We have decided to extend our mission for another six months - mostly because the Astana winter weather has been an exhilarating experience. This decision was made on April 1st.
The Easter Bunnies and their eggs are here in Astana. We were a little surprised to see displays of egg coloring kits and other accessories - like hundreds of different kinds of Kinder Eggs. Of course, Russian Orthodox Easter is in two weeks, so there may be more things available like chocolate bunnies and baskets and what not. We're told that there is a special-once a year kind of cake - that is called Russian Easter Cake. A few people from English Club ask us if we "do" the cake too....ahhhh, no, we do hard boiled eggs and chocolate, go to church, and then have a yummy dinner when we reflect upon the atonement and resurrection of Jesus. That being said, we are going to buy this amazing cake when they show up at Anvar (our grocery store).
This is the packet Dad chose for our eggs.
and here he is decorating the eggs....I was cutting up meat for our "crock pot beef and broccoli''
Dad liked this picture of the light bulb display at Anvar.
Last week we had a funny experience. We know two Sabinas - one from the place where we visited in the summer where there is a residential home for young adults (they were the ones growing quail for their eggs and then when the hens stopped producing eggs....they.... I can't say it the words...it's Easter..) And the other Sabina is the one with the NGO where she wants kitchen equipment and a few sewing machines so they can help the teenagers learn some real life skills, and she also does the Saturday morning get together where the teenagers learn positive behavior in a social environment. Anyway, I suggested that our Sisters call Sabina (of course I meant Sabina from Sunny World) and ask if there is anyway way the young volunteers could help out at one of the Saturday activities. You can already guess what happened, can't you? The Sisters called the wrong Sabina, who didn't really understand why we wanted to help (as there was nothing for us to do to help her), but she was really gracious and invited us to come and said that she would take us to their new facility that is outside of the city limits. This was all being set up while we were in Russia last week.
I finally figured out what had happened when the address where we were going to didn't match up with the Sunny World address. Anyway, we had a great experience. This NGO has had a residential home for several years - it was an old and dilapidated and small place. Someone, maybe the government, funded them so they could acquire their new place. We had do drive about 30 minutes out of town.
to this subdivision
and this house.
Yep - same young adults and the same energetic choir director.
Oh no!!! There was dancing too. We were standing in a circle (a circle of friendship, of course) and the music started and we all danced - well Dad did NOT. I did and pretended it was very natural
This is the kitchen
And one of the bedrooms
Do you remember my showing the picture where the manhole cover had been ripped off by a big front loader. Here it is again with some sort of gate across the top.
Here is a team working on a manhole. I saw it first when the men were putting a hose down in the hole. Then they did some work. But when trying to pull the hose - or whatever -out, it became apparent that it was stuck. Pretty soon the truck went forward and pulled on the hose, then into reverse, and then forward, and eventually the hose snapped off and was dragging behind the truck. In a little bit, an SUV showed up with a supervisor who was not happy. A guy put on a jump suit and went down. It was quite fun. Eventually the truck did drive away with all of the men inside.
On Friday, it snowed again - big beautiful fluffy flakes. I honestly think it will be the last snow of the season. The high temperatures for this week, on Thursday and Friday are forecast to be 47 degrees F.
This may be my last posting of me in by big coat standing in snow.
By Saturday and then Sunday most of the snow had melted, causing big puddles on the sidewalk that freeze at night and are treacherous in the morning. Here is our walk to church this morning. This is on the sidewalk of a main street - like 82nd or McLaughlin. All that you see is ice...not liquid
Here we are walking on the little sidewalk by the edge of the road because we didn't want to dare the ice on the wide sidewalk.
We had Easter Sunday Dinner at our apartment with the YVs. Dad hid all of our dyed eggs and, also, a Kinder Egg for each YV. We also asked Magi to join us - she is a Young Single Adult member of the branch. We didn't have any baskets, so cereal bowls substituted.
What a great bunch of missionaries!
Then they all played UNO and other games.
We watched a video called Easter Dream. It was produced by the church in the 90's and, apparently, was the first time the church had ever presented, in video form, the crucifixion of the Savior. Here is a link to the video. It is only 22 minutes long - I liked it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w28hio62bzo
Some bits of news from this week - our project with Sunny World was approved! So we will be moving forward with that. And - we have another meeting this coming week with WAQYP to discuss how they want to order the different sizes of chairs in each of the different styles - about 300 wheelchairs - yes, I pretty firmly believe that we're going to have a wheelchair project.
We finally got our second passport with a new current Kazakh visa which is good until September 15th - so that is very close to when we'll be returning home.
From the Fringe..........................in Astana
We are not extending our mission - that was our April Fool joke.
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