Day 5, Taraz

We all had a much needed good nights sleep.  We have not been too bad with the jet lag but always hit a wall around 3 pm.  We got up and left for the orphanage at 9:30 am.  Once we arrived we started to get ready for our volleyball tournament.  We walked over to the school but were told the children could not play because they were not allowed to leave school.  Another "go with the flow" moment.

We walked back to the orphanage and played with the children that were not in school.  Kiefer got involved in a soccer game, those boys are good!  Lori played with a little girl named Tanya who she wanted to put in her pocket and take home.  Emily was the one all of the kids swarmed around wanting to play Angry Birds on her iPad.  We stayed for another hour or so and then headed to the Umit baby house.

We were greeted at Umit by the Deputy in charge because the director is under investigation for some very bad things.  This woman has been the deputy for a long time and recognized the children in the pictures we brought by their Kazakh names. Thank you to the families that took the time to send pictures of your children.  She looked through the pictures at least 10 times while we were there and commented many times on how beautiful the children are.  She thanked us for the donations (we brought Bumbos, sleepers, snowsuits, hats and hoodies) and told us to tell the families that she wishes you health and happiness.

There are 100 children at Umit right now.  We had about 45 minutes to play with a group of 4-5 year olds.  These children are gorgeous!  They were very well taken care of and most of them were even chubby!  We were very impressed with how clean and well groomed they were.  They were all pretty quiet and really weren't sure what to do with the toys, they were almost like soldiers.  You can tell they don't interact with the outside world a lot.

After leaving Umit we went to eat pizza and did some souvenir shopping then headed back to the house to pack.  For dinner we had Plov, yummy(!!) then headed to the train station.

We are on the train now.  This train is not as nice as the other one and I am pretty sure it was built in the 1800's.  Two very drunk women wanted to pay us to sleep on the floor of the train!  Let me just say, the facilities are not usable!

One hour left until we arrive in Almaty then we head straight to Karakastek to start painting.

Keep up the prayers, we are feeling them on this side of the world!

Pictures coming as soon as I can download them.

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