April 30, 2008

Visiting the wax museum with Alyona

We were scheduled to meet with Alyona today at 2PM after she got out of school.  Julie and I ventured out in the morning to continue our clothes shopping for Victor and Kristina.   We went to several sports stores looking for clothes for Victor.  We have boys so we thought he would be the easiest to buy clothes.   All the sports clothing stores with the brands like Nike and Adidas that we know do not have sizes small enough for Victor.

After having lunch we walked back to our apartment and waited for Mariya and Sasha to pick us up.

We picked up Alonya and went to get her passport photos.  The photographer was teasing her trying to get her to have a happy face and not such sad eyes.  She laughed and was having fun but could not get her photograph with “happy eyes” as the photographer said.

You are not allowed to smile in the passport photos.   We then went to the hospital to get the doctor to sign off on the medical report that everything is OK with Alyona.

Alyona wanted to see the wax museum exhibit that was in town.  It was part of the guiness book of records exhibit on tour in Kaz.  We had fun taking pictures of the figures with us.   We walked back to the apartment and showed Alyona more pictures on our computer of our house and family.  We could not get an indication from her expressions or her words what she thought of the pictures.  It is hard for us to understand what she is going through.  During one of our drives to the orphanage she showed us a house that she said looked like her mothers house they lived.   It was in a small village.  Unlike the city,  these villages have electricity but no indoor plumbing.  They go to the wells in the villages and pump water into containers that look like beer kegs and wheel them back to the house.  We assume without indoor plumbing they have outhouses.  That is a scary enough thought for us on its own but then we remember how brutally cold and long their winters last.  They also do not have heating and use a wood or coal burning stove for heat.

 

We took Alyona back the boarding school.   Sasha and Mariya dropped us off at the supermarket.   We had to pick up pictures we needed to develop for court that show us with the children and the administrators documenting the bonding period.   Julie and I then did some more clothes shopping.   Mariya showed us where a children’s store was during our journeys.   These stores are very small maybe 2000 square ft if that big.

We were the only customers and were waited on by 3 young ladies trying to help us as we do not speak Russian and they do not speak English.   They were very helpful and very patient and friendly.   We are trying to do our best as we are definitely a 1 couple economic stimulus package for these stores we visit.   The price of food, clothing and gasoline are very comparable to those we pay at home.   A jacket, shirts, jeans and some other clothes cost 16,000 Tenge or about $155.  

We ventured off to the Italian restaurant to eat pizza and watch CNN in English. We got the pizza but for some reason the satellite TV was not working.   The pizza and beer were very good and it ended another good day for us.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we have scheduled for Alex and Ben to call us at 7AM our time or 9PM Wed night their time.  Then we will be off to pick up Alyona and go and visit Kristina and Victor.

The Hrenko Family

Adoption Journey to Kazakhstan

Site Designed & Hosted by

Petro Art Museum with

Wax Figures

Elf Man, Nick, Alyona

Aliens

Russian Actresses