Central Eurasian Mission - Week 19 - July 24-30, 2017

This week we decided to be adventurous - well, I wanted to be adventurous, and Dad went along to keep me out of trouble.  You see, I wanted to get out of town - literally get out of town and go out into the countryside.  We are at a great disadvantage because, without a car, it's not easy to do.  We've been on the outer edges of Astana where we could see the countryside - looks like the steppe as seen in our geography books and on YouTube.  But I wanted to leave Astana, drive (or be driven) through a bit of the countryside and go to another town or at least a village or even a wide spot in the road. Our destination was Koyandy which we first heard about from the guy in our mushroom project who said he had some land available at this place where a several mushroom growing rooms could be built.  Doesn't the name sound even a little bit exotic?

We researched it on google and learned a lot, which must be true because we read it on the internet. The village is about 20 km from Astana.  Officially the population is 8,000 but some reports say it is easily 20,000.  Most of the residents are immigrants from Mongolia and the autonomous regions of China.  According to one report, a bunch of these people bought land and build houses only to later learn that the land was illegally sold to them (this is why there is title insurance).

We also found out that there is a  resort of sorts on a small lake.  "The Golden Pheasant Resort" was built in 2015 and has rooms to rent, an interesting menu, swimming in the lake.....looks good.  So we decided to go.  Dad checked out the bus situation and found it'd take three different buses and about 2 hours to get there.  We could take a taxi (but that's for sissies, right), and there was some concern about how we'd get back to Astana if the taxi didn't hang around for the return trip.  So the bus it was.

We took the bus and, following the directions on the phone, got off where the little blue dot showed up to de-bus.  Then we followed the blue dot to the area noted as 'downtown'. Now, remember how often you read disclaimers as to how "this information may not be updated and should not be used for for navigation" - or something like that.  Well it turned out to be true.  We got off the bus and started walking.  Our goal was to try to find either the downtown or the Golden Pheasant Resort.

Views of the town








"House for Sale" sign and the house.





A woman doing something in front of her house.



Where is downtown and where is that Pheasant?



Clearly they were lost, the blue dot on the map was wrong, or the map was wrong.  Something was wrong!  I was hungry; the Golden Pheasant was not in our future.  We came upon a tiny mini market and went inside looking for food or information.  It's funny when I talk to people.  I look perfectly normal (like an ethnic Russian), but when I clearly say, "I only speak a little Russian.  Do you know where there is a restaurant?", they freak out, knowing that I am a foreigner and that they can not possibly understand me.  The clerk looked to a young customer, and turned us over to him.  This guy spoke about as much English as I spoke Russian, but we worked together.  His name is Zhandos, he's 24, delivers food (maybe chips and snacks), and said "I will show you.  You are a guest" , in Russian which I understood.  So the three of us take off in the same direction that we'd come, talking all the way. "Have we been to EXPO", "How old are you" "where are you from", and so on.  He also asked why we were there, and we told him we were sightseeing to which he heartily laughed and said that there is nothing to see.  We finally got the the main street, and he pointed to the cafe, we said goodbyes, and our encounter was over.

Here's the main road, the cafe, the food and the bathroom we used after eating.





We went inside and asked for a menu and were told "no menu".  I looked expectantly at the young man (think Evan's age) who had panic in his eyes.  He gestured for us to follow him and he led us back into the kitchen to where his mom was cooking.  I could see her preparing a noodle dish called 'Lagman", so I said, "Good, lagman, we want two and a bottle of coke."






Left over Christmas decoration on the wall behind the counter.



....and the bathroom and its facilities



yep!



Back on the road.  We didn't know where the official bus stop was, so we just flagged down bus #307



Roadside scenes on the way home







Back in Astana.  Entrance to a big bazaar and the building itself.





We were at the end of the line and had the bus home all to ourselves..... for a short time.



A great adventure indeed!  But no lunch at the Golden Pheasant.  We're going to try again when our colleagues from Moscow come for a visit in August.  BUT, we will rent a taxi for the day, to duplicate the adventure, and make it much more civilized for our friends from the north.

We had several meetings this week with potential partners.  First we went to the mental hospital where we'd tried to meet the lady back in May.  But she never showed up.  She was there this time and has some ideas but will now go back to her board of directors to further discuss what she would like.  And now we'll wait for her to contact us again.  Here's some photos I took on the way.



And BIG pipes being buried.  Previously the pipes were elevated on the concrete pillars.



Then lunch at Hardee's which is at a gas station.  The Super Star hamburger is as good as at home.





In the afternoon we met with a woman who wants to start a senior center. We were meeting at "Books and Coffee" which was interesting.  We wandered around the whole building looking for the entrance



The area in front of the building was really nice.



We stepped inside and found ourselves in a lending library----what!!.  Turns out it is a library with only books in English and it is by subscription - you pay $10.00 per year for unlimited check out privileges.  And, the women running it teach English classes.



 A little further into the building we came to the coffee club..... with pastries!!! that were good!!  Dad got a piece of carrot cake which was as good as what you can get at Costco.



We talked a while with Rosa.  She used to live in a small villageish town in eastern Kaz and was a school principal and teacher of Russian language and Russian literature.  She was also the director of the local orphanage.  She started an NGO and developed a senior center.  As she said, "all the children grew up, left home for the big city, and the parents were old, lonely and bored."  She wants to duplicate what she did in her home village here in Astana.  The problem is that her NGO is registered in the village, not in Astana, so she has some more planning and paperwork to do.



The third person we met was Kule.  Her NGO works with recently released prisoners and tries to help them re-assimilate back into society.  After they are released, they come to her and have three days to get their paperwork in order, get a health assessment, and fill out a job resume (for jobs that don't exist because no one wants to hire them).  She says that whatever the govt gives them along with what she is able to do to help, just isn't enough.  They need a job!  So she wants to start a social enterprise that will give training and a job.  So she is going back to her committee to start discussing how we can help them.

We gave her our card and she read it slowly and said, "Do you believe in God?  So, you're Christians? We thank God that you are here to help us."  Made us feel kinda humble.  Also, makes us really hope they come up with a project that will be a good one that will be approved.   She also said something like..."You see this place here.  It doesn't look very good, but we do good work here.  It's like people, sometimes they don't look very good, but there is good inside them."

Their office was in the basement of an apartment building.  Here are the pipes that supply hot water  to the office for heating.



Down the stairs to the basement.  Honestly it was bad - even I thought it was bad.  I had to concentrate on slowly breathing the tainted air, wondering how many minutes it would be before I would no longer realize I was breathing it (took about 50 minutes).











Talk about contrasts - one day the mental hospital, then a cute and trendy book and cafe combo, then a basement half way house.  Not for the casual tourists.

We got a call about 10:00 one morning from a potential partner who told us that there was a concert at the Children's Palace!  And if we hurry we'll be there in time and shell meet us!  Okay, why not. Once again we had no clue what was going to happen, but then, do we ever know what is going to happen?  The Children's Palace is about twenty minutes away and we've always wondered what it's like inside.  It is very big and grand and beautiful!

Entrance and lobby and view out of some windows toward the Ketchup Dispensers which are landmarks for us.







There was a Film Festival associated with EXPO 2017, and we were attending the awards ceremony.  Children were doing all the presentations and also provided some entertainment.  We understood nothing but enjoyed the entertainment.  The kids were really cute and endearing...especially the little boys in their suit jackets.





We were stopped and searched by this security guard.



Some good news for the week - our project was approved - the one for the Inclusive Classroom for autistic children and children with Down Syndrome!

All is well here.  There are only two months - maybe three - before the snow and freezing weather starts.  It is hard to anticipate it.  I guess we'll do the 'orphan' thing and figure out how to deal with the weather when it actually comes.

Central Eurasian Mission - Week 18 - July 17-23, 2017

The finale of the Mission President and Sister President's (yes, I still know that is not correct title) visit was on Monday, and the decision was made to go to EXPO 2017 as the Davis' had not been there (course, they'd only been in the mission for two weeks at this time).  The goal of this trip, at least for Dad and me, was to visit the Death Star (oops), the Kazakhstan Pavilion.

First we had to visit the mascots of EXPO 2017



Then to the Kaz pavilion - here's a picture from our July 4th visit, in case you don't remember it.



It's eight floors high so you take an elevator up and then walk on a spiral ramp all the way down. Here's what it looks like from the top as you look back down into the shaft where the elevator functions.



The elevated spiral walkway with a glass floor.  It was creepy walking on it.



My feet, on the left side, on the glass floor.



Great views of the city from the top. (keep in mind that most of Kaz does not look like this capitol city).





There were very nice displays and models and video presentations, all of which are difficult to photograph - so no photos except this one which was a video display of Kaz countryside that kept "magically" changing right in front of one's eyes.



One of the American volunteers at the USA Pavilion is Paul, also a church member who has helped a lot at English Club.  He promised us a visit to the VIP section of the USA Pavilion.  Basically it was a nice lounge with really comfy seats and cold drinks - all a luxurious luxury after spending the morning in the big black globe of the Kaz Pav.

Here is a picture of the ground level entrance area of the USA Pav



And here are the very important people.



Then we went to the second floor of the Food Court, found and grabbed enough tables to sit as a group, ordered double cheeseburgers and frys, and got the obligatory selfie.



Remember when I told you about going to the Wheelchair Repair Shop to 'visit' and to see if the shipping container we'd provided to them had been delivered?  Well, we went again because our partner wanted to show us the 'delivered' container and to also talk about two new projects.  The way to get to the workshop is to walk down an alley located behind  old houses that were probably built years and years ago.  There is a fence between the alley and the houses.  Actually, wherever there is something old or in need of major remodeling, there is a fence so nothing can be seen from the street. I had to use my ninja tactics to take these photos.









Here's the shipping container-not yet set up as a welding shop because there is no electricity hookup, so old chairs and parts are stored in it now.







Inside we met up with our partners, Аная on the left and Дина on the right

They want to do two projects (only one will probably be approved because the 'love' has to be shared with other NGO's in Kaz).  Because I know you're dying to hear about the projects, here is a brief description.

The first is for the group of singers and entertainers which we described in a previous post.  All of their equipment is old or crummy or borrowed or.........They want new musical performance equipment (think of amplifier, mixer, speakers, etc).  This group does travel to outlying villages and towns and performs for disabled groups and, well, anybody who wants to come and enjoy.  They want to show the public that, "even disabled citizens have talent and desires and dreams.  If we can do this, you can too! If you're disabled, come, join us and improve your life."

The second project is a plan to expand and improve the wheelchair repair shop.  They told us that the government gives free wheelchairs to disabled citizens which last from 4 to 7 years, depending on the model you want/get.  Well, they are of poor quality and don't last.  Repairs are needed, adjustments, fitting....and so on.  They say there is no one in Astana really qualified who can determine what kind of chair you need, what size, how to fit to the person, and so on.  What they want is for us to send three of their guys to Germany or the US to attend a wheelchair certification course.  We found one in Iowa that takes 6-12 months to complete and is 4,000 per person.  That's not going to work.  We've contacted Moscow and asked what kind of training is available..  We're going to need to be creative to figure out how to help this partner.

After discussing business, voila!!--the work table suddenly changed into a lunch table or snack table, and we found ourselves eating.  There was the flat bread which we've shown before, little pancakes filled with jelly, bowls of wrapped candy (I saved the foil wrapper of my favorite one so we can find some and buy hands-full).  See the samovar at the end of the table?  That was really a functional wood (and paper) burning samovar.  On the tippy top they put a special tea pot that just fits perfectly. Heat water up, pour into a bowl (not a cup), add concentrated liquid tea, sugar and milk.





We had yummy bowls of (not tea) hot water!  Fortunately we had another appointment at 2:00 so we had to excuse ourselves.

And then we went to the Arizona Restaurant.  We told you about this before.  The Arizona is owned by Yergan who comes to English Club.  He's the one who helped Dad get his phalaenopsis.  Anyway, he wants us to translate his menu into English.  Right now, someone has used computer software and the translations are just wonderfuly awful to read.

Here we are perusing the menu (a many paged menu.......) in a private dining room.



We are just about the worst possible choice of people to ask to edit and elaborate on a menu.  We don't go to fancy restaurants like this and order  a Veal Roll stuffed with vegetables and herbs, or a Veal and Chicken combo with a broiled cheese sauce.  We are really burrito people, or maybe 'cowboy hamburger' people (with a side of fries).  The fun part was that we got to change the names of the entrees to whatever we wanted.  For instance, there was a 'Knoxville" steak -whhhatttt--a Knoxville steak in Arizona?  We changed that to the 'Phoenix' steak.  And now, there is Tuscon Chicken and the Flagstaff, and Snowflake steaks  There is no 'Gilbert' nothing - I don't even know who this Gilbert guy is. In the salad section there was a salad they were calling, The Hennessey. What, I asked them, is Hennessey? They admitted they got the name off the internet.  That salad is now the 'Oregon Salad',----not exactly in Arizona, but we took the liberty.

About half way through they said, what do you want to eat?  We'd just finished discussing veal so I said, "I want the 'Rodeo', and Dad wanted the 'Kathrine Fright' (no, I don't know Kathrine).  The food was really good, you'd love it.

My Rodeo



The "Kathrine Fright"




Then in the menu we got to "Meat Jelly'.  Hmmmm, I thought, what is meat jelly?, and I asked.  A quick word to the waitress who was in our room, and we got this and a side of bread.



Yes - it is the,meat gelatin that is left over in your crock pot which has been in the refrigerator overnight. Actually, it was quite tasty when spread on bread.  We told them that we didn't think any Arizonian would order this, but I may be wrong.  We brought it home in a doggie plastic bag, and I'm going to add potatoes and onions and carrots and make a beef soup.  They told us it is very popular here in Astana.

Then they said, "please try the new addition to our appetizer selection, the "American Chicken Pot Pie".  Dad and I love chicken pot pie! It came,  They were so excited.  We were kinda stunned, so stunned that we didn't even get a picture.  It was tasty - small chicken bits, diced potatoes, and diced carrots, but the crust....it was not a chicken pot pie crust made with flour and shortening.  The crust was a cheese topping melted under the broiler.  We said, this is really tasty, but you can't offer it as an American chicken pot pie because........ it isn't one (that would be like calling a waffle a pancake).  We told them it needed a crust.  Lots of discussion and translating--- then they said, "what is crust?"  Okay, try to say that in limited russo-enlisho.  We explained that it was made with flour and shortening.  Discussion, "what is shortening."  We came to a blank wall here.  We said, 'like lard but made of vegetable oil"  Blank wall.  Dictionary says lard is made from pork fat.  Gasp!! Can't do that in a Muslim country.  So then they asked if I could make one for them, and Dad quickly agreed for me!

And so began the next quest in Kazakhstan - a chicken pot pie.  Chicken, potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, white sauce  - no problem.  But the crust - how to do the crust?  There is no Crisco shortening at the Anvar grocery store next door.  I thought I'd just make a crust with butter - butter has been around a lot longer than hydrogenated vegetable oil, hasn't it?  Here is a peach pie.  Yes, tasty, but too buttery and the crust was stiff - not fluffy - I couldn't put my name to it.



So Dad goes on online to the "Ex-pat in Astana" Facebook page  and asks where can I find vegetable shortening in Astana?  We got a reply right away (there must be a lot of bored expats in town) and the store is a short bus ride away.  Here it is.  See the happy baker man?



Dad opened it, expectantly, and.....it was liquidish....kinda like bacon drippings poured into a tin can set alongside your stove-top.  This won't work!  But dad thought we should put it in the refrigerator and let it get cold.  That worked.  The next day we had a product that rivaled Crisco!



And I made this pie.  You may think it is in a pie plate but it is in the lid of one of my 8-in casserole bowls.  I made a second small one for us, and it was good.

We took it to English Club where we would be meeting Yergen and gifted it to him.  He sent it to his restaurant with his driver.....we haven't heard anything about it yet.  Perhaps they have been translated to pot pie heaven and are still there, or they don't like it and don't want to break the truth to us.  Will keep you posted and maybe send pictures if I am called upon to teach the kitchen staff on how to make this delicacy.

Speaking of English Club and the church building --Previously, we showed you a photo of the sign outside the church's door.  Over time, the plastic sign had one of the corners break off, and there was a black worn spot on it, and the wording was not officially correct.  When the Mission President was here and when we walked up the church steps to enter the building, he looked at the sign and said, "Elder Gray, you need to get a new sign!  Get one in Russian, and one in Kazakh."  Yes - as you wish. Now, where to get a sign made in Astana?  So we asked our friend from The Arizona, Yergen, to help us.  We gave him a photo, and the dimensions, and two days later he had both signs and brought two of his workmen to install them on the building!  Gotta love English Club and friends.  We need to wash off the chalk graffiti.



I think I've mentioned our Kazakh friends at our favorite fruit stand (our only fruit stand).  We went by to get more peaches and the fifteen year old wanted to take a selfie of us.  We are semi celebrities in our neighborhood.



Zhanabai is fifteen.  I told him I'd help him with his English homework when school starts again in September.



And to end this post with more food pictures....we went to our favorite auto market restaurant.  In an attempt to order something besides kebabs, we ordered two sides in addition to the kebabs---
grechka, which I thought might be the Greek salad but is actually boiled/fried buckwheat which is a staple Central Eurasian food---and macaroni which should be labeled simply as pasta.