Catching Up

Introductory note: This post was supposed to go up before we left Dushanbe. However, in a true Doosh send-off, our internet went down Friday night and we couldn't get online to post blogs, check our flights, contact our families, or anything else that we would typically do before travelling halfway around the world to meet our new son. Anyway, the short story is that we made it and are so excited to be here with Aiden. More on that below, but I have to cover what happened in our last week together in Tajikistan before I get on to the excitement of becoming parents.

ORIGINAL POST:

One thing's for sure, it's been a busy week. Between both of us trying to wrap things up at work, figure out flights, rental cars, doctor's appointments, and packing, there we're both pretty exhausted, but still very excited. And of course, in true Barnett style, we had to squeeze in some last looks at Tajikistan. Fortunately, two high level visits last weekend gave us the chance to get out and about.

First was the visit of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. As with all high-level visits, it kind of threw things into a whirl, but things went off without a hitch. On Saturday, we took the delegation out to see the ancient fort at Hissor.

We'd been before, but it was still nice to go again. The local government is doing some rebuilding, which isn't particularly sensitive to the original architecture so I'm glad we got to see it as it was before.

After touring the fort and the museum, we went out to a really nice restaurant for lunch. One of my local staff suggested the place, but we weren't sure if it would be up to snuff for such an important guest. It turned out to be perfect. There was a nice garden and a covered area next to a stream where we dined on fresh produce and some of the best chicken I've ever had.

The next day, another high level visitor arrived and we went along with him on a group hiking trip. We headed out into the Varzob valley and were only briefly delayed by a goat jam before arriving at our starting point.

The organizer of the trip billed it as an easy to moderate hike, but that was a huge understatement. There were some very tricky parts involving vertical cliffs that seemed to easily exceed the 'moderate' level and some very rickety bridges.

On the other hand, it was one of the more beautiful hikes we've been on.

At the highest point we had crossed the snow line near one of the mountain passes.

There were also some neat experiences, like visiting a goatherd camp,

- crossing a river in a hand-drawn cable trolley,

- visiting a hermit's cottage,

- and negotiating river crossings to avoid collapsing snow bridges.

In addition to being much more difficult than expected, the hike was much longer than expected. We packed enough snacks for a couple of hours, thinking we'd be home by lunch. In the end, we didn't get home until 6pm. Stephanie got separated from the group at one point and took a bit of a spill, but a friendly Bulgarian couple found her and showed her the way back to the car. All in all, I think it was a very appropriate way to spend our last weekend together in Tajikistan.

Here are more pictures for those so inclined.

Dushanbe Hike 052111 JPGS

Of course, all this week, against the background of preparations, we've been nervously eyeing the latest volcanic activity in Iceland. The one last year got very close to disrupting our trip to Italy, so this was much more nerve wracking since the stakes are so much higher. Fortunately, the ash cloud seems to be clearing. All the same, we have back-up reservations on a different route that would get us to the U.S. a couple of days later through a more southerly route. Hopefully we won't need it, but we're going to keep them reserved just in case.

CONTINUED POST:

Well, obviously, the volcano turned out to be a non-issue, although it had us on edge for awhile and that really wasn't necessary. Our last week was a blur as we tried to wrap up all of those loose ends. So Friday night was suddenly upon us and so we started our never-ending journey (at least it seemed that way). So after 6 hours flying from Dushanbe to Frankfurt, a 3 hour layover, an 8 hour flight to Dulles, a 5 hour layover, an hour delay, and a 3 hour flight to San Antonio - that's right, over 26 hours of flying and more than 50 hours without sleep - we finally met Aiden.

Of course, all of that fatigue went away as we held him and fed him for the first time, so it was almost 2am when we reached the Ronald McDonald house, where we're staying while he's in the hospital. What no one bothered to mention is that we had to arrive at the Ronald McDonald house by 8pm. So there we were, ringing the emergency bell, waking up a nice old woman in a wheel chair and begging to be let in. Once they verified who we were (and they were very pleasant considering the hour) we got a bit of sleep.

The past couple of days have been a blur as we try to get over our jet lag, prepare for Aiden's upcoming release (hopefully this week), and generally get ourselves together. Aiden is a very sweet baby and we can barely tear ourselves away when it's time to leave. Even now, visiting hours are about to start again so it's time to wrap this up.

Since this not a private website, we are going to keep pictures of Aiden to a minimum on the blog. But you can imagine how many I'm taking... For now, here's one of us with our new son.