wild car rides, passport photos, and money for the orphanage

Alex's first car ride with us

Today’s agenda: Get that passport going! Also, we closed another of Alex’s state-sponsored bank accounts, withdrawing the money to give to the orphanage.

We picked Alex up from the orphanage at around 10 a.m. and headed out for the nearby mid-sized city where the passport office is located. Just as he did yesterday when he made a short car trip to the photo office in this town, Alex was clearly thrilled by the car ride—see the attached video. As is typical here, there were no seatbelts for anyone, and definitely no car seat for Alex, so he rode in our laps for part of the way, and then (when our facilitator expressed concern that the hot air blowing in the windows would cause an ear infection!) in between the two of us in the back seat. The car ride, as usual, was wild: passing multiple trucks at a time at 70-80 mph, then pulling into the correct lane at the last possible second before oncoming traffic, swerving all over the road at high speeds to avoid potholes, etc. Our facilitator bought a towel before we headed out just in case Alex got car sick; apparently this is pretty common with kids who aren’t used to riding in the car. I was thinking that they could probably reduce the incidence of car sickness by slowing down and driving more sanely, but Alex loved it all—especially when we floored it, or swerved sharply, or hit bumps.



(On a side note, any attempt to buckle up in the rare event that seatbelts are available is met with laughter and assurances that you don’t need a seatbelt. I laugh, pat them on the shoulder good-naturedly, and buckle up anyway, having had close-up views of the aftermath of a few low-speed car accidents and known a few friends who have lost relatives in car accidents. They’re called “accidents” because no one anticipates them, people, and as far as I can tell, God doesn’t generally give passes on the laws of physics just because you’re nice, or a so-called “safe” driver. End of rant.)

Once again, we had a bit of a wait, this time with Alex on hand; we managed to entertain him until he was called in for the passport photo, which went pretty smoothly (after they got a cardboard box for him to sit on). Yesterday’s photo shoot (for other documents) almost had him in tears.

We also swung by the bank to close another one of his state-sponsored bank accounts. We withdrew about $2,500, which together with yesterday’s withdrawal from another account, totals just under $3,000. The orphanage is using the money to buy meat for the children as well as seven new windows. The windows in this institution are old, single-pane glass windows set in wood frames; they really aren’t sufficient to keep out the cold, and some do not open to let in a breeze during the summer’s heat. We handed the money over to the orphanage director this afternoon; she went to the factory to order the windows immediately after. They will be installed next Friday.

We won’t be here, if our luck holds. Our tentative schedule is to pick up Alex from the orphanage early Monday afternoon, then drive to the capital to finish up the paperwork to get him out of this country and into the United States—this mostly involves waiting for the passport and visiting the U.S. Embassy to get a visa. Our facilitator makes no promises, but has suggested we book tickets for next Thursday, saying she thinks there is a 90 percent chance that we will be able to leave on that day. Yay!

By the way, here is a picture of the court building where we had our hearing yesterday--a building that has seen better days in a neighborhood that has seen better days.