Bazaar Time

You just knew I was going to end with a bang didn't you?

Such a fantastic afternoon at the Bazaar.  Incredible to think that this town sat along the fabled Silk Road and has served as an active market town for centuries.

We met some of the most wonderful and friendly people we have yet met in Kazakhstan, here this afternoon.  Of course not everyone welcomed the camera, but by and large, the sellers were very curious and wanted to see their pictures on the back of the camera.  Sure makes me wish I had a small printer with me.  We will definitely try and head back before we leave.

I love markets like these.  There is so much vitality and rawness to it all.

I think that it is a wonderful thing for Tougy to be exposed to as well.  We stopped and took a long look at a pile of stomach lining and talked about what it was and then watched women stuff all sorts of bits and parts into the large sausage, and then we ogled at the feet and talked about to which animal they had been attached.

The Bazaar really had a bit of everything as I tried to represent, though I left out the clothes which hold little genuine fascination.  Absent however were the short skirts and stiletto heels, as heavy woolens and flat heeled boots reign supreme with these working women.

I find it interesting/telling that when asked about interesting things to see and do here in Shymkent, our translator could not think of anything apart from the Mega Mall.  Even when asked about the Bazaars, he mostly dismissed them saying they were old and dirty and had lots of flies.

Our time here in Shymkent is so very different than our time in Astana in 2007.  There we ate out after nearly every visit to the Baby House with our translator trying restaurant after restaurant and talking about all sorts of things ranging from politics to religion, to family.

Here in Shymkent we have yet to spend any time with any of our in-country team apart from going to and from the baby house, and signing legal documents at the office.  They know absolutely nothing of us nor we of them.  The one person with whom we can communicate directly, out translator Zhenia can best be described as pleasant.  Dull, robotic, disinterested, but pleasant.

Our coordinator here, Farida, is all about business, though it is not exactly clear what that business is.  Like Zhenia, she is not rude  nor discourteous, but seems to have little time for us nor interest in our process apart from making it happen.  Of the hour or so that we have spent in her presence, the bulk of that was to sign documents.

Our driver Nurshai is the one who really seems to be the interesting one, though unfortunately we cannot communicate directly with her.  It is she that seems connected at the baby house, and it is she who fields our questions about Nurai and finds out details for us about her beginnings and present life in the Baby House.

It isn't that I lament the lost opportunity to make life long friends as much as I am surprised that there isn't more anima within these people, more of a spark of interest within what they are doing and whom they are doing it for.

You get the sense in asking questions about the local area, or details about the baby house that they have never been asked such questions before when in fact it must be about all they are asked by the families with which they directly work.

Our time here in Shymkent is already drawing to a close.  We have now completed our 14 day bonding period and should find out tomorrow the date for our court appearance to petition to adopt Nurai.  It is presumed that it will be late next week, and that being the case, we will in fact make a trip up to Astana to visit Tougy's baby House and to see some familiar sights with her before heading home.

She is excited, as are we all, to get back to Maine.  Yes of course it will be difficult and frustrating to have to leave Nurai behind for such a lengthy time, but that it will be such a long time only reinforces our decision to return home.  I honestly cannot imagine doing a Kaz adoption in one trip the way the timeline seems to be giving the protracted amount of time required on the back end of court.

It used to be that you had court, you waited through the 15 day appeal period for the adoption to be official, then you had your 'Gotcha Day' wherein you brought your child out of the Baby House and began a 7-14 day paper-chase clearing through Almaty and heading home.

Now that Gotcha Day may be followed with between 4-6 weeks of in-country paper-chasing and waiting, how many will stay through that - especially in winter?  Not us.  Not this time.

The week has been a good one apart from the fact that all three of us got a stomach bug on consecutive nights, beginning with KJ Sunday night, then Tougy Monday, and finally me on Tuesday.  KJ had it the worst, we felt worst for Tougy, and I was the worst at feeling sick.

As a result of all of that, on Tuesday, I visited Nurai alone and Wednesday KJ visited alone.  Though I was sad that KJ and Tougy did not get to visit on Tuesday, it was nice to be there all by myself with Nurai, and not to feel like we were playing in a human 'shuffle the tiles' game as we visited in our penalty box.

As far as photos of Nurai go, it was understandably a slow week for that as well.  Apart from the general inability to remain inspired given our repressive enclosure, that two of the visits were solo also detracted from the available pool of visual intrigue.  But tomorrow is another day, and certainly this afternoon's spiritual rousting will help get that feeling back again.  

Take Care  


P.S. - In the interest of looking at prices, the exchange rate since we have been here has held steady at 150 tenge = $1.00, and most things are sold per kilogram, so therefor 2.2 pounds.