This was a week full of activity!! Mission Conference with Yekaterinburg area in Russia and Kazakhstan attending. As we (in the mission) like to say, it was Legendary! Fifty-seven ststrong!!! Aren't we a handsome group! (really, though, it just looks like a bazillion other groups of missionaries at a mission conference, but you can see us - lower right)
MONDAY - We met up with the Almaty missionaries at the Astana airport and all traveled together to Yekaterinburg. We'd been warned by the Ables (from Kyrgyzstan) that they'd been detained at the Yekat airport for questioning. The Ables were grilled for two hours, and it sounded like they had even been a bit intimidated by the officials.....but everyone perceives situations differently. So, we were prepared for the harassment that, did indeed, follow. Approaching passport control, all eighteen of us spread out between the 8-9 or so passport control booths. Sure enough - having an American passport (regardless of the absolutely, perfectly, officially, legally acquired visa), was enough to be detained. Each one of us was told (or signaled with a wave of a hand) to go back and wait. In Russian, I politely asked my official. "How long?" He said, "in minutes". So there we were, in the now empty passport control area, just hanging out. One of the officials asked who spoke the best Russian, and Elder Lowry stepped up to the plate. He was the perfect one for this---his Russian is the best, he is a friendly - slap you on the back and chat - kinda guy. He was in a back room with them for about an hour and then came out with a group of Russians who then gathered around some of the missionaries (not me...I was playing solitaire on my phone and keeping my mouth shut). They talked about everything - what do we do, where are you from, what dowe do, have you been to Iraq, what do we do, have you been to Syria, do we like Russia, what do we do, have you been in the army - and so on. Dad gave them one of our business cards, and a couple missionaries gave them business cards which tell the meeting times at church buildings in Astana. After a total of two hours, the officials approached each one of us, gave us back our passports and said the equivalent of - okay - you can go now. Then we proceeded through the "door to the world", and the Russians flanked us and said--good bye - thank you - enjoy your stay in Yekat. It was like we'd been at a party with our Russian friends and now we'd never see them again - definitely weird. On the other side, we met the volunteers that had been waiting for us for two hours, and then everyone got taxis and went to their accommodations for the night.
We were staying at the Maris Park Yekaterinburg Hotel. It is an old soviet style hotel (like the ones we'd stayed in on our trips to Russia back in 2004 and 2006).
The lobby and some techie people
Tiny elevators
There are four of us in the lift...and we're friends, thank goodness.
Foyer on fifth floor
really long hallway going off into the distance.
The rooms were spartan but clean. Ours and the Taylors had two single beds, but the Ables had a suite - yeah....they're from Bishkek and needed to be pampered :-)! And we had a window that opened!!! so we could control the temperature of the room
Classic bathroom - toilet that has a "shelf" where everything lands before being slushed down into the liquid in the bowl - and a long spouted faucet that serves the sink and the shower stall.
We were starved!!! I did not want to eat in the hotel restaurant - I mean, how interesting is that.? Out of our window I could see that there was a cafeteria across the street, and that became our destination.
I thought the sign was the name of the cafeteria, but it says "Carnival" ....or maybe a place where you can buy Russian pancakes to eat during a holiday (I am serious). Anyway, there was a cafeteria in through one of the doors, and it was just like our Kazakh food! Unremarkable, yes, but cheap and tasty, and I didn't even take pictures.
After dinner Dad and E Ables wanted to get sim cards for their phones - you know, Dad always wants to be "connected" ..... and be able to get a taxi. There were mobile phone kiosks everywhere. At he first one we went to, the guy said - no, no sim cards, tomorrow. That was not helpful - so went next door
Lots of discussion - how many gigs, monthly plan, how many texts, but they finally bought two cards
Then we went a couple doors down to a little grocery store - it had the same logo as the 5-Minute Marts in Astana, but a different name. We were looking for baking chocolate, candy....or maybe ice cream. The name says "5 - Roundabout Supermarket". Hmmm, I need to research this.
No baking chocolate but lots of different kinds of Russian candies!! They are different from Kazakh!
TUESDAY - The day started with an 8 am light breakfast served at the church building in Yekat. We figured if we timed it right, we seniors could eat the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then also eat at the church building....just in case the hotel's breakfast wasn't very good. It was hard to tell if the breakfy was good because there were soooooooooo many young Russians trying to fit into a breakfast space that was really too small. Apparently there was some kind of sporting event and all of these young people had on sport jackets with "Russia" written on the back. I asked one older guy what sport it was, and he named off half a dozen - basketball, tennis.......There were a ton of them - kinda like too many Germans in a small hostel on the Camino.
We headed off to the church- - it is actually a new building designed and built to be a church rather than a re-purposed building. We were told that after it was built, all the neighbors in the nearby buildings painted theirs and spiffed up their grounds.
Here was breakfast - I think we got some cinnamon buns.
Here are our начальники - President and Sister Beck (Mission President) on the left and President and Sister Martino on the right (Area Seventy). President Martino is really an inspiring speaker.
Here we have taken a break for lunch.
and it was pizza, fresh veggies, and three different kinds of cake which Sister Beck had made.
After the conference all the young volunteers returned to their home cities. Our Kazakh missionaries really enjoyed meeting their Russian counterparts. No one really wanted to depart. They were all leaving right away, and our missionaries did not get back to Almaty or Astana until the next morning after a 'red eye' connecting through Moscow.
We senior missionaries, however, were able to spent the night with plans to depart the next day. We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant where the food was pretty good. The fun part was that the poor waitress got everything mixed up - Elder Ables got three fish dinners rather that a 300 gram fish portion. We had fun anyway....senior missionaries always have fun. L to R: ; Becks, Humes, Taylors, Martinos, Gays, Ables, Tucketts.
WEDNESDAY - first thing right after breakfast, we headed across the street to visit the railway station. In Soviet times, the railway stations were all architectural masterpieces....as is the Yekaterinburg one.
To get into the building, we had to go through the security entrance to the side
Inside we had to go up to the second floor where all the ticket booths are and all the waiting rooms. The area was really big and there were lots of historical displays and old photographs. We bought a rabbit and a Scottie dog figurine at two of the souvenir shops.
Outside in the plaza was a big monument and some sort of plaque. I haven't translated it, but I think it is a war memorial...I think that because there were lots of flowers on the plaque and the dates 1943-1945.
cool busses
Then we had a meeting of the senior missionaries. We discussed business stuff - kinda boring but essential to make a mission work.....although in all of these pictures, we seem to be eating.
Then we headed off to the airport for our return to Kazakhstan. Going through passport control, I got detained again! The lady asked me if I was going to America. I said no. She said where are you going. I said Astana. She said, not America? I said no, Astana. She asked why. I said, I live in Astana. She said, please wait. I know I pulled an exasperated face as I went to sit down. But in just a bit, she motioned me to come back and to pass through. I walked through without looking at her, and she said thank you to me.
THURSDAY was a big day!!!!!!!!!! It was our wheelchair meeting with the governmental charity,WAQYP, and with our NGO, Center for Independent Living. I was so stressed out because we had worked for about six weeks to get things in place to have this meeting. It was a great two hour meeting where we read through the contract and tried to answer many questions and also brought up other subjects. We talked about the styles of chairs that they want, and the schedule for the training meetings. Oh - there is so much to do to get this project going and completed, that I almost feel weak. We left with the representative from WAQYP saying, "I will email you the signed contract on Monday or Tuesday." Hmmmmmmmm - it took us six weeks to get an address for their storage facility, but I'll be optimistic that he can get the contract back to us this coming week, but I won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.
After the meeting I was mentally exhausted, and we used that excuse to eat out. Stuffed peppers! ...and a Napoleon and Red Velvet cake for dessert...and two sugar laced cokes.
Do you recall the previous photos of the triathlon park where I said that I thought something big was going to happen??? Well - - there was an International Triathlon on Saturday and,... I have pictures to prove it. It was great fun walking through all of the action and seeing it all come together.
Early in the morning on both Friday and Saturday, workers were busy setting up for the event.
This might be the approach to the finish line.
All sorts of booths - first aid, information, water, you name it.
a stage
bicycle racks with and one rack with one bike (but the bike is not a road bike...probably a worker's bike)
These booths were build upon what I previously was going to be a stage......probably officials sat in
here.
blue carpet everywhere which I don't exactly understand because the road was a brand new asphalt road.
This was taken on Saturday morning - the day of the race. Workers were using stencils to paint in the word "Astana"
Lots of flags flying---wait a minute, what is wrong with the top quarter of the flag? I think either someone didn't pull the lanyard up far enough, or the lanyard was too short, or someone was clueless. But we're nestled between New Zealand and The Netherlands (are you supposed to use "The"
The docks for swimming. Turns out on race day, Saturday, that the temp of the water was too cold to allow the women's swimming. But by the afternoon, the temp had warmed up enough that the men were able to swim as part of the triathlon.
Buoys to mark the swimming area
Water stations being set up....barricades being unloaded and placed
Here workers are erecting a solid fence around a big ditch which carries effluent from the water treatment plant down to the river.......it does not flow continuously, but I've seen it gushing occasionally)
This road was being prepped for it blue topping
Here's a blue sign post waiting for race day - tomorrow.
On the way back to the apartment, I passed by two people speaking English...and yes they were Americans. I asked if they were here for the race, and yes they were. The woman was from California, and the man from Indiana. I wished them good luck. Later in the day I found, on line, that a Russian had won the men's event and a French woman took the women's. And.....the American woman from California had taken 11th.
Early, early Sunday morning, I headed to the park because I wanted to see what it looked like on "the day after."
Yep this is the same, exactly the same, but no shadows (it was cloudy)
The paint had dried on the big letters.
The flag dysfunction had been attended to, and we were flying freely.
I think there may have been a bicycle mishap at this spot. Tire tracks onto the track indicating a wobbly situation. There were also deep ruts in the mud to the side of the bike lane.
Sign posts now have directions
I don't get this one - does this mean that it is okay to litter in certain places?
I have really grown to love this park - you can walk for five miles without any backtracking but always in a "forward" direction and you don't have to look at your feet to watch for tripping hazards. And, when the wind isn't blowing, there is a delightful feel to the air.
Some random pictures around town
Workers are removing the plaster around the foundation of our apartment building using an electric impact chisel. This particular repair/renovation was not done last spring.
This cool old car. It looks like Ivan's "Sharky" One day there were a bunch of men working on it, and the next day it was gone. Maybe Peter knows what it is. Peter does know! Here is his comment.
The car's emblem on the front.
The neighborhood by the triathlon park is a very ritzy place. Note the high block wall with an iron picket fence on the top....and the cameras. Every morning, this guy sweeps all of the gutters with a hand broom. The place is spotless from litter and dirt.
Monday morning, right before we went to the airport, we heard a knock on the door. Upon opening the door, there was a woman holding a plate with two of these fried bread things!!! I have no idea who she is/was nor the purpose of the gift. But we enjoyed eating them!
A squirrel teeter-totter - squirrels are honored in Astana!
a gilded tricycle in front of a school (I think it is a school)...maybe a hospital.
Our first sighting of flowering petunias
This is a beautiful little birch tree with brand new leaves. In the early morning, the sun shinning on the leaves magical. It was nicer in person.
Sunday evening and dinner with the YVs. Then we watched a church video which was engaging.
Next week - Warren, Whitney, and Dazee will be here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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