Russia Yekaterinburg Mission - Week 67 - July 2 - July 7,  2018

What could be better than celebrating the Fourth of July in Kazakhstan??????????????

We needed to go to Almaty on July 4th for our Zone Conference, so we made plans with the Taylors (Senior Missionaries in Almaty)  and with the Ables (SMs in Bishkek) to have a picnic lunch on July Fourth.  However, upon landing in Almaty, we could see and feel the lightening and thunder emanating from the mountain in the distance and decided upon a July 5th picnic (Thursday) instead.

A perfect picnic table.....



alongside a perfect river (I have no clue what the name of the river is.....but, let's pretend it is a Kazakh version of the Clackamas River!!)



....and a perfect picnic lunch - Kentucky Fried Chicken (all we could eat), potato salad from Dad's famous recipe, perfectly sweet watermelon chunks (from which Sister Taylor had removed all the seeds), cupcakes, homemade bread, chips, bottled water and fun (very fun) friends.  It doesn't get better than this.



And photos for the ages

The Taylors


The Ables



This might be our Christmas Card photo for 2018



We took a taxi to the picnic site and rode a bus back into town (the bus was a better choice because we couldn't get separated......which is what happened when we took the taxis there)



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Thursday afternoon was set apart for going to the Baraholka Market, which we'd been told was the BIGGEST market in Kazakhstan.....which I believe is true.  However, the Ables say the market in Bishkek is bigger....who knows.  Our goal (well, it was my goal, and everybody went along by default) was to find some more to the Turkish pants/skirts that we'd bought in Turkey.



I was assured by English Club friends that, if any place has these shirts ( Shalvars or Sultankas, depending on the language of your choice), it would be here.  I'd prepared my Russian dialogue so I could, hopefully, and intelligently inquire as to where these could be found.  Fortuitously, Sister Taylor had asked her church friends about where to find this desirous articles of clothing, and her friend, Aleya, said she'd go with us.

We set out in two taxis, and ours got there first, and we waited in the shade of a telephone pole on the edge of the road.  We finally met up with our shopping compatriots who'd been let off by the taxi at the other end of the market.  Thank goodness for our cell phones or we'd still be waiting.  The place is huge - like hugely huge.  Here's our view while we waited.



It is row upon row of storage containers situated under a corrugated metal roof.  And there are storage containers placed on top of the storage containers which are used to store the vendor's goods.



See the woman in the white dress?  That's Aleya.  She was a trooper and went from booth to booth asking, "Do you have Sultankas?"  Every answer was "net", and we'd receive a wave of a hand indicating that we should go "that way" and "further".  We actually did see a vendor wearing one of the shirts, and Aleya asked where she'd gotten it, and she waved her hand and said further.  (It reminded me of when Dad and I were in Nepal hiking through rice paddies and asking the way to Nargarkot - the Nepalese would just wave their hands in an uphill direction).  We did find one vendor who said she had sold all she had.



So this was all in vain - no Shalvars - nothing, nada, nechevo.  But Bill (Ables) bought a hat and two shirts, I bought two pairs of pants ($3.00 each) and Robyn (Ables) got some pants too - - yes we do use first names when we are not formally acting as missionaries).

Back at the hotel, we realized we were starving and decided to go to an outdoor food plaza which is close to the church.  We chose to go to this place because it was the very first place Dad and I had eaten at in Almaty in April of 2017 - it was a dark and raining evening a year ago.



But, this night the place was bustling with activity.  There were tons of families with little kids, a bouncy fun house, trampoline "for hire" by the minute, and a bunch of food carts.

We were "captured" by the Philadelphia Cheese Steak booth...they were so good!!



Sitting in front of the bouncy house - Sister Ables and Dad loved their french fries :-)



And I loved the plastic gloves that came with the sandwich



Friday was our Zone Conference.  It was a really good one!  President and Sister Beck are good and wise teachers.  It was a bitter sweet meeting because five of our volunteers will be returning home this month....and we will miss them.

Elder Lowry, Elder Topham, Elder Ludwig, Sister Dixon



And Elder Bullock, who is in Yekaterinburg, was with us via Skype.



Here are some photos of the meeting - so we can remember....













The Elders all switched coats with each other.



The whole Zone!



Saturday morning our goal was the Green Market - which is a big one but nothing like the Baraholka one.  We'd heard that the market opened at 9 am or 10 am....so we were there at 9:00, but as you may have guessed, vendors were just arriving and setting up their booths.



It was, indeed, a big place, but kinda confusing because there was a main floor and a basement, and we kept getting turned around and ending up where we'd already been - we were hoping that no locals realized we were location challenged.  We tried to find the shalvars - or - sultankas, but no luck.  One nice vendor, whose daughter spoke English, said with great conviction that there are "none of those here in Almaty".  So we gave up.

The basement area was the most interesting because if was food rather than clothing and hard goods.

Bags of spices



Pork products





Ahhh - bacon.  Hard to find this in Astana, but apparently plentiful in Almaty.



Our flights didn't leave until the evening so we just hung out.   We sat in the big war memorial park with this statue - I wrote about this last year.



Then we sat on this wall for a long time until some security type policemen came and started smoking right next to us......we were done.



Went to Hardees for lunch.  Then to the airport for another long wait for our flight to Astana.  We had a great time with the Taylors and the Ables.  It was kinda bittersweet because we will likely not see the Ables again until we meet on the other side of the pacific pond.

Here are some random photos from around Astana.

Rugs drying (or airing out) on the fence behind our building.



Crosswalks being painted early in the morning hours.





I discovered this on one of my early morning walks = The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of Joseph the Wanderer.  We want to go here during the day and look inside.





All along the river is a beautiful brick walkway.  There are light posts along the whole length



But vandals strike everywhere it seems..........sigh







Mowing done along the edges of the walkway



Looks like the vandals tried to (unsuccessfully) start a fire for a wiener roast.



Hanging out at Taylor's for Fourth of July dessert and fireworks (no - no fireworks, just kidding)







This is a brand new shopping center in Almaty



I don't exactly understand the sign....what is "in"?  Is everything you need in stock on the shelves?



This is the logo on an interesting pickup truck - Peter....what kind of truck is this?



No swimming sign along the river.  But....triathlon and Iron Men swam in the river.