Where are the Flamingo's?

Friday. Today was a down day for us as we were not going to see Ellie. We were supposed to go to the mountains today, but "decided" not to go. Instead, we went to Flamingo World. This is Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan's attempted version of Disney World. It was a nice change from sitting in the hotel room and got on minds off being away from home and away from Ellie. The trip to the amusement park was interesting as we got the hotel to get us a taxi. Maria wanted me to find out how much the fare would be, if the driver spoke English, and if they would come pick us up. I talked to the driver on the way out asking him if he could come back at 2PM to pick us up. He said 4Pm, I then asked if he could come at 3 upon which he agreed. We prayed as we got out that he would come back. The ride cost 100 som (about 3.60 American for a 20 to 25 minute ride). We got out, paid our admittance, and went to ride rides with no idea of how to translate them. We purchased Joshua a ticket to ride 10 rides. The ticket thankfully had pictures so we could figure out what the rides were. After riding the rides, playing at the shooting gallery, riding the Kamikaze (check out Josh's blog), we were done at 2PM. We never saw a single flamingo. All this took about an hour and a half to do. Thankfully, our driver came back at 2:45. Before we left the hotel, we had asked them to write down the following phrase in Russian: Please take us to Wal-Mart, er, I mean the Beta Store. The driver dropped us off and we purchased souvenirs for the trip. We got Ellie a traditional dress, some felt shoes, a doll, and a Christmas ornament. Joshua got a traditional felt hat, and a baseball bat. After dining on pizza, Maria decided to go to bed. Joshua went shortly thereafter. We get to go and spend time with Ellie tomorrow. Hopefully, she will be even more expressive.