On The Road Again

This past Thursday we jumped on a bus to one of the Almaty's main bus stations. Set up similarly to a train station, the bus station is basically a bunch of buses and cars parked in front of a large building. Conductors stand outside their vehicles trying to recruit passengers.

We walked to the far side of the parking lot where Chris was able to make a deal for the back seat of a car (an older Mercedes, if you're interested) that would take us to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The driver then attempted to find someone else to fill the car so we could head out. We waited around for about an hour until we decided to just pay for the whole taxi and get on the road (it's amazing how a little 11 month old can guide our decisions...). We had a good drive down and a nice visit to Bishkek, but that's all for a later post.

During our wait Chris discovered a really cool samsa stand. Samsas are pockets of flaky dough filled with things like cheese, chicken, lamb or beef. They are usually rather cheap and pretty tasty (if a little greasy). These particular samsas have a more bread-like dough and are called tandoori samsas as they are cooked in a tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven).This is a glimpse inside the tandoor, with samsas stuck all along the inside.

In The News

These are Church-related news items from our area of the world, so I thought I'd share them.

Apostles Recall Historic Sermon by Ezra Taft Benson at a Moscow Baptist Church - LDS Newsroom

"Old" News (this is a report on the visit discussed in the previous link)
U.S. News & World Report: A Church Service in Soviet Russia (October 26, 1959) - LDS Newsroom

Cabbage Pirok

We love cabbage pie

...and Addie does too!

The Cutest Oompa-Loompa

Oompa-Loompa-ness courtesy of the spaghetti sauce & noodles you see on her tray.

Responding to the Call

Soon after we first arrived in Almaty we began to notice a peculiar sound daily, or almost daily. It was a man talking on a megaphone, but we weren't initially sure what he was saying. Initially, we thought it was a call for prayers (since Kazakhstan is predominantly Muslim) but eventually Chris was able to listen close enough to realize it was a produce vendor selling things like carrots, apples, bananas, cabbage, etc.

I don't think it was until late fall that we actually responded to the produce "call" and went and checked out the goods. We were soon able to learn that the red produce truck has some of the best deals coupled with good quality produce.

The red produce truck is the first of it's kind that we became acquainted with, but I have since noticed copy-cat travel merchants in the area (including a woman selling fresh dairy products like milk, butter, tvorog/cottage cheese, and sour cream, out of the trunk of her car). The "red truck" team of merchants are really effective at their business, the man who walks around with the megaphone is quite the salesman and does a good job of promoting their produce, there is a younger man that makes sure the baskets of produce are kept full as the women from the neighborhood make their selections, and there is a woman who weighs the produce, takes the money and makes change. Besides being good at their respective jobs they are also really friendly, nice, and patient.

Spring Picnic

This Saturday was our branch picnic and although we were among the first to leave the church and head to the picnic site, we were the last to arrive. On our way up to the picnic site our friend, and driver, Marianna learned we hadn't yet been to Medeu so we took a short detour and headed up. Medeu is basically a mountain-side park with a very large ice-skating rink. I managed to not get any pictures with the huge snow-covered mountains in the distance, but let me assure you, the mountains shown here are practically molehills to the big ones not pictured.

You can see the ice-skating rink below:
Obviously an East Coast girl, I'm quite partial to green, tree-covered mountains (and earth in general).
Chris stands near the bottom of the stairs which lead up to the summit. Take a moment to look to the top of those stairs as they are pretty far from the bottom.
I started out taking two at a time, but quickly stopped! With the change in altitude and the never-ending stairs my legs were quickly burnin'!

After taking the last picture Chris decided to go at his "own" pace and record my slow-but-steady climb up. I'm pretty sure he went a little faster than comfortable just to do this.

Why am I sure? Well, if you didn't notice, he was breathing rather heavy in the video and this picture captured also caught him catching his breath/cooling down.

Remember how I told you to note how high the stairs went in a previous picture? This is what it looks like when you get to the top of the stairs... A lot more to go! We didn't want to make Marianna wait much longer so we didn't actually finish the hike to the summit this trip.
Addie & her daddy having fun in the mountains:
Addie with Nurzia:
Marianna is rallying the group, giving them instruction for a short activity:
Most of the youth and a few adults lined up, held onto the person in front of them, and walked with their eyes closed. The person at the head of the line was responsible for leading the group and warning them of "dangers" like tree branches, roots, etc.
Everyone was really good about keeping their eyes closed, I didn't see anyone peek the whole time!

I'm Done

This is what happens when your baby is tired of you trying to get the perfect video: