Momumental Moments in Astana, Kazakhstan - 31 August 2008

This last week Mira, our translator, left for Turkey for two weeks vacation. So rather than sit around and do nothing we thought we would make this week monumental. Here is our first monument! It's a new one that was built for the big celebration in July for Astana's birthday. Notice the Kazakh woman with the snow panthers standing on the front of this large bull. This is one of the largest monuments we have seen here in Astana.

This is the Tree of Life fountain in the "New Square", which is a park we walk through weekly. It is on our way to the Akimat (government building) and to the post office.

This picture is a monument of Abai Kunanbayev, a Kazakh poet. They name their streets after these famous individuals so his monument is on Abai Street.

This monument is "The Friendship of the Nations" and it symbolizes the peace and harmony and interconnection of the nations.There are three of these huge matching fountains added to the square where the Youth Center is located.

At the Youth Center on Thursday we attended a "Day of Knowledge" celebration put on for the handicapped children. Here, one of our NGO's, Elena, of the horse therapy project, along with the Nur Otan officials (ruling party of Kazakhstan) is encouraging the children to learn and gain knowledge.

This is one of the little girls getting her new backpack full of school supplies which was donated by the Nur Otan Party.This young man is speaking to the group about learning. He has a condition that doesn't allow his body to grow or to support his own weight.

This little girl is showing us her new backpack that she received.These little girls are now ready for school!! From what we understand, handicapped children are not mainstreamed into the regular classroom. In fact, it's only been in the last few years that they have been allowed in school but seperated from the other children. They were previously taught in other facilities by NGO's and concerned parents. This country is making headway toward acceptance of the handicapped in their society.

Also this week we received approval on a project we are doing in Pavlodar for the handicapped society there. We also received shipping documents from Salt Lake for the clothing containers and we now have those translated and are getting customs approval on the documents.

As we were leaving our apartment building this week, a young lady stopped us and tried to talk to us. After we called our substitute translator, Zarina, to find out what she wanted, we found out that she had seen us on TV and knew that we lived here in this building!! We were surprised that we were even on TV and don't know when or where it was!!

We have another week without Mira, but we are getting ready for my sister, Nancy, and our cousin, Kathy, to visit us on the 8th of September. We can hardly wait!!

This has been our attire around the apartment while Mira has been gone! We want to thank our children and grandchildren for these wonderful shirts that they signed at our family reunion. And every time we wear them we think of each of them!!

We are very blessed to have this opportunity to serve the Lord. Our testimonies have grown in so many ways. We realize that He is in charge and we are on His timetable. We are thankful to be a part of His work here in Kazakhstan.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling