it's a strange life here for us in kazakhstan. our day basically revolves the two hours a day that we get to visit the orphanage. they don't bother to tell us until the day before what time we will go. it seems to be either in the morning (e.g. 9:30-11:30) or afternoon (e.g. 3:00-5:00), but it's early. maybe they'll spring another time slot on us at some point.
the two hours is bonding time with noz jr. but at any time, some caretaker can walk in and take him away from us. that's happened almost every time we've been there. we're not allowed to feed or change his diaper. just play and hold him. if anything else comes up, away he goes. and, of course, that cuts into our two hours of bonding time. yesterday's "two hours" were comprised of a half hour of waiting after we arrived (they told us he was being fed). at the end of the wait they brought him in and put him in mrs. noz's arms. about 20 seconds later a nurse came in and said he needed an injection because he is sick. so away he went for another 20 minutes. we got to play with him for a little while. then they took him to be changed and they told us we should just go. total actual time: about 45 minutes. today was even worse. this morning we arrived at the orphanage and were told that he was too sick for visitors. a car came and took us back to the hotel. total actual time: 0
and then there's the rest of the day. even if we go for the full 2 hours, that leaves another 22 with little to do. we don't have the internet in our room. it's a lot of time to make up errands to run, watch movies or, well, even i'm not sure how i pass all that time. it's a big change of pace from my normal overscheduled life back home. a day or two of this would be refreshing, but i'm not sure what i will do with myself for the next 1-2 months.
