Telefon

In yesterday's update, We forgot to mention the total fascination that Kristina developed for my Palm Treo cellphone. The little thief makes a routine practice of pillaging my briefcase and Robin's purse each day. When she found the Treo, it was the same as a pirate discovering buried treasure. She pretended to talk on it and ran up to everyone she could find proudly displaying her discovery.

With that in mind, we stopped at a store yesterday and bought her a little play cellphone for 180 Tenge (about $1.50). It has buttons you can push and makes loud music, ringtones and Russian conversation in addition to a dog barking and a bird chirping. We suspect the caretakers will hate us for buying it since most adults get their fill of it within a few seconds.

When we presented it to Kristina in today's visit, her little eyes lit up and we knew we were in for 2 hours of telephone madness. She ran about the room with it doing her usual activities, but now accompanied by the miracle of loud, disco beat music and conversation from her personal cellphone.

I don't know if it was the phone or the cumulative effect of the bonding sessions, but half way through today's visit we were actually invited IN TO THE JUNGLE GYM. The reason I capitalize this is because any time we've previously trespassed into this massive 15'x 15', two-story structure, Kristina has chased us out and made it abundantly clear that it is an adult-free zone.

Once inside, Robin and I were well-behaved and sat across from Kristina as she developed a little game focused on the ball pit in the center of the gym. She would inquire as to which color ball we would like (SEEN-yee/blue, zeel-YOH-nee/green, ZHOHL-tee/yellow or KRAHS-nee/red) and then toss us the correct ball once we'd made our choice. Then Robin and I would take turns throwing the ball to Kristina so she could deposit them back into the ball pit. Repeat endlessly.

We didn't grow tired of the game because we sensed what a special privilige it was to be allowed inside the jungle gym. Kristina even coaxed me to climb up to the second level and then urged me to slide down into the ball pit. I did so and displaced about half of the balls when I landed. Kristina thought this was really funny and then helped me out of the pit, which was not that easy to climb out of.

So there you have it. More madcap merriness at the Poludino orphanage in Kazakhstan with a little doll named Kristina.