Mac's International Incident - by McP

I note that Alison's entry (below) announced to you that Mac's passport issue had been resolved. This is such a great relief to us, and now I feel I can flash back ten days to give you the full story...

Six years ago after we brought Mac back form Kokshetau to Almaty and continued our visitation with Alina, I had to fly back to Kokshetau (seemingly, the coldest place on Earth) to get baby Mac's paperwork. Some of you may recall I was delayed there because the office that issued birth certificates had been ransacked and the blanks had been stolen. Well, apparently some confusion also happened when his then new little passport went through the bureaucratic maze there. Although, as in Alina's passport, the face of the document indicated that it was good until 2011, someone had placed a small stamp inside one of the pages that indicated that Mac's passport would expire in November, 2005! No official can explain why the stamp was ever put there! Although Mac and Alina became U.S. citizens and had U.S. passports, we had been instructed by the agency to have them enter on their Kazakhstani passports, as they are dual-citizens until the age of eighteen. Because of this information we did not get entry visas for their U.S. passports.

Now, flash forward to October 8, 2006 - as six year old Mac Poston re-enters Kazakhstan with his family after midnight at the Almaty airport. We were tired but happy to have met Liza in Frankfurt and to have made it to our destination. Straight to the immigration line, stamp this, stamp that, stand here, look into the camera - it all seemed so straightforward until Mac's passport was examined.

Immediately our line became the one that stopped. The green-uniformed officer looked at the children's documents and then started a series of leaving her post to consult others, coming back and staring at the documents, and then leaving again. This seemed to take hours, although I know better now. Actually, my mind was first on the fact that our luggage was just going around and around the carrousel, like plastic ducks in an arcade game ready to be picked off by thieves! I sent Liza ahead to at least attempt to gather it in one pile. Finally, I negotiated my way out to help Liza gather the luggage and I found that the new airport was keeping the throng of wanna-be drivers away from the arriving passengers until all luggage had been collected - much better than the situation in the old airport last time, when Alison and I had to nervously run the gauntlet of locals wanting to make a quick tenge.

I went to the glass doors, and saw Emil who I only recognized by the little sign he held that said "POSTON" on it. I signalled for him to come in, as there was no way I was stepping out of that room without my family. There was some hassle at trying to get him inside the security perimeter, but I insisted. He came in and immediately called Gulnara, our coordinator. I went back to rejoin the family.

Up to that point I had no clear idea what the problem was. Alison, Alina and Mac took a seat while I tried to find out what was happening. I will never forget how helpless I felt seeing my tired family, having traveled literally halfway around the world, being denied access to Kazakhstan! Finally, in broken English I was told: "You, your wife and daughter my enter!" As if I was going to enter without Mac!

So, it was Mac's passport! How rediculous to make all this hassle for an administrative error in a passport of a six year old! Nevertheless, I tried to keep things positive, and did not dare let Mac know that there was even a problem. I sent Alison and Alina to join Liza and Emil. Mac sat with me, and we were now alone in the area where people who cannot enter the country are forced to sit.

Gulara came, and immediately in her authoritative voice started demanding to see someone who could explain the problem to her. There was some pretty stern talk taking place, and my "Introduction to Russian" language CD's definately did not cover this area but I could clearly understand some people were being told off.

All this time Mac and I were being as polite and friendly as we could be. Some of the officers, mostly women, started to come over and ask me about him. They could tell that he was from Kazakhstan without looking at his passport. He was already warming them up as I was telling him discretely to smile and be friendly to the ladies.

Finally, the officer who could speak the most English came and told me: "I will let you go if you promise to go tomorrow to Passport Ministry and fix this!"

Well, ten days later we got word that it just got fixed! Don't worry, there was no way I was ever going to be leaving this place without my son! I was thinking of many scenarios, and the best plan was that after seeing Alison, Alina and Cal off, Mac and I would be hotwiring a four wheel drive Lada and going through the mountains to Kyrgistan and suffering the consequences for neither one of us having entry visas on our U.S. passports there. I have read enough to know that I could have fixed it there by pleading guilty, paying a fine and happily being deported with Mac back to the U.S.A.! Alison had another idea which involved the U.S. Embassy here in Almaty, but it didn't sound as fun or as filled with international intrigue as MY plan to escape Kazakshtan with Mac!

Mac is still oblivious to the fact that he was the focus of so much of debate and discussion. On his Kazakhstan passport the little contradicting stamp which still no one can explain why it was ever put there has now been "annulled" and he so he is "legal" again!

And I can stop sizing up cars as possible escape options! - McP