Baby House Part 1

The Baby House - Part 1

After showering up, we went down to the lobby at about 10:15 to wait for our 10:40 pickup. As we were sitting there another family that we knew was here (the Robey’s) walked by. We got to meet them and chat for a minute which was great.

We got into the car with a different driver this time. Techno seems to be pretty popular here, as does rap and it’s all in English. Makes me wonder a bit as to how much of Lil Wayne they understand. Anyway, we went to the baby house and were told to wait outside.

We waited for about half an hour and then went inside and waited some more. We were told that the director was not there so we had to wait. Finally we were ushered into her office and sat on a small couch. If you’ve never been in an orphanage before, the experience is a bit overwhelming. Sitting there and waiting gave us a chance to think about a lot, and it was pretty tough. You can see though how much the workers care for the kids there.

In the director’s office, there was us, the director, our coordinator and translator, and two women we didn’t know. (Later, we found out one was from the Ministry of Education and the other was a social worker, whom they call a sociologist.) They talked a lot in Russian and kept looking at us, and talking some more. They were especially interested in looking at Kara for some reason. They asked us how many kids we had at home, so we told them. This set of another round of conversation for them, and more looking at Kara. Then they asked about our jobs. They seemed to like the fact that I work for P&G, as it’s a pretty popular and well-respected company here.

After more internal conversation, they told us that the kids were sleeping (it was about 12:15) and that we needed to come back later. We went outside and waited some more, and then were finally told to come back at 4:00.

We went back to the hotel and met up with the Robey’s again. They told us where the ATM was and that there was a little grocery store across the street from the hotel. We got some cash and walked around. It was a beautiful day so it was good to be outside and not in an airplane/airport/car. We went and bought some groceries, and then came back to the hotel and waited.