Friday, June 03, 2005

ICE CREAM!!!

Oh boy, what a day! First, some administrative housekeeping. There was a bit of miscommunication between Vera and Mit, and hence, between Vera and us. She thought, and told us, that we had tickets for the Spanish train to Almaty for the night of the 16th. However, Mit told her that was not so, and that we had just purchased tickets for the "regular train" for that night. Today, we went back and got actual tickets for the Spanish train, but these are for Saturday night/Sunday morning, so we will have 2 full days in Taraz with the kiddos. We are still investigating whether we'll be able to leave for Atlanta on July 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Probably won't know until a couple of days before. At that point, we'll just be seeking the shortest distance between the two points.

We were asked via private email about why we would want - and THANK GOD for - the Spanish train as opposed to the regular train to Almaty. Here is my response to that question: the "Spanish Train" is called that because the actual, physical train was imported from Spain. It's nice, clean, and each compartment has it's own bathroom, complete with toilet, sink, and shower (where we stored our luggage!). The "other" train is typical old world Soviet style train. Old, dirty, smelly; each compartment does NOT have any bathroom facilities, and the facilities that you have to use are pretty much public domain. What that means is that they are uninhabitable, hideously smelly, and not someplace you'd take a child at all for any reason ever. To that end, passengers regularly hold their small children out the windows to let them "go" while the train is stopped, or even while it's running. For those who dare to brave the actual bathrooms, these toilets flush directly out the bottom of the train. And that's just the bathrooms. Smoking and drinking are fully allowed in any and all compartments on the train. The Morin family took this train from Almaty to Taraz, and Mr. Morin (a US Army Ranger, he's seen some nasty places) was appalled at the conditions.

So, we leave for Almaty on Saturday night, June 18th around midnight, and arrive around 9am the following morning. So the first night we ever spend with DnL will actually be in a hotel, not on a train. We will treasure those 2 days in Taraz with DnL, actually having the opportunity to show them where they've lived for the past 3 years. We confirmed with Vera that they might have left Umit 2-3 times per year for doctor visits, immunizations, etc.

But, today was a BIG day!! We got to dress the kiddos up and take them "off campus", officially to get their passport pictures taken, unofficially as a fun field trip for everyone and a break from the monotony of doing laps around Umit. What a grand time we had! First, we dressed them up in their newest clothes (Lena's courtesy of the Miller family):



Then we took them for a ride in Vera and Mit's van:




We drove across town to the train station to get new tickets for the trip to Almaty, so they got to see their first train station and train, and 2 little boys go "garshok" right in the middle of the outside of the train station. Just dropped trou right there on the sidewalk. Vera assured us that this was not normal. And, actually, one of the boys garshok'd ON the railroad tracks. OY!

Both Dub & Lena were pretty silent for most of the car ride and the time at the station. They were mesmerized, and just acting like little sponges, soaking it all in. They both kept saying "sheena", which is short for the Kaz word for "car", or "machina". When Mit honked at some other crazy Kazakh driver, they both said "beep! beep!" imitating the horn. Very cute. What was so different for this experience for us was that we got to hold them in our laps. You see, there are some aspects of the former Soviet Union Republics that are far more "free" than the US of A, namely that seatbelts are not only not required, but completely ignored. And, baby seats are virtually non-existent. Remember when you could pack up the wagon and let the kids sleep in the back, curled up in blankets and pillows all comfortable? That's still the norm here, so we got to hold them in our laps and show them all kinds of neat stuff. Please, no lectures about safety here. We're just following local customs. When in Rome...

After we got their very cute passport pictures taken, we got to give them their very first ice cream of their young lives. Crazy, huh? The Kazakh people believe that giving a child anything cold to eat or drink will make them sick, so these kids have never had ice cream until today. The same belief applies sitting (anyone, not just kids) on any cold surface. We got yelled at this morning for that cultural faux pas even though it was 85 degrees and the iron stairstep was maybe 70 degrees.

Well, we didn't get to see their first steps or hear their first words, but we got to see them do this for the first time:




The funniest thing was their reaction to putting something frozen in their mouths for the first time. Dub almost cried, but couldn't because it tasted so good! Lena just had that sick look on her face the whole time, while she yelled "PEEZE! DONGO!" and opened her mouth as wide as possible so Mama could shove another bit of ice cream in her face. Dub did the same thing, but after about 4 bites, he decided he did not like the cold. He would open his mouth really wide, then at the last minute, turn his head away. This caused several face-to-ice-cream collisions. Good thing for the handy-wipes. The cold may hurt their little teeth, because they have never ever brushed their teeth. (When in Rome...)

What a fun field trip! We cannot wait to have these little mongrels full time, so we can enjoy all the new things they will experience. Thank you again for all the encouraging notes and prayers. We are surely blessed in this our greatest adventure (so far).

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Lena & Dub

PS - a couple other pictures from the morning session for your viewing pleasure.


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