Journey to Ekibastuz

Today we had the great opportunity to visit D’s motherland – Ekibastuz (Or how the local teenagers call it – Eki-‘Boston’).


Ekibastuz is about 150km from Pavlodar, and a very bumpy ride. It seemed as we made great time, passing slower vehicles on the left and occasionally dodging some local wildlife. Along the way, we passed a large Kazakh cemetery with large buildings, stone works and fenced off burial sites; pretty impressive. Just before entering town, we passed an extremely large coal mine worksite (thought it was a plateau from a distance). In fact, the city sign for Ekibastuz is a large mining wheel with a golden star in the middle.

Once in town, we went to visit the orphanage which housed children from 7 to 18 years of age. The setting was very well taken care of, arranged in sort of a dormitory fashion, and the staff very friendly.

Flowering trees lined the sides of the main street and tulip-shaped lights were suspended from street-lights; a nice look to it. Our first stop was the old maternity hospital where D was born. Initially we thought it was this large, blue and yellow-painted building, but after parking around the side learned it was just the small section attached. Perhaps 50 ft wide and 3 stories tall, it was one of the oldest buildings in the town.

We took some pictures of the Roman Orthodox Church and Mosque before heading back to pick up our travel-mates from the orphanage. We stopped for lunch at a favorite restaurant where we enjoyed some Borsch, various chicken and beef dishes and finished up with some Tea with milk (prepared in a Kazakh fashion). Our trip back was equally eventful. We even passed through what I called a “Texas Twister” that blew a few tumbleweeds and pushed our van sideways!!

All in all, it was a nice visit to D’s birthplace and a great chance to see some of the country. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and we have lots of pictures to share with D.

Today we should receive a court date (hopefully before our visas expire!) and look forward to visiting our son again tomorrow morning!

Da Zavtra! (until tomorrow!)

Kazakh Cemetary

Russian Orthodox Church

D's Maternity Hospital

Ekibastuz City Sign - Us with Marie Chan and Svetlana