Cinco de Mayo

We were a little late in getting to the baby house today. Apparently the driver had a bit of an argument with another driver while taking the Robeys to the baby house, so he was a bit late in getting back to pick us up. We went to the music room and waited for Symbat.

After she came in, she again needed very little time to warm up, which was nice to see. She wasn’t quite as full of energy as she was yesterday, but she was a happy kid. Not long after we got there, the music teacher came in, but motioned that we could stay. Four kids and another lady came a few minutes later, and we got to watch them practice a skit for some sort of upcoming performance. There were three boys and one girl, all about 4 years old. They were too cute. Each said a little part, and then after the talking part was over the little girl did a dance to some Kazakh music. Calling that part “too cute” doesn’t do it justice, it was absolutely adorable. We wanted to take some pictures or video, but didn’t know if that would go over well or not, so we didn’t. We almost asked to adopt the four kids though.

When they were done, one of the boys stood at the music room door making muscle arm poses at us. It took us a second, but we recognized him as the boy who was shooting us with pretend guns a few days ago outside. I started copying his poses, and he got a huge kick out of that. He walked up close to us and made more poses, which I copied. He seemed to like it a lot. The little girl ran up to me and slapped me on the knee and said something that sounded liked “deet,” which I think meant I was tagged “it” or something, and then ran off. We enjoyed playing with the kids for a few minutes before they had to leave. They were really cute kids and we wanted to take them all home!

We’re still without a translator. In the car this morning the coordinator handed the phone to Kara, and Aima was on the other end. She told Kara that she wasn’t sure yet when our Guardianship Council date would be. We know that Saturday is Victory Day, and we assumed that the government would shut down Friday because of it. Apparently they may shut down Monday as well. Aima said that our date may be Monday, but it might also be Tuesday. We’re really hoping that they don’t postpone it for a whole week. We’re supposed to find out more tomorrow.

Since today is Cinco de Mayo, we decided to go to lunch at a restaurant we’d heard radio advertisements for called Tequila Bar. After the news that we may be delayed yet again we needed a beer. It’s one street north of Suleimanov Street (where the Sakartvela restaurant is). The place is a bit out of the way and dark inside. We sat down and ordered some pivas, and Kara had a martini. Kara was trying to figure out what one of the menu items was, and she mooed at the waiter. He laughed and mooed back, and then baaed for another one of the items. We all got a good laugh out of it. The good news was, Wayne and I were able to order some moo, and Kara got an oink. Lynda got a chicken, or maybe some sort of bird a bit smaller than a chicken. We weren’t sure.

I think the waiter felt sorry for us, because a few minutes later he brought us a free round of tequila. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we had no choice but to drink it. We didn’t want to be rude after all. Seeing Kara buzzed after one shot of tequila and her martini is pretty funny. (She didn’t want me to write that last sentence, but really, it is pretty funny!) We got our food, which was pretty good. We then ordered dessert. One of the items was ice cream, pretty standard fare. The other looked to be an attempt at fried ice cream, and it was… interesting. A little bit of ice cream and a lot of dough. Some of it was okay, and other parts of it were not in the least bit appetizing. (The ice cream was the second dessert on the menu, and the other thing was the first one on the menu. We recommend not getting the first item.) The third dessert on the menu was about 2500 tenge so we avoided it, and the fourth was a fruit plate. We passed on that one too, and considering the quality of the fruit that came with our fried ice cream, that was probably a good decision.

That’s about it for today.