Mahana's Birthday

Happy Birthday to our sweet daughter, Mahana. She has been the joy of our lives for over 30 years (calm down Mahana, I'm counting the pregnancy too). The highlight of this week was being able to see her and the G'kids over the internet, talk to them, see them, and have them recognize us!!

We made two visits this week. We would have done more but Viviane has not felt well for a few days and we had a lot of paperwork and research to do for our first, from scratch, major initiative - more on that later. Our first visit was to School 65 (they number the schools rather than name them) which is a new school in a part of the city we had not been to before this visit. Your Humanitarian funds had donated 3 hair styling stations (chairs, sinks, mirrors, etc) for a vocational class for deaf students. The students, ages 16 & 17, attend the class twice a week for 2 hours. One hour of lecture and one hour of hands-on or observation of the actual techniques. They have a professional hair stylist, who volunteers his time, teach them and his lesson is translated to the kids by a sign language interpreter. The day we attended he was teaching them some of the chemistry for hair coloring. He wanted to do a demo and so they asked Viviane if she would like her hair colored since she had never had it done before and her hair is relatively short so it would be easier to do. But, alas, they did not have the correct color for just 'taking out the gray' so she didn't get it done.

Our second visit was to one of our NGOs (Non-Government Organization) to give them the bad news that we would not do the 2 projects that they had requested. We felt that the projects did not adequately meet the criteria set by the Church so we had a long discussion with them to try to help them understand and for us to understand better the needs of those they are trying to help. It was quite clear that they have big hearts but not much experience in strategizing, planing, or executing a project. We reviewed with them the outcomes of some previous projects from 2009 and we discovered together that the projects were great ideas that failed due to lack of follow through. We agreed that I would put together a template for them to use to 'flesh out' their ideas and see if they are really doable and sustainable. These folks are so nice to us and I hope we can help them become a stronger organization so that their impact on those they are trying to help is magnified. They always give us food while we visit with them. Here are some of the goodies they fed us (Mahana asked for pictures of the food).This first one is jelly filled but not too sweet. The second is very different than anything we have had before. The filling had a slight lemon flavor but the texture was like eating very small, soft granules that were somewhat dry to the taste. Very difficult to explain! They told us it is made from sour milk that is curdled and then cooked and strained until it is the consistency we tasted. My description does not do it justice. It was excellent and, they said, very healthy with lots of calcium.

The third dessert was small fried pastry pieces that they then drizzled with a light honey and some cinnamon. Very tasty and very sticky! We topped it all off with some apple juice and a chocolate candy.

We spent two full days working on the wheelchair major initiative. Our hope is to have two of these completed before the end of the year. The first one will be here in Astana where we are planing to have 500 wheelchairs and some walkers donated from the Church for handicapped children. There is a lot of paperwork, coordination with Church Headquarters and the local NGO, and of course the ever present government bureaucracy. We still have lots of questions and so will be Skypeing with a specialist in Salt Lake City next week. We also have to get some of the agreements translated into Russian and then accepted by the lawyers. Needless to say, we will be very busy with this project - it is very exciting for us. We have visited these children and know/feel their needs.

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.” Walter Winchell

Today it is Spring!! The weather has finally warmed (although I keep looking ahead to see if snow is predicted) and so we went for an extra long walk. We went down by the river - which is still frozen solid - to a pedestrian bridge that leads to an amusement park. This is a picture of the bridge. Some folks were ice fishing under it and I looked to see if it was Neil and Machelle but once I saw the size of the fish I knew Machelle would not be involved!
Since it is still only one or two days into Spring, there was not much open in the park - a few rides and a little passenger train. We did have lots of company though! It is not like amusement parks it the States where you mortgage your house to get the family in and then still pay more for food. This is a free park and you only pay for the rides etc that you want - like the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We walked for 3.5 hours enjoying the families and the beautiful day. Here are some pictures of the city.








For Alex and Kohi from our walk in the park ....