14 January 2008 - Letter from Kazakhstan

The two pictures are of the "Baraholka" the huge bazaar that we bought our boots and hats in Almaty. It goes on for miles and miles!! It is incredible and there is no heat at all.
The pictures don't do it justice at all.!!

14 January 2008

Dear Family,

Monday, December 7, was the Russian Orthodox Christmas, a holiday. The only people who really celebrate it are Russians but everyone considers it a time to take off work. It is hard to get anything done from Dec 15 to January 7 because of all the holidays they have here.

Let me tell you a little about the country. If you get outside the city for a ways there is literally nothing as far as the eye can see. It looks like you are in a frozen wasteland. But in the middle of the city there are huge buildings and a lot of building going on. Everywhere you look there are building cranes that are even decorated with Christmas lights. The buildings are massive and they even have a huge Muslim mosque right in the middle of the city. We are anxious to get out and go walking so that we can see the sights but it is soooo cold that we just don’t dare.

Let me tell you about the cold!! I know that you’re sick of hearing about it but when we go out it literally takes out breath away. And then we start coughing until we get used to it. ( I mean if you CAN get used to it.) When we go out we really bundle up; thermals, tights (for me) scarves, boots, hats and gloves. And we wrap the scarves up around our face so our face is partially covered. We have fur-lined boots which really help and then, of course, our coat and we stay pretty warm except for our face. It is very difficult to stay out in it for any length of time; but these people are used to it and it doesn’t seem to bother them. Although last week, grades K-4 didn’t go to school for two days because it was below -25 degrees F. When it gets this cold, the moisture in the air crystallizes right out of a clear blue sky and falls to the ground. It’s amazing!!

The people seem to be very helpful and friendly. So far we haven’t had too many problems communicating. We do a lot of pointing with some Russian words involved and charades have come in handy. They really have been patient and understanding and they appreciate it when we try to speak some Russian. If we really need help we just ask young people if they speak English and many do speak some words.

Monday we studied projects and familiarized ourselves with the files. Tuesday, Mira came. She is our translator and we love her. She is about 4 ½ feet tall and weighs 88 lbs. And yes, size zero does exist in Kazakhstan because most of these people only eat two meals a day and they would rather look good than be full! We haven’t seen anyone overweight in this country!! Mira makes all our calls, translates the necessary forms into Russian for the Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) and helps us manage the paperwork and there is a lot of it.

Wednesday we visited Government offices that had to do with our registration. You have to register to live in any city and every time you move you have to register again. We have to take LDS church pamphlets into these offices every three months to let them know that we are still here. Mira goes with us and explains what we do and why we are here.

Thursday we spent the time here with Mira translating Non-Commercial Invoices to get ready for the wheelchairs that are coming to Astana, Karaganda and Kostanai They should be here some time the first week in February. That is pretty exciting for us.

Friday and Saturday we spent doing laundry and cleaning the apartment and cooking food and going through all the files, reports and projects to get our questions ready for the Browns that are coming from Moscow to train us. On Saturday, we met them at the airport and spent the evening with them here. What a wonderful couple they are!! They are the Area Welfare Directors stationed in Moscow. Saturday and Sunday they spent helping and training us. They were also able to go to church with us at the Wikles. It was nice having another couple with us for church!! They told us that President Paul of the Area Presidency is aware of where we are and he told them to take good care of us which they did!

Well, that’s about it for the week. We are doing good and we hope to get more pictures on the blog. We still do not have our laptop hooked up, which seems to be the trial of our life, but we are making headway.

We want to thank you all for the love and support and the prayers and all the help you have given us. We feel those prayers because things have started to look up. We know that our Heavenly Father loves us, He knows where we are and He is aware of what we are doing, even if we don’t.

Love,

Roy and Anne