I’ve been away in Almaty, Kazakhstan for about 11 days. I’m still catching up on sleep and trying to process all that our team experienced. We had a great trip and God answered our prayers for vision. We’ve been seeking God’s direction for how our church might serve in the region. I’ve got too much to write about and process, so I’ll just start by sharing a few pictures.
I was laughing at how many people were packed into the buses so I took a picture. A few hours later I was riding one myself. We weren’t even crowded. We took another bus ride during the trip. Our bodies were pretty much packed together. We were riding like sardines in a can.
Here’s one of our first experiences of local food. We had lamb kabobs and fried breaded things with mashed potatoes inside. Notice also the tea pots. Tea is HUGE in Central Asia. People will hang out for hours and drink gallons of “chai.”
This is the view from outside our apartment. They vary from trashy to contemporary. In many ways it’s reflective of the overall society. It’s modernizing at an incredible rate. The local Kazakh people are only about a generation away from being nomadic herdsmen. But now they have a major city, the latest cars, cell phones in every pocket, and internet cafes. It’s a strange mixture of old and new. On neighboring blocks you can find mansions that could be featured on MTV cribs and third world shacks.
