Food (Day 16)

Right now we are waiting to hear when our court date is, and which judge we will have. There is apparently a very hard judge so we're really praying it's not him. Should know by this evening at the latest. 

A boy and his 'kalish' (sword)

Photographer and apprentice

This morning while we were with N-M several of the women came up and were sort of talking/translating for us. They said N-M definitely knew he was going to go to America to live with his mom, dad and brother. He is excited about it and also knows that he'll have to wait for us to come back. Sigh. That will be very rough. He also confirmed that he would like an American name. Things are going well! They had two other little girls with them and one of them swung her hand at me and N-M instantly said something...they told us that he had told her not to touch his mom. Of course this was awesome (he likes us and identifies us as his) but also heartbreaking that they feel they have to guard their parents. Yesterday (maybe??) when we arrived he was outside walking with some of his group. Clint had walked next door to get some drinks and Matt and I were still pretty far away. As soon as he recognized us he came flying over with this huge smile and he jumped into my arms. What a moment!

On a similar note, when you walk into a group of these kids they all kind of smile shyly or try to grab your hand. Many of them say "moma" and try to go for you. It really is heartbreaking. We wish we could bring home more than one to join our family -- we've all fallen in love with two of the other children in N-M's Kazakh room. One little boy is about 2 and very unstable on his feet still. He always plays peek-a-boo with me or Matt and we just adore him. 

No more news so here is something about the restaurants we hang out in! 

This is the table we almost always sit at...where we are sitting right now!

So this is the place that we end up in almost every day…Cofeman. They serve some great tea and lattes and we particularly like their Wi-Fi...when it's working!!

Matt usually has the chicken fingers while everyone else enjoys the pretty big variety of stuff there. Clint really likes all of their soups. They are really inexpensive and usually really tasty too. Their tea and lattes are great...and they get pretty fancy sometimes!

As much as we don't like coming here every day for the internet it's much better than the bar we went in order to get wi-fi the other day. It was pitch black inside except for green black-light things under some of the tables. You'll have to read Matt's post on it!

Here are some of Matt's shots of Cofeman...

Another place we end up at a lot is Istanbul Picnic. They have some tables outside and serve great dishes fast…and for very little money. Most everything edible in Kazakhstan is based on meat and this place is no exception, but the kebobs are really good!

Matt really likes it here because when he orders juice, this is what they usually bring him!!

We also had some fabulous food at a Kazakh restaurant the other night. I can’t remember the name but their food was traditional and the mantis (dumplings) were just like the ones we had at the Café Assorti in VA.

This was the HUGE meat dish with large rectangular noodles that I ordered.

The food here really is fabulous…don’t plan on losing weight if you are headed this way! I am getting a little tired of meat though. We even have shish-kebob flavored chips. Thinking of becoming a vegetarian when I get home…at least for a few weeks!