Bird Show

On our way back from the lake and observatory, we stopped to see a bird show with some of the predator birds of Kazakhstan. It was a lot of fun, and no kids got carried away to any nests.

Trip to Big Almaty Lake

Big Almaty Lake is located high up in the surrounding mountains and provides the city's drinking water.

Below are pictures of an observatory constructed during Soviet times, but still operating with funds from the German government. The astronomer let into the viewing room to check out the telescope. It was pretty cool.

I created a panoramic photo of the area that you can see here.

More Photos from Amsterdam

For having no idea where I was going, I think I was lucky to find this statue of Rembrandt and the flower market. My photo of that flower market does not do justice to how big it really was. It stretched for several blocks.

The last three pictures are the cafe where I had the English breakfast (and drinking beer at 11 am is appropriate in Amsterdam -- I asked) and a piece of Dutch apple pie. Everything was excellent.

Photos from Amsterdam

On my way back to Almaty from some training in Washington, DC, I had a layover in Amsterdam that gave me enough time to see some of the city. I had no map and no idea where to go, so I just wandered around, taking pictures, until I got hungry.

Blog Posts

I've been having trouble posting on the blog, so it's a good thing I've been in the US the past couple of weeks. No problem putting stuff up here. That's why there are so many new posts all of a sudden. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more regularly when I return to Kazakhstan.

The Chaihana

In Central Asian culture, the chaihana (tea house, basically) holds a high position. People sit in the chaihana, sip tea, philosophize, etc. In Isfara, the city is renovating a chaihana, and this is a photo of the ceiling in one of the rooms. The color and intricacy of the designs were amazing.

Gym Renovation

When we work on local development projects, like these in Isfara, we call community meetings to learn what the people value and where we can do some good for the money we have.

Here, the school needed quite a bit of work, but the people decided that the small amount of budget available would best be spent on fixing up the gym. The young people of the community really didn't have anywhere to go to have fun or much of anything to do. After the speechifying, we went to the gym where some of the kids were playing volleyball. The deputy mayor jumped in to play with the kids, and he really got into it -- spiking the ball and everything. He waved me over, but I was more interested in shooting baskets. Another local official was shooting, and he passed me the ball for a shot. I missed everything but the floor. He tossed the ball back, and I nailed the jumper that time. The crowd cheered. It was great.