10/11/04-Things we now know...

From Bill:
Well, Grace was sick again today. I think it is just hard for these kids to shake these things. She had a small temp. The doctor gave her some children's Tylenol and I fed her. She ate everything, including an extra bottle of tea. (What is it -- "feed a cold, starve a fever" or the other way around?) In the morning, the drugs helped and she kicked in for a while. In the afternoon, she was more fussy and cranky. So, we just walked her around. I still think she is teething because she was putting a lot of things in her month and chewing. I gave her a teething ring and I thought she would devour it. She was also a little hungry, since she devoured her afternoon snack of milk and cookies and crushed bananas. (Mary Jo did not have as much success feeding Jack. It would probably help if they gave her a spoon smaller than a tablespoon. I said, "What was someone using the ladle?")

Jack doesn't seem be getting the bug Grace is getting. Of course, how would we know? He is so consistent in his personality, very even tempered. He still likes to go exploring. We sat on the play pad awhile but he wanted to get off. The pad is about 3 inches high and he went to the edge, but he still doesn't have the whole depth thing figured out. He would touch the ground and look like he wanted to get off, but he acted as if he was on the edge of a cliff. As he inched out, he would then turn and get back on the pad. Later, Grace and I were sitting in the Pit of Balls and MJ brought Jack over and sat him in them. He wailed. It was the first time he really cried. (Other than the time Dad let him fall on his head, but we won't go into that one.) After she pulled him out, he was fine. I'm not sure what the problem was since he's been in them before, but today he didn't want to. Here is a family picture in the balls.



Some other things we've learned here:
Before we came here, we were told "they don't turn on the heat until October 15. We thought that was something the hotel did. We have now discovered that it is the entire city of Karaganda that does not turn on the heat. Also, there is no hot water in any homes or apartments. We are lucky in that we have small individual hot water tanks in our bathrooms for the shower, so we do not have to take cold showers. We don't really take showers since there is no shower curtain the pressure on the handheld shower head goes down if you stand up. Take more of combined bath/shower or what we like to call a shath.

We are on the list to move into one of the apartments on October 18th. These are much larger and will be better for 2 kids. That is about the day we expect to be able to take the kids out of the orphanage. We hope the heat and hot water will be back on, but I understand it is still better. You can always boil water for the bath.

My fears that I wouldn't get pizza for two months were way off. Pizza has become sort of a staple of our diet, especially for MJ. "Marguerita Pizza" will get you something in most restaurants. We found Mario's Pizza today, which was the best we've had to date. I expect to go there again.

Another thing we've noticed is that people here always wear some sort of coat. I noticed it on the first day when it was very hot. Today was another beautiful day, yet we saw people in parka, sweaters, long coats, etc. I'm not sure what that is. I don't know if people protecting themselves against the elements or they are modest. I've also noticed that people do dress modestly, not exposing too much skin. It may be a Muslim influence in the culture.

That is all for today. I hope everyone is well in the states. Go Steelers & Irish!!!