>From baikaltour@gin.global-one.ru Fri Sep 26 21:47:22 1997 Subject: Friday night in Siberia Greetings once again, everyone! It was an interesting Friday in Irkutsk. The main event was a return trip to the orphanage to learn how to give Benjamin his daily massages. (More on that in a moment.) While we were there, the four-year-olds had a music class which we were invited to attend. The entire group performed several songs just for us. It was precious, and a little bit heart-rending. We actually asked if we can go back again next week to hear it again and videotape it. We also saw Benjamin's old room for the first time. (We didn't see it when we picked him up on Wednesday.) That also inspired mixed emotions. On the one hand, it is very clear that he received much love and good care during his stay. On the other, any parent will cringe at the sight of a room full of numbered cribs with the understanding that your child is sleeping there. About the massage business, Benjamin was born with a condition that our U.S. pediatrician tells us is called "torticollus." Basically, it's a stiff neck caused most probably by his position in the womb. He receives daily massages as therapy. It was a very interesting thing to watch and learn. He fell right asleep after it was over, he was so relaxed! Actually, the stiff neck is hardly in evidence at all in his movements so far. However, as a result of the stiff neck he has grown accustomed to sleeping in precisely the same position all the time. Combined with a fairly hard sleeping surface, this has resulted in a somewhat unusual skull shape for him. It's rather endearing, actually. But something you may notice when you meet him (finally!) is that he is, well, not quite symmetric! We joke that we should call him "Picasso" because you can almost see both ears in profile. (I'm KIDDING about that!) The effect is kind of like what you'd see if you left a melon sitting in one position for a long time. One side becomes flat and the ends "sag" a bit due to gravity. It's not a big deal at all, and we expect everything to be normal as he grows. His other physical features include huge, strikingly blue eyes and long eyelashes. In that respect (the eye size and the lashes), he'll fit right in with a couple of his siblings. He has hair so blond that it's almost white. This, together with the blue eyes, reminds us all the time of Weston Gabbert... I mean Catron! ;-) His hair color is interesting because it didn't look like that in any of the pictures we received in July. His hair actually looked red then. That was our first surprise. Our next was that he has deep, adorable dimples when he smiles. This, together with the big eyes, reminds us of his cousin Cassie. (Cassie's dad, my brother, also has dimples. He says they'll make Ben a babe magnet in America! I'm not sure what my sister-in-law Kristi thinks of that observation...) He smiles very frequently, too. All of this is just a long way of saying that he is simply beautiful! Julie isn't here right now, and naturally I can't remember his specific statistics (height, weight, etc.). I'll send those in a later message. After our trip to the orphanage, our case worker/guide Valentina (whom we are going to nominate for sainthood, by the way) took us to the market in the center of town. Having shopped for groceries yesterday already, we walked on to another section of town to do some souvenir shopping. (I never know how to spell that word...) We're getting to be pretty good with this dollars/roubles thing! It makes us feel rich to lay out 288,700 for a few knick-knacks! Getting to the market was a very interesting experience. We have been paying two men to drive us about every day so far, but when we left the orphanage we had no driver. No problem, proclaimed Valentina. In Russia, you can go to the side of the street and hail down any vehicle like a cab. The citizens have an obligation to stop and give you a ride if possible. Then you are obliged to pay them. "Sure, Valentina," we thought. Sure enough. She walked to the street and the very first car stopped! We're wondering now what our parents will think about us hitchhiking around Russia like college kids! ;-) Let's talk a little bit about driving here. Let's just say that the lines down the middle of the road are considered to be guidelines more than rules. Staying on one side of the road is distinctly optional. Oh, and car seats? That's a quaint notion. Think of two American parents trained to strap all of their kids down so that a nuclear blast couldn't dislodge them, and then picture them in the back seat of a stranger's car hanging on to their new son for dear life as a person who doesn't understand a word they are saying careens in and out of traffic. Let's just say that even if we weren't religious before this experience, we would be now! I think I'm probably exaggerating the point a bit, but the difference from American roads is indeed rather jarring. Oh, and more often than not the car is full of smoke too. Valentina tells us that 75% of men and 50% of women smoke in Russia. We believe it. Mom, you'd hate that aspect of life here. Jerry, you and Scott and Jeremiah... Well, you know. ;-) The fashions of Irkutsk are rather less colorful than they are in the U.S. Basic blacks and browns make up most wardrobes, it seems. Today I wore tan khakis and a blue denim shirt, and I looked like the Rhinestone Cowboy in comparison to the people on the streets. There is no doubt that we are immediately identifiable as Americans no matter how hard we try not to be. Another interesting observation about pedestrians is that couples walking on the street almost always walk arm-in-arm. This includes male/female, female/female and even male/male couples. That takes some getting used to also. Well, another American (from eastern Tennessee, actually) is waiting to send a message, so I will close now. Thanks once again to all for their kind thoughts and prayers. They mean so very much to us. Love, Kevin & Julie