Central Eurasian Mission - Week 26 - Sept 11-17, 2017

This was a busy Humanitarian week - we visited three partners or potential partners.

The first was with with the woman who wants to help recently released prisoners.  Her NGO is called the Public Foundation for Rehabilitation Technologies and Concepts.  Her first name (or eemya) is Oranbasar but people call her Orekee.  The name is difficult to pronounce.  When we left her last time her final words were something like "I will now figure out what kind of workshop I want to develop  what equipment I want to ask for".  She has decided!  She wants a woodworking shop and a shop for making work gloves.  Now her quest was to find a place to locate the shop, and we were invited to go along.  Once again, we had no idea of what was going to happen.

The first place we went was a private home which had a wall completely surrounding the property.  Now this type of wall is quite ordinary, and the result is that you can never see what is inside these mysterious shangri la domiciles.  The house/building was located in a boring area off of a main-ish like road.



But as we walked through the overgrown gate we entered into a lovely garden with raised vegetable beds and flowers and trees.  Dad and I looked at each other and the at our translator, and I said, "I want to live here!"







The guy who owned it showed us around.  We never found out who he was or what he does/did, but he might have been a former prisoner at one time, and he had a car and driver, and a security guy, and I think he also owns the second property that we looked at.....maybe it's best not to know what he does.

Here is Orekee (on the left) and one of her partner/founders who is a lawyer (I think).



The guy in the red t-shirt is the owner (I think).  He kept asking us to come inside for food.  Actually, I wanted to go inside  because I wanted to see what a place, with such a beautiful garden, would look like.  But, no, Orekee kept saying no, no, no time!



First we went into an area which seemed to be an old party room with mirrors on one end and lounging couches.  It was like a mini soviet / Russian museum.



On the walls were these old soviet banners.  Look at the old samovars on the sideboard.



I wanted this one so much!!!  It is the banner of the Young Pioneers - the soviet "youth group"  On the banner, inside the white star, is the motto which reads - "Always Prepared".  The yellow words say - "To fight for the cause, the Communist Party will be ready".

Oh, I SO wanted this banner but couldn't figure out how to get it without jeopardizing my temple recommend.



And a wall hanging with a collection of soviet era pins and the like.



More samovars on window sills - antiques at that.



There was a sauna



And there were two or three big rooms that were full of junk - all possible places for a workshop.



On the other side of the garden there was a big, long lean-to which could be a workshop too.



Next to this room there was yet another big room in which a - -like a small swimming pool -- had been partially built.  The owner assured us that it would have to be 'filled in'.  But it was too dark and the photos did not turn out.

Well that was definitely a fun experience - what would come  next on this cold rainy morning.  Yes, it was most of the main floor of an apartment building which had formerly been a supermarket.



I could tell it was a supermarket - well, because the word was on a sign on the front of the building, but the sure fire identity of the vacant location was revealed on the left over sign posted on an interior wall.  "We Love Low Prices - 5 Minute Mart"



Here are a couple of the rooms -perfect for workshops to help released prisoners get training and work experience so they can successfully re-enter society.





Now it was time to go back to the office of the NGO.  If you recall, this was the place I had to concentrate on breathing because the air was so foul.  I was worried.......especially because, now, I would have to ask 'where is the toilet located?"  Yes, as we entered and went down the stairs, the fragrance was still there.    And I was shown through heavy door and told to go to the room with the light.  There were cats down here too. Think ......movie set for a kidnap movie.  I took some pictures.







We then had a good 'ending' discussion and Orekee will get back to us.

The next day we went to see Murat at the Association for Young People with Disabilities.  We'd met him back in May but he'd been gone for the summer to another city working with blind people to learn how to do massage therapy.  He hasn't decided yet what sort of project to do and will get back to us.....maybe massage or mushrooms.

Then a day later we went to visit Marzhan at the kindergarten.  Originally she wanted innovative wooden educational toys. then she changed her request and now wants to open up a sewing shop so mothers of the children from the school can have a job.  We don't really think this particular project meets the criteria of a 'good' humanitarian project but we're going to submit it anyway, and let our basses in Moscow make the decision.

Food- - -
remember the mushrooms?  I made mushroom soup!  It was good.



And then we went to a little non decrepit restaurant on our way home from talking to Murat.  They offer a Complex Lunch, which is kinda weird....I need to ask at English Club why it is called this.  But I've also seen the words, 'Complex Lunch', next to 'Business Lunch'.  It is a set meal for lunch.  Turned out to be soup, plov (Central Eurasian rice dish) and compote (fruit drink made from dried fruit).  It was good!  Cost was about $3.50





Here's a bit of news.  President Russell M Nelson will be visiting countries in Central Asia and will be in Astana on Sunday October 15th.  We think he will be meeting with some government officials and then, on Sunday evening, will be presiding at a devotional at our small, uninteresting building that will be full of people with a lot of faith.   Pretty exciting.

 The first thing (not the first, really) we thought we needed to do was some landscape maintenance in the area right in front of the church.  There will likely be snow on the ground by then but just in case, we wanted to clean things up before our visitor comes.  We trimmed the tree on the steps,  pulled weeds, removed morning glory from the perimeter fence, and picked up many (very many) cigarette butts thrown out of the upstairs windows down onto our stairway and also into the grass.  Dad did most of this on Saturday night at a Branch Game Night.  One of the girls who comes to English Club most days helped Dad with the cleanup.



The End