Our Thanksgiving feast ...

We have finally moved forward on our wheelchair project. Waiting for approvals is, for us, the hardest part of any project … well maybe the second hardest. The hardest would be getting all the documents correct and turned in. The preshipment orders for the wheelchairs has been placed but apparently we have to wait for some preapproval from the Kazakh government before the final order is placed with the wheelchair company. We expect that the wheelchairs will finally show up here around May.

We are also working on a project to buy winter coats and boots for poor handicapped children in the city. It was approved last week and we were very excited … only to get a phone call from Moscow telling us to wait another week because they want someone else to review the project. We were very frustrated but will be obedient and wait. We hope to buy coats and boots for 50 children.

We have had some fun with Alina and her family. Her brother, Aidar, is 6 years old and while the ladies are in the kitchen doing stuff or out shopping, I get to play with him. Reminds me of playing with – Alex, Kohi, and Leila - my G’kids back in Alaska. We have a lot of fun and he wears me out. Alina’s mom taught Viviane how to make their version of crepe and they made a lot for our Church Thanksgiving lunch.

After our meeting (we averaged 22.1 attendees for the month – up 2 from last month) on Sunday we gathered everyone together and had a luncheon in celebration of Thanksgiving. The Elders made salad, soup, and chocolate mousse and purchased bread, juice, etc. We made crepe and supplied sausage and some raisin and apple stuffed breads. We sat everyone in a circle and the Elders served them. We then took some time for people to express what they were grateful for - a couple of the Kazakhs decided to say a prayer to express what they were grateful for and that was nice.

I am pointing at the crepe - they were so good. Saule cooks them with sour cream in the batter!

Odds and Ends –

Viviane was on Kazakh national TV this week. Although she did not get a speaking roll they had a full face shot of her smiling. It was in a documentary about services for handicapped children.

We try to taste new foods when we can and so we bought some new looking bread – turned out to be tomato bread and it was very good.

Alina's mom made us some borsch - a Russian soup - and it was very tasty.

Here is a picture of the home made pickles that we bought. Soooo good!