Bizarre Bazaar

Today was really weird. First, I got a call from Jack. (another American) He and his wife are here adopting a 13 year old girl. The orphanage where she lives was having a party to welcome spring and he invited us to attend. We had already made plans with the Gaines family and Laura Brown and Zarinna but we thought it would be interesting. The Gaines family decided to come with us and we postponed our lunch with Laura until 1 pm.

It was really cool to see the children. When we first arrived, the kids we having an outdoor bazaar. They had made crafts and sweets and were selling them. We bought some funny handmade items from them for way too much and were happy. Jason got scurried off by some of the boys and came back with fistfulls of candy, cookies, and pretzels. He spent way too much for them but we were happy. The kids were beautiful and quite the little entrepreneurs. I talked with two boys for a while. They spoke a little bit of English and I a little bit of Russian so we learned each others names and about some of the items that they had created. We didn't have any more small bills on us so we couldn't buy any more items. I wanted to buy something from each table but I ran out.

There was much dancing and singing. The director and the kids kept grabbing us to come and dance. Jason was a big hit with the girls of course and loved when he twirled me around. We couldn't tell if they wanted Jason or if they wanted a Papa. I definitely think the former. lol At the end of the singing and dancing, they lit a straw man on fire in the middle. Steve Gaines noted the toxic fumes that all of the children were breathing as they watched the straw man burn - okay maybe not toxic but we couldn't picture this happening in America. : )

We were then invited to a concert that the kids put on. It was pretty amazing. The kids had great costumes and great choreography. It was really pretty fun. We had to dance there, too. They made us. We are not really sure why Jack had invited us. We were glad to see it and see the fun that the orphans were allowed to have. If we were older, we would want to adopt one of these children. The statistics that await them are staggering.

We went to lunch with Terri and Steve Gaines, Laura Brown, and Candy and Steve (?) from South Africa. It was really great to talk with all of them. We are planning to have dinner with them on Tuesday night. Hopefully we will go to Chinese food. But I am not sure what we are going to do.

We couldn't go back to the baby house for our afternoon visit.