19 September

Infrastructure

Today we have no water, as promised. I think we also have no heat. The building heating is provided by radiators.

At the baby house there's no heat and no electricity. We can't even take baby Aigerim to the play room, let alone outside, without bundling her up in three layers of clothing and a bonnet.

Bobi's a Mom!

She still has a cold. She's very docile when we come to see her, but she smiles big time and makes cooing noises at both of us. When I reach out to touch her hand she wraps it around one of my fingers, pulls it into her mouth and starts gnawing. Teething time.

At the end of the morning we see Olga standing out in the cold, waiting for the last of the drivers to appear. Everybody is here except Vladimir, our driver. "If he doesn't show up in two minutes, he's fired," she says. She's smiling but I think she's serious.

I can't resist asking how things went for Bobi. "Oh yes, she passed," says Olga. And, later, to Bobi, "By the way did anybody tell you, your court date has been moved to Friday morning at 9 am?" This sounds like good news, and when Bobi asks who managed this feat, Olga takes a little bow. But Bobi isn't entirely happy -- she's afraid an earlier court date would cut short the 21-day bonding period, and that the court might deny the adoption on that ground. Olga seems unconcerned.

[2006/10/08] Olga knew what she was doing. The judge was heading out of town on vacation, so it was good to move up the court date. What's more, as we learned from Kristin and Nancy, the bonding period is actually 15 days, not 21 days.

Weather

The temperature has taken a nose-dive this week. When we got here it was too hot for long-sleeve shirts. Now it's too cold for the fleece I brought. Yesterday afternoon we had sleet. At lunch time we go back to Tsum, and I pick up a Puma (name brands everywhere) skull cap.

The Absahl mall has no heat today. Tsum has heat, and running water. Their toilets are working. I'm surprised they don't have more business.

Getting Fed

We've said that the locals are very tolerant of our poor Russian. The one exception is the lady behind the counter at the Express Bar in Tsum. She's actually pretty tolerant, but as I order she's always looking at me with a bemused expression and asking me to repeat everything. And then she gets the order half wrong. Today it takes three tries to get two cups of tea, one with milk and one without. And, although I'm able to order two pukreehm (meat and potatoes in a sort of pizza-bread wedge) without having to point to them, she does repeat my order to demonstrate the correct pronunciation. It's as if to say, "Oh, you mean puh-kreyEM, it's lucky for you I was here because nobody else would have been able to make sense of your gibberish." A big part of spoken communications is conveyed by rolling the eyes :)

In the afternoon Olga suggests that we may want to see if we can change our tickets, to get an earlier return to the states. The 15-day waiting period starts as soon as the court appearance is complete, so everything could be accelerated from this point. It might be good to leave for the states a few days early, to finish preparations.

Celebrating

Tonight Bobi suggested we go to Line Brew for dinner. The name of the restaurant is in English, so they probably have comfort food on a menu we can read.

[2006/10/08] If you're ever in Karaganda, Line Brew's address is Boulevard Mira 24 (Бульвар Мира 24 - I think it means "Peace Boulevard", "Mira" as in Mir). And if you're in Almaty you can find a Line Brew at 187 Furmanov Street. Tel. 007 3272 507985.

Good call, Bobi! There's an air vent cranking down masses of hot air on our heads, and the menus are indeed in English (and Russian). The separate beer menu lists maybe a dozen Belgian brews, complete with summaries of their flavors (hoppy, fruity, etc.) and alcohol levels. The food menu, unlike the one at Johnny Walker Pub, doesn't include any re-interpretations of standard American fare (e.g. "juicy fat burger"); so, with apologies to Douglas Adams, there's little chance of getting something almost, but not quite, completely unlike what you ordered.

Of course there is still an opportunity for misinterpretation. I order beef with mixed vegetables and get just that, grilled bell peppers and onion greens over nicely grilled, slightly spicy beef. But Bobi orders the meat fondue with some uncertainty of what she's getting: it turns out to be a thick black pot with hot oil, into which our server sets skewered cuts of beef.

Neither of us is willing to try the Alabama vegetable salad. I can't even remember all of the ingredients, but I think it involved home fries and mayonnaise.

Bobi's not a big fan of sweet desserts, but my pancreas and I love them. We order a pie of sorts, a wedge of chocolate ice cream over alternating layers of sweet waffle and frozen meringue. Had to have something to go along with two snifters of Hennessey brandy.

It was a great meal, and a good way to celebrate today's news.