Monday, April 9th

This has certainly been an adventure. We seem to have had all kinds of airline problems. In Memphis on Saturday night we get to the gate and are told they don’t have tickets for me. First we had the fiasco with them not having Jon’s reservation right. I thankfully held on to my printed off check in that I did on Friday night at almost midnight. We are allowed to go get on the plane. It was packed going to Amsterdam. We then flew all night on a packed airplane. I slept less than an hour, Jon maybe slept 2. We arrive in Amsterdam and enjoyed the day. We had no problems at the Amsterdam airport and enjoyed the day in Amsterdam.

We got on the plane in Amsterdam headed to Almaty and the plane was only about 1/3 full. I moved to the bulk head seat after we took off and had plenty of leg room. I watched a movie and tried to sleep some. There were a lot of Kazak people on the plane. The flight attendants spoke Russian, maybe Dutch and English. Jon stayed in his seat in the back of the first section of the plane and I moved to the front row of the economy section. The first class and business class sections are very nice. The business class section was completely empty.

We got off the plane in Almaty and went and filled out a migration form. Then we waited in line for about 20 minutes to have someone stamp our passport. It was a Kazak woman, maybe 30 and she had no patience with us and never smiled or anything. We have to keep up with the migration form the entire time we are here and will have to turn it back in when we leave. We then went and collected our bags. The Almaty airport was nice and seemed pretty modern. Right through the doors waiting for us was Oleg. He is such a nice man. He helped us with our baggage and we found a spot to sit in the café for a couple of hours. We arrived a little bit early, so we got in the airport at about 5:00 a.m., it was still dark.

Jon, Oleg and I sat in the café and drank coffee and visited until 8AM. Oleg had bought our tickets already for us. Oleg took me in the airport to change money and to buy a phone card. I know that 122 tenge is equal to $1. This makes things really difficult to figure without a calculator. Oleg and I had coffee and water. Jon tried juice and ordered several different things to try. Our bill after all this was 4000 tenge. It came to about $30.00. Oleg said the airport is very expensive in Almaty. Oleg had our tickets purchased for us and everything done. We checked in and went to the ticket counter. At the ticket counter the woman took all our luggage and printed some things out for us. She told us to go back up front where Oleg was and pay overage fees. I paid $120.00 in overage fees at the airport for our big bags. I then went back and sat down to wait on the plane. About 30 minutes later they called boarding. We went through security and gave them our tickets. What I didn’t know was that after paying the overages we had to go back to the ticket counter and get our boarding passes. She didn’t tell us and I didn’t bother looking at the tickets, because they were in Russian anyway. We hurriedly got our boarding passes and went back through security. We did not get to sit together and both had middle seats. I sat next to a young Kazak man who was very nice. We struck up a conversation and I practiced my Russian and he practiced his English. We watched some videos together on the flight. The flight was only about 1 ½ hours to get to Astana. I will look forward to going back to Almaty on our second trip. Walking out to our plane you could see the beautiful mountains. I didn’t have a chance to take any pictures, but know I can when we come back. The mountains were just breath taking, all covered in snow.

We arrived in Astana around 11:00 AM and waited for our next flight. People stare at us when we walk around. I think it is so obvious that we are not from around here. The Astana airport was very nice and modern, but empty. There were almost no people there. There was one little café down stairs that sold pastries and soft drinks and of course a bar. We didn’t realize at the time, but upstairs after we went through security to go to our gate there was another little bar. This is where I saw the computers and was able to log on wirelessly in the airport.

A class of school children, all ages were there the same time we were. The woman that was leading them had blond hair and looked so familiar to me. She looked like a school teacher or official that I had seen on some of the pictures. When walked down some stairs and caught a bus out to our plane. It was cold and there was old dirty snow all over the place. We were all standing on the bus, no seats, just bars to hold on. Several of the children were staring at us and talking about us. Finally the lady pointed at one girl and said she knows some English, talking to me. I turned and started talking to the girl. She knew very little English, but seemed to understand a little of what I said. She wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing there. I told her and she just smiled. We all got on a crop duster looking plane. Jon and I ended up in the second row, not our seats, but I’m not sure anyone cared. The plane ride was cold, loud and lasted just over an hour and a half. Jon slept a lot and I slept for a few minutes. I was really tired.

Flying into Petro I could see just miles and miles of frozen tundra. I saw frozen rivers. Everything was white. There were very few houses out away from town. We landed in Petro and walked from the plane to the airport. It was very cold. It was shocking to say the least walking into this airport. It was like something that time had forgotten. Very, very old and not well maintained. Some parts had dirt floors if I remember correctly. We stepped through the doorway and there was Maria and Sasha waiting for us. I recognized her immediately from her pictures. She is a very pretty girl, maybe 25. We finally got all our luggage into Sasha’s little car. It was packed. Our big purple bag had to ride in the front seat and Jon, Maria and I rode in the back.

We came into the town and I was just amazed. Everything is just so dirty and run down looking. There is mud and piles of old snow. There is trash laying around and the buildings are simply depressing. We really do have things good in America. We went to the apartment which was quite scary looking from the outside, but things got better after we went in. You stepped over a thresehold onto a dirty floor. There is a really bad smell there, sort of like sewer. We went up a couple of steps and our apartment was to the left. There was a man there with the key and he opened it for us. Maria introduced him as the manager of all the apartments, he was very young, maybe 25. The apartment on the inside is much nicer than you would think. They obviously use it for Americans. We have a small kitchen with a table, a den, bathroom with a corner shower stall, with a small washing machine.

We leave all our luggage and go to the grocery store. Maria goes in with us and we buy a few things. Then we go back to our apartment and take showers and hurry to go to the Ministry of Education. We are ready in about 45 minutes and Maria and Sasha come back and get us. After the grocery store we had an hour to shower and dress and then went to the Ministry of Education. We were picked up at 4:30 and went to meet with the head of the Ministry. She was a Kazak woman and had little to say to us. But she asked us a few questions and then signed everything. She commented to Maria that we seemed very nice. I spoke some Russian to her and she seemed to like that. After we walked out Jon said I was scaring him talking Russian to people.

We went back to the apartment after this and crashed. I was asleep by 8PM and slept until 6:45 this morning. Jon slept longer than that.

I hated we couldn't go to the orphanage that day, but someome from the ministry had to go with us and set everything up with the director.

I'll add more for Tuesday.

Kathy

Amsterdam on Easter

Hello everyone! Jon and I landed safely in Amsterdam and went out for a little tour. We just got back about an hour ago. The locker thing worked great, thanks Nanci. It was right after we got off the plane from Memphis, there were lockers right there for us to use. Jon has decided this whole process was just too easy. We put our bags in lockers and then started looking for the train tickets or the tran information. We went through one Passport check and got a stamp. Then we went out into the main part of the airport and I got in line and traded for some Euro. Then I bought us 2 train tickets into Amsterdam Central and we caught the train. We got off right in down town Amsterdam and just walked around for a little while. I took some pictures. we ducked in this little cafe and had a quick bit. It was close to 3:00 and I was getting nervous about getting back without any problems. Besides I had trouble getting on-line this morning when we first got here and I wanted to get this working.

We checked this morning to see if there was anything we needed to do when we came back into the airport to board our plane and was told no, as long as we had our boarding passes. We came back into the airport, and walked through the passport line, got a stamp and then walked to our locker and got our carry on bags. Wow, that was just too easy. We are sitting upstairs in the lounge area, where they have the lounge chairs, but I'm sitting in the internet cafe. I'll post a couple of pictures and then Jon wants to get on and do some surfing.

Till later,

Kathy B.

Pictures found ... just for fun - from February

I wish I could move post around, because this should be back in February. I was cleaning off my digital camera last night after charging it, just making sure it was ready. I found some pictures from our trip to Orlando back in February. Jon had a hardware show to go to, adults only. It was at a beautiful resort. I found some of our pictures last night. We stayed at the Omni Resort at Champion's Gate. The trip was pretty extraordinary. I am always amazed at how these companies can put on such well orchestrated events for 1,000 people. Here are a few pictures. We had a good time and it was our first taste of being away from Sarah for 4 days. It was tough on her, but I knew we needed to do it. Besides Jon and I had a lot of fun. Okay. I'm going to make breakfast now. I'll post later. Maybe from Amsterdam, who knows?

Kathy B.

Our last day in Monroe ... a new kitten ...

What a night! Oh my goodness. I stayed up late recording me reading stories for Sarah last night. I decided I was finally sleepy at 11:30 last night. So I crawl into bed and right before I drift off to sleep I thought well, I forget to check in for our flights on Northwest. I go on-line and check in for the flights. Everything is good, I print off our boarding passes and notice that Jon's ticket is in the name Jon Charles ... no Bradford. I go pull my itenerary from Eldo at Golden Rule and the itenerary that he sent me has my name first Bradford/Kathryn then below that Charles/Jon. How did I never notice that before??! I check the end of the itenarary on the second page and it says the same thing. It even has our frequent flyer numbers listed. How could he leave off Jon's last name!? Now I'm in full panic mode. And we all know what that does for that warm sleepy feeling. Gone ...
So I immediately call Northwest Airlines. After being on hold for 20 minutes with no help, I hang up and call Golden Rule travel. I get a recording and call their 24 hour number. I get a very sleepy sounding man that says he can't help me tonight and call back tomorrow. I asked him if this is a problem, he said maybe, he doesn't know yet. Yikes! That was helpful.

So I get back on the phone with NW. I wait on hold at least another 20 minutes. I finally get a very nice lady named Kathy. I told her the situation and she says she has to talk to a supervisor. She comes back on and tells me to look at his passport and tell her what it says. I have that memorized, so I tell her Jon Charles Bradford. She says okay we can change it, but that will be $15.00. She will have to re-issue the ticket. I said that was fine. At this point I would have paid $500.00. (Of course I don't tell her that.) She worked on it and says it is all fixed now. I can re-check in for our flight.

We hang up, but no luck in checking in again. Now we've got to get to the airport extra early. For those that know Monroe, that probably means at least 1 1/2 hours before the flight, like 3:00 instead of 3:30. I checked on line and it does show his correct name now on the tickets, but it just won't let me re-check in. Monroe is huge metropolitan airport with 2 airlines and 2 gates. :-) Okay. For those out there in the world reading this, it is a little small airport with only 2 airlines and takes about 5 minutes to get through security. I would still feel better checking in early. I may even go out there this morning with passports in hand and a copy of our tickets, just to make sure.

I am a nervous wreck now. I've done pretty well up until last night. I woke up this morning and thought "Oh my gosh, I'm going to miss this bed." Our wonderful soft nest of a bed that we have. "I'm going to miss you so much."

The house is quiet. Jon went to the lumberyard for a little while to finish up a few things. Sarah is snuggled in her bed sound asleep. She needs to hurry and wake up. The Easter Bunny made a special trip to our house last night to visit her. I think he may be doing an encore at her Meme's house tomorrow morning.

We had a good night last night. Mom and Dad came over along with Doug, Katy and the kids for hamburgers. It was nice to get to visit together one last time. I hate we're going to miss the big Easter luncheon at Doug and Katy's on Sunday. I'll post a picture of the Easter bunny loot shortly when I get this girl to wake up. Okay. I've now added a picture and there is a new kitten in our house, fortunately for all concerned, it runs on batteries. I'm sure our 2 real kitties will be happy that there is no competition for them. This is Sarah curled up in our bed enjoying her Easter bunny stuff.

I had a few e-mails from friends this morning, thanks to everyone for all your support, encouragement and prayers. I really appreciate it.

Till later,

Kathy

Our new e-mail address

I signed up for a new e-mail address through Google. I hope to use this e-mail while I'm travelling since I don't know if I can access my work e-mail. Our new e-mail address is kat101468@gmail.com

If anyone knows anything fun to do in Amsterdam this Sunday afternoon, please let me know. I'm a little bit nervous about going around on our own in a new foreign city, but so many others have done it, so we'll give it a try.

The packing is still going on, re-arranging and moving and re-packing. I really didn't think I had this much stuff to take. And I haven't packed any clothes yet. :-)

Till later,

Kathy B.

One week from now ...

... we will be in Kazakhstan and hopefully will have met Almira by now. Jon's father is doing better and was able to come to the lumber yard for a short time last Friday. Please pray for his continued improvement. Sarah seems to be doing okay with our going now. She understands the reason we have to be gone and although she has been a bit clingy, she is also excited about her new sister.

At home I am having the continuing battle with the luggage. It seems like we have nothing packed and yet I'm looking at 3 almost full suitcases. I may have to start pulling things out before long. We have to be able to get our clothes over there. I now understand the battle that everyone goes through with the luggage and trying to pack just the right things. I've sworn that I will not buy another thing to take with us. I'm just glad I shipped 2 more boxes of donations last week to Boris in Kaz.

That's all until later. The countdown is on. Just five days left ...

Kathy B.

Travel is booked

Well, I got our travel booked on Friday and we're flying out on Saturday, April 7th and will arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan at 5:10 a.m. on Monday, April 9th. From there we hope to catch a 9:30 a.m. flight out of Almaty and land in Petro at 2:15 p.m. that same day. We will be flying Air Astana once in country.

Jon's Dad is doing much better, but is still in the hospital. I hope everyone will continue to pray for him and for a speedy recovery. I am slowly getting things packed and pulled together. We have so many donations that I hope we have room for our clothes.

Till later,

Kathy B.