Well back to the title of this blog...yesterday we awoke with no water. This means Andrew gets to remain smelly (I always smell good) and we have to pour water out of our stash for the toliet (our stash is from the taps...we fill up old bottles of water to use in these cases). We were taken for lunch at around 1 pm and when we returned to the hotel the power was out as well. This makes for not so much to do...thank goodness we have a long battery life on my laptop (and a back up battery). We didn't use them though. I think we napped for an hour and then read for a while longer. The power/water fluctuated from about 4 pm till this morning. We woke up with water and power...whew!
You have all been asking for pictures...well we can't put photos of our girl up yet (not for another 2 weeks approximately) but I do have some more of the city of Kyzylorda.
This is the Russian Orthodox Church we went to. We don't have pictures of the inside yet...I didn't want to interrupt the baptism ceremony to take photos. We are going to go back in the next week or so to get some photos.
This is the train station in Kyzylorda. It is very old but many people still travel across Kazakhstan using this method. It is a beautiful building...we haven't gone inside yet. Actually, we were never asked if we wanted to go inside. I'll have to ask our translator about this. It was bulit in the tail end of the 19th Century.
Oh by the way...it is 17 degrees Celcius today. Just thought you all would like to know. We went shopping today and we didn't wear jackets. People did look at us like we were crazy for not wearing a coat but oh well.
This is a photo of what their apartment complexes look like...and this is a nice set of apartments. We dropped off our translator one day and I was saddened to see where she lived. They all live in apartments...that is how you fit so many people in so small an area. Our home in Saskatoon is a palace (of course I knew this already but it is highlighted even more by this trip).
This is a computer store in the sort of downtown area. Now normally people would go to the bazaar to buy most things, which means that the things in this store will be expensive. The things at the bazaar are typically cheaper then their stores. This store would be their equivalent to a Future Shop.
Now this is a bad picture but the only one I could take while we were driving by this place. This may look like a cement plant but it is actually an operational rice factory. They don't have many of these anymore. The oil and gas industry (as well as mining) has sort of replaced this industry. In terms of what the people do here for employment. Funny story...on our way from Almaty to Kyzylorda we heard two men talking in English. Upon closer inspection of their conversation we could make out that they were talking about the Fort McMurray Oil Sands project and how they are taliking of expanding into Saskatchewan. When we were boarding the plane we asked the gentleman where he was from? He replied Canada...I wanted to say Duh...we probed further and found out he is from the southern end of Saskatoon. Small World! He works for Cameco and they have a mine approximately 3 hours south of Kyzylorda. He gave us his business card too. Neat eh?
Well that should be enough for you all today. I hope things are going well. Keep up the good thoughts, prayers and pixie dust for us...it looks to be working. Miss you all.
6 comments:
Good morning from Tilbury.
We are back home and back to work but still thinking of you.
We enjoyed the tour of pictures.
We are lucky to have what we have!
Let's hope you get to see the baby soon. Keep us posted.
Love from us
McDonald's food is HEALTHIER than the local fare? The the fast food chain, right? The one that came out with the Big Extra, a hamburger with 5% less fat than a bowl of fat? Ohh boy. And I bet Andrew still won't gain a pound (grumble, mutter, grumble).
It's interesting to see the difference if building styles from your pictures from the church and train station to the appartment complex; makes you think about the difference in attitudes between there and here. Public buildings seem to be more important than personal residences. Of course I can only base my opinions on the pictures posted, so I could be way off.
I'm glad the little one is doing better and you sound like you have been able to calm down a bit. I cannot imagine the stress you have gone through is such a short time, and wish there was something I could do to help. Everything will be fine, and soon you will be introducing your new family member to all of us :)
Best wishes.
Thanks for the news. We hope you get to see "Little One" soon and get out of there to start your family life back home in Canada. What is "pixie dust"? If it is any good, we wish you some too. We are leaving Kelowna this a.m. and will be home tonight. Love from Nana and Opa.
yay for pictures!!
miss you guys, lots of love and pixie dust.
Torri & Cam
i sent you an e-mail!
Glad to hear you're keeping yourselves busy ... the no power/water thing must be making that a bit difficult. I had such a hard time when the power was out at home for 7 days that on the 4th day, on a road trip for a generator, I picked up an adapter to charge my DS with my car's cigarette lighter.
Still sending prayers and pixie dust to the three of you!
-b
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