Thursday, April 13, 2006

Leave the baby and go away!





Today, we took Wyatt outside. The good folks at the baby house recognized that it was nearly 60 degrees out today, so Wyatt wasn’t required to wear his scarf or hood. Just the -50 rated snowsuit. We were outside nearly an hour before it was time to go in. Not one step in the door our translator interprets “She is telling us to leave the baby and go away”. After a couple of minutes of discussion between the head nurse and the translator, we learned that a television station was coming to do a story of some sort about the baby house and our presence would become a story about us. So, we walked out to the street haled a Taxi (more on that below) and went to the Shymkent Café (photo above) for lunch with the translator. Something interesting about this trip to Shymkent…after paying the check we noticed we received all of our change, minus 50 tenge, plus a pack of gum. Jenn and Peter told us that this also happened to their translator once. If they don’t have exact change, they give you something that costs about that much. Sometimes they give matches, I guess we were lucky with the gum! The visit with Wyatt was 1 hour shorter than the typical 2 hours, but we’re hoping Wyatt doesn’t hold a grudge. We’ll find out tomorrow.

After lunch we came home, watched “The Bourne Identity” (okay, Jason watched the movie, Michelle slept through it). Then we met the translator and went for a long walk around the river and through the amusement park. We stopped at the Astana FC to find out when opening day of the Astana professional soccer team was (May 6). At the end of the walk, we found an incredible market adjacent to the Mall near our apartment. It has a full bakery (with breads and sweets), a deli, a liquor store and a grocery. We went to look and left with bags of bread, sweets and salads. The new food for the day…salad (not lettuce, its mixed veggies with a vingarette) with cow tongue. Jason won’t touch it, Michelle’s review, “it’s actually not bad.” We will be back, but probably opt not to purchase the salad with tongue. Unless of course, we have any takers out there, I’m sure we could bring some home!

Taxi

Taxi rides in Astana are no different than hitchhiking except for the part where you pay. You simply stand near the street with your arm out (sans the thumb up). A car will stop and pick you up (not a taxi, but just some guy who’s going the way that you wish to go). You ask if he can take you to your destination. If he agrees, you then negotiate a price. If he doesn’t agree, he drives off and it’s not long before the next one stops. We’ve taken a cab on only a few occasions (never without our translator, and only when the driver/coordinator is working on our behalf at another location). The translator has requested that we not speak prior to her negotiation of the fare as it is typical to charge foreigners a premium price. We went a few miles (10 minutes tops) for 3 dollars today.


Russian lesson:
Excuse me: iz vin eet ya

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