A great week!

This week we took care of shutting down the other couple's apartment, visited two groups that have potential humanitarian projects for us to consider, and welcomed 2 young missionaries to the city.

The only thing I'll say about shutting down the other apartment is that it took Viviane and our interpreter, Zhanara, over 2 hours to pay some of the bills. They had to find where to pay and then stand in line to pay. All payments for utilities, building maintenance, domo phone (the phone outside the building that people use to call you to let them in the building), phone and internet are done in cash, in person, and at different places. Needless to say, we are glad our landlady takes care of the bills for us.



We have two interpreters - Mira and Zhanara. We mainly use Zhanara (below) since she is more available and she and Viviane have developed a nice relationship. She goes with us on our daily business while Mira (left) takes care of all the government paperwork - and there is a lot of it.

We visited Hospital #1 again, only this time it was in the Infectious Disease department where last year the Church had donated a defibrillator, a gynecologist chair/table, and some LED lights for the doctors to see what they are doing. The hospital is very old and a bit run down with poor ventilation and lighting. This week we discussed their needs for operating room equipment.

We also met with Aimon and her husband. They run a small charity for poor families that have more than 5 children or single parents or the kids are orphaned and living with grandparents. These are very humble folks with big hearts. They took us to their charity office and working rooms which are in the basement of an apartment building. I had to stoop down to walk around as the ceilings are only 6 foot ceilings and the pipes are lower than that.

We decided to go to the Chinese outdoor bazzar to find some less expensive items for our apartment. What an interesting place. The next time we go I'll take pictures! It is a huge maze of transport containers and other types of shacks that are turned into selling booths and storage. Everything from beautiful fur coats to toilets and tools. As with almost any bazaar you can try to bargain for a better price. Typically, per our experience so far, they give a better price for the second or more items. The people are very friendly and even though we had Zhanara with us, they tried their English on us so we tried our Russian on them - everyone we delt with was grinning by the end of the deal.

One never knows when you'll be running out of hot water since they seem to turn it off for the building at random times. Yesterday I had to very quickly rinse off or the rest of my shower would have been cold!

We are excited to have two young missionaries with us in the city. They arrived on Wed. evening from Almaty after a 20 hour train ride. I showed them to their apartment and then we had them to our place for dinner. One, Elder Geddes, is from Idaho and the other, Elder Khasbiullin, who is from western Russia and is of Tartar decent. Two great young men who are excited to be here to help these people.

If any of you would be interested in helping with either your time or money you can check out this web site http://lds.org/haiti-relief/relief/why_we_help.htm