Central Eurasian Mission - Week 42 - Jan 1-7, 2018


The New Year started out with a big bang......at about exactly 12:01AM fireworks started exploding outside our apartment.  At about 12:15 there was a big blast that caused me to levitate to a standing position.  I looked out the window, and yes, there were fireworks just exactly like the ones at home.  So I reinstalled my earplugs and went back to bed.  From what we'd been told, the fireworks were supposed to be crazy, but to me it all wasn't all that grand.  The YVs had to be in their apartments by 5PM for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day so as to avoid any encounters with drunk folks who'd been celebrating a bit too hard.

New Year's Day morning we got up late ---looked at each other and thought, where can we go for brunch?, which child can we visit this morning?, is there a parade on the tv? can we go to OMSI?,  maybe we can go on a nice hike to a frozen waterfall?, maybe watch the Rose Bowl!  So we decided to go just for lunch, and to make the day special, we wanted to go to some different Kazakh style cafe (no KFC, no McDs, no Hardies.)...something local.  I'd seen a cafe behind our apartment that said 'Lagman Center' - that is where we wanted (I wanted...Dad probably wanted KFC) to go.  We headed out, got to the cafe......no cars parked in front - bad sign, but the door was opened.  We went in and saw that all the chairs were upside down on the tables, and the the distinctive smell of Mr Clean was prevalent.  A lady came from the back and said, in perfect Russian, закрыто - yes, of course we're closed, it's a holiday!  So we continued walking our way around the block.

This one was closed.  On the sign it says Complex Lunch which means a business lunch or a lunch with a set menu.  And sushi and pizza, and beer.  Not for us and not today.



This cafe (we knew it was a cafe because we'd been there before) didn't even say closed, the door was just locked.



Dead end at the entrance to this doner place.



This place looked inviting - Good Mood Food with a "Generous Lunch" (Щедрый Обед) which is how they describe their menu of the day.  Closed!



This place was open - called GameBurger, because there are gambling machines inside. It was creepy.



We passed some happy people getting out of their car, and the guy came up to us (I think he was drunk) and wished us Happy New Year and a bunch of other stuff.  No - we didn't want congratulations - we wanted lunch, "Please ask us to lunch!"  But no.....we were back to our apartment building by now.  Should we try the shopping center which is thirty feet in front of our building?  We tried the door, and it, too, was locked.  At this point we had the option of trying KFC, but the thought of walking a mile on the icy sidewalks and finding it closed was too 'real',  and we bagged it.  We ended up eating boiled, frozen pelmini, slathered with sour cream.  That was it!  Next year it will be different.          The following day at English Club everyone was wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  We asked them what they had done and to a one, they all said, "Oh we had dinner with our family and celebrated.  What did you do?"  We said that we'd eaten frozen pelmini because all the cafes were ....ah..... closed......oh.......   When we return home, we will make an effort to invite others who are out of towners or have no family to join us in celebrations.

We started a new project this week.  The previous volunteers had left us a list of people to contact.  One of the names was Marina who is affiliated with a clinic that deals with blood cancer.  We called her in May, but she was gone until July; we called her in August and she was gone until November; so we called her in December and got a appointment in January.

This is where she works - the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic







Marina is a lovely 48-year old woman whose nineteen-year-old son died four years ago from a form of blood cancer.  Since her son's death, she has devoted herself to serving adults who have blood cancer.  She says that her son's dream was that she would be able to form a fund which would help adults.  For that reason, she formed a Private Fund which she named, Amiram, her son's name.

Marina says that it is relatively easy to find charitable help for children, but that there is little interest in helping adults.  Adults don't generally want to ask for help, but they need it.  Besides being sick, they have probably lost their job, have had to leave their family for treatment in the 'big' city; they are depressed; and they probably don't have much money.  Her main purpose is to support the patients emotionally, help them fund the surgery, and help them recover.

Recently the bone marrow transplant department moved to a unit in the clinic with more rooms and more ability to admit cancer patients.  The problem is that many of the rooms have no beds (read - no beds at all) and no window coverings, which poses a problem because most cancer treatments, including medications and radiation therapy, increase one's sensitivity to the sun.





Marina envisions a project with us that would request beds to furnish some rooms and also window curtains because of the direct sunlight.  We are hopeful that we can make this a viable project which will be approved!

MAYBE...MAYBE... we are actually going to have a wheelchair project   I've reported previously that we'd met with a government charity to discuss the possibility.  Then later we met with our wheelchair group to see if they were interested in being involved.  So, on Friday night we had a skype  meeting with Cyndy and Rick Johnson from St George, Utah.  They are the Church's wheelchair specialists.  In 2018 they are planning to manage 9 projects in Asia.  They will be coming to Astana in February to meet with our potential partners to further discuss the project.  The Church has very definite guidelines that mush be followed or there will be no cooperation on a project.  So, we'll see what happens in February.

On Saturday - Jan 6th - we had our Branch Christmas Party!  You might think that it is a little late for a Christmas party, but Jan 7th is Orthodox Christmas......besides, the Branch President was out of the country until Jan 5th.  It was a great party! There were about 50 people there (at least 30 were non members from English Club).  It was a pot luck dinner and a Talent Show.  The event had been publicized for about a month at English Club.  Food was plentiful and kinda yummy.

Here are photos of the performers.  I post them because Dad and I want to remember who they are.

This is Gengis.  He lived in Canada for a year going to school and now is back in Astana going to school..  He's pretty good on the piano and at the very end of the program, he stood us and suggested that everyone sing a Kazakh song.  So  everyone did - except the Americans.  I got the feeling it wsa like singing America the Beautiful or maybe, Oh, Shenandoah.





This is Sveda who works at the wheelchair place.  She is an artist who decorates pottery pieces and she play the keyboard when their choir sings (this was the group for whom we provided musical production equipment).



This is Elder Topham.  Last year he did not have a talent, but now he can juggle tennis balls!



This is Elder Crawford (Rexburg) and Sister Nelson (Connecticut) performing a primary song.

And here is Sister Nelson doing a solo version of Jessica's Theme



And then the Willardson daughters.  Polina on guitar playing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.



Veronika and twins Lexy and Sophia playing Yesterday by the Beatles.



And all of them playing and singing something in Russian (all four are bilingual!)



This is Aigerim; we call her Aika at English Club.  She speaks beautiful English and is a very cultured young Kazakh woman.  She recited a famous poem from memory.

This is Yerkin - he's our English Club friend who is a wholesale supplier of sunflower oil and he also owns at least two restaurants ( the Arizona restaurants).  He also frequently gives us rides home from English Club.



People lingered after the program and enjoyed one another's company.  I must admit that I was a little remorseful that we will not share another Christmas Talent Show with them.

We likely have the final photo of the ice slide - this time with a lot of color and a final icy landing.  This was today, on Sunday, and most of the riders seemed to be Dads riding down with there children.  And also, a few groups of daredevil boys who came down in flailing groups of arms and legs and squealing happily.





Sunday night dinner as usual with all of us.  We were going to have our Secret Santa Gift Exchange tonight, but not everyone had done the necessary shopping.  So next week we should be able to display our gifts.



And so another week ends..........