Borat country here I come!

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

What's a mission trip? It sounds like fun.

It is a group of like minded religious or non-religious individuals get together on their own dime and go somewhere to do good things for the less fortunate. The only common theme is those who go, do it out of goodness of the heart and not to spread religion to those who don't have it or sell bibles. In this case they are going to a orphanage and help rebuild some buildings and a recreation area. Many of my compatriots go on medical missions that are partially sponsored or affiliated with different religious groups or non-profits and all they do is free surgery.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A friend goes with a Christian group to China, to work at several orphanages, giving medical care and improving the physical facilities. Kind of hard for her to teach religion to babies, that don't understand English.

[Cyclefrance]

Sorry for the delay in posting - the Internet connection in Kazakhstan left a lot to be desired so I decided to wait until I arrived back home - then the last-night meal at a mountainside restaurant left its toll on my digestive tract - still suffering, but can at least get on with the posting.

First the map of the route to Almaty - one of our airlines, BMI, now flies direct,, but has to make a fuellinhg stopover at Ekaterinaberg until it gets long-distance aircraft on the route from May - so the flight was an hour longer than needs be. As Ekaterinaberg was recording sub-zero temperatures itwas encouraging to know we didn't have to get off the plane - managed a couple of photos on the way back when it was a daylight stop there:

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[Cyclefrance]

Second picture of Ekaterinaberg below:

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[Cyclefrance]

Arrived Almaty around 7.30 am - weather was lousy - with temperature just above freezing. Seemed to have hit the low point at this changeable time of year - the previous Sunday had seen 65F and it would rise to 60F before I left on Good Friday - but for nw it was snow, sleet and rain!

A couple of pics on the way in, taken from inside the taxi - I think the white painted on the lower halves of the tree trunks is there for som kind of frost protection...:

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[Cyclefrance]

Get off the main thoroughfares, and the town looks pretty poor, with ramshackle housing and pot-holed roads with no sidewalks/pavements, but the centre of town is showing the trappings of oil wealth already. The hotel where I was staying and where the course was being held probably the most prolific of the new buildings:

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[Cyclefrance]

And this was also borne out by the qua;lity of cars in the car park there - the abundance of 20-year-old Passats I'd seen coming in (my old 200,000 mile Passat might just have a second-hand value here!) giving way to Porshe Cayennes, Lexus 4x4s, Mercedes of all types, and the occasional car of my dreams (as some of you will already know) below:

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