"Hello" and "Thank You"

Linda here.

We travelled this morning without Sveta, our interpreter. She was off with the Talls on their drive to Astana where they would catch a flight to Almaty and then back to the states. They left Kokshetau at midnight last night and will return in two weeks.

We arrived at the Baby House at about 10:30am this morning. As we were getting out of the car I said zdrazdvuyte (hello) to the driver. He looked at me askance. I realized I said the wrong thing. I meant spaciba (thank you). Ooops! He laughed.

It was haircuts all around for Mia's group today. Two ladies were there with scissors and clippers. The children seemed quite used to this. We took Mia into the music room. She went for the apple juice, Tucker's Amsterdam hat, and the bag with food in it right away. She was her usual happy self. At one point Mike was pushing her on the wooden horse when she started shouting something in Russian. Mike wasn't understanding so she shouted over "mama, mama" and repeated the same words as she said to Mike. I repeated what she said in Russian (having no clue what she meant) and Mia then looked over at Mike as if to see yes, do you understand now.

Tucker is doing so well. This trip is really quite an adventure for him on so many different levels. It is quite a balancing act at visiting time as Tucker needs just as much if not more attention than Mia. He lets us know when he is not getting what he needs by acting out. We are staying fairly on top of it but sometimes it catches us unawares. He was quite a wrestler today - he pummeled us when he needed attention but I was on top of it. I pulled out the Spiderman cards, bought at the Astana airport for 200 Tenge ($1.50) and we had a great time playing match while Mike entertained Mia.

Kunpash was there today, the speech therapist, and she wanted to talk to us about Tucker's development. As soon as Sveta arrived we looked for Kunpash. Of course other caregivers including the director gathered round wanting to hug "Takhir, Takhir, Takhirka". Tucker would have none of it and hid behind my or Mike's legs. This feels so ungrateful to me, but Tucker is not quite four and doesn't understand. We will be taking a lot more pictures this time of the caregivers. I know he will appreciate them when he is older. Tucker did ask to have his picture taken with Sveta who he has become quite fond of, it was very sweet. I think Mike will be posting that one. Kunpash is to the right.

Sveta took me to the post office on the way back to the apartment and it reminded me of ours in the states, always a line. Mike took a nap this afternoon and then we headed out to the market. The green market is a large outdoor bazaar. A conglomeration of individual stands. anything you could want you will find at the green market - well, we are in KZ, not the states. We met two Uzbek guys selling great looking meat patties a couple of which we bought, also we bought Spiderman stickers for 80 Tenge (about 50 cents) and found wonderful kabobs and beer.

We took a leap of faith when we found the kabobs as we were quite hungry. The barbecue was outside but you had to step inside to get a seat and order. We didn't think about it but for a second as we had been looking for a kabob stand since we arrived. The room we walked into would have reminded you of someplace out of an Indiana Jones movie - sparse fluorescent lights, dirt floors - the 5 Kazak men sitting across from us were drinking 5 beers and two good size bottles of vodka. We spent about 730 Tenge on the kabobs, beer and orange soda for Tucker.

We are used to getting lots of looks here but people give an extra quizzical look when they see Tucker. He tends to be an ice breaker though. Women look at him and say "Kazak" we say yes, then they point out in sign language how much he looks like Mike.

On our way out of the market a woman behind the dried fruit stand immediately said "thank you" as we walked up. She let us know it was her only English word and was quite thrilled to use it. She was able to use it again after we bought some apricots and raisins. Perhaps I will go and teach her some English words and she can help me with my Russian. Dosvidanya (goodbye)