May 02

Since we couldn’t sleep, well ok I could not sleep, so if I’m up, Rob’s getting up. We cruise down to breakfast and find it odd that no one else is there. After all it is a free breakfast included in the price of the room. The restaurant guy told us something in Russian and we froze and backed away, realizing we had no idea what he was saying but it must have been obvious to any normal person….who speaks Russian. So we went out the front desk, where we had the same reaction but this time she pointed to the clock….we were 1 hour early. So who the heck knows what time zone we are in, and if they observe daylight savings. I’m not sure why they would do daylight savings because it was still light out at 11pm last night. But the time zone delay could explain why the customs guy gave me a hard time about our visas, because I think we tried to enter the country a couple minutes before we were allowed to.

So we decided to go out for a walk, and there were a surprising number of people out for a Tuesday morning at 7am, at least I think it’s Tuesday. Then we realized, IT’S FREEZING and came back after a half hour of walking around the blocks by the hotel. We did see a video store that had the new Harry Potter video, which sounds a lot more forbidding in Russian. We’re hoping it warms up past 30 degrees Fahrenheit any day now, and returns to 70 degrees like the week before.

Once we made it back for breakfast, again we were the only people in the restaurant, we found out that they don’t have menus, you just tell the woman what you would like to eat. That would have been nice if someone other than Rob and I spoke English at the entire hotel. So we whipped out the Russian book and starting pointing to foods, thinking they might have one of them. The surprises were like Christmas morning, never knowing what food would be coming out next. It was actually pretty good, we ate what we think were crepes with tasty cheese, cucumber and pineapple yogurt, and oatmeal and eggs, and lots of apple juice which is freakishly common.

Then we met up with the agency people to do some speed shopping at the local mall to buy some slippers for when we visit the orphanage. Our coordinator, pronounced Bahkhet, and our translator, pronounced Aye-John-uh, were like the Tasmanian devil running from store to store asking for reasonably priced slippers for us. In about 5 minutes they hit about 10 stores, some were priced too high and their look of disgust with the store was funny and off we ran to the next store. These are woman on a mission who knew how to shop. Rob’s head was spinning as we were in and out of the mall n under 10 minutes.

Off we went to the Department Of Education to fill out papers and talk to some people. We had to pick up a couple people to take with us, then stopped to drop them off at a very nice, official look building. As we waited in the car, and tried to explain to our coordinator and translator Philip is really Rob, and how to say ‘cool’ in Russian (mal-eh dyet, I think) the DOE women were back in the car and off we went. Apparently these women are so efficient they didn’t need us and found it more productive to leave us in the car…smart women. So my 20 minutes of practicing to say the official greeting (Doe-Brie Dhing….Doe like Bambi, Brie like the cheese and Dhing like the sound of Yahoo! Instant Messenger) would have to wait for another day to be used. We were cruising off to our next destination. After a couple minutes of very entertaining driving I asked if we were not able to meet with the Department Of Education today, which took the wind out of my sleep deprived sails. Bahkhet informed me, through the translator “Oh no jen-e-fur we do not need to meet, we go to orphanage now.” Rob, or Fill-eeep as they call him, looked at each other with a stunned look since we had not brought any toys for junior. Then a year’s worth of preparation turned into 5 minutes of intense nervousness as we got to the Orphange.

It was weird to turn a corner and see the orphanage picture I’d seen on the internet, a big yellow and white building at the end of a half dirt an gravel road. We all piled into the orphanage director’s office, about 7 of us, to discuss the age and gender of child we are ‘approved for’ by the US and Kazak governments. After many phones calls to the other parts of the orphanage and lots of Russian discussion amongst everyone in the room but us, we met 3 little boys. The first was older than we were approved for, and the 2nd two were 10 months old. The first 10 month old came into the room, took one look at us and started to wail, which I am told is a good sign, albeit it a little disheartening. The baby and us continued to stare each other down checking each other out (I had on my stern German face of nervous intensity—as the translator and orphanage director once again thought I was a German lady married to the Englishman Fill-eeep/Rob). I was able to hold him and carry him around to calm him down, then I sat down next to Rob and he took one look over my shoulder and started wailing again with tears literally shooting out of his eyes. They said that was normal as the children do not see men because almost all orphanage staff is women. So to this child, Rob looked like an alien from outer space, wouldn’t you cry too?

We reviewed all the medical information they had, had an intense couple minutes of discussions of half baked sentences, grunts and emotions, and decided to spend the afternoon with the wailing baby in one of the large rooms. Over the course of an hour or so it was amazing to see his change, he slowly stopped crying, once we figured out the whole ‘swaying/rocking the baby’ thing, and the mesmerizing affect of letting a child look outside. Of course all the crying brought much snot so we were now wearing a little bit of him, and he no longer freaked out when we went to wipe his nose. Towards the end of the visit Rob started walking out of the room to use the restroom and just as he walked out of the door, the baby let out the loudest longest fart, which I might add was all bark and no bite. Rob shot back into the room with a surprised look, perhaps thinking it was me, the smiled when he realized it was not. Can you think of a better, more Taylor way, to complete the first day of bonding?

It was a good first day, and tomorrow we’ll come prepared with a couple toys for some real playtime, and a camera! We were off to dine on Siberian Borscht and Rice—a very tasty meal that I will be having again.

We are still trying to decide on a name. Baby Taylor is quite a long baby on track to be a tall young man, so unfortunately Chip is no longer in the running. Today’s name selection: Borscht Taylor.