April 27, 2008

Easter Sunday

Today is Easter Sunday in Kazakhstan.  They celebrate by eating hard boiled eggs for breakfast, the children get candy and they eat cakes.  Many of the stores are closed today, but not all of them.

Mariya and Sasha picked us up at 9:00 this morning to go get Alyona.  When we picked up Alyona this morning she was proudly wearing the dress she had picked out when we went shopping yesterday.  She had on her boots, had her hair pulled back and had put on some make up.  She looked beautiful.  On the drive to the orphanage we started working with Alyona on learning English.  We talked about the animals we saw on the way.  As I have said previously the drive is through large open fields and birch tree forests.  In the fields there are cows, sheep and horses.  We actually had to stop as a cow was crossing the road.

Victor and Kristina were as adorable as always.  We brought coloring books and crayons for them.  They both were VERY careful to color in the lines and made sure they had the colors just right.  There was a grandmother (babushka) in the sport room visiting her grandson.  She said she did not mind us joining them.  Her grandson’s name is Victor also.    Victor and Kristina ate the bananas and juice we brought.  Kristina ate two bananas again.  Victor said “she is smaller than me but sometimes she eats more than me.”

Mariya and I went to Kristina’s room with her to get the book we gave her the other day.  The orphanage is very clean and tidy, and this area was the same.  The main room was set up to look like a classroom with a big desk at the front and tables and chairs facing it.  A door at the back right side of the room led to the bedroom.  There were 10 little beds lined up in 3 rows and had pretty yellow covers on all of them.  There was another small bed off to the side and was next to the bigger bed of the care giver.

We started working with Victor and Kristina on colors and counting in English.  They were both picking it up very quickly.  It was also very helpful for Alyona.  We played ball, badminton and just had fun with each other.   Each day Mariya takes photos of us with the children.   This is a log of information including a journal necessary during the 2 week bonding period.   This will all be presented at court.  We get to see the children for about 2 hours.   It ends quickly.   Mariya tells the children and us it is time to go.  Usually Kristina and Victor go quickly without any questions.  Today Kristina said “Nyet” no. She quickly did as she was told and we left the sport room to take them to their rooms. We hugged and kissed Victor and said “dasvidanya” good bye.  He quickly ran up stairs. We took Kristina toward her area and were met by about 15 children her age.   We gave the caregiver a bag of candy.   All the children in unison yelled “spassiba” Thank you. They are so cute.   Kristina gave us all a hug and kiss and said good bye.  It is difficult leaving them each day.

After we dropped Alyona off at the boarding school we were brought back to the apartment for lunch and told they would come and get us in an hour and half to go shopping.  It is practice to give a present to the Judge, prosecutor, social worker, department of guardians’ worker, the director of both orphanages, the assistant director, and the care givers.  So we had a lot of shopping to do.  Again, Mariya was very helpful.  We found a mall that was open and we were able to get most of the gifts at one store.  Mariya then took us to a newer, modern mall.  This mall was much like you would see in the USA.  Mariya said not many people go there because it is so different and much more expensive.  When we done shopping we walked back to the apartment and Mariya left for her apartment.

Nick and I decided to venture out and try the Italian Restaurant Mariya had shown us.  The waitress could not speak English and a guy came out from the back and was able to speak a little English.  He was helpful and tried real hard.  Nick ordered pizza and I thought I ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce.  Nick received pizza but I received rigatoni pasta with a white seafood sauce and shrimp, mussels, and squid.  They were both very good and we enjoyed going out for dinner.

We came home and watched a movie on the computer before calling it a night.

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