A group letter (to be shared with anyone interested in the fate of the Streits) Mar. 12. 1999.

On Tuesday, March 9, it was time for us to depart the United States. Fr. Leon and Jeanne Haas with Jeanne's super van came to escort us to the airport. We had massive amounts of heavy luggage, what we had lived on for the last month. We heaved and pulled it into the United counter, only to be told that Dulles in Washington DC was closed due to snow. We were rerouted through Delta to Cincinnati to catch a plane to Frankfurt. This only changed our flight plans by cutting off one and one half-hours of our Frankfurt layover. But as anytime when a major airport is closed, all flights everywhere else are crowded. It was a rough flight overnight because of the crowding and crying babies, etc. The next morning we crashed out on benches at the Frankfurt airport and couldn't find a single drinkable water fountain. We set off for Almaty and found to our delight that the flight was closer to seven hours rather than 12 hours. However, when we were about 10 minutes from landing and being reunited with Ted, the pilot came on and told us that the Almaty airport was closed due to heavy snowfall. He said we had enough fuel to circle for 2 hours and then decide what to do. I had to keep Lydia from jumping out of the plane. I had another beer and the girls had a snack. It would have been good for the airplane to show another movie at that point, but they served champagne instead, which hardly anyone was interested in. Finally, they said that the runway was cleared, but rapidly filling back up with snow, and they would try to land. Ted had been taken home hours earlier, because they told him that the plane would be diverted to another airport and would attempt to return to Almaty the next day. Later we learned that some flights in similar situations turn around and return to Frankfurt. An embassy guy, Dimetre, met us, and he fast-forwarded us through arrival and customs, much to other passengers' disgust. When they became vocal about it, he explained that there were children involved. The girls were the only children on the flight and people asked us what oil company we worked for, because no one could be going to Almaty for vacation.

When we first saw the city, it was the most beautiful sight, about a foot of snow over everything and snowing heavily. Ted said later that it was warm and raining at 8 PM that evening and suddenly this heavy snowstorm arrived and shut the airport down. We had a happy reunion with Ted at 4:00 AM at the house and then the girls were too excited to sleep.

We have dragged around with jet lag for two days now and it seems to be getting better. The van that we shipped (it left WV on Dec. 8) finally arrived at the house the day after we did. Ted drove it after 4 months of not driving anything anywhere and found that he remembered how. The drivers do not have any regard for lanes and pass you from behind on both sides. What is worse than the traffic is the size of the potholes, you have to come to a complete stop and enter one and then come up and out the other side. I fear breaking an axle before too long.

March 13, 1999. Ted tried to add some extra memory to his computer that I brought him from the states and it suffered a major shut down that had him quite worried for several hours. He has become pretty dependent on the computer for communication and business of all sorts. He was able to fix it, as he always does. He hooked up the Russian software and we new arrivals had a few lessons.

We went to the English speaking mass and the cantor came and asked me when were they supposed to resume singing Alleluia? The Russian speaking mass has priority on the vigil night, so the English speaking community will celebrate Easter at 2:00 PM on Easter Sunday. With about 40 people, they can just go to the English-speaking priest and negotiate a time together with the whole group. We also will go out to eat together after the Easter liturgy.

This small congregation supports a house where 12 orphans, aged 12 to 15 years, live together with Franciscan staff as a family. In 1997, the parish priest began this program to give older orphans, which are traditionally turned out on the street at age 16 with no education, no home, and no skills, a chance to live in a family setting and learn coping skills for life. Different people in the parish go and teach skills one-on-one or provide a specific outing for a teen. It sounds like the teens and the youth of the parish have a week long summer camp also. There are 9 boys and 3 girls in this parish-supported house. They go to public school and eat meals together as a family. They have received a computer and software and a sewing machine. People go and teach them these as well as gardening, cooking, and work skills. They come on parish picnics. The people who have spent time at the house say the teens are happy and satisfied kids that call the priest "papa". The priest is Italian and has been working in Kazakhstan for 30 years, from the Franciscan order.

We live in a beautiful house with a sauna in the basement. The girls are down there unwinding from the day, and Ted is listening to his one hour of English news from Voice of America in Washington DC. If we wish, we can read the Charleston newspapers one-line before you can receive them. We are not suffering in any sense of the word. Life is an adventure here.

All for now. I will write my journal in this manner and continue to send you entries. Please let me know if you do not wish to continue to receive messages from us.

To all our wonderful friends who helped us these last few weeks or came to our farewell party or gave us gifts and notes, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was a difficult four months without Ted, and at the end, it had to get harder before it could get easier, but we did it, with your help. Thank you. Stay in touch with us even if you don't want to get regular installments from Kazakhstan. Brecken Streit