Central Eurasian Mission - Week 52 - March 12 -18, 2018

All but two of the Kazakhstan missionaries.



Our weeks often pass in either a rather slow manner or in a chaotic manner.  This last week was a combination ....of waiting (impatiently) for things to happen, and then for everything happening at once.

This was the week for the Wheelchair Specialists, Rick and Cyndy Johnson from St George, Utah, to come for our meeting with WAQYP, the governmental charity, which was given the assignment by the Minister of Religion, to contact and negotiate with LDS Charities for the purpose of receiving wheelchairs.  At our initial meeting with WAQYP last December, they kinda said, "these towns have people who need wheelchairs and we need this many for each town, and so we'd like 250 wheelchairs, please."  We explained that the program doesn't exactly work that way - we simply do not give wheelchairs to people or groups or governments, unless there is a training and evaluation process included in the project.  We told them, we'd go back to our "people" and  report.  In a subsequent email they asked if they could start with 50 chairs in January.........ahhh no.  The next step was to set up a meeting with WAQYP and the Johnsons for when they (the Johnsons) were planning to be in Astana (as a side trip after a wheelchair project in Kyrghystan).  That meeting was this week, on March 16th - a date forever ingrained in our memory.

The Johnsons asked us to find out which governmental agency in Kazashstan is responsible for distributing wheelchairs.......it is the Minister of Social Care and Labor.  Also, the Johnsons said that at an upcoming WHO conference, which will be held in a "Stan" country, there will be a vote of member countries participating in a big "People with Disabilities" conference.  A positive result of the vote wold require that the Ministers of Health in participating countries be the agency to distribute wheelchairs.  The Johnsons requested that we ask these ministers to be at the meeting......and also the Minister of Religion who is the minister that assigned the acquisition of wheelchairs to WAQYP.  The Minister of Religion is also the man who met with President Nelson last November - - it was at this meeting that the newspapers "reported" that President Nelson had offered to donate 250 wheelchairs to Kaz.  Not exactly what happened....but that is water from a creek under the footpath.

So - - we managed to determine who all these people were, and to work with our translator to get a letter written to WAQYP requesting the attendance of these ministers at our meeting.  Rick's position was that, he was only going to be here once, and he (we) needed to talk to the upper eschelon people who would eventually be the ones to say "yes" or 'No".

So, then we got a letter from WAQYP saying they need an "official letter" from LDS Charities requesting this meeting.  I guess, that not just anyone, including a private American citizen, can request a meeting with a Minister.  We got that letter, eventually, from the Johnsons and sent it to WAQYP. We requested to meet with them at 10:00 am as we had another meeting at 2:00 pm with another wheelchair partner.  WAQYP said, "okay" but neither the time or place was "confirmed".

So here we were....Thursday night the 15th,....our translator contacted us to say that we can not meet with the ministers at 10:00....maybe at 4:00.  Is this a political ploy?  I called the translator at 8:00 am on Friday to see if she had heard of anything and she said she'd call at 9:00.  At 9:00 she said WAQYP would let us know at 11:00.  At 11:00, they called and said the Ministers would meet with us at 6:00 (yep, on a Friday night).  So we were set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first activity was to meet with the Johnsons for lunch and head to our 2:00 meeting with the wheelchair repair group who we have partnered with previously.  Lagman for the Johnsons and Kazan Kebab for us.



Then to the Center for Independent Living.  These guys want to be involved in this project because they are all, almost, wheelchair users.  They want to become "trained" and received an "official" document showing that they are qualified to fit wheelchairs.  Here we are in our discussion telling them what was happening and helping them understand what their potential role might be.



And Rick is explaining stuff and "trying" out the type of wheelchair that is currently donated by the government to disabled people.







Approaching 6:00 pm we headed for the Ministry Building.  It is a fancy looking building, but pretty much a glitzy facade.  We had to go through intense security to get into the building.  And then upstairs to a big room with a large oblong meeting table - think of the big table in the High Council Room.







We sat around the table and talked for about an hour and a half.  Really, just telling them what LDS Charities does and what, as partners, we'd expect them to do.  They pretty much agreed to everything and said that they could do everything, and that they'd be happy to do everything, and that everything would be successful.  They did ask for a detailed list of expectations.  And we left saying we'd send them more information.

We left EXHAUSTED and hungry.  Went to a restaurant for dinner and then home to crash.



The next day we planned to go to a concert that turned out to be a countrywide talent show that involved all sorts of disabled groups.  We saw people from the Society for the Blind and from our Wheelchair Group.  It was interesting.



Lots of groups  singing, dancing, you name it.  This was a rhythm group and the two guys on the end had washboards.



This is a big event hall and this is the lift for wheelchairs.







This is the handicapped entrance to the women's bathroom.  You can see that the bottom of the ramp is directly in front or the door jam.  There's not much room to maneuver.





The bathroom (sink room) was really big.



I wondered what the handicapped stall was like.  The partition between two stalls had been removed and also the door to one of the stalls.



Here is the lobby- really spacious



This is an interesting feature of all big places where there will be a lot of people.  There is a coat check for all the big bulky winter coats.   Really a handy feature because the people and all of the coats won't fit in the seating area.





For me, the best thing was a Honey Fair going on in the lobby.  It was amazing!  In the US I've seen honey in stores and maybe in the back of a van parked alongside the road....or maybe some "gift type" jars of honey at a visitor's center or something.  But here there were tubs and tubs of honey.






There was this big sign advertising the fair and saying it you bought a kilo of honey, you'd get a free gift.  Free Gift!!!!

Here the lady is scooping up one of my four choices of honey.



And the next day for breakfast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Here are some random photos with no particular story attached.

The Sisters are getting a "gypsy" cab.  This is an independent person driving a car and picking up random people along the curb.  It is fast, cuz you don't have to call and wait for one and it's a lot cheaper.  Just this weekend, President Davis got an alert from a US Embassy somewhere which said Gypsy Cabs are dangerous, so the YV can't do it anymore.  We have done this only when we know exactly where we are going and how much it should cost---since you have to give the address and "offer" a price.



We all went to Mega Silkway (a humongous mall) for lunch before going to the site of EXPO 2017.



Officially, it is spring....see the sign in the mall.



Our destination is EXPO and the "Death Star" - which was the Kazakh exhibit at Expo 2017.  It is supposed to be a museum now.  We're leaving Mega Silkway mall





We did go in, but it is just the same stuff that was there during Expo.  So, it is a great place to go to simply experience the architecture of the globe and if you haven't seen it before.



When the Johnsons came, they brought us some baking powder and some popcorn.  Simple pleasures!



Just walking along on the sidewalk, we saw our first school bus.



We got our first package in Astana.  The postal system does work!!!!!



And opening the package!!!!! It was a part for his CPAP machine.



This is an interesting way of piling snow that has been scraped off of a sidewalk.  The snow is piled up around the base of a tree.



Women's fur coats are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!  There are many women wearing them.  Mostly older women.  They're expensive and passed down from person to person.  It seems so odd to get on a bus and you can see ten women in mink coats.  I've tried to take pictures, but black mink coats don't show up well.  But this one did, and it was a beauty.



Here is an interesting way to scoop up snow from the gutter.  It is a conveyor belt on a tractor.  I thought this kind of equipment was it unique until Elder Crawford said these exist in Rexburg, Idaho.





On the buses there are are conductors who contact everyone who gets on the bus and sells them a ticket.  We'd heard that occasionally, a "checker" gets on the bus and checks to see if everyone has a ticket.  The girl standing next to us was "checked".  She was holding a ticket in her hand and showed it to him.  But..........it had the wrong date.  She checked her other pocket, but."it's gone."  She checked everywhere, but no ticket.  So, the guy sold her a ticket, and she had to get off.



Here is the store to buy nice quality modest clothing suitable for any nice Mormon girl.  (just kidding)



Coming home one icy sidewalk day, we saw this guy spreading sand on the sidewalk. - - by hand (or shovel) from his wheelbarrow.



Here is the view from our window in Almaty where we have gone for Zone Conference.



Can you believe it, a year ago tomorrow, we entered the MTC? Our visa in Kazakhstan is good for one year and it expires this next Saturday.  So we have to leave he country. and come back into the country on a 30-day Tourist Visa.  Then we will have to leave again in 30 days. We are going to Yekaterinburg, Russia.  Leaving on Thursday and returning Sunday night - another adventure.