Day 6 (Friday May 2, 2003) – The Kazakh Perspective

It’s another cold & rainy day in Almaty (but of course you probably already new that).  We stuck with the same schedule again with a morning and afternoon visitation.  The morning highlights included Alia singing along with Leilani (the little princess is quite the little “chatterbox” as Roza put it) and Pam’s Karsten enjoying my computer (the little guy was fascinated and just loved hitting all the keys – future engineer).

At lunchtime, we walked thru an open-air market with painting vendors lining the street with many nice pieces of work done by local artists.  Leilani bought a nice little painting for Alia’s room and Pam bought a couple of pieces as well.  Leilani is also has a bead on a couple other nice pieces and says we “should seriously think about these, Joe.  They’re such a great DEAL.”  arrrrgggh.

During lunch, Pam posed an interesting question to Roza.  “How do the Kazakh people feel about Americans coming here, adopting their orphaned children and then taking them back to the US?”  Roza, a very intelligent, compassionate young lady (currently going for her MBA at night – and has previously been a translator for seven families) paused then gave a thoughtful response as to her thoughts on the Kazakh perspective towards adoption.  She said that most Kazakh people feel the need for these orphans to have a loving home and while they would prefer that these children would be able to stay in Kazakhstan and have a good life, most realize that this is not realistic.  Most are supportive of the fact that these children will be provided for well by loving American families.  However, there are those in the Kazakh elite who for political or other reasons spew horrid rumors like Kaz children are being adopted so that these American families can have house slaves or worse will use these children for organ harvesting.  (If I hadn’t heard these rumors before I would have been horrified.)  She went on to say that the uneducated people of Kaz might believe these rumors only because of the tendency of the uneducated to blindly believe their leadership (happens all over the world).   She continued that she wished those that would spew or believe such rumors would have the chance to see the faces of those American parents bonding with their children at the orphanage, to see the love and know that such rumors couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Her voice broke while saying this and tears formed in her eyes.  I looked up from my meal (hey, the tuna fish sandwich was darn tasty) and saw that all three ladies (Pam, Leilani and Roza) were all crying.  I urgently cried out, “Hey, let’s go shopping!”   Ahhh, the yelp of a desperate man.

After that emotional exchange, we headed back to the orphanage after a little art browsing.  The afternoon session with the kids was another beauty.  Karsten the mighty is still interested in the computer and will run up to me for a hug.  I’m waiting for him to develop enough courage to do the same with Leilani.  I think after she gets a hug from him, it will strengthen my case for coming back here in a year to get the boy.  I can’t say enough about my daughter.  She’s such a dream come true.  So happy, now that she’s used to us, and very playful.  I had her playing with Kerstan’s tool kit that Pam brought for him, but Leilani doesn’t think Kazakh royalty should have the need to learn tool use.  We also had time to chat with another couple bonding.  Joe & Jodi Fisher from Illinois have there own little Aliya.  Joe was telling me about a place that he bought some military paraphernalia – right up my alley, time for a little shopping revenge!  We took a couple pictures so that their family can see the baby.  The visit finally ended with our little angel sleeping soundly in Mommy’s arms.

We hit another rug store and Pam got the DEAL of the century.  She found a quality, good-looking handmade rug for dirt cheap.   I can see my future - me folding a rug like this and trying to stuff it in one of our mountainous suitcases.  We purchased for dinner some potatoes and fresh vegetables to cook to go along with rotisserie chickens.  Meal fit for a king.

We went online and read the entire guest book and some emails to us, and we are happily overwhelmed by everyone’s support, generosity of spirit and especially by the amount of you that are logging in.  This thing is starting to snowball and as of tonight there have been over 1,000 hits on the site.  We’ve been told of several classes (a fourth, sixth and seventh) across the country following our trek.   Now that we have so many kids and half the Bible belt logging in, I guess I better clean up my language.  And for the kids – a bit of sage advice: Don’t do drugs (how original, huh?).

 Click on the Thumnails to Enlarge the Picture

It's just not a great Kazak day without a close-up of this face.

Look daddy taught me how to use a hammer.

Whatever daddy can teach, mommy can un-teach. Leilani says a Royal Kazakh Princess does not need to know how to use a hammer.

Karsten: "Alright, I'm just gonna keep pretending this is fun until the big guy let's me down."

Aliya Fisher & Alia Yannone chillin' and discussing future fashion issues.

Joe & Jodi Fisher with their lovely daughter Aliya. Jodi never flew prior to taking the rigorous trip to Kaz. Was worth it, wasn't it Jodi?

Chef Joe tossing a little Kazakh Kid Salad.

I'm REALLY afraid Mom Mom is gonna make get rid of my favorite hat.

"Listen Joe, how many times do I have to tell you....The upper plot shows the near-field intensity of a planar array, and the lower plot shows the phase shift of that same array. The planar array radiators are assumed to have a cosine theta to a power gain pattern. Must I explain the governing equation again?" Wow! All I was gonna say was, pretty picture. This kid IS smart.

Yup! I'm a cutie alright.

Note to Joe...remember this moment when she's 16 and out til 2:00 am.

Get down and give me 20 Marine!

The ending to a perfect day.

Kazakh feast prepared by Leilani & Pam. Rotisserie chickens bought from a street vendor (they are all over the place and quite tasty), Pam's family cucumber and tomato salad recipe, Leilani's famous potatoes au Kaz and some local olive bread. I think all totaled this cost us about 5 bucks.

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