18 May 2008 - Day Trip to Karaganda, Kazakhstan

We have been very busy this past week. Monday we picked up some documents for a project that had been approved by Moscow. We sent a wheelchair to Almaty and we got two packages from the Post Office, which is always a thrill!

Our big day was Tuesday. We left at 9:00 a.m., in a taxi, to Karaganda, which is south east from Astana and is about a 3 hour trip. Our Russian taxi driver, Sergai, was delightful and a very pleasant person. He took us where ever we needed to go and you can't believe some of the places we had to go!! We've seen mountain trails better than a couple of roads that we traveled on in Karaganda!!!

The drive down was very beautiful. We had to idea what to expect, never having been out of the city. There was still a little snow along the side of the road, in a place or two, but the farmers were out digging and planting. There were no mountains, just flat, beautiful country!! In the picture above, there were 4 tractors each pulling 4 six foot wide drills. When we passed by that evening they were still drilling the same field. The fields looked to be several thousand acres in size!!

On the way to Karaganda, we stopped in Osacaravka, where we had an appointment with some government officials and a lady who was the Director of the Handicapped Society. Osacaravka is a village with small homes and grass lined streets.

This is the old building where the government offices are located. Mira, Valentina who is the Director of Labor and Social Protection and Anne are in the picture. It is amazing to us the conditions many of these people work under!! They were very kind and thoughtful and fed us breakfast of fruit, juice, bread, cheese, salami and dried apricots and raisins. They were very interested in our religion and we briefly explained some of our beliefs. They would like us to help with some rehabilitation equipment for a room which they hope to get built by the end of the year. They want us to meet their families and fix us a home cooked meal next time we come!! We told them we would love to! They are wonderful people and we hope to be able to do something to help them in the future.

This is a picture of Temertau which means "Iron Mountain". This city is located between Osacaravka and Karaganda. It has many steel mills and an abundance of coal and iron.

Karaganda is the second largest city in the nation. It is much older and more run down. During the II World War, they housed many of the USSR's Japanese prisoners of war. Also many political prisoners of the Soviet Union were sent here in past years also.

This is the office building of the NGO, Alexander Ivkin, who received 500 wheelchairs back in February and we are here for the presentation of the clothing container that he just received from Salt Lake.

This is the room where all of the clothes were located. Much of the clothing has already been distributed to other villages outside of Karaganda. They have had over 100 people that they have given clothes to here in Karaganda.

This is Alexander Ivkin. He is a wonderful man and does so much for the handicapped people in Karaganda. This is one of the women that work for him. She told us that she was a Para-Olympic weight lifting champion. As you can see, the whole room is filled with clothes!

This lady is trying on one of the coats that was sent. We found out that she is a Para-Olympic champion in wheelchair racing.

This lady looks like she found the coat that just fits! These people were so grateful for the clothing that they received!

Anne found a jacket from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. We thought that was pretty cool!

After the presentation we were taken to a Handicapped Children's Hospital which was a very interesting. We saw children who had all kinds of physical handicaps. The facility was very clean and well staffed but lacked so much in the area of modern equipment and technology. Mira and I had a tough time!!

We went from there to a Handicapped Day Care Center for children from 3 years to 18 years old. It houses 75 children who come and go. It was very, very nice and one of the best well kept buildings that we have seen. Tatayana, who is the director, is an advocate for the rights of handicapped in Karaganda. She works closely with Alexander. She would like us to help with rehabilitation equipment for the hospital in the future. Both the hospital and the day care center received wheelchairs from the project in February as well as the village, Osacaravka, who received 35 of them.

It was 9:00 in the evening when we returned home. It was a long day but a wonderful day.

Spring has sprung in Astana!! This was taken in the park the day after we got back from Karaganda.

We also found out that another one of our projects has been approved and we spent the rest of the week working on invoices for it. It's been a great week and we are very busy.

As a side note, we still haven't got the NRT equipment through customs and it has been nearly 6 weeks. But the letter has been received from the Director of the Ministry of Health so we should be able to get it some time this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks again for your love and support and prayers in our behalf. There is never a time when we don't feel them!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling