Easter & Long Trip - Siberia to Maui

Coloring Eggs

Saturday – we spent as much of our time as possible with Sam and Sophie... it being our last day with them for quite some time.  We colored eggs in the morning, hid them at naptime and then they hunted for them after they woke up.  It was Sophie’s first egg hunt and she got excited when she found an egg with a real sense of accomplishment. 

Jan and her taxi friend

At about 4:30 we looked out the window and it was getting very overcast and the wind was starting to whip up.  A taxi was called to pick us up at 6:00 PM but showed up at 5:30 so we decided to go ahead.  The taxi was a unique experience on its own.  Mounted on the back of the drivers seat headrest was a head of a Bobcat.  There was also a wolf head in the trunk that was pulled out of the trunk to make room for the suitcases and it was thrown in the back window.  Jan happened to take that seat so had company during the 45-minute ride to the airport.  

Enjoying the egg hunt

All went well at the airport until we got to immigration.  I got through with no trouble and was waiting for Jan to clear and there was apparently a problem.  Next I knew they asked Jan to back away from the counter as they had to check on something and then they closed the gate (a solid door you can’t see through) and we were separated.  There are several thoughts that go through your head because theoretically I was out of Russia and she was still in and we could not talk to each other.  After about 15 minutes they came back and said her visa was not valid because it indicated she was a male… which we mentioned before in the blog.  They than asked where she was going and whether she was coming back to Russia and when we told them we were going on to the US they stamped her passport and let her through.  We are so thankful they let us in initially as it would have been a major heartbreak if they had determined the visa to be invalid when we first arrived.  Anyway, we are now on our final week of our journey and there still no delays or lost luggage.

After 28 hours in airplanes and 14 hours in airports we are now in Maui and will spend the next week reviewing what we experienced in the last 5+ months, what we learned from it and how we can use it to help ourselves and others better understand what the friends we visited are doing and experiencing so together we can be more a part of each others lives.