In which our travellers sit down on a Monday and stand up on a Wednesday...
Time gets a little funny when you travel against the turn of the Earth. You might, for example, leave your home at 5 p.m. Monday-- travel for exactly 22 hours-- and arrive at 2 a.m. on Wednesday. So let's tell our story in reverse...
We met Owen. It was perfect.
The whole trip we'd been on pins and needles. What if he hates us? What if cries and fusses and just won't have anything to do with us? What do we do when the caregivers swoop in to take care of him and we just can't connect?
We shouldn't have worried.
They brought him to us in a blanket burrito. (More on "they" in a minute-- remember, this story's in reverse.) At first we didn't even think there was a baby inside; it looked just like a big bundle of blankets in the nurse's arms. But then she unwrapped one, two, three blankets and there, like the secret toy surprise in the middle, was Owen.
The first person he saw was Doctor Natalia and they clearly have a little love affair going on. She cooed and he lit up like a Christmas tree. We goggled at him for a bit and then got the nod to pick him up. He laughed as we lifted him, wrapped his fingers up in first my sweater and then Robin's, and got a big ol' fistful of Robin's hair which he promptly stuffed in his mouth.
It was an amazing 15 minutes and over far too quickly.
Just as he was about to drift off on my shoulder, the nurse came back with Dr. Natalia, the nice woman from the Ministry of Education and our interpreter, Inna (pronounced EYE-na). Dr. Natalia told us Owen (his Kazakhstan name is Valentin and she calls him "Vica") was quite the character-- all giggles and squirming. She was surprised to see him dozing with us. She asked us what we thought. We said "perfect." She answered, "All of our babies are."
We managed a quick picture of the three of us and then out came the burrito. He was bundled up and vanished before we knew it. We get to see him again tomorrow-- for two hours starting at 10 a.m.
Now, how we got there in the first place. Maybe now we'll start at the beginning.
Flight from K.C. to Minneapolis was uneventful. A brief scare in Minneapolis when some landlubber from OK City got the last-minute willies and had to get off the plane. We were delayed for an hour while they looked for his bags and, since we only had a 2-hour layover in Amsterdam and strict warnings that we absolutely could NOT miss the plane to Almaty, I was a little panicky.
No need to worry. We easily made up the time, arrived only 15 minutes late and at a gate just a short walk from the gate for Almaty. No fuss, no muss.
The KLM flight from Amsterdam to Almaty was delightful-- you just can't go wrong on a plane that serves you ice cream as a snack. Immigration and customs in Almaty was a breeze, our driver and interpreter met us at the gate and sped us to our hotel. We got about five hours of sleep and then we were up and at 'em. We downed a quick continental breakfast-- thankfully and disappointingly there was nothing too bizarre on the table.
Our driver, Sasha, met us again and helped us heave our luggage into his car. The night before he'd carried the red suitcase of doom up the steps by himself. I felt terrible. He accused us of stashing "all our American gold" in it. A quick trip to visit the Sisters, the women who work with WPA on this side of the world. They are AMAZINGLY efficient. A quick meeting with the attorney to hand over our paperwork and sign the requisite forms. A quick meeting with Gulzhan who explained our schedule and the fees-- and surprised us with the promise of meeting Owen today instead of tomorrow. A bundle of documents for the Maternity Hospital dropped neatly in our laps-- and then it was done!
It was actually a lot like getting a mortgage. You cheerily sign a bunch of papers you don't understand and then hand over a wad of money. The only difference is that the Sisters are much better prepared than any of the lenders we've ever met.
Sasha took us to the Ram Store (which looks like PAMCTOP in Russian) to exchange money, to buy bottled water and INet cards and for a quick touchbase at an internet cafe. Then it was back to the car to pick up our interpreter and head for the airport and Kokshetau.
That plane ride-- a little more interesting. A pity we weren't allowed to take pictures. You enter in the back end of the plane; carry ALL of your luggage aboard, sit on hard metal seats about the size of one and one-half of my butt cheeks, and roast. (I don't care what the temperature is outside, on that plane it was like the surface of the Sun!)
Three hours later, we're scooped up by new driver Oleg and interpreter Inna. A quick stop at the cottage where we met our new (and, again, surprise) roomates the Strelos, and then off to the maternity hospital for the Big Event.
Coming back, we were treated to a tour of the apartment and a nice dinner prepared by the manager. Matt and Audrea Strelo chatted us up while we ate. They're very nice and we consider ourselves lucky to have them. We already learned more in the last hour of chatting with them than we could possibly have figured out on our own.
That's it for now. More tomorrow.
