LOI Coming?

News is the LOI might, will probably, come next week. If the region holds to the pattern, we'll be expected in country around five days from when the invitation was sent.

We're finally starting to pack. We have a weight limit of 20 kgs per person, which is around 40 pounds. One carry on each, not to exceed 8 kgs. Now this isn't a big deal to some people, but I always overpack. Always. We went on our last vacation with 10 checked bags, plus carry on items for five of us with no weight limit because it was cruise.

Of course when we went to China, we had a similar limit. I took two pairs of pants, a couple tops, one dress for the consulate appointment, and I only had one pair of shoes. For those who know me well, traveling for two weeks with only one pair of shoes is just a bit short of miraculous. This time, I'm packing one pair, and wearing boots. It's far colder in Kazakhstan than it was where we traveled in China. You can check the weather box up at the top of the page, but the temperature has been abnormally warm-- almost thirty degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.

So packing isn't going to be easy. Besides day time clothes for extremely cold weather, we'll need clothes to wear to court. Some people wear khakis and a shirt, but our coordinator suggested that men wear a suit, women a dress or a suit with a skirt. I'm taking both, just in case. We'll be there for at least three weeks, and we probably won't have access to a washer (forget a dryer) and will have to wash by hand and hang clothes. This won't be a problem for us. We usually hang our clothes to dry, but handwashing is a new thing for us. We also have gifts to pack, because culturally, it's expected that gives will be exchanged. A lot of people get them: the caretakers in the orphanage, orphanage director, orphanage doctor, the official from the Ministry, and the people who help you through your stay: the coordinator/facilitator, translators, drivers. Again, not a problem in itself, but packing everything...

Of course we can just haul lots of heavy bags and pay tremendous over-weight fees, but that would be too easy. And doing things the easy way was never our way.