June 24

Today was a fun day. Since the pressure is off now that court is over, we decided to head to the Bazaar this morning. Wayne and Lynda had court today, so we were on our own. We arrived at the Bazaar at 9:30 hoping to beat the heat, only to find that most of the Bazaar had yet to open. So we wandered around and watched the shop keepers set up shop. It seems that they take everything down at night and put everything up in the morning.

We wove our way back and found the household goods again where Quentin found some of the Barf detergent. We bought a box of it so he can put it on his desk at work. Continuing on past more clothing booths, we came to the produce and food area. I got sidetracked watching a guy demonstrate a knife that grates, julliene slices, and does other nifty things. Quentin tried it out and we ended up buying it for all of 250tenge (about $1.67). Next we began searching for the area we found the blankets in last time we were there and came across them at the back of the Bazaar near the shops that have rugs for sale. The blankets are made of a kind of plush material and have patchwork designs that look very Kazakh. I wanted one to save for Alina and found a nice one (not stuffed yet since it needs to fit in the suitcase) and purchased it for 3000tenge ($20). After that we decided to try to find our way out again. On the way we rounded a corner and came upon a huge map of Kazakhstan. It was a nice laminated one in Russian. The girl manning the shop told us it was 500tenge so we bought the map too. She had to climb up onto her table full of merchandise to get it down for us. Not sure yet how we are getting it home, but I think Quentin is going to have to carry it on the plane=)

After the Bazaar we headed back to the hotel and then to Aral to have a little lunch. Finishing up at Aral we spotted our coordinator and found out that we would be able to visit Alina today. We weren’t sure if we would be able to go today since the Robeys were busy in court. So we got our bag of toys and headed to Umit.

Alina seemed rather tired and quiet today. We played a bit then spent some time trying to keep her awake. At the end of the time our coordinator came to take her back to her group and Alina turned away from her and snuggled into me! She had never done that before, usually she will go to whoever holds out their hands. I was surprised and happy that she is starting to prefer me now. If only I didn’t have to leave her here for another month!