10/2/04-Early reflection of a "Control Freak"

From Mary Jo's perspective:
Yes the flight in was a challenger for me…as has been almost everything so far for this "pampered girl". My orderly little world has been "rocked".

We had almost no problem getting through Passport Control and Customers…that was a breeze. When we got through, Bolat and his father, the facilitators for the Almaty leg of the trip, were waiting for us and two other couples. We loaded up our luggage and were off. As it turns out, the Hotel here was booked up, so they rented us an apartment. We pulled into the place well after midnight and I was afraid when we entered the building and took the elevator upstairs..definitely not the Four Seasons. When we went into the apartment, I was relieved to find that the inside did not mirror the outside. It was clean and fully functional. We immediately took a shower and then went to sleep. We were exhausted.

The next morning we watched a DVD and then dressed to hit the town to find some water. We were dying of thirst and the water from the faucet is not drinkable. It turns out that we were staying on the main drag in Almaty…so everything was pretty accessible. However, since nobody speaks any English, it was frustrating to try and find what we needed. "Who needs that Russian dictionary we left back in the apartment?" We finally made our way to an exchange place and changed some money and then found a place where we could get some drinks. That was enough adventure for me for the day. We went back to our apartment. I feel like such a fish out of water. For those of you who know me well, I like having some degree of control and it's just not possible in this environment. However, Bill and I did decide that we need to start thinking a little bit ahead because autopilot just doesn't work in a place that is so unfamiliar. I am sure it will be more comfortable after a few more days.

Bolat called and said that he would pick us and the other two couples up and we would go for lunch. He took us to a Pizza place. I am pretty sure that will be our last Pizza for a few weeks. We spent a long time at lunch talking. After that Bill and I walked back to the apartment. We had about an hour until we had to go to the airport…so we took a short nap.
Bolat's father and a driver showed up to get us at 5 o'clock and we took the death ride to the airport. I think we were safe but the pedestrians took their lives in their hands. Also, it would appear that the lines on the road are just guidelines for driving. Our driver got us there in record time. We were at the airport a solid 25 minutes before the others. We were beginning to think that either we were in the wrong place or that they weren't going to make it but they finally showed up at the airport. We were all checked in and ready to go.

We were hoping that our plane was going to be one of the big ones just outside the window…but no such luck. We got on a bus and they took us out to an airplane on the tarmac. They loaded us on a plane that had to be thirty or forty years old. What can you expect for a $120 flight. The flight was pretty uneventful. However you knew it was an old plane when it hit the ground in Karaganda. I was asleep and I woke up and yelled "Oh my God". I asked Bill if it was that I was sleeping or if it really hit that hard and he said…it really hit down hard. When we got to the gate, our translator Lena was there. She took our baggage tickets and helped us get our bags from the plane side. We were missing two bags…one of ours and one belonging to another couple also traveling with us...and the folks unloading the plane said there were no more. Lena went with them back to the plane and got them for us. You really do need to have the local support to navigate your way around the airports, officials, etc. It is very obvious that they have some pull or at least they know how to handle the people that we need to deal with.
Lena got us settled in the Hotel. We unpacked our things as we will be here in the hotel for a couple of weeks. It certainly doesn't have all of amenities of home but the hotel is clean and functional.

I am feeling a bit more relaxed. I am a little emotional about all that is going on and the overall experience of adopting. Each time I go without something that I consider to be a normal expectation or something doesn't go the way that it should, I realize how much we have to offer and know we have made the right choice to come here and adopt. All I can say is "God bless Bill for sticking it out for the entire 7 weeks"…cause this "gal" couldn't hack it.