Victory Day Celebration in Astana, Kazakhstan - 10 May 2009

Happy Mother's Day!!

We have become accustomed to dealing with customs here in Kazakhstan!! We found out that we haven't the right documents because the laws have changed, so we are trying to get the right ones supplied and a new letter written to the person in charge!! We (and Sveta and Mira) will be working on that this week! The shipment is in Almaty and we're trying to get all the documents in place so that we can get it through customs!! Wish us luck!!

Friday, Frank Tetrault invited us to go to the opera, Figaro, with him!! We found out that he and all of the other Air Astana pilots that are 60 years of age and over, are now terminated as of June 15 because of new Kazakh aviation restrictions! He was disappointed over that; so now he will be flying home a week after us. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to get to know him and his wife.

"Figaro" was great! The singing, the set and the costumes were unbelievable, as usual!!The guy who played "Figaro" is on the left. The opera was all in Russian, but we read the synopsis of the play before we went so we could figure out what was happening!!

On Saturday, May 9, was Victory Day which is celebrated as the end of the Great Patriotic War (World War II).

Raigul Dukenova, one of the NGO's that we have done a couple of projects for, invited us and she helped us get into the celebration. She is the lady behind the boy in front. Kulnazira and her granddaughter, Anne, Kamka and one of her office workers, Raigul and her two daughters, son and husband and Roy. We asked if we could have our picture taken with this representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. They said yes and so we did!! He didn't ask who we were but we wished we could have told him!!

These little ladies and gentlemen were waiting by the fence to get into the area closer to the monument. They are veterans of the war or their husbands were veterans of the war and many of the little "babushka's" wear their husbands medals. They were so sweet that we just had to have a picture taken with them.!!

While we were standing there they ushered these older people and the Russian Orthodox representative into the area closer to the monument. Because we were standing there, we walked in with them, even though we didn't look Kazakh at all!!

This is the monument where the celebration took place. There were thousands of people there. Soon there were black cars pulling up close to where we were standing.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, got out and walked in front of the crowd, which was about 50 yards away from us!! We couldn't believe how close we were to the President of Kazakhstan!! Here he is putting a large basket of flowers at the foot of the monument.

The military performed for the President.

Here is the President watching the military perform. We were so grateful that we ended up where we did because we got to see so much more that we did last year; we were behind the fence last year!!!After the President left and the crowd dispersed, we were in the area where we could have our picture taken at the foot of the memorial with the basket of roses. One of Kamka's voulenteers, Kulnazira and her granddaughter, Anne, Kamka and Mira. We decided that we can get anywhere if we have Kamka, Kulnazira and Raigul with us!!

Another picture taken at the monument. This is such an impressive monument and the relief pictures on the side are incredible as well.

On the way home, we stopped at the Byterick Park and took a pictures of these camels. Camels are actually in Southern Kazakhstan and not up north where we are.

In the afternoon, we took Frank with us to the Ballet and Opera Theater where they had a concert honoring the veterans. The lady in blue is playing a kobuz.

After the concert - Frank, Mira, Anne and Roy. We had a good time and it was nice to be out with friends!!

We hope all have a Happy Mother's Day and are able to talk to your family!! The gospel is true and we are so grateful to be members of this wonderful church!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling