Central Eurasian Mission - Week 31 - Oct 16-22, 2017

You may have heard that there are some restaurants who are returning their "Michelin Stars" because the restaurateurs don't want the stress and notoriety because all of that takes away from their joy of cooking.  Well...our blog has been reviewed by a very high class travel and tourism blog editor (my brother), and we are happy with the review we received!



In keeping with this rave review, I want to start this week out with a food picture.  After District Meeting on Friday, we walked with two of the YVs to the big Evrasia (Eurasian) Rienook (Bazaar) where we bought some ....well, I guess it is ham like.  It tastes like ham, anyway.  It is horse ham!!  And we got some Belorussian cheese that came on one of those huge blocks of cheese that you see in documentaries.  I should have taken pictures at the bazaar, but those kind of events are now rather "normal' to us, and I don't think of photos until I am ready to write the blog.  When you come to visit, we'll treat you to some horse.  Very tasty.  This is our dinner tonight.



Then walking back to our apartment, we passed a little cafe where we'd eaten before - one behind a building and down some stairs to the basement.  The YVs (Elder Paul from Montana and Elder Bullock from Boise - (he left on his mission from Boise but will return to Logan Utah) liked it too.  The interesting thing is that the proprietor remembered us!  And it's been at least 2-3 months since we were there.  We ordered lagman noodles, but she said, "when you were here before, it was right at lunch,  Now I only have one portion, but you can order something else."



Monday we had Zone Conference.  It was a good training session.  Our Mission President and his wife are good leaders - they are training us, giving us goals, and suggestions, and instilling confidence.  Of course, Dad and I don't need any of that (nod your heads and say, yes), right? - but it is great stuff for these young volunteers who are 18, 19, and 20 years old.  Here is our Zone on the front steps of the Church



And our District in the lobby.  Lowry (Alaska), Crawford (Rexburg), Nelson ( Connecticut), Cantrell (near Tacoma/Olympia), Paul (Montana), Bullock (Boise or Logan), Gray (Zion).



Winners (Cantrell and Nelson) of the coveted Golden Plunger award for the cleanest apartment in Astana.



After Zone Conference we all went to the Hungry Rabbit which is a bowling alley and a pizza restaurant.  The YVs needed to let off steam after a day long training session.



Us outside, deciding if we should go in or go home and go to bed.











Tuesday and Wednesday we went on a travel adventure to Karaganda which is about 3 hours south of Astana.  If you want to know about this town, google this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaganda.

We went with the Mission President and his wife, the senior humanitarian missionaries from Almaty (the Taylors), two YVs to translate for us, and the senior Volunteers from Astana (us).  This was a fact finding trip to learn how receptive the city might be for new humanitarian work and also for maybe opening up  a new Branch there someday.  We hired a driver and van, drove there, spent the night, and spent Wednesday morning in Karaganda, and drove back to Astana.  The Taylors and Davis' were dropped off at the airport, the YVs dropped at their apartment, and we went home and crashed.

This is what the countryside looks like between Astana and Karaganda.  Yep - it's the steppe!



And a photo of a curbside drain at a gas station.  Beware!



Eight years ago there were senior volunteers in Astana who did a couple of projects in Karaganda - that was when there could be humanitarian projects done outside the city of Astana.  Both projects involved giving soft toys to facilities that serve disabled children.  We called them and asked if we could come by for a visit and see the outcome of our projects.  We had good visits;  the people showed us how the children love to play with the toys and expressed their thanks.

"Okay, kids.  Gather up all of the same color blocks and make a house...an so forth."





And the plastic balls that all children love!



The Taylors, in Almaty, are currently doing a project with ADRA which is the Seventh Day Adventist association which has facilities and small churches in various places throughout Central Asia.  They said, they'd be delighted to meet us.

Here is their sign on their building.
 It says, literally, "Church Christian of Adventists of the Seventh Day".





Of course there is always a feast of yummies served.  This time it was cookies, and pies, and other delicious things.  President Davis is on the right.  At the end of the table is Oleg who is pastor of the SDA chruch in Karaganda, and in the glasses is Constantine who is blind and who translated perfectly for us.



It was a very illuminating conversation with these people.  They are passionate about their church and are dedicated to helping the poor and needy.   More than once Oleg and President Davis said something like, 'You are almost Mormons; we are almost Seventh Day Adventists."  They told us about their troubles working the government which mirrors our troubles working with the government - and the trouble is that the government doesn't want to work with us.  It turned out to be a great opportunity for President Nelson to get a vision of  the future of the church in this area.

I took pictures outside the church building so Dad and I can remember the place.  It was late afternoon and really too dark for good photos.  And it was raining.

A greenhouse.



A garden put to bed for the winter



A new addition on their building - not totally finished.



By now it was dinnertime. We asked our driver to take us to the best place in Karaganda to get Shahleek - meat barbecued on a skewer.  We ended up at a spacious...........building......from the outside it looked like it was designed to be a haunted house  Two stories with opened windows on the second floor and an exterior staircase that went to an adjacent roof.  But inside...it was really elaborate - like it was supposed to be a 'destination' venue for big parties or weddings.  Inside the door was a big fresh water fish pool where there we many big sturgeon fish swimming around.  I think there were too many fish in a too small pool, but I don't think PETA has a branch here.



We ordered a massive feast of shawleek and salads - it was, quite possibly, the best we've had so far.



We visited an Orthodox Cathedral in the middle of town





And we visited a Catholic Cathedral and talked to a couple of very friendly nuns.  This building is only about 12 years old.











The organ for Dolores.





There was a full basement which was just beautiful.  There were two big dioramas - one of Bethlehem and one of Jerusalem, and a bunch of paintings.  The nun said that, in the winter, they spend very little time upstairs in the cathedral, but that downstairs it is warm and comfortable.





While in Karaganda we visited the Karlag Museum which was terrific.  Here is a link to it.

http://www.dark-tourism.com/index.php/15-countries/individual-chapters/509-karlag-memorial-dolinka-kazakhstan

I would encourage you to read it, if you're interested in the Soviet repression of Kazakhstan from about 1940 up to 1959.  You can see how the country of Kazakhstan got the short end of the stick when it came to the incorporation of their country by Russia.





Identity papers



Help!!!



Prisioners



Women's camp




The guards






Solitary confinement



Workplace for educated prisoners who were allowed to do scientific research



hospital



rooms in barracks





Typical clothing made at the camp



Interrogation room and guard









Door to a cell.  Door with food door opened'.






torture room



and what happened after you either confessed or didn't



the litter which carried you away to a mass grave



The commandant's office



neat typewriter to keep good records of inmates



Wall size mural of Stalin on left and Lenin in the middle.



The "Book of Honor" into which inmates' names would be placed if they were good or produced a lot of whatever was being made at the camp.



Many communist propaganda posters

Papa Stalin and happy children





"Don't talk too much"



This is what awaits our enemies



We will destroy Class



"The Bolshevik party forward to communism"



The Motherland Calls



Artwork by prisoners after the camp was closed in 1959

Don't let your children see - "Quiet my child, all will be okay"



I took this photo from a third floor window of the museum.  It was the living quarters of the Russian guards.  Now it is an apartment for about ten families.  It has a corrugated metal roof.



There was a patrol of Kazakh soldiers touring the museum at the same time we were.  Outside, we took their picture on the steps.  I wanted to buy all their hats and bring them home as souvenirs.



On Thursday morning at about 8 am, we had a scary incident - or a potentially scary incident with the sister YVs.  They called the elders and told them someone was trying to break into their apartment.  Or at least banging on the door, kicking the door and possibly trying to pick the lock.  They were scared.  The young men went over and nothing was really happening.  The landlord came.  The neighbors were called.  All was a bit lost in translation but, apparently the next door neighbor, who shares an outer door with the sisters, had gone out for a walk and had left her children in the apartment.  Those kids locked the outside door.....for which there is no key.  The neighbor came home, thought the sisters had locked the door and became very angry.  Anyway it was a mess. It is always frustrating to never really know what is happening because of the language issues. Eventually, all the YVs came to our apartment for some R&R.  None had eaten, the sisters were a pool of mushy goo, they need a couple of oldsters for solace.  So we made a massive breakfast of cottage fries, as many fried eggs as they could eat, as much toast as they wanted, and melon.  Finally, by 2:00 peace reigned again in our apartment.

We washed our windows.  I though it'd be nice to see out the glass.  We could see a bit better after the window washing gymnastics.



And to prove that our YVs, who are actually quite responsible, can have fun, here is E Bullock and Batman