Visit Day 10 and Another Week in Review

Kazakh columbine

Today I want to tell you few more things about our day to day lives during this time in Kazakhstan, what we see and hear, especially those things that make it very clear to us that we aren't in Missouri anymore, let alone the Western Hemisphere. But first, I would be remiss not to spend some time with the stars of the show.

The past several days we have been marveling at the great changes we see in Evie and Jess from day to day. Today, as I was looking back at the pictures we took, I thought (as I'm sure I've heard lots of parents think aloud), "we've encouraged them to sit up, get on their hands and knees, grab ahold of everything they see, and make lots of noise...was this the best course of action?"

I know it was the best course of action! We want to see these two thrive and flourish, and all this activity is just what the doctor ordered, but still...with these new-found skills they won't be easy to keep track of before long! I think this will be especially true of Jesse. Evelyn spends alot more time in one place because she has to ponder every move:

I hope this won't sound prosaic, but I really do think chasing these two around as they develop will be good for us too. I don't mean for the physical exercise, although there will be plenty of that. Here's just one example of what I mean:



When you look at the expressions on these little faces just opening up to the world, doesn't it make you want to take another look at things around you? I feel certain that life with these two will erase all sorts of cynicism from my outlook on life, and prompt me to remember what's important.

And now, how about a walk around Kokshetau, KZ?

The main streets in Kokshetau all have tree-lined pedestrian walkways on the sides. The base of each trunk is painted white, which people have told us is decorative. I'm pretty sure it serves some protective purpose too, though...against insects that bore into wood or cold protection? The weather here is still cool and rainy, but the days are really long at this latitude (sunrise before 5 am and sunset around 10 pm), so there's lots of time to walk around as long as you don't mind bringing an umbrella.










The streets are lined with old five story apartment buildings, some worse for wear than others, most with laundry flying on the balconies. The heat, as in any old Soviet town, is delivered by hot water pipes that snake through the city above town. They are everywhere, exept near public monuments and big government buildings, snaking across apartment courtyards, over roads and sidewalks and around the corners of buildings. Sometimes I feel like I'm walking through a scene from Myst--what would happen if I turned the wheel and pulled the lever?

The people are the most interesting part of walking around town. We don't feel comfortable enough to take people pictures yet, so that will be part of a later post. There is such a wide variety of faces and styles of dress. There are white, Russian looking people, folks that look more Middle Eastern, and lots who look more Asian, with everything in between. I guess the variety isn't greater than one might see walking down a street in New York, but the races represented here are very different. Stay posted for pics and you'll see what I mean.

Its fun to look at the shop signs and to try to imagine what they do inside. For example, what would you think if you saw a "stomatologists" shop? (No fair if you already know Russian, Deb!) The stomatologist's sign below helped me to realize I was on the wrong track:
You can see that part of the fun of it is that everything is in Cyrillic script (similar to Greek). I will end this post with a bunch of signs--can you tell what kind of shops these are? (Hint: If you know the Cyrillic script you may be able to sound out some of the signs.)

Here we go: I'm giving you a serious break with the first one...

This is one of the only signs in town with English on it.

There are several things going on in this place.