Central Eurasian Mission - Week 5- April 17-23, 2017

By now we are nearly pros at getting around Astana by bus.  Actually riding the bus wasn't difficult; the difficulty was getting the computers and phones to work so we (Dad) could use them to map our way.  Now, if we have an address, we can find what we're looking for.  Offices and apartments don't have a street addresses - the address has the street's name, the building number, and the apartment or office number.  You are asking - how do you know the building number?  We don't exactly know but the phone app does!  The good thing is that the computer bus maps have all the buildings drawn on the maps with their numbers.  The maps show the bus route and also the walking route to get from your starting point to your goal.  Very easy once everything works.  Bus basics are good; taxi not so
good.

Here's our bus planning strategy.



The first big project of the week was to go to a Zone Conference in Almaty.  Almaty is the only other city in Kaz where there are church volunteers.  It is about 750 miles away (like going to San Francisco) which is accomplished by a two hour plane ride.

First order of business was to get a taxi.  We'd been told by a reliable source (the HR director at the US Embassy who is also a church member) that Uber was the best way to get a taxi.  Okay! Uber, here we come.  Dad got his phone, entered everything (I guess), and we went downstairs to wait in the parking lot ot the ANVAR Supermarket.  And we waited...and waited....and waited.  And the wind  was blowing fiercely!  Presently a nicely dressed business woman approached us and in English asked us if we needed help shopping. No!  We need to get to the airport!  It was a perfect example of a kind person helping two clueless country folk.  She deftly call a taxi, moments later we were on our way to the airport.  The Uber driver is probably still looking for us :-)

We ate lunch as soon as we got there.





Almaty is quite different from Astana.  While Astana is a bustling city with big gargantuan buildings, Almaty seems much quieter and, well, kinda normal.  The difference, I guess, is that Astana as the country's capitol is only about 20 years old, Almaty is about a thousand years old.

We went directly to the church to meet up with the other volunteers.  Here's the entrance to the gated compound.



Front door and inside - pictures too dark, I know.





The young volunteers took us to our hotel which turned out to be really nice.  According to these 19-20 year olds, it was just a little bit away - but they are quite tall with long legs.  We felt like we on the Camino again.





The hotel had one of the best breakfast buffets ever!




We had to find a place for dinner.  There was a Burger King on our map so off we went  But it turned out to be too far, and it was getting late, so we stopped at this inviting food cart for local hamburgers instead.





And the Zone Conference. Our very first one!  It was a 9 am to 3 pm meeting (with nine pizzas for lunch -from Pizza Hut).  The day long meeting was actually good!  Our leader is President Toronto, and he is very accomplished.  He served as a young volunteer in Catania Italy, and years later was the President of that area.  Now he is President of all the congregations in Turkey and Kazakhstan.  He's quite a scriptorian and knows how to be a encouraging leader.



Meeting over!  Back to the airport!  Arrive in the dark of night!  Bed time.

Next day we had to go to the UPS facility somewhere off of busline #2.



The credit card to use for our humanitarian projects had come from Moscow but couldn't be delivered because we were in Almaty. So we had to pick up.  Finally found it; two men sitting at the door - were they guards or receptionists?  Don't know.  I had prepared my dialogue -"we need to pick up a letter for Raymond Gray".  It worked, and they pointed down the hall.  Door locked-hmm, it was the lunch hour.  Sat down in front of the two men and smiled and waited. A youngish man eventually rushed in, motioned us to follow him, unlocked the door, ruffled through some files, and there it was - our UPS Express Envelope with the card.

Lunch time now.  Time to find the perfect restaurant, and as we stepped out the door, there it was!!
Doner (like giro meat), and shashlik (shis-ka-bobs), and plof (a rice dish) were on the sign.  We were going for the shashlik (шашлык).  So good!









On the way back we stopped at the Astana Mall.  The new malls in the city are quite nice, in fact, very fancy.  Some look like Pioneer Place, only bigger and possibly fancier - some are super fancier than any in Portland.  We went into the store Sportmaster and found items from Columbia Sportswear - I felt so at home.



In the basement there was a trampoline/bouncy place for kids, even with attendants who were assisting/training kids to do flips and whatnot.



And gelato!!!  There was a cheese flavored scoop that was really tasty.



We had another "ignorant foreigner" event here.  I saw a storefront with a sign that read ZooPark. Great, we thought, a pet store - so we went in - what kind of pets do Kazak people buy?  We saw rats, bunnies, guinea pigs, big turtles, hedgehogs - all for sale, but there were no prices posted.  Then we saw an employee showing a biggish monkey to some visitors, and then we saw a sheep in a pen........wait a minute - you don't sell sheep to someone who lives in a high rise apartment in the industrial city of Astana. Nooooo - we were in a petting zoo!  That explained why we were getting looks from the store people because we hadn't paid an entrance fee.  Opps!  We left quickly, eyes averted.

This week, for the first time, we actually did some Humanitarian work - we visited some of our previous partners, who with our help, had built a greenhouse.  There are several NGO groups who work closely together and who seem to share the same building location and office space.  We walked through each room, met the people, and got an explanation of the activities.

There is a clothing room where donations are received, cleaned and mended and then distributed to those in need.  Here is a collection box; others are scattered around.



Sewing training for the deaf (I know that is not correct-it should be hearing impaired, but  the translated paperwork all says deaf) where they make souvenirs and get job training.
This will be a blue felt bag - maybe like a gift bag or decorated bag



This is a yurt for your trinket shelf.



There is also a center to train the deaf to become beauticians.

And a kindergarten for disabled children.  There are three centers which this group operates.  This one is for the youngest ones.  The closest little boy in the dark blue t-shirt jumped up and ran over to us to shake our hands.



The real activity of the day was to visit the site of the greenhouse.  The construction of the structure was funded by our humanitarian work- it was $24,000,  So far it is only a structure - lacking water, elec, ventilation, heat, and drainage.  Our partners have applied for grants to get additional money to continue to develop the greenhouses into a viable growing operation.

The site of the greenhouse is about 40 minutes outside of Astana in the boonies.



driveway from road to greenhouse.....and other photos of the project.











Yep - a lot of work remains.

We're always exploring stores and such.  One afternoon we were searching for a pole lamp and decided to visit more of the shopping center in the building which is just in from of our apartment. For your enjoyment, here is a photo of the back of the shopping center.  It is from our lining room window through the screen.



Anyway, we decided to explore more of the floors, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a picture of prepared food on a dish with an arrow pointing up the stairs.  We were on that like a.........whatever. We found a cafeteria!!!! with all sorts of delicious unnamed and unknowable food at the counter which we could order by simply pointing.!!!



This guy was ahead of us, and I took the same things he did.  He even helped us order some slices of bread.  Pot stickers and other stuff - very yummy.  The food we were given was all cold.  We had to use microwave ovens strategically placed in the room to heat the food.





There are three bazaars in town -  Central, Eurasian, and Artem - all 'destination'  points of interests. This week we went to explore the Artem Bazaar.  It is humongous - imagine the biggest pavilion at the Clackamas County Fair and make it bigger with six stories.  Food was all on the first level, and it could be a movie set for a adventure movie where James Bond is shooting darts at an evil enemy or a place where Rick Steves visits.




Dairy products



Fruits and vegetables and dried fruit and nuts.  There were four kinds (colors) of raisins.



Bulk spices just like Winco!  This was the only spice stall that we saw.  I was worried that I would run out of my spice packets that I had brought from home, but now, no worries.  I can come here and make my own taco seasoning mixes.



We saw these little delights.  The sign on them said, in Russian, "hedgehogs" because the look little and spiky.  But they turned out to be candy coated peanut halves - we bought some.  Dad also got some honey sesame bars - like the size of a Hershey's mini bar.



Up on the sixth floor of the Artem Bazaar we finally found a lamp shop and bought a floor lamp to add light to our office.  It is really just one of those clamp on lights you can buy anywhere at home, but has the option of sticking the pointy part into a pole attached to a heavy base and bingo, you have a floor lamp.  Here is our professional office (our dining room table) with the new lamp.



On Saturday one of the church members had a party in the afternoon.  All the women from the ward and their children and everyone's friend was invited.  The apartment where she lives is like one that would be on the Street of Dreams and on the nineteenth floor with a view.  Oh yeah - no views of the back side of the Razmet department store here.





There was lots of great food (American style) and foot baths and facial masks with cucumber eye patches.  No laughing!!!



Sunday we, along with the other 8 young volunteers, were invited to a member's  home for a hamburger bar-b-que.  A twenty-five minute ride away we were in a neighborhood of single family dwellings.   Here is their house.  Nice!



Next week we go to Moscow for passport and visa requirements.

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