Groundhog's Day...Again (day 9)

So many adoptive families have told us that time here begins to feel like Groundhog’s Day (the movie)…and they are very right! 

Guess what…we played this morning. Aren’t you surprised?? J We did pretty much the same stuff at the same time. It was fun! 

This afternoon we played…again. It was fun too! Actually, the weather was incredible. Today was a little cooler than it has been the past few days (we actually put light jackets on over our t-shirts) and the wind was blowing these gorgeous puffy clouds past at pretty fast pace.  Little M continues to learn quickly and is mimicking more words every day! 

I only have one photo from our time with little M today because my batteries dies after about the first 3 minutes. 

Between visits we had a chance to visit a square that is filled with statues of Lenin….and one of Marx. "Dead Lenin Square". I think even more interesting than the statues was the explanation of how the Kazakh people feel about the Russians, etc. We asked some questions about Marx, Lenin, Stalin, etc. and the answers were fascinating. Apparently they really revere Lenin (and Marx) and speak of what revolutionaries they were. Stalin is not liked but the only reason they gave was because of the nuclear testing which apparently started under his control. That was it! I’d imagined that they’d have a huge list of reasons not to like him but I was wrong.  It was summed up that they like Russia and are good friends now. Fascinating. 

We also squeezed in a visit to the bazaar. Neat place…they sell everything and the selection of dried fruits and nuts was incredible! They also had a huge meat section that was pretty scary…although it didn’t seem quite as bad as Barcelona (we didn’t go all the way in though since Matt is still a little scarred from our Spain trip!). 

Matt found a traditional Kazakh hat and a gorgeous Kazakh knife with a golden eagle on the top. This eagle is the national bird. We also bought little M some new underwear because the poor kid wears the same pair (of girl underwear) almost every day.  When we gave them to his caregivers they were so incredibly excited. They really love the kids and they must feel the lack of resources intensely. It’s amazing how far $3 can go!