It's a Small World

Today we flew to Bratsk, tomorrow we meet our future daughters. I still can not believe this is happening, I am finally going to be a Mom. This morning we met Sergie; he took us to to the MOE, Ministry of Education, to receive our referrals; to my surprise we were given 4 referrals. This is very different from what I have read on line of other prospective adoptive parents trips. Usually you are matched with a referral, go meet them and then decide if this is the child you want to adopt; if not you either go home or go back to MOE to receive another referral. I guess since Bratsk is so far away from Irkutsk this is the way they do things in this region. We do find out from Sergie that these are the only girls between 2 and 5 that are available in Bratsk for international adoption even though there are 97 children in the orphanage. Most children are in the orphanage because their families can not afford to take care of them. Some children are only available for Russian families to adopt because the child's family can not be found to sign away their rights to the children. The girls we are going to meet are available for international adoption because their parents either lost all rights or they have signed their rights away.

After we left MOE, we go straight to the airport. In the airport I went to the restroom, and there was another "porcelain hole in the floor" toilet-this hole in the floor was actually at the top of two steps and on each side of it was a place to put your feet to squat down; Russian women must have had very strong thighs before they got the sit on type of toilets.I know ti is weird to take a picture of a toilet, but I just could not resist.

Porcelain Hole in Floor

So, now to the reason for the title of this post "It's a small world." Flying to Bratsk was a new experience, the plane loaded from the back and we had to take our luggage up the back steps ourselves. Each row had 4 seats, two on each side with no assigned seating. Sergie sat in front of us next to an oriental man. Turns out he spoke English and was very excited to be able to find English speaking people on the flight. Now for the small world part-he works for a company that makes paper and was going to Bratsk to buy lumber. The company is Georgia Pacific and he visited Amelia Island a couple of months ago. What are the odds? First we find out our neighbor has friends who are missionaries here in Irkutsk, now we meet someone in Siberia from China, who was recently in Jacksonville. This is one of the things I love about traveling, those chance meetings with people who you have something in common with, someone who lives in another part of our world.
The flight was smooth, looking out the window, the land is beautiful forest, miles and miles of it against the backdrop of snowcapped mountains. I did not expect Siberia to be so lush and green.
We checked into our room at the Hotel Bratsk. The lobby and the ladies behind the desk look like something from the 1960's. The elevator is not big enough for the 3 of us and our luggage, actually it's barely big enough for 3 people without luggage. Our room is small with twin beds, the shower is a hand held and their are not shower curtains.
After getting settled, we meet Sergie for dinner. There are a lot of people out walking around, the area has a number of shops and we had a delicious meal at a small restaurant. It is certainly not what I expected. If you know me, you know that I am the pickiest eater, absolutely no green vegetables, or strange dishes will pass over my palate. And I am certainly not going to eat a soup made from beats. Turns out, it was not even on the menu. We had pork loin and rice- very good- with Siberian Crown beer.
All of the buildings appear to be apartment buildings 3-4 stories with shops and restaurants on the bottom floors. We walked down to the internet cafe which is only 4 blocks away. Thank goodness for Sergie, we would never have found it. So, here we are. Hopefully tomorrows update will be wonderful news.