Our Heritage Site

Our big adventure in Kazakhstan has come to an end.  We returned to Bakersfield with Chevron, where Jim is back in Environmental law. ...

On Sunday, May 26, 2024, we were invited to attend the First Communion of several of the children in our neighborhood. We have been to...

May 18 - We discovered the local basketball team, Barsy, here in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. They played the Almaty team, Irbis, in the country's...

Jim's job requires us to take two R & R vacations each year, so in April, we went to sunny, warm (hot!) Dubai. It was our first time in...

FLOOD UPDATE: High water but no flood yet! Picture below. Rhonda has been volunteering on Thursday afternoons with the students at...

In March (before the last post about the impending flood), we decided to visit a new continent, Africa, and headed off to Egypt for a...

It was a big snow year in the Ural Mountains in Russia. There was so much water that on April 6, 2024, a dam in Russia broke causing...

Two children of our local Kazakhstani friends stayed with us while their parents were in the US. They got to experience American...

Almaty is Kazakhstan's largest city, and it reminds one of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is close to the mountains, and the country's...

Jim had a conference in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. It was a small village before the first president moved the entire...

We learned a few weeks ago that Jim's brother Kevin would be in Amsterdam in mid August. With direct flights from Atyrau to Amsterdam,...

You thought you got rid of us, but we were just on a long break visiting family in the United States. We were able to see most of our...

Kazakhstani people shared their rich nomadic culture during some corporate meetings in Atyrau and the largest city in Kazakhstan, Almaty....

We didn't go to Moscow, it just looks like it from the Kremlin picture. We are, however, learning Russian. Because of Soviet dominance...

Jim had business in London, so we stayed over two weekends and were joined by Michael and Camille. So many fun things to see and do that...

On Friday evening, we had the special privilege of being invited to a ceremony performed for Kazakhstani children who are just starting...

Well, actually, we already left and it was a midday flight! Our blog is late as we have been touring the country of Georgia all week. ...

Disney came to Atyrau in the form of the expat school in Dostyk Village performing Aladdin, Jr. on Saturday afternoon. The school covers...

This week we went out to dinner with our Atyrau friends Jon and Anne. The have become good friends with two Fulbright students – Alyssa...

The loss of a loved one in Kazakhstan is recognized in three ceremonies: at 7 days, at 40 days, and at one year. On Saturday, we...