Wheelchairs and a visit to the Mosque

We went to find the travel agency.  They warned us that the road was torn up a bit!

These young men were at the wheelchair distribution in May so they were trained in how to assemble the chairs.

The cushions were delayed in customs, so it took a while to get these chairs distributed.

More wheelchairs.  These are headed to the outlaying areas around Astana.

The Church's name is on the back of all the wheelchairs.

If I had to be in a wheelchair, this is the kind I'd like.  It is called a Rough Rider to help handle the less than ideal roads, etc.

Alan took a spin too.

And our translator, Alina took a spin.

Kamka, the woman delivering the chairs, Alan and Alina and I and some of our helpers along with the chairs and walkers being distributed.

Alina is trying out the carrot costumes.  Kamka's organization got an order to make costumes for a children's programing coming up in the fall.  They have made carrots, apples, strawberries and they look amazing!

These are the older kids at the day care center.  This young man loves to perform karaoke.

Our Welfare Manager, Dima came from Moscow.  He and Alan are enjoying the river view.

This is the Astana Music Hall.  It is in the shape of a Kazakh jug.  You can see some workers on top.

This is Highvill (no e).  This is where most of our American ex-pats live.  They work in the US Embassy and the University.  And, they have air conditioning!

This is the U S Embassy.  It was nice to see an American flag!

No sidewalk on this road yet, so we did the overland trail.

The new mosque.

Here you can see the pyramid in the background.  It was a beautiful day with blue skies!

Beautiful chandeliers inside the mosque.

Everyone is asked to remove their shoes.  The women are asked to wear these robes.  It's a different look for me!

Alan and Dima are taking a closer look.  Women are forbidden in the central area.

Dima is trying to figure out the menu for lunch.  We are at an Arabian restaurant.  Another adventure!

We were too early for the belly dancers, but we had a great time anyway.  The chicken shish ke bobs and fresh bread were great!

More Kiev

Saint Andrew's Cathedral is as blue as the sky.

This is a huge statue of Mother Russia, like our Statue of Liberty.  Our driver Victor, told us that in the original design the sword was much bigger.  Then it was discovered that the sword would be higher than the cathedral, so they made it smaller.  (Like a knife, he said.)

This is a memorial to those who fought in the Great Patriotic War (World War II.)  The museum here was very interesting.  It told of all the suffering endured by the Ukrainian people during the war.  They said that Germany took tons of their rich topsoil back to Germany, resulting in a famine and starvation for the Ukraine.

This is the Lavra Monestary and caves.  The decoration in the front is made of decorated wooden eggs.

Monument to those lost in the famines.

Construction

This is just outside of our entrance way into our apartment stairwell.  As you can see the tiles are held on by 4 clips.  The clips are a part of the vertical metal strips.  Under the metal strips is about 3 inches of insulation.

This is a picture of an apartment building that is going up in our neighborhood.  You can see all phases of construction.  The floors are all poured concrete.  The walls between the floors is brick or glass.  The insulation is installed then the metal vertical strips are installed.  Then the tiles are secured by the clips.  I think they are held in place that way because of the temperature extremes here.  There is also a plaster layer on the inside of the wall before it is complete.

Same building as the previous picture, except you can see a worker (orange shirt) sitting on the scaffolding waiting for the next tile to be cut so he can install it.

I took a great picture of a old building that had some issues in Kiev.  But now I can not find it.  It showed a building where the outside brick and mortar had fallen off.  It exposed horizontal logs forming the base of the wall until the windows.  There the logs were installed vertically between the windows.  A thin 2 inch wide board was attached to the outside logs at about a 60 degree angle to help hold on the mortar.  It was interesting to me to see the building processes used.

When we were in Kiev we went to the Museum of Ukraine, and it made me realize how blessed we are in America.  We have had our problems but in Kiev and Kazakhstan, they have been conquered or at war throughout their entire histories.

English Club / Monsoon

Playing games after English Club

We were able to start up English Club again after not having it for a while.  The elders found some nice people who want to practice English and they like to play games too.  We're hoping that they will begin asking questions about us and why we are in Kazakhstan.  We have to put all church materials away so it does not appear that we are proselyting.

The heating pipes across the street from the church.  They use water to heat everyone's homes and these pipes are connected to all the buildings.  In the newer part of town, they put them underground.  The higher parts are so cars can drive under them.

We had a monsoon rain storm here too.  Unfortunately, the elders forgot where they were supposed to meet us, so they got to run through the storm.  They had squishy socks and shoes (and pretty much everything else too!)

Kiev

While we were waiting for our visas to be processed, we spent some time with the humanitarian couple in the Ukraine, Elder and Sister Cullum.  This is their third mission, after Laos and then to the temple in South Africa, so they have a lot of experience to learn from.  They showed us around the city and we explored some on our own.  It is a beautiful city.

This statue is in Independence Square.  The city recently hosted the World Cup Soccer and there are still signs of that all around the city.

Interesting items at the tourist vendors.