I don't think you are ever prepared for the inside of the baby houses. You read millions of other blog posts about them and look through endless pictures, examining the rooms from every available angle - and yet, it doesn't even come close to how it is in person.
When we arrived we were incredibly tired and totally disoriented, having just arrived in Semey an hour earlier. We were wisked down halls that all look the same (doors everywhere but they were all closed) and into the director's secretary's office with no notice. The smell in the building is overpowering. It's a very clean place, don't get me wrong, but the smell is like no other. It's got to be something to do with cabbage but it literally gagged us.
They really do a good job trying to make it a cheery place. The stair wells all have murals painted by college students (as I was told) and every time we would go up or down N-M would point to various animals and we would do the Kazakh-English version of the word thing...and make animal noises of course!
The outer room for N-M's group of rooms was a little cubby room that the kids used to put their outdoor shoes and clothing on in. They each had a locker which housed a hat and maybe a sweater/heavy shirt. That was it. All of the kids had a pair of shoes to wear inside and one to wear outside...sizes were not exactly right for the child but they would sit down on the little benches and change them religiously. The caregivers were always very proud to show us how well N-M could straighten up after himself...neatly lining up the shoes and straightening the bench, etc.
Each locker had a different animal picture on it, and there were some hygiene pictures above them. I guess they went over some of the stuff with the kids (although it doesn't look like tasks such as brushing your teeth are very important here).
The next room in was the eating area where all the little tables were set up. It was so cute/sad to see the little kids sitting there drinking their tea. They had a fair number of toys on these shelves but I never saw the kids playing with them. The only ones I ever saw them with in the inner room were the really big lego blocks. Bigger kids would use them to bang the heads of little kids if they were in the way.
Here is N-M (who had just faithfully washed his hands before returning to the group!) heading into the 'inner sanctum'.
The tables are directly to the right of little peanut. The doorway he is going to head through there is one that was normally open and all the kids would pile up right there and wave to us or play peek-a-boo. When we would show up to get him they would see us and scream Mohammed...Momma...Papa! A second later the little guy would pop his head around the corner, see us there, and run full speed to jump into our arms. Hard to beat that!!
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