Thursday, September 25, 2003
Welcome to Akkol
Thought we would take you to AkKol today.....
To our understanding, Astana and Almaty are the two "cities" of Kazakhstan, and the rest of the Kaz population lives in "villages" scattered through this huge country. AkKol is one of these villages, not nearly as remote as the rest in that it is merely 1 1/2+ hours from the big city of Astana. It is where we travel to everyday to visit Tommy at the orphanage.
This is AkKol ............
The "shopping center" and hub of the village. This building holds four little stores. Across the street is another building with a "bazaar" type set-up of various vendors anything from ice cream bars to pencils to you name it...but mostly clothes.
Inside one of the little stores. We bought an ice cream bar to earn this photo. :)
This is the open air market on the sidewalk next to the "shopping center".
The typical houses that line the streets of AkKol.
More typical houses of the village.......
More typical houses ......with the typical piles of hay.......
I believe that these are some of the typical cows that eat the typical piles of hay. Just about everyday we saw them tethered to the post here to graze. No, this isn't a field...it's the intersection.
The typical babushka (grandma) walking the roads of AkKol. They all seem to be pulling a little wagon with a jug of something ...milk?....water?.....
A typical side street in AkKol. There is one main street that runs through the village with side streets connected to it. Look closely.....see the uneven surface of the road? Quite a bumpy ride.
When the cars are not swerving to miss the holes in the road, they are swerving to miss the geese or ducks or chickens.
Or, as Feedja our driver calls them...."zuppe" (soup!)
I call this "the ancient ruins of AkKol". Our interpreter told us that it is actually a building that was never completed. They stopped working on it about 10+ years ago. You can still see the pallets of bricks waiting to be used. Hmmm....maybe I could take those home for my garden walkway.......
The gas station on the way out of AkKol.
It was a fun adventure taking these photos. We would yell "stop!", jump out of the car, take some shots, and jump back in again with our driver speeding off (he always drives that way). I felt like a photojournalist for National Geographic.....what a thrill. I'm sure our driver thought we were crazy Americans...wondering why we would want pictures of ruins, gas stations, soup....!?! Do you think we're crazy?
To our understanding, Astana and Almaty are the two "cities" of Kazakhstan, and the rest of the Kaz population lives in "villages" scattered through this huge country. AkKol is one of these villages, not nearly as remote as the rest in that it is merely 1 1/2+ hours from the big city of Astana. It is where we travel to everyday to visit Tommy at the orphanage.
This is AkKol ............
The "shopping center" and hub of the village. This building holds four little stores. Across the street is another building with a "bazaar" type set-up of various vendors anything from ice cream bars to pencils to you name it...but mostly clothes.
Inside one of the little stores. We bought an ice cream bar to earn this photo. :)
This is the open air market on the sidewalk next to the "shopping center".
The typical houses that line the streets of AkKol.
More typical houses of the village.......
More typical houses ......with the typical piles of hay.......
I believe that these are some of the typical cows that eat the typical piles of hay. Just about everyday we saw them tethered to the post here to graze. No, this isn't a field...it's the intersection.
The typical babushka (grandma) walking the roads of AkKol. They all seem to be pulling a little wagon with a jug of something ...milk?....water?.....
A typical side street in AkKol. There is one main street that runs through the village with side streets connected to it. Look closely.....see the uneven surface of the road? Quite a bumpy ride.
When the cars are not swerving to miss the holes in the road, they are swerving to miss the geese or ducks or chickens.
Or, as Feedja our driver calls them...."zuppe" (soup!)
I call this "the ancient ruins of AkKol". Our interpreter told us that it is actually a building that was never completed. They stopped working on it about 10+ years ago. You can still see the pallets of bricks waiting to be used. Hmmm....maybe I could take those home for my garden walkway.......
The gas station on the way out of AkKol.
It was a fun adventure taking these photos. We would yell "stop!", jump out of the car, take some shots, and jump back in again with our driver speeding off (he always drives that way). I felt like a photojournalist for National Geographic.....what a thrill. I'm sure our driver thought we were crazy Americans...wondering why we would want pictures of ruins, gas stations, soup....!?! Do you think we're crazy?
