Also on Saturday 28 September 2019 we went to the newly renovated Orthodox Church. The building had been abandoned in the Soviet period as were all religious buildings. At some point it was turned into a museum and painted a dark green to recognize that it was part of the state and there was no treason for all the decoration.
Interior paintings which had been painted over during the Soviet period were re-painted and icons added, it was clear that any of them were part of the old church or new icons. The memorial candles in round brass candle holders reminded me that Mother would have love to we this this. I found out that I had to go out of the church to the shop on the same property to buy a candle – I had still not had time to buy local $$. I went to the shop and tried to make myself understood to the young woman – I had American dollars and I wanted to buy a candle for my Mother. After a certain amount of verbal tries , holding both the candle and the dollar in the same hand and pointing to me and then the Church, she handed me three slim candles and took one dollar from my hand and placed in my palm and pointed to a box for Donations. That was my transaction. I returned to the church and found an large icon of Mary holding baby Jesus and placed my candles in three holders and thought I will make this a present from Marcia, Joe and me, Mother’s three kids who each loved her.
A memorial park honoring the dead from various wars had sculptures representing various ethnic groups, Kazakhstan is very proud of its diversity, when they say that they are talking about Asian diversity.
Russia was the master of these lands from the time of Peter the Great so the Soviet takeover was simply from one Russian master to another with a lot more regulations and societal changes. There was only one remnant of the old Russian wood building technique that I have seen and it is now part of the park and used for park staff.
daily woodring 