were the only 2 words I understood. She may be saying much more. Leeza was talking a lot today also. She was calling me aipie-which is Kazah for caregiver so I kept saying mama today and she said it once. The one time she said it she really wanted my attention so I think she knows it fairly well.

The Bad is that I just found out Monday is a holiday and I may not be able to visit the girls! That means I get tomorrow, then nothing Sat, Sun Mon and maybe not Tuesday depending on if I have court then. I will get to see them Wednesday, but if all goes as planned I will leave Thursday so that means I only hve 2 more hours with them until I go home. That is very very bad. The good thing about this process is that the girls get time to know you in their environment, but the bad is that just when they start to get comfortable, you leave. Some people stay for 2-3 months for the whole process, but I cannot do that. I'd rather have more time at home to help them adjust there.

Trying to find a good picture of Leeza is tough today. She was in motion from the very first minute. She gave her mom a good workout! This is when she captured the mama's purse. It was very heavy as it had a bottle of water, my video camera and other stuff in it. She spent several minutes going in a circle as she couldn't drag it at first.

Then she was off to crawl through the gym equipment. Mama had to "rescue" her several times when she fell. She wasn't hurt, but just wanted to prove that she could make me come and get her up. The minute I picked her up she wanted to go running again. Mama was happy to go and get her up repeatedly. I want her to know I will be there to help her.

Sorry it is sort of out of focus, but movement was her main theme today so good shots are rare.

The girls do share well. Their idea of sharing today was Sasha got the puzzle board and Leeza got all the puzzle pieces. They were happy with the arrangement, but mama didn't understand why. Leeza carried the puzzle pieces around in her zip lock bag. They both love zip lock bags!

I stuffed the zip lock bag full of everything I could find, toys, paper etc. Sasha had great fun unpacking it. then mama stuffed it full again, repeat.......

Smile are easy to come by now from Sasha. She is content to watch Leeza run and play and loves to sit on the swing with her toys. I hate that my time with them is down to a few hours now before I leave. I know it is the best plan long term, but it is still very hard to leave them when they have just gotten comfortable with me.

Day 17

The girls came into the room today with almost no tears. Leeza made her way straight to the toys and Sasha came over to me. Balzhan was taking picutres and they sat and played quietly until the minute she left.
Then both girls were off and running today. They ended up on the swings again.
The stickers are still the biggest hit.
At one point Sasha was covered with them, but didn't seem to care.
She made sure everyone had stickers on them. the fun part is taking them off the page.
About half way through our hour, we were all having fun on the swing, when their entire group came into the gym and started playing.
Leeza ran off to play with them as ten 2 year olds running around is hard to resist when you are 2 also.
Sasha was content to stay with mama although the smiles went away for the most part.

Leeza came back every few minutes just to stake her claim on the mama. She made sure the other little kids did not come over by me.
And then they were gone. It was fun to watch the other kids, but it is hard to bond when there is so much activity in the room.

Names -Part 2

I had thought I did not have to make decisions on the names until court, but yesterday on the way to the notary, Balzhan asked me what I was going to name them as she needed it for the paperwork. I had just talked to my mom about middle names and she had suggested Elizabeth Ann instead of Elizabeth Marie. So I have decided to officially name them Elizabeth Ann and Alexandra Marie. The names are slightly americanized versions of their current names, but I will continue to call them Leeza and Sasha as those are the names that fit them best!

Day 16

The day started out a little sad as we took Abby to the airport to begin her journey home. I will miss her and all the fun we had. However, I will be keeping in touch with her for a long time especially since I think Sasha has a crush on Jake.

I think I will be having court next Tuesday. It is not for sure yet, but sounding positive. That would be great as it would allow me to keep my current flight home. Now for the pictures which I know is what you really want to see.

This is my favortie photo and really needs no words. It is so good to see the girls playing together and happy and laughing. It has been a long trip to see the smile and laugh from Sasha, but she has been getting more and more comfortable with me. Leeza is now in the testing phase which is also good. She is trying to see how far she can go with mama. She really really wants my camera, but that is not allowed. She did throw a mini tantrum when I took it from her, but it only lasted about 10 seconds.
So today's game went like this, Mama gives Leeza the Winnie the pooh radio, Leeza gives it to Sasha, Sasha attempts to throw it past mama and have it hit the concrete with a loud thump, mama grabs wildly for the camera and catches it most of the time and then hands it back to Leeza to start all over again. Here Sasha winds up forthe throw.

The radio is about to be lauched.

And the launch of the radio with mama trying to take pictures with one hand and catch it with the other. Leeza was a very quiet child when we first met and she is now at times a very active happy girl. She seems to be teaching Sasha how to have fun and it is working.
The stickers go from Sasha to me to my shirt to Leeza to Sasha and repeat. Lots of smiles and laughs today.