Karla about town

Ben hasn't been keeping up with his part of the blog, so I thought that I'd step in.

There is so much to do in Almaty. Yesterday, Ben visited the local bath house and scoped it out for my visit today. He told me how to purchase the admission ticket, where to enter the women’s baths, how things are laid out, and how much the full-body massage cost (4000 tenge).

Armed with this knowledge, I purchased my ticket and climbed the stairs to the women’s baths. After changing into my birthday suit, I entered the mysterious world of the Kazakh bathhouse. I immediately noticed that there were showers everywhere, and there were naked women sudsing up all over the place. I mean these women worked that soap into a lather. I didn’t bring soap (on Ben’s advice) so had to skip the wash down.

After the shower room, there were more showers and two saunas (a wet sauna and a dry sauna). I opted to go downstairs to another room with, you guessed it, more showers and two more saunas. It was pretty obvious that I was a bathhouse novice. I was the only woman without a hat or a scarf around my hair, and I was the only one who stayed wrapped in my sheet.

I decided to first try out the wet sauna. I marched up the stairs to have a lie down and immediately went back down the stairs to the lowest level bench b/c I could not breathe in the wet heat. The other women lounged in the heat and occasionally had one of their friends flog them with the bunch of leafy branches that they bring for the event.

I stayed as long as I could in the wet sauna and went to the dry sauna. In between, I jumped in the shower to cool down. I lasted about 3 minutes in the dry sauna b/c I found it hard to sit on something so blasted hot (yes, I had my sheet underneath me).

Now it was time to try out the pool. Ben had assured me that the water was lukewarm. I love swimming, so long as the water is tepid. The water in the pool was like ice. I went down the stairs to my knees and decided that I was cool enough. As I emerged from the pool, I noticed the clock on the wall. I had killed exactly 20 minutes. The bathhouse session is supposed to last 2 hours.

I knew that I needed a break before going back to the sauna, so I figured I’d get a massage. I went back to the locker room and asked for a massage. They called the masseuse, who led me back into the shower room. Before she started, I decided that it would be best to nail down the price so I asked “Skolka tenge?” She motioned that it would be 5500 tenge. I only had 5000 tenge! So I asked what I could get for 4000 tenge. I ended up with a back, shoulders, neck, and head massage which lasted about 20 minutes. Ben had the same massage the day before for 2000 tenge, plus he got a wash down! (Maybe I should go to the men’s side next time!)

Ben’s massage was quite the experience. He said that he took quite a beating in the massage. At one point, the guy even stood on Ben to work on his legs. Ben said that he only talked to four people in his bathhouse experience: 2 Polish students, 1 masseuse, and 1 Russian guy who was laughing at Ben while he was waiting for his massage.

This is 3 more people than I talked to. It is very weird to try to meet new people and start a conversation while everyone is buck naked. We’re not hippies (apologies to all the hippies reading this blog)!

My massage was fairly routine. Thank goodness that my masseuse didn’t stand on me. She was a very large, very sturdy gal. I ended my experience with another quick jaunt to the saunas.

There are no pictures of our experience in the naked bathhouse. I’ve seen enough naked women at this point to last a life time.

Ben summed it up best: “It’s like party cove. The naked people shouldn’t be naked.”

(Watch the DVD “The Long Way Round” and you’ll see the Kazakh bathhouse where we went. Also, it’s just a really cool show.)

Note to all the math geeks reading the blog, the current exchange rate is 120 tenge to 1 USD.

Days 48 & 49

Day 48

Our first Sunday in Almaty. We strolled down the pedestrian avenue that our apartment overlooks. Erlan was fascinated by the concrete. He would stoop to feel the sidewalk every few steps. We also saw a pug as we were walking…he was about 2 years old from the looks of him. He was a very handsome pug. I stopped (of course) to pet him. We tried to get Erlan close to him, but Erlan would rather admire dogs (even pugs!) from a distance at this point.

We just walked around a bit to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. We also needed to pick up a warm sleeper for Erlan since he refuses to sleep with a blanket. We found a fleece sleeper for $12 and some tights for him.

Ben, of course, discovered the local samsa place. The meat is better here, but the crust is so much better in Aqtobe. Erlan actually tried the samsa and enjoyed it. He’s like every other 2 y.o. that I know… he will not look at the food that you want him to like (e.g. veggies), but he’s more than happy to try the Pringles that Mama was trying to sneak into her mouth. Two things were learned from this: (1) Mama is not very sneaky, and (2) Erlan likes Pringles.

We’ve also discovered that Erlan covers his eyes with his arm when he doesn’t want another bite of his meal. I guess he thinks that if he can’t see the food, then the food will disappear. He also tries this trick when he sees me coming with his medicine. It doesn’t work then either.

He has finally started giving kisses on a more regular basis. It started as I was trying to post to the blog yesterday. I had the computer on my lap. He climbed onto the couch (ok, this is a bit of an exaggeration b/c he said “Up!” to me and I obliged him), he sidled up to me, and gave me a big hug. Naturally I ate this up. Then he does a repeat performance, but this time he leans in and gave me a kiss. I was delighted. He was delighted with himself and with my delight. I quickly received 5 or 6 more kisses—all smack on the lips.

We’re working on his vocabulary. So far, he has 3 words that he uses on a regular basis: Mama, Papa, and up! When he sees the sheep in his book, he will say “baaa.” He will try to repeat the animal names as we look at the book. He has 6 other words that he can repeat: hi, dog, door, bubble, Amy, and Mike. (For those of you who have names that he isn’t saying yet, we are working on them. For example, when I say “Debbie”, Erlan says “Mama.” When I say “Kathi”, Erlan babbles. Grandma also elicits a “Mama.” Aly’s name did get a short “a” sound.)

Last night we were all in bed early since we managed to blow the fuse for the apartment. We tried to run the washer while we had the living room and kitchen lights on. I guess it was too much for the electrical system.

Day 49

Today was a lazy day. Our landlord came right away this morning to fix our electrical problem. For the electricians in the crowd, they make their own fuses. It’s 240 volt, and they used a size 18 wire for a fuse. Ben tried to finagle some wire from our landlord so he could make his own repairs next time this happen. No dice.

Ben also showed our landlord that the toilet runs continuously. The man showed Ben how to shut the bathroom door so that we wouldn't hear it run. (For those of you who are wondering, we cannot shut the water off.) :-)

As soon as we walked out of our apartment, Ben spotted the SmartCar. He was elated to see one up close and personal. Erlan and I got to be in the picture with the car... there were a few taken without us too.

We walked to the Arasan spa to try to schedule a massage, but it was closed. It started sprinkling on the walk home and rained fairly hard most of the day. Erlan no longer had a fever today, so he had all of the energy of a 2 year old boy. He chased Ben around the apartment while they played hide-and-go seek. Erlan’s cousins will be happy to know that he is as good at hide-and-go seek as they are.

In spite of the rain, Ben walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant so we were able to enjoy Chinese food for dinner! What a wonderful treat! Shortly after Ben left, Erlan grabbed his hat so he could follow Daddy.

Today's video consists of a few scenes from our day. It would be longer, but I'm tired and we only have dial-up which severely limits the size of the video.

Days 45, 46, & 47

Day 45

Thursday was an eventful day. We were up at 7:30 am, thanks to the orphanage schedule. Erlan is so happy when he wakes up. He gave us big smiles. He had a much more restful night of sleep. We put him on a pallet on the floor, and he pretty much stayed on it all night. We think he moved so much on the first night b/c he probably had a fever. Poor kid.

We spent most of Day 45 preparing to leave Aktobe. There were phone calls to our interpreter making sure our paperwork would be ready. There were phone calls to our interpreter to get help buying train tickets. There was the last minute meeting with our coordinator to get our paperwork and make the final payments. There was the cleaning of the apartment and packing of our stuff. Ben had to buy food for our trip, since we would be on the train for two days.

The best part of the day was a visit from our friends Agnes and Sacha. Agnes’ parents came from Belgium to Aktobe. They also came to visit us. It was such a treat to meet her parents and to see Agnes and Sacha before we left. Erlan was a bit afraid of Agnes’ parents at first, but he slowly warmed up. By the end of the visit, he was throwing stacking cups with Agnes’ father. Hopefully we will see them again in Almaty.

At 6:30 pm, Bayana and Cerik came to pick us up for our train trip. Bayana and her sisters made us some fried bread for the trip and gave us a jar of honey to go with the bread. They were so tasty. They were perfect for the train trip.

We made many friends in Aktobe, almost all were from other parts of the globe. Bayana and Cerik were the two people from Aktobe that we came to consider to be a friend. Bayana always went above and beyond by taking us out for dinner or to the market. She was friendly and positive. She is so confident for a person who is 21 years old. She graduates from University this Spring. I know that she will be very successful in whatever endeavor she decides to pursue.

Cerik was our driver. He was always friendly. He and Ben always managed to share a laugh despite the language differences. They also managed to talk quite a lot about cars. Like his daughter (Bayana), Cerik always had a ready smile. We will miss Cerik and Bayana.


This is Zhuma, one of the conductors. Bayana told him the cities where we could depart if we wanted, and Zhuma told us when we got there.

By 7:30 pm, we were aboard the train and in our cabin with bags stored. We ate a quick meal of soup, and we were in bed by 9:00 pm. We slept soundly.

Day 46

Erlan slept on the floor between the bunks. He awoke, stretched himself, sat up, looked at us, and smiled. I looked at his cute little face and noticed some red dots. I checked his belly—more red dots. Yep, he has chicken pox. We were about ¼ of the way through our trip and discovered he definitely has chicken pox. We had medicine with us, so we were able to keep him comfortable and keep his fever down. The only real difference in his behavior was that he let me hold him like a baby. Under normal circumstances, he does not allow this. After all, a 2-year old boy has way more interesting things to do than to be cuddled by Mama all the time.

Erlan really enjoyed looking out the window. The most interesting architecture that we’ve observed thus far in Kazakhstan has to be the cemeteries. Here is a picture of one. We saw several on our train journey.

We also saw farms. Being farm kids, this was naturally very interesting to us. From what we could see, the men do not use plows to break the ground. They use shovels. While we saw plenty of hay, we didn’t see any hay bales. We either saw stacked hay or hay bundles--I can't think of the name now. In some cases, they must have trucked in the hay b/c we didn’t see ground that would grow grass.

I thought the coolest thing that we saw were the camels. Camels have always fascinated me. On one farm, we saw a guy tell his camel to sit down so he could climb on. Here is a picture of camels that we saw grazing.

We saw sheep (goat) herders with flocks of sheeps (or goats). We saw cows. We saw horses. Erlan loved watching the animals.


Here's a picture of another train getting a thorough inspection by Kazakh police.

The only stop where we really wanted to get off was Turkistan. The stop looked interesting, it had signs up celebrating 1500 years. We didn’t get off of the train. We didn’t want to accidentally miss it, b/c we were busy looking at souvenirs. At most stops, we only saw people selling food. At Turkistan, we even saw a guy selling dombras (a Kazakh two stringed guitar).

After Turkistan, we slept. I think the most scenic part of our train ride occurred while we slept. I could feel the train climbing at one point in the night. At another point, Ben woke me up so I could see a very pretty river.

Day 47

We finished our train ride. Erlan was a great train traveler. He managed to burn off energy by climbing up and down on our bunks. He and Dad made a few trips up and down the aisle. Even though he was sick, he was a happy traveler. I think he's just very happy to be with us, so he takes everything in stride. Since Tuesday, Erlan has lived in our Aqtobe apartment for two days, a train for two days, and now our Almaty apartment. He has not missed a meal, a nap, or a bed time.

In terms of our train ride, I cannot say that it was the most scenic train ride I have ever taken, but I am very happy we did it. Much of the country on the first day looked a lot like the desert Southwest in the U.S. On the second day, the views kind of reminded me of eastern Colorado, with distant huge mountains awaiting.

While we didn’t see spectacular views, we did see parts of Kazakhstan that we would have missed by flying. We saw scenes of daily life in rural Kazakhstan that were interesting to us even if we couldn’t stop and ask questions about why a particular building was deserted or why a factory was shut down.

Best of all, the train afforded us with an economical way of seeing the country and gave Ben the chance to take an overnight train (I, being the more worldly of the two of us, had traveled by overnight train before). The train cost us $200 for the three of us—that’s right, only $200. We would have spent about $600 to $800 for the three of us to fly to Almaty. We had a private 7’ by 8’ room that was very nice and comfortable. It also had a restaurant that we didn’t go to but sampled by way of the walking waitresses.

We arrived in Almaty right on schedule. We were greeted by our coordinator Marina and our driver Sam. They took us to our apartment, which is in an awesome part of the city. We are within walking distance of many tourist sites. Marina gave us a list and description of the sites, along with a map of where to find them. She also took us to the pharmacy so we could get more meds for Erlan, and she showed us where to buy internet cards, souvenirs, and groceries. Best of all, Marina has a pug!!! Hopefully we’ll get to meet him before we leave.

Our apartment is 20 degrees cooler than our apartment in Aqtobe, which is wonderful. It is so nice not to swelter all the time. Also, there is no dust (beyond the normal amounts you expect in life). Finally, it is a two-bdrm apartment! Erlan has his own room! Ok, he didn’t sleep in it last night b/c we were worried that he’d be scared if he woke up in the night. Yes, he did sleep with us b/c we were also worried that he was too cold—we were actually cold last night.

Last night, we hung out and watched TV. The three of us were tired from our journey. We were watching swimming. Erlan really liked watching the competition, especially the awards ceremonies. Whenever the victors would wave to the crowd, Erlan waved back. If they did a two-hand wave, Erlan gave a two-hand wave back. When the crowd was shown clapping, Erlan clapped too. It was very funny.

We are very happy to be in Almaty.

Today's video is of a video of our train compartment and a quick shot of the scenery. You'll even see me in the video. I carefully selected pictures that didn't include me, b/c no one looks their best after two days without a shower. :-)

We're taking the train

We will not be posting tonight or tomorrow. We are taking the train to Almaty. It's a 42-hour train ride, which leaves at 8:00 pm tonight. Erlan is feeling better. We will tell you about the train ride as soon as we get settled in Almaty.

Day 44

Erlan awoke this morning with a big smile. He was so happy to see us. We were equally happy to see him. While Erlan was well rested, neither Mama nor Papa were. Erlan is an active sleeper. Not only was he all over the bed, he was all over the room.

Last night, Ben discovered Erlan on the floor. We figured that he’d fall out of bed, so being pro-active parents we placed pillows on the ground to break the fall. We didn’t hear a thud, so we were pleased with our pillow placement. Congratulations all around!

It turns out, though, that Erlan sits up in his sleep and crawls off the bed. He didn’t fall of the bed, he carefully crawled out of the bed and sprawled out on the floor. Not on the pallet on the floor, just on the wood floor. We tried several times during the night to keep him in bed, or at least on the pallet, but he always returned to the wood. (During his two naps though, he hasn’t moved.)

In part, he may have slept on the wood b/c it was the coolest place in the room. Our room was a toasty 82 degrees, which is only 20 degrees higher than Ben and I are used to.
We had to keep the windows closed, because the dust here is very bad and Erlan seems to be allergic to it. Even though we are on the sixth floor, the dust accumulates very quickly--to the point you can feel it blow across you when you sleep.

Erlan was so good today. He ate the food we gave him, even the carrots that we mashed into his mashed potatoes. He really enjoys carrying around books. His favorite is one about Delta Force that our friend Joel gave to us. He especially likes to take that book to the toilet with him, which makes me giggle every time I see him do it.

We are fearful that Erlan is coming down with the chicken pox. He has some of the symptoms, but they could also be symptoms of something else. He’s running a fever of 102 with a runny nose and watery eyes. At this point, we’re waiting to see if the red dots appear.

We did get some very disappointing news today. We will have to be in Kaz for a week longer than we planned. Something slowed down in regards to paperwork for Erlan’s passport. We really have no clue why the process slowed down, just that it has.

We have decided to return to Almaty as quickly as we can. Even though the apartment rent will be more expensive there, it will be cheaper for us to stay in Almaty than in Aktobe. We would like to take the train to Almaty. We would have our own private cabin, and we could see the country-side. It’s a 42-hour trip, but we think it would be worth it so that we can experience something of this country besides city life. This is, of course, completely contingent on Erlan’s health. Our international adoption Dr gave us the green light to make the trip.

(A note on our IA doctor for those of you preparing to travel. We used Dr. Skurkovich out of RI. He has been AWESOME. He is super responsive. I have emailed him twice about Erlan since we brought him home. Dr. Skurkovich returned both emails very quickly… the last email was returned within 30 minutes. He was also very easy to reach and responded very quickly following the initial medical report. I would use him again, and I recommend him highly.)

I didn’t take many pictures today (n=2). Ben was gone most of the day, and Erlan and I were busy hanging out. We did get a cute video of the boys playing.

Day 43--Erlan comes home!!!

Erlan is home now and taking a nap with Daddy! What a glorious day!

Today started like a normal visit day. We were picked up at 9:45 for our 10:00 am visit. Ben went to get Erlan from the nannies, and they had a present for Erlan. :-) Erlan's nannies gave him a traditional Kazakh hat, a picture, and a painted spoon. Our favorite nanny, Nazipa, also had her daughter write a note to us in English saying that she wished us much happiness.

Erlan's nannies are terrific. They were kind women, and they clearly cared for Erlan and he cared for them. Nazipa cried when she said good bye to him. Erlan cried when Nazipa put him down for the last time.

By 11:00 am, our paperwork was ready and we went to the head Dr.'s office to sign Erlan out. By this point, Erlan was crying. I think he understood that he was leaving his home. The head doctor wished us happiness and health. We thanked him for the care he provided to our son and gave him his gift. The head doctor told us that the staff really liked our family b/c Ben helped with the chores.

Shortly thereafter we went outside to meet Ceric. Erlan screamed when he saw Ceric. He screamed when we tried to take a picture. He screamed about half-way home (it's about a 5-minute trip). We met the Spanish translator Ainura outside of our apartment, and Erlan was calm while we chatted with her. (She speaks English, Spanish, Russian, and Kazakh!)

Erlan cried when we got him in the apartment. I walked him around and showed him all of the rooms (n=5). We showed him his toys. He started exploring the apartment, and he was happy whenever he looked around and saw us. We were given lots and lots of smiles. :-D



Here are a couple of pictures from lunch and a video from lunch. Erlan is an incredibly messy eater. You'll notice that he is fully clothed on Mama, but minus one shirt on Papa. A short time later he was minus two shirts. :-) This was the first time we fed him lunch, so we were very happy when he ate the soup that we made.





Now Erlan is asleep with Papa. We had to lay down with him b/c there is absolutely no way to kid-proof this apartment. Erlan cannot be left to his own devices---who knows what havoc he'd create.

This has been an amazing day, and we're only half-way through. We're so happy Erlan is home with us. :-)

Day 39 thru 42

Sorry about the lack of posts. It has been a busy few days in Aqtobe. I'll give the highlights of the past few days.

Day 39


We had two very good visits with Erlan. We hung out in the playroom and walked around outside. Erlan discovered dirt and grass today. He enjoyed inspecting the dirt. He then got brave and ventured into the grass. The grass is actually pretty sparse here. The soil is very sandy.

We went to our friend Agnes' for a b'day party for her son Sacha. We hung out with Agnes, Sacha, and our friends Carlos, Rosa, and Maria. I think Sacha had a lot of fun at his b'day party. I know we did!

Day 40

Again, two great visits with our boy. More time in the playroom. More time outside.
We were able to snap one of the few smiles that we've gotten out of Erlan when he is outside. Ben played peek-a-boo by lifting Erlan over a concrete wall. The nannies were working outside again on this day. Ben helped them carry leaves to the burn pile. I think he made himself very popular. By the end of our visit, they knew his name.

Bayana took us out for kabobs so that we could enjoy our last meal before we get Erlan. As usual, we had a great time with Bayana.

Day 41

On Sundays we only get one visit but Erlan made the most of it. He managed to pee on all of his pants and to pee on Daddy! The first accident was entirely Ben's fault. Erlan was sitting on the potty, but everything wasn't inside the potty so that was one set of pants.

Later in our visit, Erlan ran to Ben, said "up", sat on Ben's lap, and peed! Ben later commented that he thought Erlan needed the toilet again cause he was doing a funny little dance while messing with toys.

From this little event, we learned two things: (1) in Kazakhstan, if a baby accidentally pees on you, it means you will be rich. (This has happened to me many times in my life and I'm still awaiting my riches.) (2) Kazakhs with psoriasis will wash their skin and hair in the urine of a baby (under age 1)... it is supposed to relieve the dry skin.

Day 41

Our last day!!! WOOHOO! We brought our gifts for the nannies today. I think that they liked the gifts. We also brought small gifts for the other children in Erlan's group as well as a big gift (a stroller/tricycle combination) for his group.

Erlan was acting a bit oddly today. We're not sure why. The nannies have been telling him that he goes home with us tomorrow. Maybe it is more than he can process and it scares him?

We had dinner with Agnes and Sacha. French fries from Alanya--my favorite!

We can't wait for tomorrow!!!