Mission: Kazakhstan

This is our first view of Russia from the airplane at 5 AM Tuesday. We left the airport and went to tour a bit of Moscow. The pictures below are of Red Square. It was bitterly cold and windy and we were soooo tired.

Viviane and I in  Red Square. Viviane's eyes are closed because she is sleeping ;)

This is us with the mission president and his wife in front of an ice sculpture which is in front of the church it represents.

The mission president and his wife were so very kind to us. On Thurs. we spent the day with the humanitarian managers and they took us to a nice lunch. At 2 PM we found out we had to be at the Kazakh embassy by 4 PM to get our visas. Fortunately, the Holmes took us in the underground metro (subway) otherwise we would never have made it. It was a fun but stressful ride to get there and then to get back to get picked up by the mission president. There is no way we would have figured it out ourselves - we'd still be there riding the subway!! Since we had our visa for Kazakhstan they set us up to fly out that night. Needless to say, it was a very long day and night for us since the plane left at 11PM. We are now on our second round jet lag.

Since we have arrived it has been even colder here in Astana than it was in Moscow. The Shaws, the couple we are replacing, have been taking care of us here. They have set us up in a small apt. that never seems to get warm. I think it is because it is on the ground floor and so doesn't get warmth from apts below. There is so much to learn about doing this work. Today we met one of our translators and had lunch with her and the Shaws and an indoor mall. The food was good and she is very nice. We are also trying to learn the bus system because it will probably be our main mode of transportation. A bus ride is 65 tenge (145 tenge per dollar).

We are doing well but feel a bit overwhelmed.