back in khujand

Arrived home in Khujand today at 3am. We have lots of pics to share with you from the vacation part of our time in Baku (yes we were able to replace our camera) - and we hope to get those posts up soon.

Until then, here is Ella checking out the plane we flew home in...

"a GWEEN pwane!!!"

We will also leave you with the story of our last 2 hours in Baku, as told from Jen's perspective...

We left the place we were staying at 8am... just in time to get to drive the 30 minutes out of town to get to the airport 2 hours early for our 10:40 flight. We arrived at the airport, paid the driver, stacked our bags onto a luggage carts and went in to join the line at security. After some time in line Aaron looked at me with a very serious look and said, "Jen, where's the computer bag?" I scanned the cart and we both realized that that bag was... STILL... IN... THE... TAXI. I kind of thought he'd get it out and he thought I'd get it. Aaron quickly reminded me that its not just our computer and (new) camera, but also our passports and tickets. Boy, did the prayers start flowing! We ran out to the curb to see if perhaps the driver was still there or realized he had our bag. We found the curb full of other cars, but of course not our taxi. Aaron told me to wait at the curb with Ella and our bags in case the driver realized what happened and came back. Aaron grabbed another taxi and sped back into the city to where we had gotten into the taxi that morning, realizing that not unlike fishermen, taxi drivers often have favorite places they like to sit. When Aaron got back to our starting point, he didn't see our taxi anywhere, but he ran up and down the street getting help from anyone hanging around - shop keepers, bums, whoever - and finally found a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who cut the hair of our driver and had his phone number (this in a city of 3 million). So both our first taxi (with the bag) and our second taxi (with Aaron) sped back to the airport, leaving us with about 30 minutes to get though security, check-in, passport control and to the gate.

That was the bulk of our drama that morning, but it didn't end there. They didn't want to sent our one checked bag to Khujand, but to Moscow, and without visas our bag was as good as gone to us if it were sent to Moscow. Finally they agreed to let us carry it on, weighing 50lbs.

Finally, the last bit of drama occured with only 15 or so minutes to take off. Just as we were about to walk away from the check-in counter, the man said, "But your wife, she's pregnant". Sweet Aaron replied, "Oh, I will carry the bags, don't worry." The man went on to say that I need doctor's permission to fly at ANY stage in pregnancy. Absurd as this sounds, I then ran to their medical staff room, dragged a translator in from the hall, with documents from the recent doctors visit in hand, BEGGED the doctor on staff to allow me to fly...in... 10 minutes. At first she said no, but after lots of convincing she signed and stamped a paper allowing me to fly.

So, that's our story. After the 8 hour wait in Moscow, the last leg of our flight was great, as the plane was less than 20% full, so all 3 of us got our own row to lie down and sleep in. We are safe and sound back in Khujand and so glad to be here!