5th out of 14 required bonding days

December 11, 2009


Today was a good day because we finally saw our little sick Dylan. This morning we went to see Dylan from 10:00 to 12:00. We were so happy to see him. He looked good but you heard the mucus in his chest and also when he coughed. We did not remove his 3 layers of clothing because the room they gave us today was a little cold and drafty. As per the doctors orders we were told not to feed him anything to avoid diarrehia or vomiting but I still gave him his multi vitamin when nobody was looking. He did not smile or laugh much today but he played more than usual and he finally held himself up. After an hour and ½ he got tired and fell asleep on his daddy as he was sucking his thumb.…….PICTURE PERFERT!!!! THE MOMENT WAS PRICELESS!!

Later on as we were going home the police stopped our mini bus and our driver Anatoli was fined. He was fined because there was a pedestrian trying to cross the street and he did not let him pass. The police stopped like 5 cars at the same time, but the best part was you could bargain with them. The police asked for $4000 tenge and the driver bargained it down to $1000 tenge (about $7.00) and he paid it right away and there was no ticket, no paper work, no proof… So guess what that means???? The police keeps the money for himself…. Do you believe that??? And to top it all off he also gets a good base salary with that, nice commission don’t you think???? What a corruptive system!! By the way a very good salary here in Kazakhstan is about $500/month. An apartment in a new apartment building (1 or 2 bedrooms) is about $30,000, which most people cannot afford.

There are no garbage trucks here to pick up your garbage, you must put all your garbage in a big blackish brownish container (the same containers our parents used to boil the tomato jars in) and they burn all their garbage in this container. So that smell is everywhere you go.

The teeth fillings or caps are gold and not silver like we have and the gold lasts forever.

Many people still use the bathroom outside with the hole in the ground (squat toilet), we have one too here in case our bathroom doesn’t work…… no thx! (picture of our squat toilet is attached)

The heating system is centrally controlled by the city. (picture of the heating pipes is attached)

The main vegetables here are: carrots, potatoes, beets, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic and Cabbage.
The main fruits here are: bananas, pineapples, apples, kaki, tangerines, and grapes.