The Museum

Today Ken arranged a trip to the local museum. We were picked up at 10am and home by 12:30pm, but it felt like half the day was used up when we got home so that was good. Ken and Alexi, Thane, Judy and Hannah, plus Naomi and I made a full van. Just Pasha the driver took us, we had no interpreter. It was the old fashioned kind of museum, with large rooms of taxidermy animals representing the animals that are native to this region. They were the kind of taxidermy you can tell are about 100 years old. You know kind of bumpy and have marbles for eyes, but it was very nice. They looked a lot like the animals native to Minnesota and Wisconsin. There was a beaver, fisher, wolverine, fox, wolf, squirrels, wood ducks, mallard ducks, and otters, to name a few. The bears were those Sun bears I’ve seen at Minnesota zoo. They had a pair of moose; the only thing was the bull’s antlers were pointy like deer antlers. Since all the signs were in Russian we Americans guessed one of two things; they have a different kind of moose here or there was a mix up at the taxidermy shop. They have ratcoons here, but they don’t have masks or rings on their tails. The one thing they have that Minnesota and Wisconsin don’t have is the Siberian tiger! They are really native to here. If you think you’re scared of bears when you’re in your tent at night camping, imagine if there were tigers on the loose! The sign in English said there are only 60-75 left in the wild in this region, not to many.
I set Naomi free and she toddled from exhibit to exhibit pointing and making noises like she was amazed, I followed close behind her agreeing with her and telling her the names of the animals, and making sure she didn’t knock anything over. The Russian woman working there all smiled at her, but I got denied when I asked if I could take pictures. They pointed at the gift shop; I guess if you want pictures you have to buy the book.
We picked Naomi up from the orphanage about 11/2 weeks ago. She seemed to have only been fed baby food. On day two I sliced a banana and the quartered it, and gave one little piece of it to her. Her eyes got big and tongue when crazy like she was going to choke. I’ve been trying to get her use to more texture ever since. Now she can hold her own banana and eat the whole thing herself. Here is Naomi and her work hanging in the kitchen. Naomi and Hannah at the play ground (two girls from Khabarovsk) and how we look grocery shopping.