Happy Happy Jump Jump Jump

Well, it turns out that Survivor Kazakhstan is not easy to get voted out of! This morning our first visit was cut short because Linda was taken to the airport where they were trying to negotiate and return flight to Almaty for her this morning, but didn't manage. Pasha and Danile were both frustrated and late to pick us up. We really only had less than an hour with Anelya, but it was a very happy hour indeed! You just roll with things like that here, as we are so lucky to be in such a smooth sailing region and we truly appreciate everything the staff does for us. We don't even mention if they are late, which by the way, never happens.

While we were waiting, we chatted up our friend Igor a little. You remember Igor, the owner of the hotel who will shoot anyone who bothers us... We love Igor. He's like a Russian guido stud here, tooling around on his BMW motorcycle. He is also the one who was laughing at me when I showed him i had brought small packets of laundry detergent. I brought enough for two loads, since we really had no idea what was awaiting us in Semey. He laughed and said, "We have everything here!" I explained to him that I haven't been back to a former Soviet country since the early 90's and back then I used to wait in the bread lines with the family's ration cards and then go back to the apartment building and watch my host family negotiate toilet paper or whatever else the people in the building had to trade. He laughed and understood. I can tell you, the next trip will involve pretty much nothing for me, but lots of clothes and toys for Miss Anelya.

Igor and his daughter, Nika (8 years old)

Speaking of Anelya, here she is! She was in such a stellar mood that it was even more of a bummer to leave her today. Today she informed us that she wanted to play kangaroo, and proceeded to jump through our entire 1 hour meeting. She was laughing aloud, smiling and, at one point during a rest, coming in for kisses. When you watch the video which I will post later, just know that all I am doing is balancing her. She is doing the jumping. She's so strong!

Before getting Anelya's memo that today is jumping day

Baba tried for some snuggle time, but guess what?

JUMPING, JUMPING, JUMPING!

Here she goes!

We took Smile-nelya back to her group and even though she was ready to eat, she was HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. She continued to jump on my lap while we waited for the caregivers. They fed her today, as they said she had to go to the hospital for some blood work. I think it's adoption stuff because all of the other babies have done so in the past week or so. No worries, I will feed her again in just an hour. YAY!

Mom and I are both completely exhausted today, so we came back to the hotel after the visit to take a nap. We just woke up and will be picked up in 45 minutes for visit #2. We are loving the strict routine and have totally settled in. For those of you waiting to travel, you can choose to make it feel like prison or use the predictability to your advantage and just ask to do things you want to do after the visits. They will take you anywhere you want to go and nothing needs to be arranged ahead of time. So, dare to be spontaneous and know that it's not rude to ask to do things here, They want to see that you have interest in their country. And we do! We do!

WE HEART KAZAKHSTAN!