Baby got a new pair of shoes!

Another beautiful day in Schuchinsk (or Sucinsk)! We woke up to clear skies and temperatures slowly climbing into mid-70’s by this afternoon.

Our morning bonding time started with a trip to the shoe store. Medina, our translator, tells us that the only time the children travel in a car is to the hospital for vaccinations, so we were a little nervous as to how Daniel would do. No problem! The little trooper sat right on Mama’s lap and looked out the window the whole time. We rewarded him with 2 new pairs of shoes (sneakers and stylin’ sandals), then a trip to the lakeshore. He enjoyed skipping stones-or rather just watching them plop after he tossed them in. The photo is of Valera our driver, Mama and Daniel and Medina our translator. This is the same park we “snuck” into on Sunday, not knowing it’s a national park that you need to pay to get into-much like the USA’s, except this one was guarded by some ex-Russian looking soldier dude. (Complete with big hat and the pole across the road- border crossing style.)

Our cultural expedition after morning bonding was hiking to the opposite end of town. These Kazakhs know how to multi-task (see photo). Here is a combination lawn mower, meat market and dairy all on 4 feet! (Sorry, the Veterinarian said they are hooves – I feel so silly!) This jaunty fellow was just down the street from their technological university and outside the (High School?) track. The kids were practicing – on asphalt. Probably a good thing they don’t travel to America to take on our teams as they could likely kick our butts! We finally reached the end of the road and bought ice cream (no interpreter, thank you very much! And only 80 Tenge (50 cents) a piece to boot.) Upon our return the Kazakh multi-tasker was on to his next chore – being milked, next to the sidewalk, in the middle of town.

This afternoon we had another wonderful breakthrough, Daniel learned to blow kisses while swinging, followed by a giggle. He also showed Dad how he takes off Dad’s shoes and replaces them with slippers. Dad loves this kid! After a nice walk and stroller ride we tried to return him to his group, but they were outside, so off came the slippers and on came the shoes (Thanks Danny boy!) and we went back out to find them. They of course came in another way so Dad got another shoe/slipper swap treatment when we came back inside. FYI – it’s VERY impolite to wear your shoes inside, you must always take them off and put on your slippers (which you brought, of course). We found that bothersome at first but it’s actually a very nifty way to keep your floors clean and your feet comfortable. He left us with his newfound skill of blowing kisses and a smile. We can’t wait to see what he’ll do tomorrow.