A typical week - Monday and Tuesday we were in Almaty for Zone Conference. Wednesday we were back home in Astana...waiting..to leave to go to Yekaterinburg Russia, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Yekaterinburg. Sunday we went to church and they flew home to Astana.
Zone Conference - in Almaty was normal - meeting up with friends, eating out, receiving training from President and Sister Davis and the Zone Leaders.
Well - one thing wasn't normal. We had known for a while that Kazakhstan was going to be removed from the Central Eurasian Mission and added on to the Yekaterinburg Mission. Why....? Probably because the number of missions (worldwide) is being reduced, and the Bulgaria Mission was being 'closed' and added in with the Central Eurasian Mission. So that mission will be the Bulgaria-Central Eurasian Mission with the mission home located in Sofia. It will be interesting because Bulgaria is culturally Christian and Turkey is culturally Islamic. And Kaz going to Yekaterinburg??---physically, it will be closer to the mission home/office, and the language is the same, but there will still be the cultural /religious differences. Also the political laws that the Church must adhere to are different in both Russia and Kazakhstan, so that will cause a headache from the passport and visa perspectives, not to mention required residential 'registrations' and governmental requirements to be registered to preach religion in the various cities, and so forth. Dad and I are kinda happy that we are the Church's foot soldiers and simply serve where we are stationed.
The bomb was dropped in the last 15 minutes of the meeting when President Davis announced that the mission switch wouldn't be happening on July 1, but rather on May 1. Apparently the Bulgarian Mission President is quite ill and needs to return to the US, thus the urgency for the change. Our Kazakhstan missionaries are hoping that there will be transfers between Russia and Kazakhstan............but, there are lots of hurdles to stride over before that easily happens.
Here is the 'official' Zone picture.
The Senior Couples in Kazakhstan. Ables on the left, us, the Taylors, the Davis, and the Carters
We said good-bye to the Carters. They'd served for 18 months in Bishkek, did many humanitarian projects, and became good friends. It was like in the movie, "Wicked", in the song where the lyrics say, "because I knew you, I have been changed for the better". But we all come....and go...in a pretty routine and methodical manner.
Wednesday we regrouped after having been gone for three days and prepared for our trip to Russia. In Kazakhstan our visa was only good for one year at which time we are required to leave the country and come back with a new visa. The normal way this happens is that a second US passport is given to us. Then at about the year mark, our visa clerk (who is a Kazak woman who is hired by the church) takes our second passport and applies for another year-long visa which is put into our second passport. Then we leave the country on the old passport and come in on the new one.
So, on Thursday morning we were off to Yekaterinburg, which distance wise, is the same as going to Bishkek which is where most volunteers go to renew their visas.
Now, this kid is waiting the correct way.
We landed uneventfully at Yekaterinburg, where it was snowing....and it snowed for the rest of our visit.
The mission president, President and Sister Beck said they would meet us. We headed optimistically through immigration control. Dad passed through just fine, but my person took her time. She asked me if I spoke Russian, I answered, a little, then she spoke more in Russian, and I said, better do this in English. Then she looked at my passport, at the computer, at me, took a picture of me, and said please wait, and she left the booth. So I wait. Then she comes back and says, please go back into the waiting room and wait. So I did----and all of the gates of the immigration booths slowly closed, and I was there, in the big room, sitting and waiting......About ten minutes or so later, she came back, handed me my passport and gestured for me to follow her. Fortunately, it was to an exit door, on the other side of which was Dad, anxiously waiting for me. Whew! We went out, found the mission president who said that that kind of treatment is usual for Americans. I glad that I was totally innocent of everything.
They took us to the Mission Home for a light dinner
and the to the Mission Office where they had a meeting, and Dad talked to Elder Tuckett who is the financial clerk, and I did FamilySearch stuff while I waited. The Mission Office is unremarkable and the rooms are Kazak\Russian normal.
The Mission Home is really nice - which is really good because mission presidents are probably the most overworked of all volunteers. The exterior looks like a Kazakh building of the most common kind.
There are five bedrooms upstairs which can sleep 12 people and there is still room on couches if necessary.
Comfy lounge in the bedroom area.
Nice living room.
And this huge kitchen which is really necessary because Sister Beck often cooks for a bunches of YVs .
And built in water filters (on the left) and a water heater over the cupboards.
On Friday The Becks took us to the "Museum of the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin",which was GREAT!. I hardly knew anything about him, but I figured that when he was president of Russia, Malcolm was just a baby, and we'd just started Sunset Flowers of NZ. We were busy.....
The museum is in an ultra modern building which also includes a big shopping mall.
The museum is based on seven periods of time which explain communist Russia, the break up of the Soviet Union. the troubles at the time, the presidential election of Boris Yeltsin, his troubles and re-election, and then his retirement and the subsequent election of V. Putin .....and that story continues until now.
The display starts out with his presidential limo in the lobby.
There was one big display of old pictures and old propaganda posters. I took a lot of photos because I want to remember them.
болтовня сплетни - на руку врагу - Gossip ends up in the hands of the enemy.
Yeltsin was the first politician to run for the office of president, and his trademark was that he traveled around the cities in trolley cars - just like regular people - and campaigned and met people.
This was a poster on the window of the trolley that I liked because there were "Young Pioneer" children with their red neckerchiefs - their motto was "Always Prepared".
This display shows the chaos and street barricades of civil unrest.
This is a mock up of his presidential office.
\The last big display room celebrated his goals--can't really remember, but maybe freedom to think, freedom to act, freedom to study----all good things.
A humongous mural was painted on one wall saying "FREEDOM". I suspect his successor, Putin, has not carried on with his reforms, but what do I know.
And then we were able to meet with Mr Yeltsin, himself.
We decided to walk back the the Mission Home on our own, even though the Becks had said they would come to pick us up. But they are really busy people, and, besides, we can walk home by ourselves, no problem. Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if either of us had brought our cell phone batter backups or if it hadn't been so cold that the battery-life of Dad's phone was quickly sucked up. Our navigation skills were sorely tested, with the added issue of the phone dying, so that we wouldn't be able to call the Becks for help - but wait, we didn't have a Russian sim card. I was mentally preparing my conversation on how to ask someone to call the Becks number. It was classic, snowy sidewalks, which building do we want and how do we find the entrance..... yeah... here are some photos of the walk.
It was cold
We kinda got trapped inside an enclosure but managed to get out through this gate
Interesting building
A sidewalk adjacent to road that is an overpass
A trolley car!!!! There are lots in Yekaterinburg....none in Astana.
Off the main streets and in the maze of apartment access roads. Old storage units just like in
Astana
We went to the right which turned out to be the wrong way.
That evening was spent quietly, The Becks were getting ready to leave town for the weekend (yes leaving us to apartment sit), and Dad and I helped Sister Beck organize all of her recipes into a binder - see, we are helpful volunteers.
Saturday afternoon was spent with Elder and Sister Tuckett who are the senior volunteers who work at the Mission Office. They came to get us, and then we took a trolley (my first since the last time I was in Disneyland or in San Francisco). It was remarkably just like the trolley in the Yeltsin museum.
We were headed to Grenvich Mall (I have no idea why it is called that - probably some rich Russian named Grenvich put up the money to build it.)
And the reclining Mr. Grenvich at the entrance - little kids like to sit on him, and his fingers are worn to the 'shiny' stage of metal.
Big inside like Kazakh malls. The Tucketts said it covers an entire Russian block and has six stories.
We went to lunch, had great food and told each other's family secrets.
Our destination for the afternoon was the Church of the Blood which is where some Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas and his family on April 17, 1918. It was a hard time - it was right after WWI, there'd been a civil war, there was chaos, there was more chaos. and the royal family was imprisoned, and later shot in a chaotic manner. Anyway, the site of this execution was torn down by new communist government because the govt didn't want anyone to remember this massacre. But then, later the government began to embrace the Romanov family and this church was built to commemorate them, and later, even the entire Romanov family became saints in the Russian Orthodox Church.....
Here is our walk to the church - about 1.5 miles. snowing, melted snow on sidewalks and roads, brown slushy stuff. We have decided that Astana looks like Yekaterinburg with the exception that Y is about 275 years older with tall trees and Astana is 21 years old. But the 'feel' is the same. Here, however, everyone looks like a Russian (instead of 95% Kazak and 5% Russian as in Astana), and all the signs are in Russian with a smattering of English words.
A random church on a corner
Older, clunky buses and not as many as in Astana.
And Y has a river/reservoir just like Astana, and we walked across it on the ice.
There is a promenade along the river which, in summer, must be lovely.
We passed a group of people who seemed to be shouting angrily, and marching, waving flags, and pounding on drums.
We discovered the "Red Line Walking Tour" which we'd read about but figured we wouldn't be able to find the "line" in the snow.
And finally, the church.....
You could even buy, on the steps leading up to the church, a beautiful white dove --for dinner-- no, sorry---- to release so that the birds can experience freedom (and redemption).
On this site, the execution site, there'd been a house, which I mentioned had been torn down, and this is the little chapel was built where the Romanovs have their commemorative plaques, and so forth. It is very small, nothing like a 'real' cathedral.
These are for Emperor Nikolai and his son Alexei.
The chapel had a nifty gift shop where I bought a picture of the royal family (actually an icon) and two saintly-ish rabbits.
Outside, going up some stairs, you can go into the actual worshiping type cathedral which I tried to do, but the doors were locked.
Some billboard type pictures outside the chapel
Our walk home was uneventful - because we knew where we were going.
The BIG soccer stadium where some of the FIFA World Cup games will take place.
To get to our apartment building we cut through this Russian Orthodox Metropolitan school and churchyard. I love this color of blue - I am calling it Russian Ortho Blue.
And just as we got to the front of this church, the bells (maybe a recording, who knows) began to toll. It was beautiful. And I like the gold stars on the top of the domes - they are hard to see.
Then we crossed through the cemetery to the next main street. I thought the snow capped headstones were photo worthy.
bright red stars!
The Tucketts say that in the summer, you can see very little because the bushes grow robustly and make an impenetrable barrier.
Sunday - the Plan. Meet the Tucketts at the trolley stop, ride the trolley to church, attend Sacrament Meeting, get the volunteers to call a taxi for us, go to the airport, and return home to Astana (sounds weird....home to Astana).
The plan went well. Here we are at the trolley stop which is across the street from the cemetery through which we walked the previous day.
Here we are walking up to the church facility (it is on the second floor of a building)
Inside the church - just like Astana but bigger.
We're with the Tucketts who are the Mission Office Couple. They are from Murray....maybe Lehi...I don't even know where those places are.
Sister Tuckett is also the pianist, Relief Society Pianist, the Primary Pianist, and the talent show pianist.
We took a taxi to the airport and found where we thought we'd enter for departing flights. But it was hard to tell because all of the doors, but one, were closed. We went up to an official looking guy and showed him our boarding pass and politely asked the question word for "where?" He kinda sneered at us, wave his hand toward the left, and turned away from us. So much for cordiality. So we went to the left and waited. Then we thought maybe we could go through the door and approached it. He waved us back.....and we slunk back to our 'waiting place'. Then , suddenly, it was time, he motioned us to a door, opened it and smiled; a sign was posted saying "to Kazakhstan" and we successfully entered.
We got there a good four hours early so there could be mistakes.
Lunch at the Panini Bar.
We are waiting.
Now our flight is delayed two hours because our plane is arriving late....from somewhere.
The announcements have been good - in Russian and then a perfect recording in British English. But, then suddenly, most everyone got up and went to the gate, and there hadn't been an announcement in English. So I went too. I could understand a little, but mostly I heard Almaty...which we did not want. So, being desperate, I said, to no one in particular, "Does anyone here speak English?" The guy next to me said he did and proceeded to tell me what was happening....that we could get transfers to Almaty if we wanted. Back to waiting.
Then, suddenly, most everyone headed to the little restaurant..hmm. So I followed the crowd and saw that they all had their boarding passes and were getting gratis sandwiches. Cheese, ham (maybe) and pickles.
AAnd, finally we are home. As we walked in the slush, up snowy slippery steps, and through the parking lot, I said to Dad, "you know, sometimes, it's amazing that we come home in one piece, after our adventures."
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