Central Eurasian Mission - Week 27 - Sept 18- Sept 24, 2017

So..................I seem to get a lot of comments about how much we go out to eat - or at least, that we send lots of food pictures.  A lot of the stuff we do is paper work......we write up reports about people we meet and projects that they want to do, we make documents to send to our country accountant, I do a good amount of translating...using the computer...and none of this is very interesting.  I mean, how many pictures can I send to all of you showing one or both of us working on the computer.  In my free time, I do family history and Dad does indexing - not particularly photo inspiring.  But, every time we do go out, or come back from someplace, we usually find a place to eat.  What is more interesting, finding a little Kazah cafe or eating tuna fish sandwiches or egg salad sandwiches for lunch.  We always vote for new food exploration.

After a project is approved by our headquarters in Moscow, I have to create a document called a Basic Agreement.  My thanks go to Warren who showed me how to do this document in a table format so the lines on each side of the document always line up...it looks nice.  I do it n Russian and in English.

So this week we needed to take the Basic Agreement to the partners who want the music production equipment (keyboard, mixer, speakers, microphones, etc).  We arrive there to get the document.....hmm, where is it......who has it...and so on.  The workers, etc are all sitting at a table having a snack of hot drinks and whatever, and ask us to sit down and partake.  Nooooooooo, we just want to get the document and go.  So, we sit down and are served bowls of of hot water because we don't drink tea or coffee.  There is a bowl of some kind of seeds on the table from which a guy took a couple of spoons full and put them in his cup of tea.  I look at the bowl and ask, "what is this (in Russian)?"  He pantomimes that they are delicious (thumbs up) and you put them in your tea and then eat them....especially after all the tea is gone at which time you put a little pat of butter on the seeds.  I'm game and put the seeds in, slowly drink my hot water,  then eat the seeds.  My opinion....not really bad but it seems like I'm just eating warm wet bird seed.  They guy asks if I want some...he'll put some in a bag!  Sure.  Okay.



We get home and after some research, realize it is millet seed - I was right, it tasted like wet warm bird seed because it was wet warm bird seed.  We did some more searching on the web and came to learn that it is eaten as a breakfast cereal in many places......but that it isn't healthy to eat lots over a long period of time because it inhibits iodine absorption and, trust me, I don't want a goiter.  But next morning we had cooked millet for breakfast.  It was and it wasn't good...I just had a hard time getting over the fact that we feed millet seed sprays to our parakeet.



After our appetizer of hot wet millet with butter, we decided to stop at a little cafe for dinner.



It was too late to get the Complex Lunch (or Business Lunch) so we just ordered some kind of lagman and some kind of plov.  Here the lagman - noodles with lamb ribs - delish



and Central Asian Rice with meat (I think it was horse meat) - also delish



On Tuesday before we had English Club, we had to go to an office supply store to get some exciting supplies - pencil sharpener, paper clips and whiteboard markers.  You can always easily walk to where you want to go by following the main streets and intersections.  But, you can also go 'cross country' which, for us, means on the short narrow roads that weave in and out and around the apartment buildings and play areas.  We chose to do that to get to the church, and we needed to use our phone with a map app in order to find our way.  This was a fun picture I took of Dad using a stile to cross over the pipes that carry hot water for heating to all the buildings.



One day the weather was just perfect - PERFECT - and we decided to go to the downtown area where the big, blocks-long, mall is.  The goal: to go up the Bayterek Tower.  It's supposed to be a representation of the Tree of Life, but quite possibly it is a monument to the president of Kazakhstan.








The flowers and plantings are still looking great, and I must say, I am now fond of marigolds.



Nice plantings, the Presidential Palace with the blue dome, and the two golden rockets which house something, but I don't know what.




Great view from the top, but the photographs are all yellowish because of the tint on the windows and because of the haze in the distance.





You can see the three ketchup dispensers in the center which are quite close to where we live.  And you can see the steppe in the distance.



At the very tippy top there is a plaque with the sunken hand print of the president - people line up in order to place their hand in the depression;  I did not partake.  And there is a round woodish globe thing which says






The golden rays all represented world religions.  There were two Christian ones noted, the Church of England and the Catholic Church.  This shows that the country is open and tolerant of all religions

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One of the hard and fast rules of missionary apartments is that there must be a smoke and CO detector in each one.  We have been disobedient for six months because we only have a CO detector.  (Really, it isn't a problem because all of the windows and door are so leaky, that fresh air is always leaking into the the rooms).  It's easy to buy a smoke detector, isn't it - you go to Home Depot or Rite Aid, or Fred Meyer.... but not here.  We went to three big stores like Best Buy or Frys and to a building supply market like Home Depot.  We had pictures and the translated words.  Everyone looked at us like we were aliens from the modern world, and we received one word - - нету- which means zip, nada, nothing, neecheevo.  We finally asked a friend from English Club do some research, and she found two places that should have them.  She tried to call, but the phone was never answered.  So, off we went on a shopping adventure, and surprise, we found one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Such a momentous moment, and we have photographic proof.  One side event is that we found a delightful little park with nice bushes, and trees, and it was quiet.  Too bad the weather has turned cold so there is no desire to read a book or write in one's diary while enjoying the ambiance.






It's tree planting time in Astana and all of the poor trees that did not tolerate the hot dry summer have been cut down, dug up and are being replaced.  Come spring. and all the poor trees that did not tolerate the freezing cold winter will be....ditto.









On Friday our District became 'complete' again when Sister Nelson (from Connecticut) arrived at the airport.  We all went to pick her up just in time to go to English Club.



On Saturday we realized that we had no food left that would work well for three more dinners before we go to Bishkek.  So off to to store we went - we realized that there were snow flurries in the air - not much snow, but it was indeed snow on September 23rd.  We lost all of our self discipline and decided to find someplace to eat - yes, eat at a cafe again!

We went to a little doner place that we've been walking by for six months; it seemed like an omen; we should try this place.  It is located in the basement (sort of) of a big apartment building and positioned under the stairway which goes up to the store above.  Hopefully the photos will show this.










It was so fun - a one man shop and his dad, both from Azerbaijan.





Doner in a bun.



Ismayil with a baked chicken stuffed with fries and sauce and his dad Garick with a bag for the chicken



Lunch at home






Today, Sunday, was nice.  Church as usual.  Our Primary is preparing for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation - oh our children sing so well!!!!  We are in a small room off at the end of the building and we purposely sing as loud as we can in an effort to "annoy" the adults who are in the chapel.  Dad always comes back when he hears us and comes into the room with a frowny face.  The kids love it.

This evening went to dinner at the Willardsons.  President Willardson is, well, the Branch President.  Sister Willardson is the RS President, and the four daughters make up half of the youth in the Branch.  Great times!

Next week we go to Bishkek.  Anticipate!