Snow? You've got to be kidding!

Madina, our translator, told us it snows up into May, but we didn’t believe it until we saw it coming down this morning. Can you believe it was in the 80’s last week here?

Of course we packed for the blazing hot summers – oops.

Daniel seemed to have one thing on his mind today – being held. 30 pounds is a heck of lower back workout after about an hour of holding him (each). We spent the afternoon shoring up the local economy by buying probably too much clothing for him, but oh well! (Note: By buying Daniel clothing, this frees up the clothing he was wearing for other orphans to wear.) This will also help the transition when coming home as he already has his clothes, one less thing to adjust to.

There is little to report on the adoption front so we’ll concentrate on our perception so far of Schuchinsk. Here is the entry to our little apartment – at first we thought we were going to live in an abandoned warehouse but it was not to be so.

We found out quickly, while lugging our entire heavy luggage up 4 flights of stairs (We believe elevators are outlawed here or something!), that their stairs are only about 6 inches high, and when you’re used to the American standard height (which is higher) it was truly a scene from the Marx brothers as we stumbled our way up in the pitch black (There's good reason they tell you to make sure you have flashlights!)

The area is very poor, but you wouldn’t know it from the citizens’ good attitudes. It was a strange image to see so much poverty without any homelessness, crime, and graffiti compared to American “poor” neighborhoods. This should be a good lesson to us in our current recession. Building codes also seem to be on the out – it’s strange to have a 220V electric line running through your shower! Maybe all those building and OSHA standards aren’t so bad after all?

The orphanage is in tidy disrepair – we say that because although it needs a lot of work they do a wonderful job with what little resources they have. The kids have little to play with outside as you can see from the photo but plenty of toys inside.

(LMI think donation project!!) The routines are very regimented, so when we were told go with the flow that’s the only way you can go. (Sue equates this to Madagascar 2 penguins – “Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave!”)

All for today, we’re still dealing with Kazakh food and jet lag…ughhhh. Eric’s big victory today was finding Coca-Cola and buying it ourselves (no translator), hopefully it will help with both issues.