Atyrau Blog - "We're leaving, on that midnight train to Georgia..."

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. We like Georgia, a lot. You see the first picture we took of the Holy Trinity Cathedral overlooking the town. And on the first full day there, we made many new friends as we went to church services and had dinner with senior humanitarian missionaries and others from the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For Jim, attending the small branch brought so many memories of how the church was in Italy 40 years ago. Yes, 40! More to come on Georgia next week....

Before we left for Georgia, we celebrated Defenders of the Fatherland Day in Kazakhstan, which is analogous to Veterans Day in the US. A couple of days later was Victory Day, remembering the victory of the allies in the Great Patriotic War as it is know in Eastern Europe and Russia. We would call it Victory in Europe, the day Germany surrendered in World War II.

Defenders Day has become celebrated as Men's Day in Kazakhstan, mirroring International Women's Day in March. (They don't really celebrate Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day in KZ, so Women's and Men's day are kind of the equivalent.) The "ladies" in the Legal Department prepared a nice celebration with a Jeopardy-type game, a fine meal, and a slide presentation. It was very fun!

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tblisi, Georgia

Rhonda and her new friend Sister Rachael Perry, who with her husband is

a Humanitarian Missionary in Georgia.

Fierce but friendly competition among the men as they answered the difficult questions

in the Jeopardy game. The best category was questions from the ladies,

which were the trickiest! Note the camouflage balloons for Defenders' Day.