Day One with Mia. No blood.

Mike here.

(BTW, I can't take credit for the title of this post. Linda's idea.)

It's 3 PM. Linda and the kids (still like the sound of that) are taking a nap. Woo hoo! A successful nap! And Bacha didn't say "ne godoo" even once!

Sleeping arrangements are that the kids sleep in the bedroom, and Linda and I sleep wherever we can. Heh. One of us will probably sleep with them -- probably her -- and me in the living room. This works out because it gives us a little along time together once the kids have gone to bed. When it was just Tucker, we'd move him into the living room when we went to bed, but that's a bit more of a hassle with the two of them. Also, the couch in the living room is small, and they're more likely to fall off it at night -- not to mention bludgeon each other to death in their sleep (they both do a lot of acrobatics in their sleep).

I can see it now, the nightmare scenario (I have lots of time to think of these nowadays)... we're walking around Kokshetau with our two Kazakh kids, both of them with black eyes, and some babushka stops us and starts yelling at us, wielding a straw broom like a weapon. All we can understand is that she's angry, and keeps saying "black eyes" ("chorny glaz" happens to be something I understand). She also mumbling something about "Amerikanyits" and "George Bush" and "Lewinsky" and causes enough of a commotion to attract the attention of the local fireman... err... military officer. We try in vain to explain that The black eyes were mutually self-inflicted during a nap... Before long, we're all hauled off to the local prison, where we're put in a cell with one of the other American couples, who are being held for touching the merchandise at the green market (ouch -- they really should've known better). After a long wait, Sveta comes to our rescue and explains to them our situation. We're required to pay a fine of 500 Tenge and three Ziploc bags (they're very precious here), and then we're sent on our way.

Ok, back to reality now. Anyway, I usually sleep in the living room, also because I'm usually the one up the latest (posting stuff to the internet and watching soccer).

While it's true I should be getting more sleep than I am, I'm still getting more sleep than I usually do at home, and I'm really quite tired most of the time. I know, I know, there are a lot of things to be mentally exhausted about, and I'm cutting myself some slack about that. I feel like I have to be "on" all the time. In fact, I've been a little too "on" lately -- enough to get on Linda's nerves. She rightfully called me on it last night, and I'll have to find a way to lighten up. I just feel like there's always something to do, and if I don't do it, something bad will happen. I get this way on camping trips, too, although on most of my camping trips I've had only myself to take care of and that's a lot less stressful, so I relax. Right now I feel like I'm on a camping trip that's going on a little too long and I'm ready to go home. But it's only half over.

We went to a play today at the same place we saw the last play. This one was a story about Alladin. The stage production was quite elaborate, and the sound system was a character in itself, acting as the voice of the genie and the bad magician in a number of places. The lighting was quite elaborate, too. Tucker was scared through a lot of it, and needed lots of hugs, often turning his back on the show to hug me chest-to-chest and have me tell him what was going on. He's very sensitive to things like that -- especially when sound is involved. Sveta tried her best to translate what was going on and at least help us understand the basic plot elements (Alladin sets eyes on the Sultan's daughter and is hunted down because this is a crime... he obtains the lamp somehow and the evil magician wants it... the Sultan wants his daughter to marry a particular rich nobleman and they convince her that meeting Alladin was a dream... she believes it... then she doesn't, and uses the lamp/genie to exact revenge... there's a wedding... yada yada yada). There was lots of music and dancing. Very fun to watch, even if I could only understand a word or two.

We also went shopping at the green market. To be specific, we took all five of us (us, the kids, Sveta) and two strollers through the most congested, claustrophobic parts of the market to find clothes for Mia. I about hit my limit when Tucker started acting up, so I did the same "guy thing" I generally do in the mall at home... Tucker and I went and played in a mud puddle while the girls shopped. I was pretty much OK with that.

Hmmm... I got good reviews on my last post for writing what I considered to be boring details about insignificant things, so I'll do it some more, because it's good therapy for me.

Oh yeah. We have no water. Came home from our outing to find that the water to the whole apartment was off. I immediately called Sveta, and she said "yes, this happens sometimes. Maybe in a few hours." So I said OK. She called back a little while later to say that Oleg (the landlord) could bring more water if we needed it. But we really have enough to drink. It's things like washing the dishes, finishing the laundry, and going "kakat" (figure it out) that concerns me. Anyway, we'll just wait. Two years ago, this sort of thing happened with the power. This time it's the water. Whatever.

I remember writing in my journal last time that "things basically don't really work" in Kazakhstan. While things are much better this time, in general there's still a lingering sense of brokenness in everything, it seems. At the baby house, I recently took a photo of a shower in one of the bathrooms. The shower head is permanently fixed so that it aims at a corner of the stall in an unusable way. There is no place at all for a curtain of any sort. All the pipes are exposed, and there are no knobs on what must be the hot and cold water valves -- besides, the valves are painted over. Finally, there is an electrical wire coming out of a hole at about head-height in one side of the stall, along the wall and out another hammered-out hole in the other side of the stall. And to top it all off, the shower looks like it was used recently. <shrug>

Oleg and Sveta just came to the door unexpectedly. Oleg brought two five-liter jugs of water anyway (not for drinking, this water). I thanked him/them profusely, and asked if, just in case, there was a place I could get more if needed. Oleg and Sveta had about a three-minute, argumentative, back-and-forth conversation, after which Sveta translated it as "he said there will be water today." I just love those kinds of conversations.

They also brought our phone bill up until now. So far we've chalked up about 8000 Tenge in phone charges -- almost all of them for the internet. That's about $60, or $3/day on average, at a rate of about $1-$2 per hour, depending on the time. I can live with that, as it's not only our only real link to the rest of the world, but our main source of entertainment. Besides, we're using it less now, since we're getting the routing down to where we get on and off quicker.

I can't look at the women here the same way any more. The younger ones, that is. Especially the high-school age ones. I keep seeing Mia in them. Oh my god, she's likely to be one of those beautiful, tall, slender, asian-looking women some day. Several tiems, I've felt waves of "overprotective father" already welling up inside me that have caught me by surprise. Tucker, of course, is also likely to be one of those tall, asian men. "Tall" and "Asian" are two words that most Americans don't associate with one another in general, I think. But the combination is stunning. Kazakh people are a proud, and proud-looking, people. Plus, the women here always dress very nicely -- skirts, heels, makeup -- and, of course, it's summer.

I wonder if I mentioned an observation that I made on the last trip. I observed that here, people walk upright with good posture, yet they regularly bend over or squat to do manual labor -- and obesity seems to be almost nonexistent. In the United States, people all too often shun manual labor that causes them to squat or bend over, and yet they often walk with a slump -- and obesity is rampant despite the number of health clubs and diet programs around. Go figure. Similarly, this time I've noticed that in the Unites States it's considered almost shameful to, say, re-use a plastic bag. In fact, it should be shameful NOT to. While "recycling" is very uncommon in Kazakhstan, "re-use" is pervasive. So what's the moral of the story? I don't know. You decide.

I think I hear movement in the other room... Yup... Mia woke up a bit disoriented, and had to go kakat. She's up now, and smiling. She's almost always smiling. That's the smile that Linda fell in love with two years ago. Tucker, on the other hand, is "no man" -- that's when he's being cranky and has nothing to say but "no"...

Water just came back on. I guess my time alone is at its end. Time to go and get supplies (funny, at home I call it "shopping").

Oh -- also notice the new "Going Home" movie. Really apologize for the small format. Perhaps I'll try shorter, larger-format ones next. In case you can't read the subtitle on the one part of the movie, it says "This is where Mia receives final instructions"... The head caregiver for her group was putting the fear of god into her about paying attention to Mama and Papa, and being good to your brother... etc... Mia's response was simply to say "Da". I'm going to get that part reproduced as an audio loop when I get home, and play it for her while she's sleeping... <insert evil laugh here>...

.... Quite time now... the kids are asleep...

On the language front... Bacha spoke her first unsolicited (sort of) English words tonight. I said "OK, time to brush teeth." She responded with "Ne godoo bosh teeth". Heh.

Also on the language front... I was tickling her mercilessly on the bed tonight, and she was LOVING it. She had a look of surpise on her face every time. Actual shock and awe (the good kind). And she kept saying "Abyet" when I was done. I soon figured out that this MUST mean "again." Sure enough.