Deja vu all over again or "Groundhog Day"

April 21 and 22, 2007 Joshua is eating well. Saturday morning he ate most of his semolina which is similar to cream of wheat. Also, he had his usual cup of fruit compote – he loves this. Today there was a mushed up cookie in the bottom, and he was thrilled to eat that. Mixed some of the cookie in with the last few bites of semolina, so that helped him eat a little more. Joshua continues to develop and we discuss daily how excited we are that he begins to use his arms, hands and feet more during play time. He is particularly fond of my (Dave here) nose (as most of everyone is) and finds it an easy target to grab for – both inside and out. In just 9 days Joshua has shown advances in his balance and ability to mimic us when playing with toys. He’s building his strength in his torso while we have him sit up and is beginning to crawl on hands and knees a little better each visit. He actually did his first real crawl today! Only one sequence, but we were all pretty thrilled. At the end of today’s visit, we were fortunate enough to see the full playroom, and most touching, the adjacent room where the babies sleep. The room is very simple, yet large, with the centerpiece being the three rows of three cribs, lined from foot to head. The caregivers also showed us Joshua’s crib and also the plaque in the entry way that blesses the baby. It was a moving and emotional moment for us. I (Amy) couldn’t hold back my tears as we left. I also couldn’t take my mind off the other children in his group. I pray someone takes them home soon.
We have settled into a nice routine in the mornings and afternoon and it’s beginning to be a lot like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray – much of the same each day. Olga mentioned it is kind of like 'deja vu' and I thought of mentioning Yogi Beara and one of his famous quotes but thought again about it and felt it best probably not to bring this up as it would most likely get 'lost in translation'. Regularity is an idea that was difficult to find at first but now we have worked out a groove not only with getting to know Joshua but also with our daily lives shopping, seeing the town and even watching a DVD on Saturday night on our laptop. Today we toured the Uralsk Museum. A modest 2 story building of ornate architecture painted with the nationally recognized light blue pastel paint. Inside we learned of discoveries of early man who once dwelled in this area, Kazakh people’s history, war heroes of World War II, cultural interests including royal garb and exhibits of musical stringed instruments like the dombra (sp?) which is similar in shape to a Russian balalaika having 2-4 strings. The Khan’s (Ghengis Khan’s clan) who dominated and terrorized this region for 3 centuries were also represented in one of the museums exhibits.
Sunday the 22nd Joshua continues to eat well. This morning he finished a full bowl (yes full bowl) of semolina, which was garnished with chopped up boiled egg. He was really into this combo. We also swapped out the plastic bib for a cloth one and he seemed happy with that change too. Also, he had his usual cup of fruit compote – he loves this. Amy and Joshua get along swimmingly during a.m. feed time. Amy was able to shovel down the complete breakfast in record time this morning and as a reward Joshua gave us several hearty burps of approval once the feed was done. We think feeding is purely a business-oriented deal with the caregivers, so we are trying to enjoy it with him more and not be so regimented. We also had a nice chat with the woman who appears to be Joshua’s primary caregiver. She is a gregarious Kazakh woman, with burgundy red hair. She shared with us some religious beliefs and customs, which we will share with Joshua when he’s old enough to understand. Olga has offered to get us some holy water from her church, which we will treasure and include when we baptize Joshua. Ol’ga, our interpreter, today accompanied us to one of the local bazaars. They are comparable to our flea markets (except it’s not used items) and have many, many shoes. The sights, smells and sounds of the bazaars are bizarre. Row after row of vendors in 8 foot by 8 foot cubicles (more like primitive self-storage lockers) with 3 foot wide fabric overhangs held up by metal poles in front of each space to provide minor protection from the elements. All adorned with their products be it shoes, jackets, clothing, sunglasses, bolts of fabric for draperies, socks, stockings, household needs, Russian fur hats for men with the ear flaps (I’ll get the name tomorrow – sorry Dad – I didn’t write it down when Ol’ga told us the name), electronics, toys, purses, etc. Women pushing small carts filled with baked goods, bananas, apples or tea walk up and down the rows selling their goods. A food market area of this bazaar displaying and selling fresh beef, pork and produce are in buildings and separated by product. We were reminded of the Cross Street and Lexington markets in Baltimore. The first building we entered was the sausage section. Large pieces of sausage (I mean large – 3-5” in diameter and up to 2’ long) wrapped in pig intestine and laying out on the countertops. All of the vendors were located in a large rectangular area in the center of the building and the patrons walk around this area to survey the choices. The next building was all pork. Large sides of pig were hanging in the center on meat hooks and pieces of pork were on display on the ceramic countertops. No refrigeration but everything was displayed in a very orderly fashion (presentation means everything when you see slabs of meat lying out on counters). Pig’s feet lined up in a row.
The next building was the beef. The first sight you see is a long counter top along one side of the center rectangle area filled with deep colored red beef. Cutlets to chops, ribs to tongue, liver to large pieces of beef you would need to carry over your shoulder – I absolutely HAD to take a picture of this building. We purchased nothing in any of these buildings. It was such a different experience to see all of this flesh in such huge quantities presented on these long counters “like a piece of meat.” It’s difficult to imagine these buildings in the middle of a hot, sweltering summer. Finally we made it to the produce building. A light and airy building with high ceilings and the ever popular light blue pastel painted walls. The smell of fresh produce and herbs fill the air. Before buying anything we had to walk around the entire building and view all of the different vegetables, fruits, dried flowers such as lavender and lilac and tropical fish sold from aquariums. Old women with scarves wrapped around there hair hawking there scents attracting the attention of women patrons by saying “beautiful ladies” in Russian. Today was a good day to be repeated just like the movie Groundhog Day. We also spoke by phone with our new neighbors Janine and Rich, just in from Philadelphia. They are visiting BH#2. We will probably meet them in person Monday evening. We are looking forward to it!