A Visit to St. Nick

For weeks, we’ve been planning to take Alexey to visit Santa Claus at our local shopping centre. We tried to get in a few times, but either Santa was off feeding the reindeer or the lineup of folks waiting to see him was just too long.

After these haphazard attempts, we decided that this past Wednesday was going to be the day. We planned the operation with military precision. At 1700 hours, John would leave work. At 1730 hours, we would eat supper. 1800 hours, get dressed and get in the car. 1820 hours, arrive at the shopping centre and get into line.

Operation Claus started without a hitch. John sped home from work, we ate, bundled Alexey into the car, and proceeded to the shopping centre.

We found a nice parking spot and lined up with a bunch of other families. Slowly we moved up in line. Alexey waited patiently for his turn, watching Santa’s every move. One by one, families went in to see Santa, had their pictures taken, and filed out. One of Santa’s subordinate Clauses (sorry) whispered the names of the children to Santa as they went up to see him.

Finally, only two families were ahead of us. The first with two girls dressed in matching dark blue dresses, the second with a boy in a Christmas-red sweater. They processed in awe across the expanse of red carpet and talked with Santa. Flashes flared as the official photographer recorded the moment with the big guy for posterity. Now only one ahead! Next, the boy went forth and whispered in Santa’s ear. Again, flashes flashed, recording history in the making.

Now it was Alexey’s turn. Santa’s helper whispered Alexey’s name, and Santa called out “Alexey” in his best Santa voice. Slowly Monika carried Alexey to the vast blue throne. She sat down beside Santa and put Alexey on Santa’s knee. Here was the moment that we were waiting for. The culmination of Operation Claus!

Alexey looked at Santa’s eyes, at Jolly Old St. Nick himself. Then he looked at Santa’s snowy white beard. And cried and screamed as loudly as he could. Passersby in the shopping centre turned to stare. The next children in line took a step back in fear. Whether they were more afraid of Santa or Alexey is debatable.

Santa is a wily old fellow, though, so he immediately feigned disinterest in Alexey, looking at the ceiling, the decorations, and the shoppers. Monika held Alexey on her knee. The photographer didn’t take a picture, waiting for the tears to subside. Suddenly, Santa leaned closer to Alexey and the photographer took a few shots while Alexey went from zero to sixty. She looked at the pictures on the viewscreen on her camera and told John that a miracle had occurred. She had captured one usable picture before Alexey blew up again.

We thanked Santa and the photographer profusely and left the presence with a present for Alexey: a little stuffed snowman.

Operation Claus had succeeded but only just barely. The official photograph shows a rather grim but tearless Alexey. All done until next year.

Transitions

Sometimes in the world of blogs, things become pretty insular. A leads to B leads to C. We have a few items that break our insularity.

Congratulations to some friends of ours who are in Karaganda right now. They just had their adoption court hearing and are the proud new parents of a little boy toddler. They are staying in the same apartment we were in. The timelines for their immigration process means that they won't be back home for Christmas. They received an early gift that they won't be able to share with their families for a while yet. Our thoughts are with them.

Our thoughts and prayers are with John's cousin Debbie as she is in very serious condition in hospital right now. She has pneumonia. She is not going to be home in time for Christmas.

Our thoughts and prayers are also with John's cousin Brenda as she continues her long battle with cancer.

Back Again

Only 28 days since our last post. Sigh. We have had lots of action in that time. We'll try to get caught up here.

John started back to work at IBM on November 2. He was happy to get together with his colleagues and friends there and to catch up on all the news on events of the past few months. John doesn't want to embarrasss his boss, Tara, so we won't mention all of the fantastic support she provided over the past couple of years as we pursued our adoption process. We wouldn't have been successful without her help.

The three of us went over to Monika's cousin Kazik's house on November 7 for a birthday/meet-and-greet celebration. Alexey got to meet some more of his relatives on Monika's side of the family. Kazik and his wife Natalie prepared a wonderful buffet lunch for us all. Alexey got to meet their son Gabriel for the first time. Gabriel is already in grade 1 at school. Alexey also met Kazik's parents, Zbyszek and Ewa,  and Kazik's sister, Anna. Babcia (Monika's mom) was there too. We had a great time, since it was an honourary birthday celebration for Alexey and a real "on-the-day" birthday party for Zbyszek. Alexey was showered with lots of gifts, for which we are all very grateful.

After a couple of weeks back at work, John decided that he wanted to stay at home with Alexey and Monika. So he caught a nice case of pneumonia. Seriously though, this likely happened because his immune system was suppressed due to the food poisoning he had when we first returned home. So he went on a fine course of antibiotics for 10 days and was off work for a week. Monika once again became a single mom for almost two weeks because John couldn't do very much. Some days he couldn't even pick up Alexey.

Speaking of health, though, Alexey finally received his citizenship certificate, so we were able to get a health card number for him. Monika and Alexey got their H1N1 flu shots a couple of days later. We also were able to get a SIN card for Alexey, so he can go to work at any time now.

That brings us up to date.    

Another Busy Week of Firsts

We have decided to continue our blog for a while. Some posts will be about Alexey and how everything is going as our new family is forming. Other posts will provide more details about our experience in Kazakhstan. This one is about the week just past.

On Monday (Oct. 26), we had John's Aunt Barbara from Cowansville in the Eastern Townships, cousins Garry and Connie from Cape Breton, and John's mom over for dinner at our house. This was the first chance for Aunt Barbara and the Cape Bretoners (sounds like a folk group, no?) to meet Alexey. He was his usual charming self, er, except at dinner, and was spoiled by his new relatives.

On Tuesday the three of us went on a very serious mission with Monika's mom (Babcia to Alexey). We went to Toys 'r Us to look for a few toys. Alexey enjoyed his first visit there, Babcia did the grandmotherly spoiling thing, and great fun was had by all.

Wednesday (Oct. 28) was our fourteenth wedding anniversary. We spent the day together as a a family, rejoicing in our new life together. The three of us had takeout Thai food for dinner, a new culinary experience for the little fellow. Alexey ate some pad thai sans shrimp, satay chicken without the peanut sauce, and some rice.

On Thursday, we went to a reception arranged for us at John's office at IBM. Many people from John's department were there and all enjoyed the cake and meeting Alexey. Ditto for the little guy.

We didn't dress up Alexey for Hallowe'en, but he did help us to greet the trick-or-treaters at the door. He wasn't scared at all by any of the goblins and ghouls. On the other hand, unusually for her, Shiraz was freaked out by a couple of the visitors and spent much of the evening barking and growling.

Sunday's change to Standard Time went very smoothly for us. Alexey started to wake up at the usual time, but then went back to sleep when we didn't respond to him and got up at the new time. He was able to stay awake until his new later bedtime in the evening too. He has always adapted very quickly to schedule changes.

Catch-up Time

We mentioned in a couple of earlier posts that Alexey slept beautifully on our flights home. The bassinets provided by Lufthansa were just perfect for him. They put us in “the children’s row”, right in front of our portion of the cabin, on both of their flights. The bassinets attach to the wall, allowing their occupants to travel securely. Although Ivan the Bearrible is lying on top of it, you can see the wide heavy cloth restraint that prevents your baby from flying independently of the aircraft:

We took every chance we could to doze on the way home. Here, Mama and Alexey catch some sleep in the lounge in Frankfurt AIrport:

Even once we were home, we needed to sleep a bit more. Here are Alexey and Dada trying to have forty winks. Shiraz is always a willing snoozer:

Alexey is finding his new room a little cramped:

And So It Goes…

Things are finally settling down here at home. We now have a routine. This is easier because John is finally feeling better. He's now eating after a full week of decreasing menu options. Rice, toast and bananas gave way to Alexey's baby biscuits and crackers. Finally, he was down to only drinking Gatorade and PowerAde for about three days. Doctors think he had food poisoning. John likely picked that up in Almaty, in a cafe (кафе) which was recommended to us. John had a few bites of undercooked chicken before he stopped eating it. There is a certain amount of irony here:

Alexey and Shiraz (our Beagle) have signed a non-aggression treaty. Shiraz tried to become Alexey’s mom one day when he was a bit too rambunctious for her taste. Shiraz circled him a couple of times, herding him. Then she sidled up behind him, opened her mouth as wide as she could, and was about to grab him by the back of the neck to carry him away. Fortunately, Dada intervened and had a few words of advice for Shiraz. Since then, there has been a bit more respect between Alexey and Shiraz.

Monika and Alexey went out for Thanksgiving dinner to Uncle Mats and Auntie Iza’s house while John and Shiraz kept each other company at home. It was a great chance for Alexey to meet cousins Paul and Emma as well as Uncle Mats. Babcia and Grandma were pleased to see Alexey again too, of course. He had some of Auntie Iza’s delicious potatoes, stuffing, and carrots to eat, along with a few spoonfuls of ice cream for dessert.  

This past week, Mama took Alexey to WalMart and The Children’s Place to stock up on clothing, and Dada took Alexey to Metro to pick up some food. Alexey acted like a veteran shopper, sometimes picking up carefully selected merchandise to weigh its merits and disadvantages.

We’re Still Here

Yes. We’re still alive.

We haven’t had much time to blog because of a number of factors.

First, jet-lag is a big challenge for us right now. We’re trying not to nap very much during the day, but that’s proving to be difficult. That’s because Alexey disagrees with the medical literature about trying to sleep through the night to reduce jet-lag. So, he wakes up sometime between 2 and 4 AM every morning and is ready to go for the day. So, one of us has to get up with him and entertain him for up to an hour.

“One of us” in the last sentence really means Monika. Not because John is deliberately avoiding his duties. He has been afflicted with a very nasty stomach condition since we got home. High fever, a bit of nausea, and many, many, er… you get the picture. Since we don’t want Alexey to catch this bug, especially because he is quite small for his age, Monika has assumed about 95% of the parenting duties. Plus she has had to look after John, too.

The resulting drain on our resources (sorry) means that our house is a disaster. Suitcases are strewn across the living room. Two months worth of mail sits unread on our dining room table. Packages of baby food are taking over the kitchen. That being said, we’re still progressing.

Shiraz (our beagle) and Alexey are now getting along well together. They each try to play with the other’s toys. Shiraz has been rebuked several times for playing with the lovely caterpillar toy Alexey got from Kazik, Natalie, and, Gabriel. In the early going, Alexey was severely reprimanded for tugging on Shiraz’s ears, gouging her eyes, and pounding on her head. He has since learned to pet Shiraz nicely, though. Shiraz has been great. If she is unhappy with something that Alexey is doing, she just walks away.

That’s not completely true. She comes over to supervise when Alexey starts to play with her food dish. She frowns and snorts a bit, trying to figure out what to do. We intervene before the situation escalates, though. Alexey also likes to play with Shiraz’s water bowl. Splashing is always great fun! We tried not to laugh and became as stern as we could when he bent over and started to drink from the bowl, without ever having seen her use it.

We will soon post some pictures and some more information. Time to go. Have to feed Alexey.

Home!

We missed our flight from Toronto to Ottawa. We arrived at Ottawa Airport on a later flight at 8:15 PM on Wednesday. Auntie Iza and cousin Kazik were there to greet us. We loaded up our bags into the car and went home to be greeted by Babcia (Monika's mom) and Shiraz, our beagle.

Yahoo!

More details soon!

Now in Frankfurt

We arrived in Frankfurt after an uneventful flight from Almaty on a Lufthansa Airbus A-340 jet.

The number of people touting taxis and assistance with bags at Almaty airport is fantastic. We fell victim to a couple of fellows who took our bags from our hands as we arrived at the airport. They put them on a baggage cart before we knew what hit us. We had to pay about 2000 Tenge to ransom our bags, about $15. One suspects that the government security officials at the airport are friendly with these sorts of people.

The check-in clerks helpfully assigned us seats right in the front of our section, so that a bassinet could be installed on he wall for Alexey and so we would have more space. The cabin crew was fantastically helpful. They talked to Alexey, played with him, and catered to our every need. Right after takeoff, when the Captain turned off the seat belt sign, a couple of flight attendants came and put in the bassinet. But this wasn’t just a basket. It had a real mattress with sheets, a blanket folded so that Alexey could have it under and on top of him, and a real honest-to-goodness miniature pillow. It even had a little roof over the head.

We put Alexey into the bassinet and he fell asleep almost instantly. He slept for almost five hours. We actually had to wake him up.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt right on time at 5:55 AM (ugh), we waited to deplane for almost 25 minutes because there were no stairs available for the plane. Passengers were growing restive, especially those with imminent connections. But soon we were underway, speeded on our way after a 15 minute bus ride to the terminal.

We had hoped to spend our 8 hour wait in the hotel attached to the airport. But a little oversight on our part meant that we couldn’t leave the security area. Alexey is travelling on his Kazakhstan passport. The German Immigration Police representative politely reminded us that citizens of Kazakhstan need a visa to enter Germany. Oops. We opted not to make a break for freedom given the presence of a second police officer toting a machine-gun backing up the front-line officer.

So we are now spending our time relaxing in a lounge in the secured area of the airport itself.

On the bright side, we are still able to feed and change Alexey here in relative civility. Alexey has been snoozing for a good two hours on Mama’s chest. Ivan the Bearrible is keeping them company.

We expect to be leaving for Toronto in only another hour or so. Then it’s a short two-hour wait in Toronto before a one hour flight to Ottawa. Then our 41 hour odyssey will be over.

And then a new one will begin.

Report from Almaty

It’s about 7:00 PM in Almaty, Kazkahstan on Tuesday. It is already completely dark outside.

After some tense moments, we left Karaganda Airport right on time at 10:10 AM and arrived here on time at 12:30. What tense moments? When we checked in, we discovered that Alexey was not registered in the computer system as being on our flight. After some discussions with the special airline ticket agents in the special office for special people, he once again existed and was granted permission to board the aircraft. We went back to the check-in counter, only to be sent to the excess baggage payment office. We were 24 kg overweight. After settling up there, we returned to the check-in counter for a third time, and got Alexey’s boarding pass and our baggage tickets.

Our flight to Almaty lasted just over two hours. We were in a Fokker 50 propeller plane. The kindly check-in agent gave us seats in the first row, so we had a bit more space and could watch the right-hand propeller go around. The left-hand propeller had to be a matter of faith.

Alexey flew like a champion. After a bit of settling-in time, but no crying at all, he provided some play-by-play commentary as the airplane made funny noises and the flight attendants moved about. After an hour he fell asleep for about 45 minutes in Mama’s arms. We actually had to wake him up when the Fasten Seat Belts sign came on as we began our descent to Almaty airport.

Even though the air pressure changed a fair bit, Alexey never uttered a sound, but watched with interest.

We believe (pray?) this is a good omen for our next flight. It’s on a Lufthansa Airbus 340 jet and takes seven hours to go from Almaty to Frankfurt, Germany.

Almaty is a big city with a population of well over a million people. The architecture here is mixed Tsarist-Soviet-European. Some houses and small apartment buildings definitely appear to be old-time Russian style. Huge blocks of apartment buildings and some office buildings are built in the Soviet box style. Some store buildings on the main streets would look at home in Paris.

We visited St. Michael’s Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church built in 1908. It has golden onion domes and is painted in white and yellow. To enter, we had to have covered arms and Monika had to cover her head. They had scarves available to put on in a room as you entered. The Cathedral is full of icons, paintings on the ceiling and walls, and triptychs. Some golden artefacts were in evidence, including crosses, candlesticks, book stands, and the like. Hundreds of tapers, slim candles, were all over, with people lighting them as they prayed.  The Cathedral itself is fairly small, with benches providing seating for no more than twenty people. You could fit in a few hundred people standing, though. The congregation is expected to stand throughout the entire liturgy.

For lunch, Monika had a cheeseburger platter and John had a hot chicken salad. We shared Monika’s French fries, the first we’ve had since we left Canada. The lettuce in our cheeseburger and salad was also a first.

In restaurants and stores, we noticed that prices are definitely in the range of those in the big cities in Europe. They appear even worse because the prices are in Kazakhstan Tenges (TT). A bowl of soup in a nice Thai restaurant would cost a startling 1,800TT were we to buy it. That’s about $14. This is a big change from Karaganda.

We are staying in an apartment until just after midnight, when we return to the airport for our 2:55 AM flight. (Zzzzzzz)

We will try to post to the blog from Frankfurt if we can.  

And So It Begins

We leave our apartment in Karaganda tomorrow (Tuesday) and fly to Almaty. The end of the beginning starts then. Over a two-day period we transition to the part of the world in which Monika and John are comfortable. And Alexey comes to a world he doesn’t know exists.

Our time in Kazakhstan was one in which we could focus on becoming a family. It was a time without any distractions or external pressures. Local problems and inconveniences simply were a part of our family-building process. Monika and John could focus on learning about Alexey and he could focus on learning about Mama and Dada. Monika and John watched with amazement, amusement, and sometimes disgruntlement as Alexey learned new things every day. Respectively, in the past week Alexey has learned how to pick up food in his hand and eat it with all five teeth, how to throw things backwards over his head, and how to do a raspberry (ptttht!) with food in his mouth.

So in two days we will be back in Canada and continue our lives as a family, charting a new course with a new crew member. Alexey will meet his new relatives for the first time and make a whole lot of new friends, even though they all speak a funny language.

We will try to post to the blog from Almaty and Frankfurt as we travel home.

До свидания 

Canada + 1

Today, Saturday, we received Alexey’s documents back from the Canadian Embassy in Moscow. We now have Alexey’s Kazakhstan passport, new birth certificate, and adoption certificate.

Best of all, though, Alexey is now the proud holder of a letter that states that, as of September 30, 2009, he increased the population of Canada by one, because he is a Canadian Citizen!

Alexey now also has a Canadian Facilitation Visa, which allows him to enter Canada as a resident.

We’re comin’ home, baby!

Photos and A Couple of Makeovers

It’s been a while since we posted some photos, so here are a few new ones.

Alexey is already complaining about having to sort the laundry. Wait until he finds out about cutting the grass at home:

Alexey has already learned how to drive handsfree:

Alexey trying his flight accommodations for feel and size:

Alexey’s hair was starting to look a bit unkempt. In need of a makeover, he had his first haircut on Monday at the hairdresser in the shopping area of our apartment complex. He tested our eardrums for much of the time, but we managed to get the entire job done, which we believe to be a miracle. Here he is afterwards with Mama, posing for the camera:

In Kazakhstan, you see feral (or wild) cats and dogs quite often. The dogs are often in small packs, but you sometimes see loners. A makeover is required here too:

The End is Nigh

Because we are still waiting for our paperwork, our scheduled departure date from Karaganda has come and gone. It was supposed to be last Sunday. But now we have a new date: Tuesday, October 6.

We leave here at about 10:30 AM and fly to Almaty on a Fokker 50 propeller plane. After that short 2 hour jaunt, we have a tidy little 14 hour layover in Almaty. Then it’s off to Frankfurt at 2:55 AM on a 6 hour flight. Then an 8 hour wait in the airport there before our 8½ hour flight to Toronto. Followed by a 2 hour wait before our 1 hour flight to Ottawa. We arrive there at 7:10 PM on Wednesday.

Those of you doing the math with fingers and toes by now have run out. Twice. That’s a 41½ hour odyssey if you include waiting times. We will be checking into a hotel in Almaty for sure. Maybe also in Frankfurt.

Success

Very good news was heralded by the sounds of gurgling and belching at 9:00 PM on Sunday night. Our hot water had returned! It ran red for a few hours, and was kind of slimy, but then became as clear as it ever has been. Of course, it wasn't hot, but is heating up nicely now on Monday morning. We are hastening to do dishes, get washed, and so on as fast as we can. So, another crisis has been worked through!

In order to exact payment for this resumption of normal service, our gas stopped working this morning. We are sure that a team of talented engineers is working to remediate this unfortunate situation as soon as is practicable.

Plus ça change...

Another Day Gone

Sunday is almost over here in sunny Karaganda. The high was 22 degrees and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was quite dry. Actually, really dry. Still no hot water. And little cold water. The tap in our kitchen only dispenses the tiniest dribble of cold water, and even that only after we utter various incantations, usually involving the state of Florida. You know, sun on a beach.

If we want to do anything serious with water, we must head off to the bathroom and use the tap there. It has a fairly decent flow; almost as much as that of a drinking fountain. Of course, we have our bottled drinking water, but don’t want to squander it on the dishes and personal hygiene. So we bring water from the bathroom to the kitchen and heat it up on the stove. The end result is that it takes about an hour to do the dishes from lunch if you factor in all the trips back and forth, the heating up of water, and so on.

We spent this morning doing the tour of our neighbourhood, walking through the courtyards of apartment blocks. Most apartments here are built in courtyards. You enter your apartment from the courtyard, not the street. The street side is usually reserved for stores and what are optimistically called boutiques, really stalls with counters. You can buy almost anything in these stores and boutiques, ranging from pears to pairs of socks. You can find plumbing supplies, pipes, cigarettes, clothing, liquor, and copies of DVDs, CDs, and computer games. The copies must be legal, because we saw a senior police officer with a large amount of braid on his epaulettes buying one just the other day.

Hopefully the team of crack engineers will restore our hot water tomorrow.

NoH2O

As of 10:30 AM on Saturday, there is still no hot water. The cold water is but a dribble. Our cook tells us that there is no hot water in her apartment building, on another courtyard than ours.

The Soviet way of supplying hot water and steam for domestic and heating use was to have central heating plants. A complex network of above-ground pipes carries the water and steam to apartment buildings, individual houses, and other buildings. You can see an example of a couple of pipes here.

This was done for reasons of efficiency and economy. Any problems in the heating apparatus could be fixed quickly and in one place by trained engineers. You only need to have one type of parts, not many different types for different brands of equipment. This also fit in quite nicely with the general Soviet proclivity towards centralizing functions and facilities. Why have many little somethings when one big something will do, and look good in the process?

So we assume that a team of trained engineers is working feverishly to restore our hot water.

A New Day

We have extra time to write this post because there’s no hot water, so we can’t take our planned showers or wash Alexey’s bottle from this morning. Sometimes “no hot water” means that the hot water isn’t hot. Today, however, “no hot water” means that there is no flow at all. As a result, everybody is using the cold water for everything, reducing its flow to almost nil.

We realized that we hadn’t provided an update on Alexey’s progress for a little while, so...

Alexey is babbling almost all the time, often trying to imitate what we say. He says Mama and Dada in the correct context with some regularity. He understands some of our Russian and some of our English too. Good luck to him if he thinks we speak Russian fluently. He also understands the words “nyet” and “no”. Note that “understands” does not mean “obeys”.

Alexey also seems to enjoy our musical offerings, often trying to sing along to, conduct, play percussion for, or sway to such classics as Old Macdonald, Frère Jacques, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and, heaven help us, the Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole song.

Alexey is eager to learn to walk. While he hasn’t taken his first independent steps yet, he does move along while clutching to the furniture, and stands up with only minimal holding on. He crawls very quickly, meaning that we have to be very alert.

Alexey is now eating more solid foods. He has tried pasta with meat sauce, bread, mashed potatoes, chicken, and some vegetables that aren’t mashed. He also eats baby biscuits. We are happy because this means that he is definitely learning how to bite and chew. He has further demonstrated his biting ability by chomping on our fingers and wrists on several occasions. When overly tired this past Monday, he expressed his opinions by biting Dada’s wrist hard enough to puncture the skin. Dada raised an official protest about this, in turn causing a huge amount of wailing on Alexey’s part.

All in all, we’re very pleased with Alexey’s progress. When we visited the Baby Home on Thursday, his doctor was impressed as well, saying that he was a “kharasho malchik”, an excellent boy.

Catching Up

It’s been a few days since we posted. That wasn’t due to a lack of news, but to a lack of time.

On Monday, we learned from our local coordinator that our final paperwork is a bit delayed. One of the reasons is that most of the city had a planned power outage that lasted for twelve hours during the daytime on Thursday of last week. So no government offices were open. That meant that some of the paperwork couldn’t be processed. Then Friday came and the weekend.

Our final Kazakhstani paperwork is being taken to Astana, the capital, for, er, finalization only on Friday September 25. As a result, we're not going to be able to come home on our scheduled flights. We were scheduled to fly out of Karaganda late on Sunday, September 27. However, our papers don't go to the Canadian Embassy until Saturday afternoon. But it takes 3 days for them to get there, 2 days to be processed, and 3 days to come back, or so.

As a result, we are attempting to rebook our flights for October 6, returning to Ottawa on October 7.

Alert readers will note that none of this explains why we had a lack of time to post to the blog.

Tuesday was quite dreary. The high temperature was only 9 degrees and it rained all day. John felt exceedingly tired and napped on and off. All was explained when he woke up on Wednesday with a cold and fever. We’re trying to keep Alexey healthy for an entire month, in an attempt to set a personal best for him. Therefore, Monika took over full-time parenting duties, with John only occasionally raising a point of order with the little fellow as required. Same thing on Thursday.

For a few days we had been planning with a family from France to have a party for the staff at the Baby Home on Thursday. Because John was under the weather, Monika also took over full-time organization of that event. In her spare time, she went downtown to TsUM (the department store) and City Mall to buy some gifts for the staff and our translators and coordinators.

On Thursday morning we went to the Baby Home and partied with the on-duty caregivers, doctors, translators, and of course, our two families’ little ones. We had cake and tea and gave out our gifts. The caregivers and doctors had a chance to play with the two babies and to say goodbye, and we took photos and promised to give them to the staff. A very happy occasion.

So, a few busy days.

Medical Thoughts

Note that we are not doctors or even trained lay people. We are just passing on our understanding of potential medical problems that any child in a Baby Home might have.

Tests. The kind you can’t study for. The kind that every baby in the Baby Homes here is given. The kind that frighten every parent.

Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C. Syphilis, and HIV/AIDS are not exactly the tests that you want to consider, even for yourself, forget about for a tiny baby. But these are tests that are required.

Very rarely is the medical background of a child known who has been placed in a Baby Home. There might be some information about the mother, but most likely not. There is almost never any information about the father. And you don’t know if the information is correct.

Some of the children in the Baby Home truly have been abandoned by their parents, dropped off somewhere without a note saying why or who they are. Each Group room at the Baby Home has a roster of children posted. You can see the family name first, then the given name (in the Kazkahstani/Russian tradition), followed by the date of birth. When an unknown child arrives, a name is posted, but no birth date. Presuming no more information becomes available, a scientific guess is made after some medical tests, and a birth date is added a few days later.

Here, as in any former country of the Soviet Union, there is another problem that you have to watch out for. However, you can’t run any tests to confirm the existence of that problem, nor can you rule it out. That problem is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder or FASD. FASD is caused by the mother of the baby drinking during pregnancy. Alcoholism is a very serious problem in the former Soviet Union. Alcoholic mothers often do not stop drinking during pregnancy, nor do they often seek medical attention at all. A common initial potential manifestation of FASD is with all three of low birth weight, small length, and small head size. Low birth weight and small length but a normal head size are usually not an indication of FASD. That’s because the body is smart and provides nutrition first to the brain, then to the rest of the body. However, babies affected by alcohol don’t receive the proper nutrition to their brains either. This lack of nutrition to the brain can cause minor or major developmental problems later on. These can include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, what we used to call hyperactivity), developmental delays, and school learning difficulties. The problem with all this is that you can’t run any simple medical tests at any age to confirm the existence of FASD. There are other clues at an early age, but you can only determine if FASD is present by looking at all the symptoms and ruling out other causes. Even that can only really be accomplished at age 5 or 6.

Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis, HIV/AIDS, and FASD are all very real dangers.

Visit a Web site such as http://www.mayoclinic.com for information about these and other conditions.

Drum Beats

Ever since we've been in our apartment here on Krivoguza street in Karaganda, we've heard a strange ritual repeated daily. At about 10:00 AM, a bass drum starts beating. Slowly at first. Boom. Pause. Boom. Pause. Boom. Then the pace picks up. Boom. Boom. Boom. Then even faster. The sound of each beat echoes around our courtyard, drowning out the echo of the previous beat, soon rising to a frenzy. For weeks, we've pondered the significance of this event. And it's repeated several times each day.

Is this some religious ritual that is unknown to us? Do we have a witch doctor living as a neighbour? Will we see voodoo dolls lying around? Perhaps our own likenesses with needles sticking out of our.... Wait a minute. That's silly.

Maybe a drummer, practicing for the upcoming football game when his marching band heads out onto the field at half-time and.... Nope. Wrong continent.

Ahh. Maybe percussive maintenance once again. We've noticed that almost every type of maintenance that's carried out around here requires banging of some kind. Plumbing, masonry repairs, and hardware installation. Even electrical work, which is sort of scary if it involves banging. But maintenance every day, several times a day? One thing we've not noticed is a surplus of upkeep.

So for weeks we've wondered what this ritualistic thumping is. Our imaginations ran wild, as you can tell. But no real answers. And still the same bang, bang, bang.

Late this past week we wandered around our courtyard, pushing Alexey in his stroller, as we often do. All was silent. Then suddenly the drum beat started again. Slowly, softly, then more quickly and loudly. Ah! At last. Now was our chance to solve The Mystery of the Banging Drum. (Used italics because it sounds like a Hardy Boys novel.) There he was. The perpetrator of the mystery. The drummer. Or perhaps he should be called the beater. For here was a man outside smacking a large rug with a paddle. Clouds of dust rose into the air as he worked his way methodically over the rug. It appears that this fellow runs a rug-cleaning business out of his apartment. But what do you put on your business card? Rug-beater? Dust-raiser?

We came away satisfied with our new knowledge. Although perhaps a little disappointed that he wasn't a witch doctor instead. Because then we would've had a real story to tell when we got back home.

Call It a Day of Firsts

Well, Alexey’s first birthday is almost over. An exciting day, because of a number of firsts.

The three of us went shopping downtown this afternoon at City Mall. We rode the glass elevator at City Mall, the first time he’s ever been on an elevator.

Between us we picked out a couple of birthday gifts. One is a snazzy yellow Fisher Price airplane in which the pilot gets tossed hither and yon as you push the plane around on the floor. Sort of like Top Gun without the safety belts. The other is a black teddy bear who has already been named Ivan in honour of Alexey’s Russian heritage. We had to get Ivan, because Alexey slobbered all over him when he first got his hands on him. So Ivan instantly became family and Alexey’s first own cuddly toy.

Then we walked over to the bakery a few blocks past the statues of Lenin and the coal miners.

At the bakery, we got some yummy cupcakes with white and chocolate icing drizzled on top.

Then we headed back towards home, walking through the big city park that has a lake and an entire amusement park inside it. The amusement park is a smaller, tamer version of the Ex in Ottawa. While passing through the park, we stopped and got a couple of soft ice cream cones. Alexey had a little taste of John’s vanilla ice cream, his first ever. Interestingly, you can get vanilla (called white, here), chocolate, or cherry, or swirls of any two or three of them. We haven’t seen cherry soft ice cream in Canada. Monika tried a white-cherry swirl and said that it tasted good.

Then we walked back home to our apartment and Alexey had a well-deserved nap. Then it was time for the birthday dinner! After we ate our main courses, we brought out the cupcakes and Monika and John sang Happy Birthday, under Alexey’s astute musical direction. But most of all, he wanted to try the cupcake, another culinary first.

We gave a few bites of cupcake to him by hand, then tore up some more pieces and put them on a plate for him to take. But Alexey decided not to use his fingers and instead to eat the pieces off the plate like a dog. We tried to get him to use his fingers, but instead he opted to crush the pieces of cupcake with the palm of his hand. The result was that his hands, face, chest, and legs became covered with crumbs and bits of icing.

As we write this post, Alexey is having his pre-formula feeding nap. Wrapped tightly in his arms is Ivan the Bearrible.

A hugely successful celebration!

Happy Birthday, Alexey

Wednesday, September 16 is Alexey’s birthday! He turns one today.

Our plans for today are to go downtown and choose a nice toy or two with him as gifts, then to get birthday cupcakes for each of us to celebrate with. We will post a picture or two later today of Alexey eating the cupcake. They promise to be entertaining.

In some countries, including another one whose national colours are blue and gold (Sweden, where Uncle Mats and cousin Emma were born), the practice is to fly the national flag on birthdays as well as on national holidays. We don’t know if it’s traditional in Kazkahstan, but we’re doing it anyway, at least here on the blog.

Flag picture Flickr/Creative Commons

Zdrastvuytye

No, Alexey wasn’t playing on the computer keyboard when it came time to write the title of this posting. That’s the transliteration of Здравствуйте!, or “hello” in Russian. If you just want to say “hi” instead, you can use the shorter Привет! (privyet).

Kazakh and Russian are the two main languages spoken here in Kazakhstan. Kazakh is the official language of the country. In an adept move that neatly worked around a potential political trouble spot, Russian was declared to be “the language of interethnic communication”. Almost all people of Kazakh background speak Kazakh and some Russian. Very few people of Russian background speak Kazakh, however.

It is fairly difficult to get Kazakh language training outside of Kazakhstan, so we opted to learn some Russian. That prepared us a little for what we face here. Many signs are bilingual. However, both languages use a version of Cyrillic, so our first task is always to figure out which part of the sign is in Russian. That’s easy enough if the sign is somewhat self-evident, but, if not, you can spend a while reading the sign. Occasionally we stand and stare at a sign for long enough that passersby slow down and start to read the sign with us, wondering what delights it promises.

Of course, pictures or pictograms on a sign usually help. Take a look at this photo.

The red cross with the 24 gives it away to a certain extent. It’s obviously a medical facility of some kind that’s open 24 hours a day.The word on the left is ДӘРІXАНА. Because Russian doesn’t use the upside down “e”, we know that word is in Kazkah. So we look to the right. We sound out the word АПТЕКА. Slowly we say “ap-tye-ka”. Ah, that’s quite similar to the word “apothecary” in English. This is a pharmacy.

Of course, you can be misled a bit. Consider the next photo.

Easy. Another medical facility. Obviously a clinic of some kind, where they speak English. The doctor looks comfortingly familiar. And we can call if we have questions. Even call their cell phones, the 8 701 numbers. Wait a minute. The doctor looks a little too familiar. That’s John Stamos, from the television show ER. Now we’re becoming suspicious. We start sounding out the big text. Kom-put-… ahh. This is a sign for a computer repair store. The text at the bottom is asking if our computer is sick. Thank heavens we didn’t call them and start babbling about our medical problems. [No, moms, we’re not sick.] That would’ve been… entertaining. For them, at least.

Some pictures have obvious meaning, even if you don’t know the details. We were advised at home that you can’t go wrong if you pay close attention to the pictures on the milk cartons in the grocery stores. There are cows, horses, and camels. We stayed with the bovine cartons, with much success. Therefore, we scurried for our dictionary in a panic when our cook showed up with a fresh carton of milk for us the other day:

Say Hello to…

Alexey Daniel Holgate

The end of today, Thursday August 10 2009, is the end of the period in which Alexey’s adoption can be appealed. That means that as of 12 Midnight Kazakhstan time (2 PM EDT) he is officially our son!

[ Dad is posting this blog entry a few minutes early because he just can’t wait until Midnight :-) ]

It is a time of great happiness for the two of us. Hopefully for Alexey too!

We chose Alexey’s middle name, Daniel, because we liked it. But after we chose it, we realized that it is perhaps symbolic of Alexey. He was in the lion’s den, like Daniel in the Bible (Book of Daniel, chapter 6). Daniel did nothing wrong, but was sentenced to spend 30 days in the lion’s den, which is what it sounds like. He escaped from it because of his faith. Alexey has never lived in a home with a family. He has been in his own lion’s den for almost a year. But his spirit held and he never gave up hope.

Below is a picture which illustrates both Alexey’s future and his past. We took it a few weeks ago. It shows the three of us, including Alexey in goofy, fun clothing, ready to move forward. We are in front of a very small portion of the washing at the Baby Home. On a normal day outside, you can see as many as a hundred pairs of pants and as many shirts drying. And dozens of diapers, sheets, and changing cloths, as in this picture. Many of those are not much more than rags. Because the drying is done outside, almost all of the clothing, sheets, and diapers are quite rough on the skin. But they are now in his past. The clothes that we brought in for Alexey are the first clothes that are his alone. And likely the first soft clothes he’s ever worn.

But today is not a day to become tearful over. It’s a day to rejoice.

Thank you so much to all of you for your support.

Monika, John, and Alexey.

Pictures from Astana

We visited Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a couple of Fridays ago. It has some futuristic architecture. Here are a few pictures:

The gas company building has a large arch beneath it, something, we are told, like l’arche de la Defense in Paris, if you know it:

Next is an intriguing egg-shaped building in front of two wavy office buildings in behind. The waviness is not caused by a bad camera lens:

The Baiterek Tower. You can go up into the ball (or egg) 97 metres above ground. There is a Kazakh legend about a “Baiterek”. It is an ancient tree of life. Its roots are in the subterranean world, the trunk in the earthly world, and the crown in the heavens. Every year a sacred bird, Samruk, lays a golden egg in the crown. Every year it is consumed by a dragon, Aidakhar, which lived at the base of the tree. This is representative of the cycle of life, of summer and winter, and of rebirth: 

Two elderly Kazakh ladies in traditional dress accompanied by their granddaughter outside the Baiterek Tower. They went to the top of the tower to place their hands in the President’s handprint impressed into a piece of gold there. See our earlier post called “Hands on in the Baiterek Tower for more information about that:

A view from inside the tower towards the Presidential Palace at the end of the Water and Green Park. The shiny gold buildings on either side are office towers. Curving out from them on either side are two government of Kazakhstan office buildings. Combined, they give the impression of an eagle, one of the symbols of Kazakhstan:

A closeup view of one of the golden office towers:

 

Below is an intriguing mix of architectures. There is the glass of a Western-style building mixing with the light stone block and domes of an Eastern-style building.

The Nur Astana Mosque provides space for 5000 worshippers. The main dome rises to 43 metres. It is surrounded by 25 smaller domes. The four minarets are 62 metres tall. Its construction was funded by the Emir of Qatar:

When Is Labour Day Not Labour Day?

Happy Labour Day to everyone in Canada! We hope you have a great Monday off as part of the last long weekend of Summer (sigh). Labour Day was founded in Canada. Did you know that, according to Wikipedia, it has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880s? You can trace it back to April 14, 1872, when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union's strike to demand a mere 58-hour work-week.

Of course, Kazakhstan used to be a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) before its dissolution. May 1 (May Day) was celebrated for many years throughout the communist world, as in many other places, as International Workers' Solidarity Day. So, one would expect that a holiday in commemoration of labour would continue to be held in Kazakhstan. Nyet. After gaining independence, the May 1 holiday was renamed here as the Day of Unity of the People of Kazakhstan: a day to celebrate the ethnic diversity of Kazkahstan. Fortunately, it's still a labourless day.    

A Non-Utilitarian Few Days

Avid readers will remember that we’ve had our share of trouble with water and sewage. Well, since Wednesday, there have been a series of “issues” on the utility front.

We haven’t had hot hot water since Wednesday. Sometimes it’s lukewarm, sometimes it’s tepid, sometimes it’s colder than the cold water. But we can manage. If we need to, we can heat up some water on the gas stove to do the dishes. Showers are simply, how shall we say it, refreshing.

So we thought nothing of inviting over one of our translators and her husband for dinner on Thursday. After all, we could slowly do the dishes later. We went to the local supermarket (супермаркет, in Russian) and bought our food for dinner in the morning. We had decided to make ethnic food for our guests: Canadian. So we were making a nice beef stew with a bit of red wine thrown in for flavour, along with mashed potatoes. Our translator even got into the swing of things, because she volunteered to make an apple pie. So our guests arrived and asked if they could wash their hands before dinner. Sure, we said. Feel free to use our bottle of Purell.

The cold water came back at about 7:30 PM, but the hot didn’t come back until about 9:00 PM. And it was red. And it smelled like sulphuric acid had been added to it. A lovely smell permeated our kitchen/living/dining room as we finished our dinner. But all in all, our dinner was a success.

The hot water still hasn’t been hot since then, but at least we have some water.

Yesterday (Friday) at 5:25 PM, the lights went out. We had been warned that in the summer, the electricity can be rationed if their is too much demand caused by air conditioners. But it was only 10 degrees outside, and had been raining all day. That didn’t sound like rationing. It sounded more like a problem with the system, because of the volume of rain. Besides, they wouldn’t ration the power at supper time, would they? The entire neighbourhood was without power. We thought that the repairs would be carried out quickly, given the widespread nature of the blackout. So we cooked our dinner on the gas stove. Why is that exceptional? Because the gas is only on for about half of the time. One week on, one week off. We have an electric hot plate for the gasless days. So we lit some candles and had a romantic dinner with Alexey. We sat in the dark for only 5 hours before the electricity came back on. 5 hours to the exact minute. Hmm. Maybe they did cut off our power deliberately.

You just never know what’s going to happen here.

Hands On in the Baiterek Tower

When we travelled to Astana, we visited the Baiterek Tower. It’s a big golden ball sitting on top of a silver-coloured tower. It was built to commemorate the declaration of Astana as the capital of Kazakhstan. The ball, covered in gold-coloured glass, sits at 97 metres above the ground. 1997 was the year that Astana was declared to be the capital. You take an elevator up the to the ball. If you like, you can walk up another two flights of stairs to the top level, the one you see in the photo here. In the center of that level, there is a large malachite plinth. Surrounding it at the top is a large warriors belt, with many symbolic badges made of gold and silver. On top of that there is a 5 kg silver disc. Sitting on that is a triangular shaped 2 kg block of gold. The handprint of President Nazarbaev is imprinted into it. A guide explained the meaning of the tower to us in English. Visitors are urged to place their hands into the President’s handprint and to make a wish. As we awaited our turn to put our hands into the gold handprint, many Kazakhstani people preceded us. They took the ritual very seriously. Many obviously were there on a pilgrimage of sorts. Senior citizens in formal traditional dress were there. Young parents in their best clothes were there with their infant baby in a white dress. There was only a low hum of conversation. Finally it was our turn to place our hands into the handprint and to make a wish. Patriotic music began playing over the sound system as we touched the gold. There are very few non-Kazakhstani people who visit the tower. We were humbled and delighted to find that we were being honoured by the music as distinguished foreign visitors.

In the background of the photo, gold tinted because of the glass, you can see a few of the very modern buildings in Astana. We will soon post more pictures, Internet access allowing.

Holiday On Monday

Monday was a holiday here in Karaganda, transferred from Sunday, just like we do in Canada. It was actually a double holiday.

 

First, Sunday was Constitution Day, celebrating the anniversary of the constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, adopted on August 30 in 1995. There were big fireworks over the lake in the main city park. We could even hear the crowd's cheering and ooh's and ah's from our apartment, a few kilometres away. Large banners are strung throughout the city, proclaiming Constitution Day and encouraging pride in the constitution.

 

Secondly, Sunday was also Mine Workers' Day, celebrating the contributions of miners to the development of Kazkahstan's economy. Billboards sprung up overnight with messages thanking miners and depicting them as the foundation on which the country is built. Coal mining and the steel industry are very important in the Karaganda region. There are many coal mines surrounding the city and a very large steel mill in a town called Temirtau, about 40 kilometres away. We visited Temirtau on our trip to Astana. The operation is run by Arcelor Mittal, a well-known Indian steel manufacturer. They own some steel mills in Canada as well. It was interesting to note that Mittal meets the environmental regulations specific to each country. The air in Temirtau was a very pretty shade of yellow.

 

As a result of these holidays, banks, business offices, and government offices were closed yesterday. Stores were open, however, and the transit system seemed to be running at regular capacity for a Monday.    

And So it Goes...

We're finding that looking after Alexey 24/7 is a little different from looking after him 2 hours at a time. There's lots of food preparation and thinking about schedules. For now, we are attempting to stick to Alexey's schedule from the Baby Home in order to minimize disruption, since we've already changed so much that he knows.

• 6 AM: Feeding of formula. zzzzzz.
• 8 AM: Nap.
• 10 AM: Feeding of porridge with some fruity baby food thrown in and some water or watery juice.
• 12 PM: Nap.
• 2:00 PM: Feeding of porridge with some fruity baby food and some pureed vegetable soup. The soup is an addition we've made. Also, something to drink.
• 4 PM: Nap. Theoretically.
• 6 PM: Porridge again with fruity baby food and soup. And a drink.
• 8 PM: Pre-bedtime nap. An absolute requirement. He's unconscious at 8:01.
• 10 PM: Another feeding of formula during which almost nobody is awake. Then bedtime.

Overall, Saturday went swimmingly here. Alexey was a champion. No crying. Took his naps. Slept through the night. No night terrors, which are a very real possibility for children adopted from orphanages. Laughs and giggles all 'round. It was like he was on vacation from the Baby Home.

On Sunday, there were a couple of major tantrums. Alexey kept us in sight at all times. If we disappeared from sight for more than one millisecond, he took immediate disciplinary action. He took naps reluctantly, if at all. He sobbed in despair at every meal. He cried at diaper change time too. He wouldn't drink water. And we were reviewed for our suitability as parents every few minutes. There was the dropping game, the rules consistency test, and the divide and conquer strategy. And yet, there were laughs and giggles when we were playing together.

A very interesting study in contrasts.

A Mockup

According to the rules and procedures regarding the adoption of children here, a child can only come into the care of adoptive parents once the fifteen-day appeal period of the court ruling has taken place. A violation of those rules is not welcomed by the Karaganda Department of Education.

So the rumour that Alexey began living with us today (Saturday) in our apartment is obviously not true. We are working assiduously on a mockup in PhotoShop to show him sleeping in a crib in our apartment. Sort of an artist's concept. We will post it soon.

To the Future and Back

We went to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Friday. We travelled in a van with a couple from France whom we met at the Baby Home, our local coordinator and translator, her prospective adoptive daughter, and a driver. The distance from Karaganda to Astana is just over 200 km. But it's very difficult to do the trip in less than three hours. That's because the quickly changes from a 4-lane divided highway to a 2-lane undivided highway and you sometimes get stuck behind heavy trucks; old trucks; and heavy, old trucks. That being said, the condition of the highway is very good. Much better than parts of highway 401 in Ontario or highway 40 in Quebec. Many times better than the roads in Cape Breton (sorry, folks).

You also run across (fortunately, not literally) the odd cow or horse standing right beside the highway, so you have to be careful. As well, there are many roads that just enter the highway without any off-ramps or on-ramps. Like the Trans-Canada highway through New Brunswick used to be. The terrain is very flat. Almost all of it is steppes. Like the Canadian prairies, but a bit more desolate.

On the way to Astana, we had lunch in a traditional Russian-style tavern on the side of the road. Seven of us had a fairly substantial meal, including tea all 'round, for less than $40. Tea is served either as chai z maloko or chai z limon. (Pronounce them as written, even with the "z".) The first is with milk already added into the teapot. Sort of like cafe au lait. The second is with lemon in the teapot.

On arrival in Astana, we saw that the city is divided into two parts, physically and architecturally. The part on the East side of the river is in the Soviet style. There are old wartime houses there, really shacks, hastily built when many people fled the advancing German armies in the West. There are also very square apartment buildings, built in a hurry in the post-war period, right up until the end of the Soviet era.

The part of the city on the West side of the river is all new. When they made Astana the capital, they decided to put almost all of the government buildings and foreign embassies there. Fifteen years ago, there was nothing there except steppes. Now, even the French family said that some of the architecture and plan rivals that of Paris. Companies built offices and developers built shopping centres and apartments. The architecture is very modern, even futuristic, but not ridiculously so. We will post some pictures when we get an opportunity. Fans of architecture should definitely research Astana more. It rivals Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and the cities in some of the emirate countries in the Middle East for futurism.

On the way back, we ate in a yurt, a round tent-like structure traditionally carried on the side of camels by Kazakh nomadic animal-herders. You sit on the floor on cushions around circular tables. Traditionally, you sit in a place assigned by your status. The table farthest away from the door is reserved for the highest ranking men, with the honoured guest or head of the household seated farthest away from the door. At the table to the right of the honoured guest sit the highest ranking women. Then the other tables decrease in rank as you move counter-clockwise around the yurt until you finally have the youngest children sitting together. We all ate at the same table, though. We had a traditional Kazakh meal of shashlik, sort of a meat-only shish kebab. You can have mutton, beef, or chicken. The meat is cut into pieces as is, bones, fat, and all. It's marinated for up to 6 hours. The marinade can be made of yogurt and lemon, or sometimes just lemon with water, and various spices. Then it is cooked directly on a fire on metal spits that are about 50 cm long. When all is cooked, the spits are then brought to your table. You have the choice of taking the meat off the spit with a fork or your hands and putting it on your plate. Or you can eat the meat directly off the spit. Remember, the bones are still there. The meal came with tomato and cucumber, along with fresh bread. And of course, more tea.

We also shared a bowl of kumiss. That's a traditional Kazakh drink. It is fermented mare's milk, with little bits of a specific grass added for additional flavour. Kumiss is quite thin and sour-tasting, with a hint of smokiness, like some cheeses. Everybody tried it and were surprised to find that it is fairly drinkable. You can buy it in the grocery stores here.

Altogether a very intriguing day. Our curiosity satisfied about Astana and yurts and horse's milk, we returned to Karaganda.

So What Does It All Mean?

A few people have asked what our court judgement means. Our adoption of Alexey takes effect in fifteen days. That allows for a period in which the judgement can be appealed, either by Alexey's birth family or someone else with an interest. The likelihood of that happening is minimal.

After fifteen days, we can get Alexey's birth certificate reissued, a Kazakhstani passport, Canadian citizenship, a Canadian passport, and a Kazakhstani exit visa. Piece of cake.

Then we can come home.

A Capital Experience

The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, was in town yesterday and today. We waved to him when he drove by on the street. We're sure he waved back. At 80 km/hr. In a 14-car motorcade. In a car with blackened windows. As a matter of fact, his motorcade went past a few times today, accompanied by lots of security, including many men in suits with bulges in their jackets. Many uniformed city police also were in evidence blowing whistles as efficiently as they could. Not whistle-blowing squealers, but actually blowing whistles to control traffic.

Speaking of the President, tomorrow, Friday, we're going on a sightseeing trip to Astana (Астана, in Kazakh and Russian), the new capital of Kazakhstan. Astana means "capital" in Kazakh. Montreal, Toronto, and Kingston lost the opportunity to be the capital of Canada way back in the mid-1800's. Almaty, the largest city, lost the capital to the town of Akmola in 1997, which was then renamed to Astana in 1998. Astana is now experiencing a major boom in construction. Many of the buildings are quite futuristic. Some look like they come from The Jetsons cartoon show. The trip should be camera-worthy.

A New View

Here are some more photos of Alexey.

Alexey and Mama admiring each other.

Alexey in his crib in his group's sleeping room.

Time for a nap in a the sidewards downward dog position.

Post-Court Report

So we had our court hearing today. We started at 9:30. Everything went really well. It took about 30 minutes. We made a short presentation of our case for adoption, the doctor from the Baby Home said a few words about Alexey, and the social worker talked about us. Our lawyer basically said that we made a good case and had nothing to add.

The lawyer representing the government also said that we made a good case and would therefore not oppose the application. The judge agreed and granted the adoption, to take effect fifteen days from tomorrow. So, we're parents!

The Times They Are A'changin

The time of our court hearing was moved up today. It will now be at 9:00 AM on Wednesday. That's 11:00 PM on Tuesday for those back at home. So, no sleeping in tomorrow. We need to be ready to go at 8:30.

The high today here was 28 degrees, but the expected high for tomorrow is only 22 degrees. So John's grey woolen suit won't cause too much heat prostration. When we went to the judge's office on Monday, it was 31 degrees, a tad warm for a woolen suit.

More news as it develops.

Post-Pre-Court Wrapup

This afternoon, we had our Pre-Court meeting with the judge, Alexey's doctor from the Baby Home, our lawyer, and our translator. The purpose of the meeting was to verify that all of our documents are correct, that we are who our passports say we are, and to verify the legitimacy of the doctor and our translator.

The judge is roughly equivalent to a Provincial Court Justice in Ontario. We met in her office for about fifteen minutes. Our only responsibilities were to hand over our passports and to say "Yes" when asked if we wished to proceed with the adoption of Alexey.

Our heavier duties come during our court hearing on Wednesday at 3:00 PM, (5:00 AM EDT). That's when we must make a presentation about why and how we can adopt Alexey.

So another hurdle has been jumped.

Tomorrow, we will post some more photos. We tried to do that yesterday afternoon at the Internet cafe, but Blogger was down for maintenance. Then we tried to be brave and post one from our apartment in the evening. We gave up after twenty minutes for one photo. That's due to us using dial-up Internet access. By the way, that's how you accessed the Internet in the dark ages, just like in parts of Kemptville today. ;-)    

Fragility

The children at the Baby Home are split up into separate groups and rooms based on age and developmental level. The higher the number, the older the group. Alexey is in Group 5.

This afternoon (Saturday in Karaganda), the nurse on duty in Group 4 was called to Group 2. A little baby who has been in the Baby Home for only two weeks was having a heart attack.

The nurse administered CPR and successfully resuscitated the baby.

Our thoughts and prayers are given for the baby. And our thanks are given for the gifts of the nurse from Group 4.

Getting Around in Karaganda

Local public transportation in Karaganda is somewhat different than back at home in Canada.

One way of getting around is by taking a taxi. You can call a cab company and they'll send one to your location, just like at home. You agree on a price on the telephone. The usual price for going anywhere in the city is 350 to 400 tenges. That's about $2.50 to $3.00.

You can also flag down a cab on the street. You negotiate the price when you get in the car. These cabs are usually about 50 tenges cheaper than those that you call.

There are two types of bus. One is the usual kind of bus like you see on the street in most major cities. Most of them here are made by a company called Setra. They're operated by the Akimat (city or mayoralty) of Karaganda. The other type of bus is a marschrutka: what we would call a minibus. They're privately owned and operated. No matter what kind of bus you take, the price is the same: 30 tenges during the day, 50 tenges after 9:00 PM. The fare on both types of bus is collected by a conductor like we used to have years ago on streetcars in Canada. The conductor walks up and down the bus, collects fares and gives change, and maintains law and order. If an old person, a young child or a pregnant woman gets on a bus, woe befalls he or she who doesn't yield their seat.

The marschrutkas provide a unique travel experience. They have about ten to fifteen seats. But you often find twenty or more people on them. Personal space is definitely at a premium. The radio is usually playing quite loudly, often Russian or Kazakh pop music. Some of the marschrutkas are fairly old and have not had the benefit of a pollution control check since they left the factory. Some have Plexiglas replacing broken windows. Or sometimes the type of clear plastic like you get in a tent trailer. They must be a bit drafty in the winter. The marschrutkas have two main benefits, though. One is that you do get to your destination very quickly. Many drivers are apparently ex-Formula One racecar drivers. They go very fast because they want to pick up as many passengers as possible. They want to beat other marschrutkas and the city buses to the next stop, in order to make more money. Some are former members of the brass section of the Karaganda City Orchestra, because they are expert horn players. The second benefit is that there seems to be an unlimited number of marschrutkas. So you rarely have to wait more than five minutes before your bus comes. Albeit sometimes in a cloud of smoke.

You do need to be alert when taking your bus, though. The city buses are all numbered in the normal way. But the marschrutkas' numbers begin with zero. So the route of a number 1 bus is not the same as that of a number 01 marschrutka.

In the main downtown area there are also trolley buses, like they have in Toronto. Not streetcars, though. Buses with pantographs. (Had to say that. How often do you get to use the word "pantograph" in a lifetime?) These trolley buses are mostly relics of the Soviet era. One might argue that some are veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet name for the Second World War. Some are quite modern, though. Newer than those in Toronto, anyway. And you only pay 25 tenges for a ride.

Another way of getting around is to hitchhike, but to pay for the ride. You just stick your arm out perpendicular to the ground and wave it sideways to parallel. If you don't like the look of the car or driver, you just wave it on, and nobody takes offence. If you do get into the car, you negotiate a price for your destination. Many people use this method of transportation to move about. We haven't been brave enough to try it, though; our local bus stop is served by three different bus routes.

So there are many ways you can quickly and cheaply get to where you want to go in Karaganda.

Technical Progress

Tuesday night we got a telephone call. "We have dates for you," said the voice on the other end. Ah ha! The information we've been waiting for.

The voice gave us the dates of the next important technical steps in our adoption journey. We learned that we would meet social workers on Wednesday morning (today) and our lawyer in the afternoon.

Despite the time that Blogger adds to our posts, the real time here in Karaganda is coming up on 9:00 PM on Wednesday. So both of those meetings have already happened.

The social workers asked some fairly straightforward questions. They asked about our finances. They asked why we want to adopt a child from Kazakhstan. They asked what our child care arrangements will be. They asked if we have any relatives who are in need of an organ donor. They asked what our professions are.

"Whoa!" you say. "They asked about organ donations?" Yes, they did. They're trying to preclude the possibility that we are adopting Alexey for the purposes of harvesting his organs. A minute part of the international adoption world is that some sons of, er, unsavoury characters are attempting to create a supply side for the organ transplant market. (I can't believe that I'm writing this.)

Enough said about the visit to the social workers.

This afternoon, we met with our lawyer. He gave us information about the court process we will follow. We first have a pre-court hearing in front of the judge in her office on Monday afternoon. The main purpose of that meeting is to ensure that all of the documentation is ready for our court hearing, which will be held on Wednesday afternoon.

Our lawyer also told us that we have to give a presentation in court. For example, why we are adopting. Why we are adopting in Kazakhstan. Why we are adopting Alexey. What our ability is to provide financially for him. How we will ensure that he receives health care. What child care arrangements we will have. How Alexey will be looked after if we both pass away. And so on. And all of this in less than 15 minutes, including sequential translation. That is, not simultaneous.

And thus our careers as advocates in the Kazakhstani court system begin. On the bright side, we do have enough time to make our presentations short. Our technical writing friends will understand what that means.

Then the judge and, as our translator so charmingly put it, the state persecutors (prosecutors, we hope she meant) will ask us questions. Our lawyer said that some hearings are as short as 20 or 30 minutes. Others may last up to 90 minutes, or even more. Most of which time is taken up with questions. But nobody expects the Kazakhstani Inquisition. (Sorry.)

More news as it develops. Watch Court TV on Wednesday. We're sure we'll be on.

Bon Appetit from Karaganda

We promised that we would write a little about the food we've been eating and what you can buy in the grocery store in Karaganda. We've been blessed with having a wonderful cook preparing food for lunch and dinner everyday for us in the apartment. We've had a few Kazakh dishes such as verenki which are similar to pierogis but a little smaller. They can also be stuffed with meat or potatoes or with other stuffing; lots of varieties available in the frozen section of the grocery store.

Another Kazakh dish is "Plov" which is a rice dish with meat, seasoned nicely and at times with added raisins and prunes. This goes nicely with a meat and carrot salad that we've eaten a few times including in the fast food section of TSUM, the large department store downtown.
The most common Kazakh dish that you will find everywhere are small stuffed meat pies, usually with some diced potato and onion added in. One of these pies is enough to fill you up for lunch.

Our cook makes very large portions so no doubt I will have gained quite a few pounds during our stay here. Lunch starts off with some homemade soup, usually made on chicken broth. Potatoes, carrots and dill are ingredients in all soups and in many other dishes as well since the variety of vegetables is limited here. I can't imagine what it's like in winter if it's this limited in the summer months!

Blinis are quite popular as well. They're thin crepes filled with cottage cheese, or meat, or jam (similar to blintzes). We are definitely requesting these again!

Being Polish, I've had the pleasure of having pickled herring a few times for lunch, there are many many varieties of these in the grocery store. I can't really say that John loves herring like I do; he will eat some but not 3 days in a row like myself.

A lot of main dishes are comprised of some kind of meat (chicken or beef) and either rice, pasta, or potatoes. All are flavoured nicely. We have not seen any lettuce at all, I don't think they grow it here. We will have salads made from cabbage, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. A known Kazakh appetizer is sliced tomato, topped up with a light version mayo with lots of garlic, and grated cheese.

Grocery stores are quite interesting to wander around in. There's a large section of dried fish and herring; we have not seen any fresh fish as we're surrounded by steppes. All kinds of sausages fill up a large deli section and there is a butcher that has an interesting selection of meats that we don't ask about.

We have not yet been brave enough to try the horse or camel milk that they sell in the dairy section but we cannot leave Kazakhstan without trying it...Maybe we will find some chocolate flavour camel milk to try ??

They do have chips with different flavours such as beef, crab, mushroom, to each his own...

Another aisle in the grocery store is dedicated to wine and liquor. Lots of different kinds of vodka, some local for around $5 and other well known brands for the same price as back home. There is not a great choice of good quality wine. It's either very cheap or very expensive.

Overall we're eating very well, and we're thankful that we don't have to shop and prepare our meals, and rather focus on our visits with Alexey.

Monika

Car Buffs' Dream

If you are a car buff, Karaganda is the place to be. So far, we have spotted various models of:

• Audis
• BMWs
• Chevrolets
• Ladas (both really old and quite new)
• Mercedes
• Mitsubishis
• Trabants (former East German cars made of cardboard, with sewing machine motors)
• Toyotas (including Camrys, Corollas, Pradas, and others, some right-hand drive)
• Zils (old Russian "luxury" cars)

The thing we notice is that, just like in the stores, there are really two classes of cars around. The older, less expensive class consists of Ladas and Trabants, along with the Zils. Most of the old cars are Ladas with weird names consisting of letters and numbers, like a B406D (or something like that, the letters are in Cyrillic).

Many of the new cars are quite snappy. Those trying to show off their conspicuous consumption drive in Toyota Prada or Mercedes SUVs. The most common model of new car seems to be Mitsubishi, with many regular cars as well as SUVs. Every taxi we've taken has been either an Audi or a Mercedes, likely because they are quite well built.

We are trying to take pictures of models of cars and trucks that we don't see at home. We'll try to post a few of the more interesting ones.

We'll also post about the intriguing bus system in Karaganda. The price is right, at 30 tenge per trip. That's about 22 cents.