Day 2 in Taraz

Kevin didn't sleep through the night, but those first 6 hours were wonderful. Angel has a bit of Stalin's revenge, so we are the prototypical "Americans who retreat to their hotel room and eat crackers" until Angel's stomach is better.

We went to Umit at 10am, with the Morin family (Mom, Dad, 2 tweenagers) from Italy (soon to be in Virginia). Jack was very fussy the entire time, unless held or pushed in stroller. Dub was as lovey as ever, learned to take pictures, and waived bye-bye to Papa at lunchtime at the prompting of the lady who evidently runs the meals at Umit. "Fatkulin!", she yelled like a Russian general. "Wave good bye to Papa!" (in Russian), and he did, and said "Bye bye Papa" in his native toungue.

Back to Umit at 3pm, went straight outside because inside Umit is so hot and stuffy. Jack was still very fussy. We tried a walker outside but he screamed. Finally got a tricycle with a push handle and that seemed to appease him. We made several walks around the building. Dub tried to ride a tricycle (it was a very shaky little tricycle) but Kev had to push most of the time. Along the way, we meet several of Dub's fans. Everyone wants to stop and talk to him, and he loves and responds to everyone he meets. We went in about 415 to have crackers and that was fine, until they were gone. Jack was not happy at all about that. Dub offered Jack crackers while he fished them out of the container like Pooh digging honey out of his "hunny pot".

We just let Jack sit there and scream his crocodile tears until he got tired, and he finally was interested in what we were doing and started to play. By that time it was time to go. When Dub left, Mit told him to wave bye to papa and he did. Kevin said "see you later" and Dub said "see you" He'll catch on really quick!

New knowledge: these kids have no idea what a "sippy cup" is! They are all potty trained from 6 months, and trained on real cups. The sippy cups really frustrated them until Vera told us they drink from real cups! Also, Vera said, "they don't eat any food that tastes very good", which explains their overwhelming desire for animal crackers and goldfish.

Vera said we looked exhausted. We were. The heat inside the orphanage building and the playing that we're not used to is tiring. But we'll get used to it soon enough. Angel tried to babysit her sister's litle angels (three under age 5) before we left Atlanta to try to get her stamina up. Didn't work. Vera said Angel was pale when we left. Partly due to dehydration!

Angel's tummy was still upset, so we went back to the hotel to the nice clean COLD sheets and lay down for awhile. We read until dark and watched 2 episodes of 24 then crashed. Our body-clocks might finally be on local time.

Thank you all again for your encouraging responses. We miss you very much!

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel