Our Journey to Kazakhstan ... and Parenthood!

What's New?

2007-02-24T16:00:00.000-06:00

If you have questions or comments, you can reach us at marysue716@aol.com; please include "[ZhezBlog]" at the start of the subject line.

History of updates/changes to this site in reverse chronological order:
- Apr 2, 2007; more additions to the Zhez & Satpaev page, generally going to try and call it "done" for the time being
- late Mar, 2007; more additions to Zhez & Satpaev, added photos and some edits to the Almaty section
- mid Mar, 2007: continue additions to the 'Zhez & Satpaev' section
- Feb 24, 2007: added photos, some edits to 'our IA experience'
- Feb 20, 2007: added draft of 'our IA Experience'

Our International Adoption Experience

2007-02-24T15:01:00.000-06:00

It's hard to know where to start, actually :-) Perhaps it's easiest to begin with the fact that my husband and I knew we wanted to be parents. And that we were very happy that through the international adoption process we would be able to do that. Our family and friends have been tremendously supportive throughout the whole process, and we're truly blessed in countless ways.

Research
We started the adoption process in the first part of 2005 by doing some research for an agency, contacting a few, and attending an introductory seminar hosted by one of them in our area. We also began the work on our homestudy with a social worker in Feb/Mar timeframe. We had not selected an adoption agency yet; at that point we were still trying to determine where we should try to adopt from and what agency we wanted to choose. So read up on how the process worked in different countries (the U.S. Secretary of State’s web site travel.state.gov has great info) checked out a number of agency sites, and started reading a few IA Yahoo Groups and FRUA [n.b. this site does have some ‘scary’ stuff as well as some very touching stories; did find it useful and practical as well]). Agencies generally don’t work in all countries, and not in all regions within a country. We learned that in different countries the process is different, and that things do change even within programs. We wanted to pick an agency we could trust, an agency that was local (in hindsight this is not a big issue), and an agency that worked in several countries so that we had some options should we get mid-process and have to change countries. We needed to select an agency before our homestudy could be finished, because agencies have some of their own requirements as to the homestudy based on their experience within the country we would choose. We decided to work with Adoption Ark to complete our adoption, and we were happy with the choice we made - they work with honesty and integrity, they were straightforward, accessible and kept us informed.

Ultimately we chose Kazakhstan. In all honesty, we did not know much about the country at the time we made the decision, but from what we read about the program there, and what our instincts told us, this just felt right. While we thought we could expect a 6-7 week trip, we figured we would both be able to swing getting that time off from work and we could do one trip. There was the potential for us to adopt two children at the same time. Along the way we also decided to travel "blind"; the Republic of Kazakhstan does not recognize ‘referrals’, so this was part of the program decision. For us this was not an issue, as we decided to put it in the hands of the people that were helping us with the adoption and travel ‘blind’ to help us find them – we knew they were out there! So were not going to get any information before we traveled about our kids, nothing to review with a pediatrician specializing in international adoption before we traveled.

So our request to the Republic of Kazakhstan was that we be allowed the privilege to adopt 2 children, up to age 3, as healthy as possible.

We’ve done some traveling in the past, and we knew this was not going to be a ‘vacation’. It was a long and sometimes arduous journey – but unforgettable, priceless, a journey of a lifetime. For those of you yet to travel, it is doable. Be flexible, “go with the flow”, be organized, and relax. Another family that had traveled to Kazakhstan a couple years before we did had written “You’re not in Kansas anymore”; that does seem quite fitting ;-)

The Paper Chase and Waiting...
And so began the paper chase. There appears to be three “threads” of paperwork – US Immigration (I600A), the homestudy and the dossier (which is a collection of documents that will go to the country, including the homestudy). While it certainly is a lot of work to get all the forms completed properly, notarized and apostilled, it is more a matter of organizing and doing it than anything else. We had several rounds of medical exams and forms for the homestudy and dossier. We were fingerprinted a number of times – for the US Government/Immigration, the state of Illinois (homestudy), and the Republic of KZ (dossier). So quite a few appointments for one thing or another, several trips into the city to get documents apostilled, etc. Glad we had a good filing system.

Our agency helped out by giving us quite a bit of guidance on what all we needed to complete, and answered questions as we made progress. Unfortunately just after we got our dossier assembled and sent off to our agency in September, we got word that the dossier requirements for Kazakhstan were changing (our agency had warned us that this may happen, they just didn't know when). So it took a bit of time to get the new requirements, then to make the revisions and resubmit our dossier to our agency for translation and final review, preparation and shipment.

We kept ourselves busy during the 'preparation and waiting' phase. Some of our miscellaneous preparations included learning about Kazakhstan – at this point we did not yet know where within KZ we would be going - learning a bit of Russian (used Pimsleur CDs, as we could each use them while on the road/commuting), reading about bonding, attachment, potential medical issues, getting immunizations... and of course paper chasing. We spent quite a bit of time getting the house ready - painting (it took me forever to decide on a color) and preparing a room for the kids, other house and outdoor projects we knew we wouldn't have time to complete after the adoption. Then there are the travel plans, making the packing list (and revising it a lot), etc.

To Zhezkazgan and Home again
We found out from our agency a couple days before we left where we would be going; actually it was a last minute change request by the regional coordinator. And thus we began our journey to Kazakhstan – and to the city of Zhezkazgan – on April 19, and ultimate return June 21 in 2006. We were in KZ for 9 weeks. After our arrival in Almaty in the wee/early hours on a Friday, we caught a few hours of sleep at a hotel and then flew to Zhez later that same day. We had the weekend to get settle into our hotel room, get acclimated to town and getting around. On the Monday, we met our kids (wow!!!!) and began the bonding period. Our court date was scheduled pretty early on, and while we were hoping for ‘the day after the bonding period’, it was not to be; we bonded with the kids for ~ 3 ½ weeks before our court date. Then it was two weeks for the appeal period; at the beginning of June we were officially parents of two terrific kids! We spent a few days yet in Zhez, and then went to Almaty to wait for all the final paperwork to be finalized, for the medical visits and then the US Embassy appointment.
We got to visit the kids for two hours each day (after our court day visitation changes to every other day), but other than that we were free to wander the town, do what we wanted. We wanted to be good visitors, be respectful and polite Americans, as well as keep a low profile/ not attract attention. (We did not generally tell people why we were really here, as we were just not sure how it would be received. So my husband ‘worked for the corporation’ and I ‘took some time off to join him on the trip, to explore KZ’. ) In the markets, restaurants, etc it was pretty obvious the moment we said anything that we weren’t locals, but we did what we could. We found people to be friendly; there were some at restaurants that had staff with English knowledge, but generally the bit of Russian we learned helped. We were the only family there in Zhezkazgan adopting at the time. Based on advice at the time from our agency, we opted to stay in a hotel instead of trying to find an apartment. (See the 'hotels in Zhez' section.)

The orphange in Zhezkazgan has room for about 100 children, we were told. The kids range from birth to age 6; not all of the children here are available for adoption. It is a very well maintained building, just recently renovated prior to our visit. The children seem to be well cared for and happy. Our visits took place in the visitor room, which we affectionately referred to as 'the green room'; it has a comfortable couch, chair, child's desk and chair. Toward the very end of our time in Zhez, it was nice enough that we were able to take them outside into the play area on premise. We brought toys and food for the kids each day (a banana, yogurt, cheerios, formula and baby food). Every week or so we would bring in diapers, as well. It does get pretty warm in the room, so would recommend people dress in layers and bring water. After a while the visits do get a bit routine - almost like "ground hog day" - but we did have a good time with the kids, it gave us that initial time to start bonding, and we really feel that the time we spent with them made 'gotcha day' for the kids relatively easy.

In addition to seeing the kids, most days would include a visit to the internet café, a bit more walking around, a regular stop at the grocery store for a few things (including bottled water, cheese & bread, some fresh vegetables, yogurt, bananas, cheerios, baby food). We brought books (not enough!), got hooked on sudoko, watched movies (dvds we brought while the laptop worked). We were there at an opportune time, really, weather-wise. We both love to get out, walk around, and the weather cooperated. Once we learned our way around we walked much of the time. We did have quite a bit of downtime, so these are some things we were able to do: walks by the lake/reservoir, exploring the open market, check out the stores and shops, tour the Kazakhmys museum, walked to the WWII monument, wander around the city.

Our court proceedings were very dignified, professional. The judge did not stick around – he was in and out quickly. That said, though, he did listen to / participate in the proceedings. Have heard stories from others in IA community about judges that aren’t listening, take calls, do work on their PC, etc. Not the case here. We felt the whole court session was very respectful of what this is all about and the significance of it. Everyone was in in professional looking attire.
We talked with our translator ahead of time as to what to expect – should we prepare a speech, etc. Based on her guidance we did not prepare a speech. She said that the judge would ask us each questions; we should stand during this, speak to/look at the judge, she would translate for us. We dressed in business attire; this was a very important day, and we wanted to convey that in our appearance as well as our demeanor.

We were able to get what we needed for both of the kids there in Zhez. We bought a couple of umbrella strollers, which served us well. By the time our “Gotcha Day” arrived, the kids seemed to be very comfortable with us – we were putting them through so many new experiences, but they’re real troopers, and they handled the changes really well.

Our stay in Almaty was enjoyable, though we still were very ready to be home. We were there for about 2 ½ weeks. There are a ton of things to do and see there. We stayed at the Hotel Kazzhol; we found it to be a good location, within walking distance of enough things to see and do, and just a taxi ride from a few others.

The flight back was long – have to admit we wouldn’t want to make that flight again any time soon. But it was doable, and when the four of us touched down in Chicago … well as Dorothy once said, “there’s no place like home”.

Timeline
02/26/05: Attended an international adoption seminar at the agency; shared the news of our decision with our parents
03/14/05: Signed on w/ SW agency to complete homestudy; still sorting out Adoption Agency (looking at country programs, timeframes, requirements, researching reputation and experience of agencies)
03/19/05: Application sent in to USCIS
06/05/05: decided to adopt from the Republic of Kazakhstan
06/06/05: Contracted w/ Agency for International Adoption; also notified SW of decision, so she could finalize homestudy
06/15/05: Received our checklist for Kazakhstan
06/17/05: Finished research on how to get a notarized & apostilled version of our marriage cert, other docs, sent off requests
~ 6/22/05: Received final draft of Homestudy
08/04/05: SW sent copy of homestudy to USCIS (needed in order to get a referral to get fingerprint appt)
08/05/05: Received final copy of homestudy
09/09/05: Get dossier docs apostilled (IL Sec of State – office downtown) 09/12/05: Dossier (and copies) FedEx’d to agency facilitator
~ 9/14/05: Confirmed from Agency that Kazakhstan was changing it’s dossier requirements; significant number of our dossier docs were going to need to be re-done
White Sox take the World Series!
09/23/05: Received our I-171H (the first one; another later with Box 3 checked)
11/04/05: US Embassy to Kazakhstan posts new dossier requirements
11/09/05: Got final details on requirements from our Agency, the forms they needed to provide, etc; get started! For ‘version 2’ of the dossier, we could ‘re-use’ 5 of the docs we had in version 1 (homestudy, passport copies, marriage cert, fin. Stmt and photos), we needed to do 18 docs (most notarized & apostilled again as well) Paper chasing ... new medicals for both of us, docs needed from the bank, etc - then more notarizing and apostilling going on
11/29/05: Docs for Dossier Version 2 Apostilled, copied, assembled & FedEx’d to agency
12/15/06: Based on conversation w/ Agency, sounds like our dossier was in Washington DC (KZ embassy) no later than 12/15 Some time after Christmas, we knew this was real and so we prepped the room for the kids! Paint, get a dresser/changing table, cribs…
02/13/06: PofA en-route to KZ
03/02/06: Agency said today that our dossier was in the 2nd Ministry (Min of Ed & Science) so it’s already gotten through the MFA(but don’t know when that was)
03/28/06: Agency sent us copies of our LOIs this evening via email
04/03/06: Visa applications sent w/ our passports to the KZ embassy in DC
04/19/06: Depart for Almaty, KZ 04/21/06: Arrive in Almaty ~1am; Depart for Zhezkazgan (ZhezAir) ~1pm that day
04/24/06: We met them!!!
05/01/06: “May Day’ or a ‘Friendship Day’ in Zhez, misc happenings
05/09/06: Victory/Military Day in KZ (local festivities, parade and ceremony
05/17/06: Court Day! The Judge approved our request to adopt them!
06/02/06: Gotcha/Family Day! The Adoption decision is final! The last of the paperwork process begins for new birth certificates, registration, KZ passports and exit visas
06/05/06: Depart Zhezkazgan for Almaty
06/20/06: US Embassy appointment
06/21/06: 3:20am Depart Almaty, Chicago bound!!! We’re home!

Air Travel and Packing

2007-02-24T15:00:00.001-06:00

Air Travel
Getting to and from Kazakhstan
The Lufthansa/United flight from Chicago – Frankfurt and subsequent Frankfurt – Almaty were uneventful, no problems. Seating in coach is “tight”; anyone who has done any flying knows that seats in coach for a long flight are no picnic. In Frankfurt, had gate related changes but no need to change terminals to get next flight. Signage was good in Frankfurt airport (plenty in English). Reminded me of Heathrow, in that in some places you end up walking through and by a lot of shops to get to your gate. There were places to grab a bite to eat (generally Euros needed, there are exchange places to do that.) Our luggage was checked through to Almaty so we hope it gets there when we do (it did). Blackberry has GSM access but the network doesn’t seem to handle text/data so no email back home.

The Lufthansa flight had no forms on board for us; stewardess said we’d need a landing card (this we would keep with our passport) as well as a Declaration form. Nick stayed with all our carry-on stuff while I ventured over to find the forms we needed. The temptation when I’m tired and in a crowd of people is to ‘rush’ as there were lines to get in once forms were completed … there were a number of people crammed around the forms area, they were all in Russian.. bottom line and note to self is just be patient. And have something to write with handy.

The landing form not a problem – just some basic info. Took a while to get through passport control, we were exhausted and messed up with the time change, so pretty disoriented. After we got our checked luggage, we started looking for the declaration form. In hind sight I would have done this differently, probably should have just headed out the door where we saw our Almaty coordinator waiting for us instead of clearly being out of sorts looking for a form… the airport was dead, so me wandering around… well I stuck out like a sore thumb. No way were we going to claim all the $$ we had on us. Part of our concern was that we were carrying (we thought) more cash than we were allowed to bring in – we were hoping to adopt two children AND bringing cash to get us through ~ 7 or 8 weeks). Ended up getting ‘help’ from one of the agents there, and it ended up costing us. When we admitted that we had not declared what we had in our pants pockets (a couple hundred bucks), well they brought my husband inside a room to discuss it, and well we ended up paying to resolve it. Recommendation would be to read up on what the current limits are, what to expect, from travel experts. Some of these things change over time. I have read of quite a few folks that never had any problems, so I don’t think our experience was the norm.

Getting to and from Zhezkazgan

Flight to Zhezkazgan via ZhezAir… the Almaty airport is not large. Our Almaty coordinator was not able to go in with us, so after walking with us to the first ‘queue’ we were on our own. He told us someone would meet us at the Zhez airport, perhaps our Karaganda Region Coordinator or her assistant. We’re not sure. (Not exactly the response we were looking for, since it didn’t give us that warm fuzzy feeling, but we were here, so we kept rollin’.) We did allow ourselves plenty of time, so at least we could take our time trying to figure it out. Checked two bags and had the two back packs as carry-ons. We had kept a pretty close eye on our luggage weight – carried a small luggage scale that had found on Magellans site – and though we were a bit over they didn’t charge us anything. Once we were in the waiting area, well we were a bit confused; we didn’t know the ‘routine’ here, and we were temporarily panicked when it looked like the signs were not in English – but if you are patient they do ‘flip’ to English now and then. Electronic signs ‘switch’ between English, Russian and probably Kazakh. That said, we came close to missing our flight – so recommend that you know for sure when your flight departs, watch the gates, etc. Took a bus to the plane (on the tarmac) only to see all the checked luggage at the base of the plane’s stairs ready for us to carry it up into the plane and stow it ‘anywhere’. The crew did not help; seemed like the system could use some help on that one, not very efficient. No real assigned seats either, fortunately we were able to sit together.

Certainly smaller plane, looks like it could handle 30-40 passengers if it didn’t need room for all the luggage. There are about 12 of us on the plane (plus pilots and stewardess). We seem to be the only Americans, certainly the only English speakers, on the flight. The stewardess does not understand or speak any English, none of the announcements are in English. They didn’t weigh our carry-ons. Our checked baggage weighed in @ 54 kg and 27 kg (max is 40kg for the two of us for ZhezAir). Our Almaty coordinator had told us to expect to pay for overage; I guess either we were ‘close enough’ or due to limited number of passengers on the flight they didn’t charge us [nb: they made up for it on the way back!]

The flight itself was warm and "cozy", but I don't think it was more than a couple hours. When we arrived in Zhezkazgan our Translator was there to meet us, with a taxi waiting to take us to the Samsung.

Leaving Zhezkazgan and getting to Almaty…. Flight out on Zhez Air. Getting through airport security and check-in, etc was a bit of an ordeal, but with our Translator there it worked out ok. We bought a ticket for our son (there was a new regulation as of May 1 that >2 y.o. we had to purchase a ticket – it was half price, came with a seat) Our baggage at this point consisted of 2 large suitcases, 2 backpacks, 1 soft bag with kids entertainment, my purse and 2 umbrella strollers. They weighed “all” our luggage, including the strollers, so we were 25 kg overweight (never saw things like strollers weighed anywhere else) so it cost us ~ 6000 tenge (est $60-65) which our translator had to take the cash back to the ticket window. Not sure what we would have done without her here, really, because it seemed like a lot of back and forth to this window and that. Once through security we had paid for someone to take some of our bags (500 KZT each) Once checked in, there was a room for everyone to wait; it was a good size, comfortable enough. Then when ready we took the bus/shuttle out onto the tarmack where the plane was waiting. [My husband said the plane on this leg was a pretty new one]. Getting on the plane is akward, given the stairs are narrow, tight aisles and of course the aireline staff are trying to go back and forth at the same time. Even though we paid for help w/ the luggage all that did was get it to the shuttle/cart; once we were at the plane you’re responsible for getting your own stuff into the plane. (The system needs work.) With the two kids, this was an ‘experience’.

The flight itself was cramped, but it is not more than a two hour flight. Getting off in Almaty and unloading was when it really got to be a pain. Passengers again unload all their own stuff, everyone ends up in the shuttle, so one has to wait until everyone is off the plane. So why people are shoving their way through to be first off the plane is beyond us. Handling the two kids (I did that, w/ a backpack & bag) and getting the luggage off (My husband got stuck with that…) . Again, passengers load and unload their own baggage – and carrying stuff up and down the narrow, steep stairs (and in the aisle of the plane) was a real challenge. None of the ZhezAir staff help, it’s a pretty stupid way to do it. And of course we were frustrated since Nick had to do most of the ‘porting’ while I kept the kids. So everyone gets off the plane, gets/carries luggage, gets onto another shuttle. My husband helped some women with their luggage, then was able to get ours off the plane. A couple other male passengers helped my husband with our bags too, which was very nice.

Packing, and Things we’re glad we took with us (or wish we had)
We brought 2 large suitcases to check and 2 backpacks for our carry-ons. We were pretty conscious of the fact that different airlines throughout this trip will have different weight limitations and carry-on limits, so we did pick up and bring a small “scale hook” (from Magellans) to try and disperse stuff. The packing was a tough process; had been gathering things for weeks that we wanted to bring – things for the kids (hopefully two!), things to pass the time, a few ‘comfort’ items – but in the end much of it did not make it. We really did try to travel light, planned to wear the same few outfits over and over, etc

- laptop (w/ dvd player)
- dvds
- ipod/itunes
- money belts
- books (we didn’t bring enough, actually, for 9 weeks)
- immersion heater (e.g. ordered online from Magellans; also would have liked a regular ‘coffee mug’, as their cups tend to be the smaller/traditional size. did eventually find some in a shop in Zhez)
- small cutting board (plastic, even those sheets would work) and paring knife
- drain cover (flat, round rubber thing; most sinks did not have stoppers/plugs) – take one or two of these, they take next to no space, and you will need one
- wash cloth (towels available, but never saw a wash cloth other than what we brought)
- blue light weight nylon bag; used it to carry stuff everywhere; actually would have liked to have a couple of ‘em for carrying stuff to and from orphanage, internet café, grocery (they do have very light plastic bags at the grocery, but they charge a bit for the heavier plastic bags)
- “Rubbermaid” containers, ziplocks (believe it or not did not see much of anything in the line of plastic ware)
- Travel alarm clock
- Notebook w/ 3 month calendar, key names/numbers, conversion charts for USD to KZT, temperatures, measures; a few pens & pencils,
- suduko puzzles (surprised, but we both got into it!)
- calculator
- travel toilet paper and antibacterial wipes

- dental floss would have been good to have
- a roll or two of TP, if you have space; the TP is different, certainly useful, but a bit like crepe paper
- kids toys
- ample supply of contact solution
- meds for cold, flu, Imodium ad (and RXs)
- obviously a camera – with extra batteries and memory card; we took both a digital and regular old-fashioned 35 mm. This came in handy for the pictures we needed to get developed for court and for the US Embassy. We just dropped off a roll of film now and then and got it back the next day. There were, I’m sure, facilities to handle digital development, we just thought this was easier.

Zhezkazgan & Satpaev - Things to Do & 'a Map'

2007-02-24T15:00:00.000-06:00

Kazakhstan country map credit/courtesy of University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (www.lib.utexas.edu)

Zhezkazgan (a.k.a. Dzhezkazgan, Zhezqazghan, Jezkazgan, etc) ... is a pleasant town located in the middle of Kazakhstan, on a reservoir of the Kara-Kengir river, in the Karaganda region. Pronounced like "Jez-kez-gon", or Zhez ("Jez" for short), it’s in the steppe; a sort of desert-like, arid (though "gravel" instead of “sand” comes to mind). Climate varies here throughout the year; it does get pretty warm (we can vouch for that) and have been told it gets rather cold as well in the winter. From what we could find out, the population is somewhere in the range of 100,000. It’s my understanding (based on some research done once we returned) that it “officially” became a town in the mid to late 1950’s, though there was at least a ‘settlement’ there by 1938 because the area is very rich in copper deposits. Minerals and the mining of those minerals is key to the development of this community.

It's not what you would call a tourist destination, but we found people here to be nice and friendly, sometimes curious about our presence. We were able to find the things we needed for ourselves and the kids, and for what we needed we were able to get around easily. Knowing a bit of Russian helped.

The company Kazakhmys is pretty key to Zhezkazgan (and near by Satpaev), a primary employer of the city; a number of facilities in Zhez have been sponsored by the company, often referred to as simply ‘the corporation’ among locals. There is mining and processing/smelting of copper and other minerals in the area.

We enjoyed walking around, getting a sense of how people lived. It seems to us that most people live in apartments, though there are neighborhoods with homes as well. Air conditioning is not commonly found in the apartments, so you see most apartment buildings have benches where neighbors can sit out front and talk. We found people often in the park (particularly the one with a fountain and statue of Satpaev) on warm early evenings. On Saturday mornings, more often than not we would see people out sweeping the sand off the sidewalks, a general weekly clean up effort. Given the arid climate in this area, that made a lot of sense. One would see women walking hand in hand - friends walking together, sometimes a younger woman with an older woman - in friendship and support. This appears to be somewhat practical at times too, given the areas of rougher walkways. I don't recall ever seeing a man and woman walking hand-in-hand, but suspect this is part of the "don't display affection in public" characteristic. People do not typically smile at one another as a form of acknowledgement when walking down the street either - one of the reasons I think we were obviously "not from here". This always seemed a bit akward to me, but we found the people were nice.

Things to do while you're here in Zhez ...

- Walk by the lake/reservoir ... in the photos here you can see the Amusement Park in town (open in the summer months) and some early morning kayaking practice.

- as the sun begins to set, it casts shadows on the "hills" along this reservoir of the Kara-Kengir river.

- shop the stores, open market

The open market, I believe is also referred to as the Green Market, is a really interesting place to explore. It was generally a reasonably priced source for a couple extra shirts/tops, paper, pencils, toys and miscellaneous things for the kids, etc. I got a kick out of looking at all the different foods, gardening supplies and such. (This is such a dry climate I would think gardening would be very difficult.) We did not find there was much negotiating for price - we tried a couple times, but it didn't seem to work (well we didn't get a better price ;-)) We found that a calculator is great to have in places like this - just give the shop person the calculator to enter the price they are asking.

- A flower vendor on one of the streets near the orphange, and flowers and vegetables market in town.

- This photo on the left is of one of the grocery stores we frequented; this one is called 'so-mat-di' (I think that's how it was pronounced). We were able to get fruits, vegetables, cheese, bread (good bread!) here, packets of oatmeal, munchies (a Russian version of Pringles), ramen noodle and cup-of-soup type things. Also baby foods, a variation of cheerios, yogurt, bottled water (brand 'tasay') both with and without gas. We did haul a lot of water around, using bottled water pretty exclusively.
- On one of the main streets near the open market, across from the "Dana" grocery store, another interesting place to by foods.

- look for mosaics through out town (ok, we found this interesting,the ones we found were space exploration themed)

- go to the gym (ask your translator or coordinator about this)
- check out the museum in town, lots of information on the mining history of Zhezkazgan and surrounding area

- see the Russian Orthodox Church (our translator took us in here, did not feel right taking any photos though) and the Mosque (do not know if you can get in to visit this, we only saw it from a distance) not far from the Samsung Hotel.

- English Movie night (it was Monday when we were there, sponsored by Peace Corp/English Club)
- check out the restaurants (see restaurant section in blog)
- in the summer, visit the amusement park

- Meander through town, walk the "promonade" and relax in the public park (popular spot to hang out and cool off on warm summer evenings)

- the insulated pipes you see here are seen throughout town; it's how heat is distributed in the colder months of the year.

- check out the monuments around town... a World War II memorial

- A Mig on display, and the "astro star" (I made up that name) monument, also can see a series of 'space' themed displays

- Statue of K. I. Satpaev

- ask about concert (there is a University there, may have something you could attend)

About our "map": While we were in Zhezkazgan, we really had hoped to find a map. We talked to our translator about it, and we did end eventually up getting a 'booklet' type map (all in Russian). It wasn't quite what we were looking for, so we have a first sketch of what we had drawn in our notebook. Please note, IT IS NOT TO SCALE :-) If you are interested in a copy please let me know and I'll email it to you - it's a pdf, and I can't figure out how to attach a pdf here on the blog. For anyone who travels to Zhezkazgan, we'd certainly be interested in getting corrections/clarifications.

Things to see in Satpaev
Satpaev (a.ka. Satpayev) , is a community neighboring Zhez, we estimate about 13 km away, on well worn (may I say bumpy) road. It was named after Kanysh Imantayevitch Satpayev, a very prominent Kazakh geologist who devoted much time to the study, exploration and development of the copper deposits in this area of the country (one of the world's largest?)

- the new (building completed recently) of a new mosque near center of town, and the Russian Orthodox Church across the street from the mosque (yes, they are across the street from one another, pretty neat, I thought)

- there is a large, new Sports complex here; we did not get a chance to see it, but it is supposed to be very nice
- see 'the Square'

Laptop & internet access, staying connected with folks back home

2007-02-03T14:26:00.000-06:00

We used email and a blog to keep in touch with our family and friends while we were away. Given all the time differences, and the challenges we assumed we would have with making phone calls, we just stuck with email. We did have rather limited and slow network access (not to mention our laptop "malfunctioned"), so we were not able to blog and upload nearly as often as we wanted to, and unable to upload many photos at all - so much of this we wrote with good old fashioned "pen to paper". That is, quite frankly, why this blog was written 'post adoption'. (It's taken me so long to get it published because, as you can imagine, we've have had other adorable priorities!)

We brought our laptop, and we certainly used it while it worked. You will of course need converters and adapter. After about 2 weeks we had trouble with it, so we were without it much of the trip. After we got back home to the U.S. we figured out finally the problem was that the battery was not recharging (the electric is different/hotter/stronger voltage there); all we would have had to do was remove the battery and the laptop would have worked the remainder of our trip! Oh well, live and learn.

Telephone calls from the hotels seemed to be a bit of a challenge, so we opted to simply use the “internet café”. Had our laptop not gone caput on us, it would have been worth sorting out the Nursat card thing. The internet café was really is more of a computer store and computer training facility, but Pasha and at least one of the other guys there on staff have a little bit of English, so it worked out ok. (As I recall it was 200-300 tenge per hour.) We did have a few problems with unexpected closures of the ‘café’, and of very slow access. That said, the Peace Corp volunteer there that we talked to didn’t think we would do much better elsewhere. Sorting out dial access from the hotels would have probably been worthwhile, had our laptop held out.

We used a flash drive to transfer things from our laptop- well that is while our laptop worked, but that’s another story - to a PC there at the café, in that way we didn’t have to carry the laptop around. Worked out well for us. Also, by using one of the PCs at the internet cafe we were able to transfer/copy photos to the flash drive as a ‘backup’ to the camera memory cards, just in case something happened to the camera. These pictures are some of the most precious that we have! Took a bit of guesswork and playing around initially as all the icons are in Russian, but didn’t take long to get it to work.

Hotels in Zhez

2007-02-03T13:58:00.000-06:00

First, some general comments. All the hotels were clean, had laundry ‘service’ available, and a restaurant on premise; if we asked, each one did have an English menu. We had to pay cash – they did not accept credit cards (we were told that the Baykonur did, though ONLY Visa). None of the hotels had cribs. Where we could, we got a larger room/two beds or double bed. Windows in the rooms rarely seemed to have screens on them.

There were no elevators that we could find (so keep that in mind when you pack!) Heard later from someone else that traveled there was an elevator at the Samsung.

We started out at the Samsung, and were there for about 3 ½ weeks. Eventually we did want to be a bit closer into town, and we knew once we got custody of the kids there was not going to be enough room in this one room at the Samsung for the 4 of us. Price was right though, and people were nice.

In retrospect, would have to say the Business Center was probably the best for our money and fit our needs (ok I’m sure the Baykonur would have been great, but not in our budget). Location was good as we walked a lot; at the Samsung we’d walk but it was a longer trip in, so it was only once in and back each day. There was a delegation that came in to town from Almaty so we ended up getting moved from Business Center (they sent us over to the Metallurg), but to the best of our knowledge they did not have any cribs. The space in the room was what would have made this place workable with the two kids.

In general our sense is that it is easy to get into the Samsung (they have quite a few rooms); the other hotels in town are booked a lot, though in all honestly we do not know if this is in part because of the availability of double/larger rooms or not. Through our translator, we just kept calling every few days to see if something would be opening up.

Hotel 'Samsung'
Rate: 3000 KZT (tenge) / night, double; from another traveler later this year the rate for a single was 2500 KZT per night
Room: all rooms appear to be the same size, but different furniture based on single or double; not many doubles.
Location: outside of town, can take taxi, or for us it was about a 25 min walk to town.
TV: all foreign language
Phone: long distance calls needed to be set up by the front desk; local calls not a problem; people can call you
Bathroom: reasonable size, counter space; tub w/ shower. Decent shower/water pressure
Notes: We're guessing this hotel was built in the ‘80s, by Samsung, rooms w/ private bath. Some rooms w/ double beds. Private bath, small fridge. Clean, simply appointed starting to show its age. Ample storage for our clothes (two adults) . Rooms are small – 2 people max semi-comfortably. We would have liked a small table or desk (single has one), a lamp or two as we had trouble finding a place to read in the room other than on the bed. We did not find the bed comfortable, trouble sleeping for more than a few hours at a time; since there were two of those very nice/heavy blankets, we tried putting one of those under the bottom sheet and it helped significantly. Shower is nice, plenty of hot water. Towels and other linens were changed out every 3 days. In the bath, provided shampoo and soap; no hair dryer. There is a TV, but no English channels.

From what we could see the single rooms had a desk, though we did not see any lamps (may have to get one at the market).

The staff is very nice. As one would expect, you won’t find many that speak English. We were able to get some laundry done for us. Restaurant in hotel; limited menu, serve breakfast lunch & dinner. They do have a copy of the menu translated into English.

Unable to dial out from the room, other than local calls. We were told we could ‘schedule’ making a long distance call, and family could call in to us.

Hotel 'Business Center'
[For us, in retrospect, we think this was the best place to stay – location, cost, and BBC.]
Rate: ~ 8400 KZT / night – larger room
Room: Spacious, side-by-side single beds (movable, put together to make double). Nightstands w/ table lamps. Floor lamp and a couple of reading chairs, also a desk w/ TV.
Phone:
TV: BBC (English) and other foreign language channels
A/C: yes; did have some issues with it, but they did fix them within a day or so each time
Bathroom: spacious
Restaurant/Bar: adjoining; decent/reasonable hours.
Decent food; though not on the menu, we were able to get toast in the morning; we had more options at this hotel for breakfast, things like toast, yogurt, coffee, perhaps pancakes (like crepes, in many ways)

Notes: We were able to put the two single beds together; room had nightstands and lights, comfortable place to read, enough space (we did have a larger room) for both of us to be comfortable hanging out there. We did have some noise issues with neighboring rooms when the hotel was full up, but given that we were expecting to be here with 2 kids for a few days, we did not complain.

This hotel is located near the lake/reservoir, and on the edge of town. Reasonable walk to a grocery/market, the internet cafe.

Hotel 'Metallurg'
Rate: similar to Business Center, ~ 8000/night, double (we got a better rate because the B.C. moved us here for the last few days of our stay)
Room: see notes
Phone: yes; we just used for local calls, not sure how calling out long distance would work
TV: nothing in English
Bathroom: small; shower stall only, no tub. Small sink, no counterspace to speak of.
Notes: Room here is probably about the same size as the one at the Samsung, though there is more floor space here as the furniture is less. Rob & Laura Petry style sleeping arrangements – the bed frames are bolted to the wall so not much chance of changing that. Bathroom is quite tight; standing shower only, no counter space; a challenge to find a place to hang anything to dry. Decent size fridge. Staff were nice enough. There is a restaurant – food similar to that of the Business Center, menu looks very much the same. There appears to be a bar, but we never checked it out as we had the kids by this point. There were two chairs in the room, though they were more of the ‘desk chair’ type, so not “comfy” for curling up with a book type thing.

Not a place we’d really choose to stay for any real length of time for the two of us, but a few days is fine. We’d really prefer the ability to at least put the beds together; perhaps that was an option in a different room, but not the one we had.

That said, the location of this one is terrific. Right in town. Right off the start of what one might call the ‘promonade’ walk (nice wide tree lined walkway, cars on either side). Mini-market is very close by, as are restaurants. (Not too far from internet café either.)

Hotel 'Baykonur'
Rate: more than any of the others (recollection is that for a large room it was running about 12000 KZT for single, 15000 for large/double. ) It’s located right on the reservoir/lake, so the setting is quite lovely. The facility does hold parties, weddings, and this is where the president stays when he comes into town. It is quite beautiful. They have a gazebo on the waters edge - nice setting for a photo.

We did not stay here; ate at the restaurant once, which was very nice (good), did always intend to go back but ran out of time. The room we saw was beautiful, comparable to a very nice hotel here in the states. They said as long as you had a laptop, one could get internet access from the room.

Almaty - Things to Do

2007-02-03T13:21:00.001-06:00

In general, a fun city; we had no problem getting around with the kids, felt like we could pretty much ‘blend in’. Up until 1997 (?) this was the capital of Kazakhstan; it has a lot to offer visitors, the mountains are beautiful - a lovely city. We're really glad we opted to spend our last couple of weeks in Kazakhstan here - it's a really neat city to explore, and we felt pretty comfortable here. There were a fair number of people that spoke at least some English, and we met up with several other families from the US that were adopting children.

We stayed at the Hotel Kazzhol. (site in Russian and English.) We were there just after they had done some pretty significant renovations - the rates went up (took us by surprise), but we were able to get cribs for both children, breakfast each day was part of the rate.

We got a map from one of the other adoptive families we met here from infokz.com (link here), which helped a ton.

We went with some of the other adoptive families that we met in Almaty to Panfilov Park. The park has military statues and such, which we wanted to get a chance to go back to see another day (but never got the chance). We did see the Svyato-Voznesenski Cathedral (have also seen it referred to as Zenkov Cathedral), a Russian Orthodox church that’s an Almaty landmark. It was built in the early 1900s (so now about 100 years old) by Paul Zenkov. It is said to be built of wood, and no nails were used. Outside the church are some lovely flower gardens and an open area where pigeons gather – the kids had a great time trying to chase them!

There is a plaza type area with stores (including a Silkway City), open/outdoor seating restaurants, a beer garden type place or two; a fun area to walk around. We wandered this area several times, a nice place to meander.

There is an Open Market (we think perhaps called the Green Bazaar?) within walking distance from the hotel – enjoyed exploring it.

We hired someone to take us to Shymbulak (Chimbulak), we were on the edge of the Tien Shan mountain range… On the way up to the ski resort, we stopped at several scenic spots and a sports complex - for speed skating, named Medeu Ice Skating Stadium. It was built in 1972, and was a training center for soviet Olympic hopefuls. Awesome view, it’s near a giant dam and beautiful gorge. At the ski resort Shymbulak/Chimbulak we wanted to go up the mountain in the lift, but we were too leary of taking the kids as they were the old style kind. It is not a “huge” resort by Colorado standards, but it certainly did look like a beautiful place to ski, and they did have some nice facilities. If we had been there in a different season we certainly would have liked to try to do a bit of skiing there.

Went to the Almaty Zoo(the Zoo Park). This area is really a set pf activity parks. We had been to the premise before, but couldn’t find the zoo itself; we were assured that it really is there, so we took a taxi again and tried a different approach. (The first time we were there we saw the waterpark, the gardens, etc. ) It really is there – we just had to walk further down a path to another gate specifically for the zoo, pay a bit more (if it was the equivalent of $5 for all of us I’d be surprised). I’d still say it is worth the visit, but it is an older zoo. Some of the large animals were in cages that seemed to be much too small; they did have quite a few animals, though, I must say. Taxis were easy to get out front of the park premise.

Getting around Zhez

2007-02-03T13:21:00.000-06:00

Options: Walk, taxi, bus

We were there in Zhezkazgan from late April through early June, so weather was conducive to walking, which is what we did much of the time. (We did have some very hot days, and a few that were cool, windy). We either walked or paid for a taxi. At hotels or restaurants they will call one for you if you ask. Rate was 100-200 KZT. There are a few places where it’s easy to pick them up at least during the day. Taxis in town were primarily older VWs, some Mercedes and Ladas. Did finally get to ride in a Volga taxi one day. Interesting side note – we never saw a car dealership there. It is true that seatbelts are not typically used, and often times not available. As cars are small, there is little room for a carseat.

Tip: have your translator write down a few key places – including the place you are staying – in Russian; that does make it easier for taxi’s to understand where you want to go.

In general, the terrain is pretty rocky, gravel-like. There are some sidewalks and walkways, but primarily paths. Have some good, stable, sturdy shoes for walking around. With regard to traffic as a pedestrian, you do need to be careful, they do drive pretty fast and even though there are times that pedestrians are to have the right-of-way (like in the “zebras” zones at intersections) I wouldn’t trust it – really.

Also note, we did not do much of any walking around at night/after dark, so can’t provide comment on that.

Money Matters

2007-02-03T13:20:00.001-06:00

Prior to leaving on our trip… the last few days we were concerned about the “state” of our bills – forgot the official terms, but most of what we ended up getting from our bank in town was not ‘new’, even though that’s what we had asked for. After getting in contact with a couple of other families who had traveled recently – all who said that in Karaganda they recommended ‘new’ based on their experiences of folks being very selective and particular about the bills – we spent more time that we had planned on going around to banks trading bills around. Invested a lot of time looking at individual bills, looking for marks (stamp marks, pen/pencil, dirt, etc), folds/creases, tears, holes (even from a staple); even pulled out the iron. We thought they looked pretty darn good when all was said and done. Would recommend taking new bills, as much as you can - once you are there in KZ, it would be harder to deal with than just taking the time to get them here in the states. I recall hearing something about holidays (e.g. around Christmas & New Year) is one of the few times when new bills are available in larger numbers - might be worth checking out with your bank.

Now all that said, I don’t know what they would have done in the region/Zhez if they didn’t like some of our bills. We only saw our regional coordinator once, for about 20 min, since she was not based in Zhez. She came to town in the morning, left in the afternoon; I suppose that day she could have raised an issue. Maybe they were just fine, but maybe it just was not convenient for her to make an issue of it either. We honestly don't know.

In Zhez, there were no credit cards accepted – just ATM or exchange. The only exception we can recall was the Baykonur hotel, they told us they accepted Visa (not MC or AmEx). We had not brought enough cash to cover our expenses, so were thankful our ATM card worked. Would recommend checking with your ATM provider as to coverage, and bring a couple cards with different networks if you can.

Yes, we did carry around ’the cash’ with money belts; and it certainly felt much better to have that burden lifted when we met with our region coordinator. Given that the regional coordinator did not live in Zhez, we ended up having this on our persons for a longer time than we anticipated. After that we kept cash on our persons and hidden in a couple places in our room.

Also worth noting is that Tenge take ‘a fair amount of space’ in your wallet. Recommend keeping what you think you need readily available, and the rest that you are carrying around more secure location.

Restaurants and Food in Zhez

2007-02-03T13:11:00.000-06:00

So how did we find the food, and what did we eat?
In general, I would say we struggled a bit for a while trying to figure out what we liked, what worked for us. Food here struck us as more oily or heavier in fat. We never really got sick (never used the immodium AD or the stronger stuff we brought), though have to admit for a few weeks we were both a bit out of sorts. We did give up on the semolina (like cream of wheat hot cereal) finally, and stuck with pancakes (crepes), toast, yogurt and that seemed to help us; we thought perhaps the hot cereal was made with milk. Coffee was not a problem – there was always coffee available at breakfast; we like coffee, but have no issue with drinking Nescafe so we were just fine. For lunch and dinner, again the same comment about items being more oily than what we are used to would hold true. Lettuce salads were not available, and it took a few tries at different restaurants to determine what salads and sides we liked and had less or no oil. We ate quite a few ‘greek salads’, which typically was cucumber, tomatoes, cheese and sometimes green pepper; many salads had meat in them, though there were always some without so it was fine. Most places entrée orders were ‘ala carte’ style, in that you would order a meat dish, potato or rice and vegetable (hard to find actually) separately. Pelmeni was available most places, as was “shishlick” (these are meat kabobs, awesome. It was spring/summer when we traveled.)

While tomatoes and cucumbers – and other vegetables – were quite available, they were expensive in the markets. Also got the sense that vegetables were just not that popular; most of the menus we saw appeared, to our understanding, to be heavily Russian influenced. We did not see much of what we thought of as Kazakh food on the menu; there were a few places where one could order ahead on a few more ‘specialty’ type dishes, though we never did.

Wine was pretty expensive (had trouble finding something we liked for a reasonable price) but we found a very nice selection of beers available. Tien Shan, Karaganda, Baltica (this was interesting – available in different strengths, 0 being w/o alcohol and up through 9 or 10, 3 appeared to be the most commonly available) were what we had much of the time.

Dining in restaurants is not typically what local people do here. I think many people here have the impression that Americans only eat out – that we don’t cook. (I had told several people that I miss cooking/being in the kitchen, and they were somewhat surprised.)

Vegetarians would have a problem here, I would think. In fact, people always ask whether we eat meat (another generalization about Americans?) They are proud of the fact that they eat meat.

777 (indoor) and Green Café (outdoor) - English menu available
Same menu at both indoor and outdoor, with the addition of getting Shishlick when the outdoor was open. We definitely enjoyed the food here; wait staff was very pleasant, there was always someone who could speak some English. Very friendly, comfortable place! Inside, was very nice and they really put some time in to making it a ‘dining experience’ – it started with candle light at the table, music and low lights. Pleasant, friendly and well trained staff. Outdoor is nice atmosphere as well, with ivy’s growing up the walls, sturdy wood tables and seating, etc.

Robinzons- English menu available
This place has two inside dining areas – the upstairs is ‘island’ themed, the lower level is more pub like and has a shipboard feel. During the summer they also open their outdoor and have a tent with an Oktoberfest feel to it. Enjoyable place, food was consistently good; shisklick available in the outdoor location, very good (and nice ‘Shisklick chef’, would always shake our hand when we came in).

(this is a picture of their outdoor place, open during the summer)

A “Korean restaurant” (sorry, we don’t know the name)
We were only here once; food was nicely prepared. DH had something that sounded like ‘cooksie’ and it was very good. I wasn’t fond of what I ordered, but I don’t fault the restaurant for that. No English menu, so we only were here with our translator; intended to go back on our own and try to order ‘cooksie’ but never got the chance.

Renaissance- English menu available
A medieval theme to the interior; we always ordered pizza here, which we thought was pretty good!

“Shishlick places” – two additional places to recommend(it was very good at Green Café and Robinzons), don’t know their names, no English menus, a bit more of an adventure J
- place right down the street from the ‘Dana Market’, across from where the open markets are located. A “street side” seating area was where you would walk in, there were blue awnings and striped awnings, as I recall. Struck us as a pretty local place; not much atmosphere, not fancy (ok, I was cautious about using the bathroom here) but great shisklick. Our translator took us here our first full day in town.
- Also tried a place on the corner of the street the markets were on and the road you’d take out to the Samsung (al shahana street, I think). Nice inside, comfortable, sometimes looked like they served outside as well.

Hotel restaurants
- All the hotels we stayed at had a restaurant, so this is typically where we ate breakfast – as I think about it now, I don’t think other restaurants were open for breakfast. Food was generally fine/decent, though selection was typically somewhat limited. Toast, yogurt, pancakes (crepes) and coffee is what we usually had.