With all of our adoption business complete, we had a completely free day today. We slept in a bit, had a relaxing breakfast in our room and met in the lobby with everyone at 9 am. Yesterday we all decided to go to the zoo today.
We had the hotel desk order two taxis for us. On the phone the desk clerk was told that it would be 1500 tenge for each car. This is $10 US. Fine. The taxis came and we all piled in. The zoo was about 2-3 miles from the hotel and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. When I paid the driver of our taxi, he said that it was 1500 per family. Of course this all in Russian and we do not speak Russian, nor did the drivers speak English. We are done being everyone in Central Asia's source of independent wealth and refused to pay more than the original 1500 tenge per car. The taxi drivers were not happy.
The zoo admission was $3 per adult and the kids were free. I am glad it was not more. It was barely worth the $3. It made me think of what a zoo might look like if no one bothered to clean or do any maintenance for a couple dozen years. It was a good distraction but the kids were more interested in climbing and running than looking at animals. Asa did like the monkeys. Especially the howler monkeys who apparently get a thrill out of peeing towards the crowds. He started crying when we tried to move on. Thankfully one of the moms knew the Russian word for monkey and was able to tell Asa that there were more monkeys ahead. He was fine once he saw more monkeys!
We spent a few hours at the zoo and saw the normal zoo stuff. After the zoo, we hired two more taxis to take us to Almally to eat lunch. 1000 for each taxi. These guys were nice and did not try to rip us off at the end of our trip. We ate at our normal food court and enjoyed the air conditioning. We noticed a nice fountain on the other side of the mall and walked towards that to get some pictures. As we approached we found that this fountain was the local version of Hurricane Harbor/Great Wolf Lodge with hundreds of Kazakh people splashing and swimming. Yeah, we turned and went the other way!
We did find a nice fountain on the other side of the mall and had a great time watching the kids play and taking some last group pictures. We are all so ready to be home but this trip has been once in a lifetime and our kids are definitely bonded to one another. We are pretty bonded to each other too. Our lives have changed and we have held each others' hands for four years. We have had many other friends and family walk this journey with us, but there is no one who understands what we have walked through like our Kyrg65 family.
As we were walking today, one of the dads called to Asa. Asa turned and told him something to the effect that, "My name is not Asa, it is Vladik." He was good natured about it, but very adamant. He does answer to Asa about half the time. He knows that when we say Asa we are talking about him. I do find that it feels strange to me to call him Asa. I really love the name Vladik. I think that the whole name thing will be very fluid and what he goes by may change from season to season of his life. Many people go by one name in "public" but by a middle name or pet name with their family.
Mike is packing right now. Last weekend when we packed to come to Almaty, Asa was very anxious as he watched his new toys and clothes being packed away. I think he was afraid we were taking those things and leaving him behind. Right now as Daddy is packing, he is very content playing with his toys. I hope that it means he is confident that we are not leaving him. As our guide told him goodbye, she told him that he would go on an airplane to his new home. He immediately turned and wanted me to pick him up. I think he didn't want her to take him! He wants to go with us!
Please pray for smooth flights, peace for the kids, and easy connections. The kids have never been on airplanes and we do not know enough Russian to explain much to them. Our layover in Frankfurt Germany is only 1.5 hours, so we cannot have a delay with our flight out of Almaty! We will be on the flight with Kolya's family. Tonight Asa will say goodbye to his buddy Bakyt and his friend Krystina. And we will say goodbye to Scott & Kami, and Ann. It will be hard for all of us.
We are truly excited to be coming home though! We would love to have all of our friends welcome us at the airport on Friday in Midland. We land at 2:20 pm.
mike&karla&asa
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