Another day in Kazakhstan

Jacob greeted us with a big smile and cheerful wave this afternoon. We had fun crawling all over the floor, the piano, the chairs, sofa and anything else in his path. He’s either really comfortable with us or we’re wearing him out because once again, Jacob fell asleep on Tim before our first visit concluded. During our second visit, we mingled with all of the other kids in the outdoor play yards. Seemed every time you turned around, a little kid (1 ½ to 2 years old) was taking off his or her pants. Remember, they don’t wear diapers here! I think it was their way of saying “Hey Ladies, it’s 80 degrees here. No more layers!”. The big kids (2 – 4 years old) had it much better. Not only were they NOT bundled up, they were each running around in shorts, no shirts and little hats. I caught a few glimpses of caregivers scolding a big kid or two for trying to strip totally naked. Guess something was in the air or someone, in baby babble, was shouting “Let’s go streaking!”

After our first visit with Jacob, we decided to venture out on our own. We’re turning in to quite the little rebels! Oh yeah, please, don’t tell our facilitator! We wandered to the market expecting to find some good buys. Instead, we found shoes. Literally thousands and thousands of shoes, kind of like Supermarket of Shoes only much bigger, no boxes, outside, and not very organized. I’m serious. There were enough shoes for sale to fit everyone in Arkalyk three times over. Very overwhelming! So, if you need some sturdy shoes or very sparkly high heels, we know just the place! Other than shoes, we found a lot of clothes, some fruit and kid toys. Nothing we couldn’t live without. I was hoping for the duty free shop you see in the Caribbean where they sell the giant Emeralds… As we arrived back to our flat after our secret escape, the phone was ringing. It was our facilitator calling with arrangements for a massage for Tim. A minute longer at the market and we’d have been busted for sure!

Tim had an hour-long massage for US$6 (including tip). The masseuse makes house calls and came to our flat. Our facilitator’s aunt has strong hands and puts them to good use on the Americans who visit. We’ve worked up such pain in our muscles for all the effort we’re exerting here reading books, watching movies, etc. We both need a massage! Ha, ha! In all fairness, we do go to the track for an hour each day and Tim runs hard the full time. He’s logging about 8 miles each day plus he runs up and down the stands. They think he’s crazier than me! Speaking of the track, we had the honor of meeting toothless Track Man’s main squeeze today. At least that’s what I think he told me as he introduced me to a woman who’d brought him lunch. Ahhhhh. The people we’re meeting in Arkalyk!

From a travel standpoint, our passports are finally back from Kostanai with new visa stamps. As you may recall, our visas were set to expire during our trip. Big problem! With passports in hand, our facilitator was able to purchase our train tickets for Friday night. She was worried about the availability of tickets since there is only one train and cabins fill quick. But, I have the tickets so we’re in good shape. We’ll leave court, pop by to kiss Jacob one last time and then hop the Friday 6:40 PM train.

The overnight 15-hour train will take us to Astana where we’ll hop a flight Saturday afternoon to Almaty. To purchase our airline tickets, we had to send cash to a woman in Astana. Get this. To send money, you give an envelope to the train conductor who gives it to your contact at the end of the line. Kind of like Fed Ex but probably more reliable from a timing perspective!

We’ll arrive in Almaty Saturday early evening and fly to Istanbul Sunday morning at 2:30 AM. From Istanbul we’ll fly to New York and we hope to still have time to make it home that day since we’ll be chasing backward time zones. So, if all goes as planned, we should be home by late Sunday night or early Monday morning! Whoooo Hoooooo!

We did get some bummer news today. Sounds like the timing to return to Kaz is going to be longer than we anticipated. Something about Jacob’s passport taking longer because the other two kids going home this month’s passports took longer to acquire. Right now, we’re being told we should plan to arrive back in Almaty (where they’ll bring Jacob to us) on July 22nd. We were really thinking it would be closer to July 10th. Nonetheless, we’ll be happy to reunite with the big guy ASAP.

On a sad note. Most of you know dogs in our family are family. The week before Tim and I left for Kaz, my parent’s had to euthanize their old boxer dog, Sooie. We’d had Sooie for over 13 years and she was loving, happy (although somewhat grumpy) old girl. When it rains it pours. Yesterday, my parents had to euthanize their other boxer, Sparky. Sparky’s cancer had progressed to the point where no pain management was going to keep her “sparky” and she was given a few weeks to live if she’d undergo chemo. Mom and Dad did the right thing and we lost quirky, funny, sweet, affectionate Sparky. I think it has been since I was in 7th grade that my parents have lived without a dog in their home. It’s bad enough to lose a buddy but to lose two buddies in less than a month just stinks. Our hearts hurt. This was one of my favorite pictures of JC and Sparky. Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll wait a few weeks before surprising you with a puppy or the perfect rescued boxer.

Thanks for following along!