Visit Day 3, Plus the Week in Review

Since we went on a bit in the last few posts, I'll keep the report of our 3rd visit short and sweet. Just a few remarks and pictures and then I'll turn today's entry over to Brent for a retrospective--a review of our first week in Kazakhstan. 

So, as you can see, we read our first book today (Barnyard Dance--a gift from the Dando's. Thanks guys, the book was a hit--we read it 3 times!). In addition to the coziness of the moment, the cutest thing happened- Eva grabbed Jess's finger and put it in her mouth. At first he was a bit puzzled

Hey sis, that's my finger!

After a minute or two, however, he decided to just let her have the finger and settled back to listen to the story. She kept it for the whole of story hour.

Below is a picture of Jess and Evelyn's room--the room where we visit with them each day. This wing of the hospital is brand new--it was just completed a month (or so) ago. It's very nice, and very comfortable. As this picture suggests, we spend the bulk of our time playing together on the bed.

As for twins themselves-they are as cute today as yesterday. Well, OK, maybe cuter. (Fyi, you can click on any of the pictures for a closer look.) I'll wrap up my part of this post with another family picture. Thanks for keeping up with us, y'all--it's so nice to have you along!



Okay, here's my bit after Susan's "short" entry (if any of you have seen her published work you would have a better sense what she means by short!) Like she said, I'm going to give you a few thoughts in retrospect after a week in Kazakhstan. For those of you who haven't checked your atlas (or your Risk board), I'm happily typing away in a country about four times the size of Texas with a population density about the same as Wyoming that sits smack in the middle of the Asian continent, bordered by China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. About 45% of the country's 17 million inhabitants identify themselves as members of the Orthodox Church and about another 45% as Muslims. Since its independence from the USSR in 1991, the country has been a constitutional republic, with an elected president and a bicameral parliament. One more cool fact and then I will get out of encyclopedia mode: Kazakhstan is the home of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Cape Canaveral of the former Soviet Union, where most of the major Soviet missions launched (Russia now pays rent to Kazakhstan to maintain Baikonur).



Kokshetau, where we're spending our time since we took an Air Kokshetau flight up from the big city of Almaty, is a town of about 125,000 (about the same size as Fort Collins, CO or a little bigger than Columbia, MO). Like those cities, it also sits in the middle of a good deal of farmland (mostly wheat, rye and barley, with a John Deere tractor dealership on the edge of town!) There are a number of light industries here, and a big gold mine nearby. One of the country's 10 national parks, Buraby Lake National Park, is also close by (we're hoping to visit while we're here).

We've had an easy time adjusting here because so many of the things we need are close at hand. There are lots of mom-and-pop grocery stores (less than a block away in each direction), as well as several restaurants, a couple pharmacies, a photo shop (where we can print digital images) and a place that specializes in baby stuff. Oh, and there's a beer store down the street, but I'll save the beers of Kazakhstan for another post, once I've done more careful research!

So, we've been eating well, either at restaurants around the block, or at home, cooking stuff we buy at the corner market or a few blocks away at the big supermarket (the Next store). They have really good ravioli in the frozen section, although some of the fillings, like sauerkraut, are kind of surprising! (Since we often can't read the label we do get some surprises--it's actually sort of fun.)


A big part of what makes it so easy here is that the people in the shops are so nice. Basically, no one we meet day to day (except our interpreter) speaks English, and we know about 20 Russian words between us. But we can go into the shops, point at things and make comic gestures, and the shopkeepers patiently try to figure out what we want and help us pay for things. They're really careful to show us what the total is and to show us that they've made change correctly for us (on a hand calculator that they keep at the counter).

Needless to say, the other thing that has made it easy for us to feel comfortable is the local phone company--we can sit here in the house we've rented in the Asian outback, communicate with home and do work freely on a Kazaktelecom wireless DSL connection. We don't even have to go across the street to call home, although we could. Come to think of it, we rented a cell phone in Almaty (good coverage), so the payphone would be last ditch.

I guess if there's a moral to this little week in review, its that Borat provides about as much insight into life in a small town in Kazakhstan as the movie Deliverance can tell you about life in small town USA!

Here are a few last shots of us out and about the town:

The two in the picture with Susan are a some of our housemates--Deb and her daughter Rebeca.

Looking out at the street from our front door.