Our THIRD Monday in Uralsk….

The title of today’s blog may be a bit of a tip off that we are missing home and that not much happened today. I guess the risk you are taking by reading this is boredom. No guarantee of good photos today due to Joseph’s pox but let’s go ahead and if you feel the need to bail before the end go ahead! On this windy Monday the first view here is of Laura out in back of the apartment building. The apartment is right off the busy avenue but this is the back in a courtyard filled with birch trees (birch – right Pat? I still need to get you a photo of the ravens around here – everywhere!). You can not really tell but the driveway up to the door where Laura stands is VERY bumpy and so we have told Igor that we will meet him out in front, just off the main street in order to avoid damaging his car. I know we have shown you the outside of the baby house but this is the view of the stairway up to the second floor where we find the music room and Joseph. As you can see this hand painted mural of a train is very colorful and cheery. I really think this is a good example of how the baby house tries to make this the best place they can for the kids. I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but on one of our first feedings of Joseph, I saw a glimpse of the caregivers in the room with the infants. If you can imagine a doorway and all I can see is the back of the room and parts of playpens. Then, out of nowhere a woman in an apron, plastic clogs and some work attire lunges across the doorway bouncing a yellow ball off her hand trying to keep it in the air and herself from careening into the floor or walls! Obviously this was for the amusement of the kids as I also here music playing! It is easy to be fooled that things are serious around here but these snippets into the background say otherwise! Joseph was feeling okay although covered with more spots today and still with a fever. We shifted our visits by 30 min to give him an extra nap after his meals and it seems to help him. He gives us a smile each morning when they bring him in so of course that just melts us. It is really cute to watch Laura get all excited and nervous peering down the hall waiting for him to make his appearance! You can see in this next photo Mom, Joseph and the Sponge Bob ball. He’s looking pretty cute with his finger in his mouth and his spots – not all painted green! We had a good visit but as our time drew near Cranky Joe emerged! We said our good-bye until this afternoon and headed out with Olga to meet Igor.

Before heading back to the apartment we went to one of the smaller markets with Olga so that we could get some clarity on some things. We got everything from chicken and ground beef to frozen veggies and Kazakh candy. It is Laura’s favorite market and has a lot of good stuff. These markets are not large at all – maybe 700 to 1000 square feet – with different counters staffed by a different woman dressed in a snappy blue uniform with a hat or kerchief. Each counter is specific – bakery, tea and coffee, meats, dry goods etc – and you have to ask for everything you want and then pay at that counter. We finished shopping and headed back to the apartment to make lunch. It was great! Until today I was unable to get the following photo to share with you. This is a boy filling up a water jug on the street to take back to his house. These public wells are everywhere, even across from the Chagala hotel. This task does not seem to be regulated to anyone specific as we have seen young and old, male and female, dragging their carts to the well. What does not seem right, is seeing people filling these containers in the shadows – right next to or across the street – of these new very large homes being constructed. An extreme case of regentrification to say the least.

Joseph was again happy when we came in and we had a good visit of music – we added James Taylor today – and games of catch. He really seems to like balls and so Laura invented our game of catch. Basically she holds Joseph in one arm and I toss the ball to her and she “helps” him catch it. He really seems to watch the ball and I think he is going to be a South Paw (like his grandfathers). We tried to mix in some quiet time and Laura got this photo of Joseph and I hanging out on the window seat in the music room having a quiet moment with his American nook/binky/pacifier. These are precious moments for everyone and Laura has really gotten some good photos of us over the past couple of weeks. Nothing overly new or exciting to report from this visit except he was needing his nap at the end of it. When we headed outside and saw that it was still sunny and nice we decided to head back to the apartment and go for a nice walk.

On the drive back Igor showed us where the new soccer stadium was located. We knew from other couples that next door to this was a nice big park so that was our destination. We stopped by the bakery (nope, my favorite woman was not working today!) to grab a Coke-light and away we went. To get the park we did have to venture past big homes and little homes, public water wells, and both ravens and dogs eating from dumpsters – such a mix of sights. It was a great walk and when we got to the park we were very very impressed! As you can see from this photo there were many people there along with many trees lining the main path. Off of this main path there appeared to be many dirt trails for walking and hiking. It seemed like there were both picnic and barbeque areas. We figured we would want to come here with Joseph before but now we were sure of it and we had not even gotten very far. The path leads to an open area which has several beer tents and cantinas for food. We grabbed some cotton candy (not sure what it is called here) and walked along the river! Yes, the Chagala river is here and you can rent paddle boats and row boats – it was really beautiful. I will get those photos to you when we return with Joseph. This next photo is of the brightly colored Ferris wheel that is one of about 4 rides we saw here. They look a bit dated but not too bad and were quite a surprise for us to see! This is really a great park and walking distance from the apartment. We are going to return for sure!

We made our way back home for some dinner (dumplings and veggies) and then settled in for some reading and blogging. Tomorrow is Victory Day and we are going to attend the big parade before our morning visit with Joseph. Between our visits we are going to taste some “Soldier’s Porridge” and then after our visit we will attend a concert. This is a big holiday so I hope to have some good photos and perhaps an interesting story to share. Da Zaftra!