Day 4 waiting - The Lazy Day in Kazakhstan (sorry, no pics)

Sunday, July 23--- (Day 4 waiting period)

Lazy day in Kazakhstan. We again fell victim to the sad bug today. It’s unbelievable how much your heart feels empty when a part of your family is not with you. This is both for Landen and our family and friends back home.

Does it seem real?….Today is our 30th day of the adoption journey. Hard to believe that 30 days ago Bob was pulling up in the drive way to take Kim, Rylee and I to the airport for what we thought would be 4 to 5 weeks. The journey is going to take over 7 weeks, but we are glad to be this close to reaching our dream. Now for the day…

Our day was spent booking our return flight, working on a video we are putting together and playing pretend “Russian store“ with Rylee:

The flight back will be on 8/16, not 8/15 as he had hoped. 8/15 is completely booked! The good things are we will not have a lay over in Chicago and we are getting out at 3:30am from Kazakhstan. We are thinking the early flight time will be better for Rylee and Landen to sleep. We should arrive in Atlanta on 8/16 at 2:36pm and should be through customs around 3:30pm or so….As you can tell we are so excited for this date!

I have been working on a little video for his birthday party and shower. Barbara, thanks for your suggestions! We are having a little trouble pulling down the songs from the Internet (we are on dial up, and when we try to download songs it says we have to be in the US to download!), but please continue to send any songs that you think would be fitting for remembering our journey. Again, thanks in advance.

The “Russian Store” has good for hours of excitement for Rylee. She started when we first arrived in Kazakhstan with a food store. She was a little pricey at the beginning, but realized she had all the goods and could charge what ever she wanted to. She has a Pringles can that we had to place the money in (yes, real tenge---which is the Kazakhstan currency) when we make a purchase. The funny thing is she checks the can after the housekeeper comes by to see if she bought something…I have dropped a few coins in and let her mind go to work. A couple days ago she closed down the food store and opened up a Russian sovenier store with some baby clothing. Kim and I have convinced her to use pretend money as we are officially broke from her food store. She is planning to open up a store when we return….look out Nana, Bandaddy, Papa Bick, Ms Diane and Papa Butch, you have been named as her first customers. She is planning on having Ella assist with the store as Landen will be “too little”.

To end this entry, Kim and I thought we would share some of our findings about Kazakhstan that may be a little different than that in the states. Enjoy and until tomorrow, Poka, Poka….

You don’t need a prescription to walk into a pharmacy and get prescription drugs, but you cannot find over the counter cold remedies anywhere!

Toilet paper is a luxury, many restrooms don’t have any or only newspaper.

If you can find a public bathroom, it may only be a hole in the ground.

Entryways to apartments have two doors, one outside one that looks like a bulletproof shield and a second normal door.

It is customary to remove your shoes when entering someone’s home (including your own). Many people keep slippers at the door for themselves and guests.

When you go to a restaurant, you order everything at once – drinks to dessert.

Shopping is a very rushed sport here, there is no such thing as browsing around the supermarket.

Most people go to the supermarket every day – no buying in bulk from SAM’s, Wal-Mart or a grocery store.

The bottom half of all trees are painted white – we are told this is to prevent insects from eating them.

Kids (at least at the orphanage) are taught that dogs and cats are dangerous and eat little children - in order to keep them away from diseased animals.

Cars do not have A/C and most taxis are like ovens – the windows are usually up at all times.

There is no such thing as a lane on the road. It is one big free for all… if your car can fit between two other cars, you can call it a lane.

When traffic lights are about to change from green to yellow, they blink as a warning. Smart idea - one thing that we think Americans could learn from!

Most people walk everywhere and dodge traffic like a game of Frogger, but they say it is too dangerous to ride a bike.

The knobs on the stoves do not have degrees, they are numbered 1-6.

There are only washers, no dryers – man, do we miss our dryer. This is if the residence has running water and the means to afford the washer.

Convenient stores are similar to ours; they have a wide variety of things, from potatoes to laundry detergent to all types of drinks. There is usually one at the bottom of every apartment.

Milk is only sold in boxes with a shelf life of 2 years and is not refrigerated – like Parmalat.

If you want water, you must ask for water “with” or “without” gas or sparkles. The gas/sparkle water is like our seltzer or club soda.

The hot water in Kazakhstan is pumped in from a central city water heater to every resident. The water is scalding hot and comes out with any pressure you need. Also, in the winter, they pipe in hot air for heating to every building.

There are red pipe lines running around the city - above the streets, through alleyways, near apartments. We found out these are their GAS LINES. And cars drive under them and around them.

Since there are many industrial factories, there is much more pollution here than we are use to at home. No jogging outside for exercise here!

The garbage situation is an interesting one. There is an area for trash between apartment buildings and it is probably emptied about once per week, although most trash doesn’t make it “in” the containers, but all around them. We have walked over many items that would be considered “sanitary” issues such as hypodermic needles and fish heads. Needless the say the stench is pretty intense!! Oh, and the local children find this to be a fun play area and are always rummaging through things.

Animal sounds are different here than what we know (Thanks to Lena for interpreting the sounds). For example:
A dog goes Gaff Gaff, not Woof Woof
A pig goes hoota hoota, not Oink Oink
A horse goes eeegoogoo, not Nay
A cat does Meow though…
A frog goes kvaa kvaa, not ribbit ribbit
A rooster goes coo coo ca ray coo, not cockadoodle doo
A sheep sounds similar with baa
A cow goes moo
A bird goes chik chee rik, not tweet tweet
A duck goes krya krya, not quack quack