On Saturday Matthew was scheduled to get an examination from a doctor from Karaganda that is recognized by the Canadian government. (Karaganda is about a 2.5 hour drive from Astana - we just paid for a driver to bring her to the baby house. Jila had warned us about this doctor - just the fact that she looks sort of like a clown because she has pink and purple hair, and because of her makeup (she looks like Mimi on the Drew Carey show). However, don't let her looks fool you because she was an excellent doctor and very friendly with Matthew. He just stared at her, but did not look afraid, just kinda thought she looked very interesting. The actual examination probably only took about 15 minutes and then we asked her any questions we could think of. Then we went to the play room to take advantage of every minute with Matthew, while the doctor filled out numerous forms and charts in Russian and English. All the results came back very good, and she was very impressed with Matthew because of the fact that he was 1 month premature. On a graph which shows weight gain at different months of age, his weight gain was faster than kids that weren't born premature. Oh yeah, when we got up to the play room upstairs, I remembered that we needed a gift for the doctor and I asked Jennifer if we remembered to bring one. Turns out we didn't, but it is a good thing we remembered because in their culture it supposedly is quite an insult if you don't give a gift. Jennifer rushed off to our apartment to get the gift before the doctor left!
Okay, change of writers! I (Jennifer) just got off the phone with Mom and Dad! (Hi guys!) Anyway, after our visit we decided to just go back to our apartment. On the way back we passed a huge traffic jam involving about five buses all coming from different directions, all pointing in towards the centre where a little car sat! Surrounding this was a crazy mass of honking, intertwined vehicles! Luckily we were able to sneak through on the outside. At supper, Annette informed us that she was the unlucky occupant of the car in the very middle! We (our usual four couples minus Marwan who has gone home) ate at Ali Baba's again where this time I had the lamb shish-kabob and Michael the horse shish-kabob. Both were very good! The men had a very nice toast to fatherhood over shots of Zambooka! Afterward we ended up at the Ministry of Education building again where there was a big stage set up and live music. There were many Kazakh flags being flown in the square and we wondered what the occasion was. Some of the flag bearers overheard us speaking English and then told us it was in support of their President. We enjoyed the music, some of which was even familiar pop songs from back home! Michael and I really enjoyed the walk home along the river walk. It was a perfect temperature and the lights on the water were spectacular! (We could hear the music all the way to our doorstep!)
Today we felt rather lazy and sat around watching DVD's and playing scrabble. I have to add here that although Michael played against the computer today, I have won the last three games of scrabble we have played!!!! We did end up going to try to rent a little paddle boat, but since we didn't have our passports with us, couldn't. We walked over to the park and did the tour around there instead. They have several amusement park rides, a river with swans and many other interesting things to see. Once back home, Michael went off to play basketball and I enjoyed some reading time!
(We saw a cute but funny looking little dog on the walk back. It was the size and shape of chihuahua, but had the face and markings of a rottweiler! I joked that in this case its bite might be worse than its bark! Ha ha, I know, it is only funny in my mind!!)
Michael has been gloating ever since we made our coordinator and translator sit and watch a few minutes of our Matthew video footage! (I think this officially means we are parents!) Bayan said to him that she can tell that he "sure likes his papa!" Michael always graciously adds, "not that he doesn't like his mom too"!
Tomorrow we have to postpone our visit until 2pm since people from the Ministry of Education are going to be there in the morning. In the morning we plan to go to the Eurasia mall to look for some gifts for court and maybe some gifts for home!
Also, keep your fingers crossed that we get our court date tomorrow. It will either be the 13th or 14th. We are hoping for the 13th, just because it is a day sooner, but we know two other couples already have it and we aren't sure how many they schedule for the same day. We will keep you all posted! We miss everyone and although we like Astana, there really is no place like home!
One side of the play room where we do most of our bonding.
The entrance to the baby house. That is Annette walking by! Our play room is on the second floor just out of the picture on the right.
2 comments:
I've got my fingers crossed! Thanks for the pic of the play room; it helps to see your surroundings. They have a nice set up of toys.Tell Michael not to wear out the tapes of Matthew; we can't wait to see them! It's great to hear that the people you deal with are so nice, it must make it so much easier being away from home. I'm back at work but go on holidays from the 20-24 of aug. Now that I have more info on my little man, I get to go shopping!!!! Raymond wishes I still had my little car on these occasions rather than the van. I reminded him that the seats can come out too!! ha! ha! Good luck with the court date, talk soon, love the mcs.
Wonderful to hear that things are moving along. Hope you get the 13th. Just a few more weeks and you will all be home. What an adventure for the wee man. I like the play room, neat toys. The bedding airing in the window brought back memories. It all looks so interesting, makes me want to "hit the road again". I was never able to try eating horse meat though, would be like chewing on my best friend. Maybe I would try it nowadays. Take care, waiting to hear all went well with the court date. God Bless, Uncle E & Aunt B.
Post a Comment