Hey! Is anyone going to take me out of here?!!!Overcast skies today and a bit of a wind chill in the air so there was no out for the little ones today!! I knew that would happen as soon as we bought him a jacket!! Anyway we did get to try on all the hats and they fit just fine. Alex was not a happy little camper today. He was wriggly – when he was up he wanted to be down – when he was down he wanted to be up etc… he was much better and happier in the afternoon.
The communication saga continues – Unable to get on in the Pizza Blue Café at lunchtime so we made it back to the Business Centre in the hotel. Declan got to send one email. Picked up one from Dr. Jenista. Managed to send one to the Colleran wives! The worst thing today was my Kingston Data-traveller has fried!!! Is no longer working and that was the link between all the computers! Another line of communication cut dead! On the plus side we found out how to get our phone card working….
Aine and I went shopping and bought some lovely little dungarees, shirts and shoes for the babies. They will be big but we will try them out tomorrow. Sue just now has to get one identical and it will make a lovely picture!!
Slava aka Tony Edwards, the hotel porter told me today I had beautiful Russian pronunciation – yes, my one new word a day Russian. Which reminds me that today my new word is:
Horoshaw – Good!
Did I mention that ‘Mallen ki’ is the Russian for ‘small’
That takes care of the beers!!! No more ‘P-Va
Bolshoi’
This evening I was waiting for Declan in the foyer when Slava came over and asked me to speak more Russian. I explained I only had one new word a day so was quite limited. Then he asked me did I speak Spanish – I said ‘No, French’ Un petit peu Francais followed. So I proceeded to ask him did he study English at school.
‘Yes’.
‘So, you spoke Russian at home as a young boy?’
‘Yes’.
‘And Kazakh?’
‘Yes’
So, you know ‘Salem’, ‘Sau bol’ ‘Rahmet’ etc
‘No’ to all my Kazakh words.
‘What about Karra? (Look)
‘Eyes’ – Ha, Close enough, I thought.
‘Ju lama?’
Another blank stare and nod of the head!
Little did I know that there had been a tall, good-looking well-dressed Kazakh man standing close by and he started talking in Russian to Slava. After he paused I asked Slava ‘What did he say?’ to which the man turned and said to me in perfect English – ‘I said to him that you were saying ‘Don’t cry’
I could not believe he had such perfect English but he said ‘I should have – I spent 8 yrs in England’. He had also visited Dublin but did not like the weather – said anyone without an umbrella in Ireland was a tourist or just stupid!!
He continued talking to us – introduced us to his two female colleagues, his boss and all three were lawyers with the Ministry for Justice and were here for a seminar on I forget what – something to do with property.
He asked me our business and after a moment’s hesitation I said adoption and explained we had been here three years previously in Taraz – hence my wee bit of Kazakh.
He said he was highly amused to have come across somebody Irish who was in Kazakhstan teaching Kazakh to a Russian who did not understand!! Don’t know if Slava was impressed!! Guess I will find out tomorrow!
Once again we did not go out tonight but stayed in – more bread rolls, ham, cheese and tomato and chocolate and tea…. Declan has been unwell the last few days so we are lying low until he feels a bit better.
Tomorrow we will be interviewed by a representative from the Ministry of Education. I kinda wish we did not know about it because Alex & Aine and Sue just had theirs today and did not know anything about it beforehand!
Our bonding companions Nancy & Darren who are also adopting from Alex’s group will have court tomorrow and then will head for home to New Mexico. It will be hard for them to leave Tolia, (Tucker) but they need to see their little 5yr old son Zack. This is difficult.. We need to ring home but are afraid that it will upset Elena. So we think it will be better if we do not get to talk to her. Guess I will try anyway.
Tonight is the first time I have found the hotel room to be uncomfortably hot. So far we have been doing fine. We have the window open so the fleas think it is a free-for-all. We will regret this in the morning!!
Paka, Paka…. Goodbye
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