Women's Day

We found out that there are so many chicken photo booths because it is the year of the chicken.

The street fair was very fun. There were 'shashliknis' serving shashliks (kebabs) and plov (like rice pilaf). We sat down at one of the temporary outdoor cafes and ordered a plate. This is not a throw away society--our food came on actual ceramic plates even though it was an outdoor, one day only event. There was an old Russian woman at the back of the booth with a big pan of suds washing every dish. Seemingly everybody in Taraz got their shot at singing a song in the town square, karaoke-style. Some enterprising Kazakh had also brought a full-size air hockey table and set it up. The older kids had fun with that while the younger ones played on an inflatable bounce house. Sound familiar? Our driver warned us that it was OK to go to the fair during the day but to not go out at night because, as he said, the Kazakhs like to fight when they have had too much to drink. So we ate in the hotel last night (borscht!) and holed up in our room. The local police and military were having a grand time last night, cranking up their sirens and driving around the square for hours. For a while we thought there was a riot or something but they were just showing off their manpower.

Yesterday was overcast for the first time since we've been here. Today looks to be the same. The good thing is that makes the clothes we brought (wool sweaters, etc.) bearable. The bad thing is our laundry (washed in the bathtub, dried on the window ledge) doesn't dry nearly as quickly.

Alex gets stronger by the day. Yesterday we were doing push-ups with him to strengthen his tummy muscles. He has started to mimic us so I got down on the floor and pushed up and he would do the same. Then I would drop down and he would, too. We did that a few times and it was really funny. He has also started to support more weight on his legs and enjoys 'standing' with our help. When we first started visiting he wouldn't put any weight on his legs at all. Progress!

Forgot to write about the Super Bowl party. It was very fun. The Interlink office was there (American families and singles), a Peace Corp guy, some Kazakh families and the Petersons, who had arrived that morning from Denver to adopt a brother and sister who are 12 and 13. They have two biological daughters who are 10 and 11 and were shocked to see how small the new siblings were in comparison. The Petersons had brought the Super Bowl video and we sat down to some wonderful homemade pizzas, thanks to Sara, popcorn and nachos. Interlink has found people in the village who make tortillas so rest assured that Taco Bell will be in Kazakhstan soon. We had a great time meeting everybody and hope to get together with the Petersons soon for dinner and a walk around town. And also because they are in an apartment that has a clothes washer :)