Making Wonderful Friends in Astana, Kazakhstan - 24 May 2009

This past year and a half we have spent time going to the Kazakh University of Humanities and Law to meet with the translators there and talk English with them. We have enjoyed the young ladies and have become very good friends to some of them.

Saturday we had a dinner for a few of the young ladies that we met in the first class when we first came to Kazakhstan. We wanted to get together with them and find out what they have been doing since they graduated.

Zarina, on the far left, has been our substitute translator. She has been wonderful to fill in when Mira has been gone. She is very special to us and we have grown to love her. Bilimzhan and Zhanara are two of her classmates and they are wonderful young ladies, too. They have all been to the United States on the Work and Travel program that is offered here. We enjoyed meeting with them the first winter we were here in Kazakhstan. Mira, our translator, actually helped us get into the university to meet with them each week.

Mira, Bilimzhan, Anne, Zarina and Zhanara. Bilimzhan and Zarina are both trying to go to the United States to further their education. We had a wonderful time visiting over dinner. We told them that if they ever get west of the Mississippi, to let us know!! It was hard to say goodbye to them!! We will never forget what special young ladies they are!This is the Russian group of translators that we have been spending time with. Back: Oksana, Anne, Allema, Lena and Azhar, teacher. Front: Dina, Kundous and Christina.

Roy and Anne with the Russian group of translators. When we say Russian, we mean that they went to Russian speaking schools. We loved the young ladies and got to know them quite well!!

These are the Kazak group of translators. Dinara, next to Roy, speaks very good English and dreams of going to the US. Sultanat is next to her and is one of the few practicing Muslims that we saw at the university. Bizhan, next to Anne, is from a family of 10 children. The other girls in the class are Gani, Nurgul, Zarina, Kama, Ulzhan, Bota, Aidana, and Kunnur. (Some of the students were absent.) The last day we attended the class, they gave us these cute Kazakh caps!!

These are the 4th year translators who are graduating this summer. These young ladies were a fun group to be with. They are Zamira, Diana, Zhuldys, Azel and Saina.

Markhabbat, Zhupar (teacher), Diana and Azel

Zhupar, the teacher of the 4th year students, became a real friend to us. She is a very dedicated teacher and appreciated us coming each week to her class.

It was hard to say goodbye to all of the students that we have gotten to know. What a blessing it has been for us to learn about each of them and their culture here in Kazakhstan!! They are special to us and we will never forget them!

We had Spring a couple of days this week and we were able to take a picture of all of the beautiful apple trees in bloom!! They are everywhere here in Kazakhstan!

When we woke up this morning, we had snow on the roof tops!! This has been a very long winter!!

We are still working on getting the NRT equipment through customs. If we can't get the necessary documents this week, they may have to send the shipment back, which would be devastating to the training that we have set up for July!! We just need to have faith that it will happen!!

Our time is getting close and we know that it will be hard to leave these wonderful people. We are working hard to get everything done!! We have truly loved this experience!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling