I Have Arrived!!

Monday, December 13

I'm in Kazakhstan!

I am tired, but all is well. It was a long series of flights, and they went smoothly through Toronto and Frankfurt. The glitch came right at the end of the 33 hours, when Almaty airport, in Southeast Kazakhstan, was fogged in and our plane had to be diverted to Astana, another 1.5 hours away. This was both an inconvenience and a convenience. It prevented us from following the original plan of meeting an adoption coordinator, Sveta, spending the night in Almaty, and connecting onward the next morning by air (this included myself and two Canadian couples also with my agency, one going with me to Karaganda, and one connecting to Uralsk). But for the other couple going to Karaganda and me, it also brought us much closer to our destination, since Astana is within driving distance of Karaganda (and so there was now no point in flying back to Almaty and then out again). We arrived at 2 am and began to sort out the logistics of having landed in the wrong airport - consulting Sveta in Almaty by phone, and talking to Lufthansa about hotel arrangements. Finally, we had a plan, which was to stay in an airline-paid hotel for the 'night' (by the time we arrived there it was 4:30 am), then wait to hear from Sveta for arrangements to drive/bus to Karaganda the next morning. I went to bed at 5:00 am, was asleep perhaps by 6:00, and was awoken by Sveta on the phone at 8:20. She said that the driver was already waiting downstairs, and asked if I was ready to go! I had ten minutes to quickly get dressed and ready, in my sleep-deprived state. The driver first took us to an apartment belonging to another coordinator, since I was supposed to hand over papers in Almaty and hadn't had the chance due to the flight change - this new coordinator took my papers instead. Her apartment was basic and what I had expected, except for one unique piece of decor - on the piano was a decorative sticker that said, "Smile, Jesus loves you" - strangely, in Spanish! (That's ok, later today my coordinator's driver seemed to want to speak German to me). We then went to the bus station where we were put in a van for the three hour drive to Karaganda. The landscape was bare and covered in a thin coat of snow; Jim, one of my travel companions, commented that it looked like Saskatchewan.

It was cold upon arrival - like a windy winter day in Ottawa. I was met by my local coordinator, Gulnara, and said goodbye to the others who were being cared for by a different coordinator. I was taken to the apartment where I now sit - a basic studio with kitchenette and bathroom. I rested off the afternoon while Gulnara ran around doing administrative work on my behalf. This evening, she took me out for tea in a bustling restaurant-cafe, and told me about a child I will meet tomorrow. We had a lovely conversation. Those details, for now, will be saved for a future blog when things are more settled, but I will say that I felt happy and relaxed by the end of the evening.

Karaganda is a modern city, and my apartment is in its center, near several malls where I bought groceries with Gulnara this afternoon and where I am sure I will find everything I desire. I do not have an Internet connection in my apartment, so will have to take these entries to be posted at an Internet cafe periodically. One surprising thing about both Astana and Karaganda is that it really looks like Christmas - they have massive Christmas tree-shaped light displays, and Christmas lights on all the buildings - the cities are quite beautifully lit up at night.


Tuesday, December 14

Visit to the baby house!

It took all day Tuesday for the paperwork to get done that would allow me to visit a baby house, so consequently we didn't go there until 5:30 pm. I was taken to an office to meet someone from the government's Department of Education who provides oversight of the process. An orphanage doctor also entered the room to talk to me for awhile.  I was introduced to one child, but also shown around the baby house a little more generally and shown a room with about eight toddlers, all of whom were very anxious to come and see who the stranger was.  Although the baby house has many children, many of them are not available for adoption.  Since this was only a brief visit to the baby house late in the day, I will go back this afternoon for a more extensive visit.  For the moment, I do not have specific information to share about a particular child - this will have to wait until things are more settled. 

It has been very busy and quite exhausting, and there are a lot of details to take care of in order to settle in, negotiate bureaucracy, and get to know the babyhouse and ultimately, one child in particular. I will write again in a few days when things are a bit more relaxed. I am very jetlagged and sleeping little with all the excitement - but otherwise, things are going well.