Istanbul Grand Bazaar

We left Almaty early Wednesday morning.  The flight was over four hours and a three hour time zone change.  Istanbul is a huge city, spanning over two continents.  We stayed on the Europe side.  The weather reminded me of Southern California since it is surrounded by water. 

After we checked into the hotel, we decided to walk up to see the Grand Bazaar.

 

This is one of the entrances to the bazaar.  People were everywhere and salesmen were trying to sell us perfume, socks, jackets, etc etc

 

 

There are many high-end jewelery stores down this first hall way.

 

And it goes on and on.  I'm sure we saw only a fraction of the entire place.

 

On Saturday morning, we visited the bazaar again.  We met a man named Jimmy who has known LDS friends for many years.  He was able to show us some good places to shop.  He has friends in Orem, Utah so when he learned that one of our couples was from Orem, he dialed his phone and handed it to Sis Stutz to make a connection.

 

Jimmy and Sister Storm

 

Jimmy had heard about Sister Monson's passing and offered condolences

 

 

Jimmy's Silver Corner

 

BYU in Istanbul

 

Here's some random places that caught my eye

 

Music Instruments

 

Cowboy boots and bags

 

Chandeliers

Loved these costumes and hats













This is the outdoor restaurant where we had lunch on Wednesday.  While we were here, we heard the call for prayers.  They put it on a loud speaker here and you can hear it from several different mosques.  After we ate, we noticed a Burger King across the street!  So we went there on Saturday.

 

Burger King in Istanbul.  The sisters have told us that the Burger King is now open in Astana!  We'll have to give it a try.

 

This is the view outside the window

 

 







 







Ymit Almaty

This is our friend from the hearing aid project.  Kayrathan Shonku


We also had a project for hearing aids for 20 persons. It was fun to visit with them.

This lady received a hearing aid. She has a daughter that is learning English in school. She told us she likes to keep her hearing aid in at night so she can hear if her daughter needs her.

The lady on the left told us that the noise from the traffic was a surprise to her. Also, she was frightened the first time she flushed the toilet!

This young man is a wrestler. He told us that he will be able to do better in school now. His speech is very clear. If you speak Kazakh, it's easy to understand!

The big guy on the left is also a wrestler. They said he has 10 world championships and a bronze Olympic medal. His wife also received a hearing aid. It was sweet to see how happy they were to be able to hear their daughter's voice.











Here is the daughter.

Group photo!

 

Blind Society of Almaty

We recently completed a project with the Blind Society of Almaty.  We wanted to go visit them and see if they've been able to put their new sewing machines to use.  They were so happy to tell us that they are able to do so much more work with the new machines.  With the old machines, they would sew for about an hour, then have to wait while it was getting repairs. 

The piles of fabric in the back is for pillow cases they are sewing for the Kazakh military.

 

The director of the organization said they were for "Kazakh Commandos"!

 

This machine makes buttonholes!  I'm sorry we got there too late to see the workers.  The traffic slowed us down.  The good news is that they have plenty of work to keep them busy now with their new contract.

 

 











Almaty / Shymbulak Ski Resort

The Europe East Area Conference for Humanitarian Missionaries was held this week in Istanbul, Turkey.  Another place we never expected to visit.  However, to get there, it would require us to have a long layover in the Almaty airport.  So, we decided to go and spend a couple of days and get some projects taken care of.

As we were preparing to leave from the airport, I had a call from my brother back home.  We had a death in the family recently, my nephew Corban.  My brother was calling to tell us that several of our children had made the effort to attend the funeral and how good it was to see them.  Of course, we were sad to have to be so far away from home.  But we were happy that our children represented us well.  You know there will be life events while you're gone on a mission, but we didn't expect this one.  Our prayers go out to my sister and her family.

 

We usually see little girls practicing their figure skating at this mall near the hotel where we stay.  This time, it was the boy's turn to practice their hockey moves.

 

 

These kids were skating around the obstacles to get used to making quick turns.

 

We also got to get our shoes shined!

 



After we finished our meetings, Alibek offered to drive us up the mountain to see the skating rink.

 

This is a huge skating arena part way up the mountain to the ski resort.

 

This is what it looks like from the top of the dam.  For summer, they have set up basketball courts in the center.  It is a huge arena.

 

You have to take the tram to get to the ski resort.  We might do it next time. 

 

There was a golden eagle too.  It wears a leather cap to cover its eyes.

 

Some kids wanted their photo taken with it.

 

It was a beautiful sight and nice to get away from the heat and traffic of the city.

 

Several of the missionaries were out of town, so we got to help out at the English Club in Almaty.













 



International Worker's Day (May Day)

First, we want to share one of our favorite places in Astana.  We came across it one day last summer.  We were looking for a building and as we walked behind this little place, we were amazed by the good smell!  So after we had our meeting, we walked to the front of the building to discover that it was a little bakery!

We were in the area the other day and decided to pick up a couple loaves of bread.

 

They almost always have people buying bread all the time.

 







 

It kind of looks like an OLD Dairy Queen or something.

 

 

I didn't notice how worn out the window frame is until we loaded the photos!  But the bread is hot and delicious.  Once we went here and I was carring a couple of loaves in a plastic bag on the bus.  The conductor made me open the bag so the bread didn't "sweat" inside the bag.

 

So, guess what?  We had another holiday!  This one is International Worker's Day.  We got to the celebration a bit late, so we missed President Nazarbayev's speech (and the big crowds, and security) and some of the dances.  But we still had fun enjoying the culture of many nationalities.  And we were able to show our new sister missionaries around town a little bit.  They tell us that there are over 150 ethnicities here. 

 

 

Many people were playing chess.

 

They had tug of rope too.

 

 

 

The Germans danced to a song "If you Could Yodel like Me"

 

Cute little Chinese girls

 

Here is a wide variety of Kazakh costumes

 

















 

I'm not sure what country this is, but they were fun to watch

 

They also had displays of handicrafts and costumes from all over.  I'm guessing Ukraine for this one?

 

We recognized these costumes from Tajikistan

 

Lots of cool stuff.

 

The golden eagle had his wings stretched out for just a quick second.

 

And I can't resist getting a few photos of the kids.  This little boy is enjoying cotton candy.  It is served in a tub.  They also had carmel popcorn in little tubs.

 











 

Sister T is not so sure about this bird.  She is trying to overcome her fear of birds.

 

This is what's happening on the street by the church meeting place.  Those guys are in a hanging basket that looks like a crate working on the heating pipe.

 

You can see that our blue sky was gone.

 

They left a few obstacles in the way.

 

I'm glad I decided to wear my tennis shoes to get through this mud.

 

You can see how much clay is in the dirt they've dug up.  It is really sticky if it's muddy and you have to walk through it!