Central Eurasian Mission - Week 37 -  Nov 27 - Dec 3, 2017



It is true - Kinder Eggs are everywhere!!. Not just the run-of-the mill Easter Bunny size eggs, but  Family Size Eggs.  Good grief, you would have thought Dad was a teenager in Germany seeing his first Kinder Egg!.  The choice was hard - a bear or a snowman or a fox....a squirrel - yes, Dad got the squirrel.  At home he carefully documented the opening so it could be shared over the blog waves with you.

1615 tenge - about $4.85.  The Surprise Maxi





The magical yolk



Hatching the toy



What could it be?



A self propelled Olaf the Elf emerging from an igloo on a sled.  Gotta give it to the Germans!  Now, please don't tell us you can get these at Target or.....gasp...at.......Smiths!



Actually, we did a lot of work this week - visiting project partners to see how their projects were progressing.

The Inclusive Classroom for children with Autism and Downs Syndrome is at Nazarbayev  University.  It is a mere hour ride via a thirty cent bus ride or a $2.75 taxi ride.  But we had to go twice - in the morning and in the afternoon, so it pretty much took up the whole day.    It was satisfying seeing the kids who are enrolled.

This autistic boy had been 'kicked out' of his regular classroom for disruptive behavior when he was very young and has spent the rest of his nine-year old life at home - probably in front of the tv.  At first, in the Inclusive Classroom, he was a problem, but after three weeks, here he is studying English with one of the teachers.



This girl is from a disadvantaged home (think no money) and is quite smart.  Her mother, who wants her to be eligible for a top notch government school, was able to enroll her in this classroom and is now excelling.

 

This girl who has Downs Syndrome was told she was 'stupid' and would never learn anything.
With some modern technology, however, she is working on the English alphabet.  The little boy helping her had been labeled as depressed, lazy, and unteachable, but now, he is her 'helper buddy.'



And a shot of the classroom



There might be a lot of wiggling going on, but these kids now have a chance at an education.  We are convinced that this project will the foundation of education for children with all sorts of learning disabilities.

Remember the greenhouse - it was finished a year ago, but now with continued funding from the United Nations Development Fund, work has continued, and the inside is finished and a crop is growing.

Homes next door to the greenhouse.



The area next to the greenhouse which some day may be the site of a potato patch.





Now - a disclaimer.  This does not look like a commercial greenhouse in America, but they are beginners and on a steep learning curve.  We also think that their advisers (or masters) maybe are lacking in experience.

The water source.  A well was drilled through the concrete floor and provides water for these two big storage tanks.  Workers fill up bottles by hand and then water all of the plants by hand.

Here is the heat source - a manual feed, coal fired water heater which supplies hot water to pipes which encircle the greenhouse supplying hot water to radiators mounted on the walls.





There has to be someone on site at night to stoke the furnace, and we think this is where he stays.




They are growing carrots, cucumbers, but no tomatoes because tomatoes and cucumbers can't be grown together in a greenhouse.




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A big sign (with a couple of goofballs) on the end wall giving credit to the church, the United Nations Development Program, and the City Mayor



This says:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Missionary organization.



Here is the growing area



We visited the site of a potential project.  This NGO Partner is the one who has the Social Cafe which I wrote about back in Week 22.  So, this NGO knows how to make food and sell food and run a food operation.  Our partner was asking us if we'd like to go see where they make these small things and freeze them and people will like them.  Hmmmmm,  small frozen things.......what could they be.  "Sure", we said, "we'd love to see them", and we parked in front of this concrete block building.



Went inside - it is a pelmeni production center!

Just so you don't confuse things....pelmeni have meat inside (think pelmeati) and vareniki have veggis like potatoes -think (varveggies).  Don't worry about confusing them because, if you do, someone will politely explain the difference.



All these workers are deaf.





So far they only sell these to their families but they are getting the procedure developed and will expand to grocery stores as they increase production.  Dad asked how they will market the product - Instagram!  And we were shown the Instagram account where you can order and delivery will be free if you order $30.00 worth.  Really??  .... I didn't know that you could do anything on Instagram besides looking at cute photos of ones grandchildren.



All are hand crimped together - - I would go nuts doing this all day.



Pop them into a freezer and then into bags





This woman in the middle wanted to be in a picture with me.....she was so excited...I may be her first American.  The woman on the left is the Project manager, her name begins with a K, and I still can't pronounce it.



At the end of the day, the workers clean everything up, then start cooking the potatoes for the next day.  And, they grind their own beef and add onions and a 'special blend of spices'.\ which makes these pelmeni unique.

We were sent home with 5 bags of pelmeni (remember ....that means meati ones).  We were asked to give them feedback so they can have an unbiased review.  They were delicious - we are not biased!

The choir to whom we provided musical production equipment had their big concert at a shopping mall - this is like Clacakamas Town Center but bigger and fancier and wider and so forth.  It was an exciting concert because our four young volunteers were performing with the group. Two of them had translated for us when we went to see them rehearse.  AT the rehearsal the choir began singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas; we all started singing along, and suddenly the young ones were members of the choir.

Here's some of the equipment and note in later photos, the wireless microphones and the speakers.



It is hard to take photos of singers because you can't hear their music through your own eyes.  They also have wheelchair dancing which I thought would be kinda lame, but turns out it was really exotic and exciting to watch.










Here is a video link to the song the YVs sang. It is seven minutes long....yeah, that's long.  But at the end two American missionaries do a Russian Rap about how great it is "to LIVE"



I'll tell you about an experience we had with a forgetful woman and an honest taxi driver.  Previously I told you that the sister YVs moved to a different apartment because their landlady and next door neighbor seemed (from our point of view) to be unreasonable.  We'd made arrangements with the landlady to meet her at 4:00 pm at which time we would give her payment for the utilities.  We wanted to go by ourselves so that there would be less potential contention because we're older and don't speak much Russian, so how could we be contentious if we can't speak our feelings.  We took a taxi, used the key to get into the apartment, and waited.......for fifteen minutes -...no landlady.  We called the sisters who called the landlady's daughter (she speaks English) and said, "We're waiting...."  The daughter said her mom had forgotten and if we waited, she'd be there in 20 minutes.  I said....nope, nope, we are not waiting, we'll leave the money on the tv and leave the key with the neighbor."  This was kinda neat.  I hadn't expected this to happen ...I didn't have a dialogue prepared in my mind.  But there wasn't enough time to think or worry.  So we knocked on the door,and I just blurted in Russian that we were here and we had this key and please give it to the landlady.

We we felt pretty good until we walked out the door and were ready to enter the elevator  - -I suddenly realized that I didn't have my purse/bag - I must have left it in the taxi!!!  I was so mad at myself that I was figuratively knocking my head on the elevator doors. But...we had the taxi driver's phone number because we had ordered the taxi via the phone.  We called one of the YVs and asked him to call the driver and query him whether or not he had the bag.  We're waiting on the sidewalk, and it is about 15 degrees.  The YV calls us back, yes he has the bag.  After several phone calls we make arrangements to meet him at the shopping mall where the big concert was going to be.  Whew!! Now to get to the mall.  Dad calls for another taxi but his phone battery dies!  I don't have the taxi app on my phone (I do now, though).  And, since it is kinda hard to get a taxi without a phone, we walked for about thirty minutes to a bus stop where we got a bus that took about an hour to the get mall. Poor Dad was shivering with the cold. And we were hungry.  Finally got to the mall, listened to the choir, got my bag from the driver (everything was there including the equivalent of a $30.00 bill), and had a triple scoop cup of gelato for dinner.  I have since vowed that I will only carry a bag that has a strap over by shoulder and around my neck.

One of our friends has asked us to get him a Russian mink fut hat.  Yea!! Another shopping quest.  Dad tried on these - the first two pictures is a hat with mink fur on all surfaces ($234). In the second two photos only the flaps have fur ($150).  We will do some more shopping this next week.











Remember when I told you about going to visit the Blind Association - week 34.  Well, we took a taxi to get there.  When you order a Yandex taxi, you use our phone's cursor to mark where you want to be picked up and where you want to be dropped off.  Works perfectly, usually.......unless, like this time, when Dad put the cursor in front to the building which is in front of our apartment building.  There was a problem.  The taxi called us and said, "I'm here"  I said "We're here".  It was a lose-lose situation.  Right at this moment an nice woman walked by us, I touched her arm and asked her to talk to the taxi driver and help us sort this out.  She did and walked with us to the taxi.  Upon departing, we exchanged names and phone numbers.  She and her husband live in the next door apartment building. So.....last night we went out to dinner with them.  They both speak pretty good English and just might come to our English Club on Tuesday and Friday nights.

Speaking of English Club......Every time I usually talk with Ilya and others.  Illya is a real thinker and is interested in everything.  He often starts out by saying, 'Let's talk about the American colonies, or let's talk about American Indians, or "let's talk about Canada."  I am usually exhausted at the end of the 30 minutes conversation segment of English Club.  At the end of one evening, he said "Why do Americans smile all the time.   They smile when there is no reason to.  They smile in photographs, they are always smiling."  I was a bit bewildered.  He said, When Americans smile and there is no reason for them to be smiling, then we think they are crazy."  I thought and then said, "I think we smile because we are open, confident, free, independent, friendly, and not afraid."  He said, "yes I think so.  Here in Kazakhstan sometimes we are often afraid."

We had Sunday dinner with our Young Volunteers.  It's our Sunday Family Dinner.