Halloween Party, Children's Hospital and Children's Home

Halloween is not celebrated in Kazakhstan, but that did not stop us from having fun!  One of our American families had a party that we enjoyed.  Here is the Bergeson family (and little Eileena looking on.)

Olivia and Zoe

Noah and his dad.  I tried to get all the kids together, but that just did not happen!

 

Katia and Galia think Americans are crazy!

 

 

Lots of yummy food

Now Zoe has baby Harry and Olivia is fixing her costume.

 

 

 

This is our monthly "Linger Longer" after church last Sunday.

 

 

This man runs the organization for the veterans of the Afghanistan War.  He was an interesting man.  He said he does not understand Americans because during his war, the Americans were helping Al Queda, but now we're fighting against them.  When he saw our card with the Church's name, he asked about Mitt Romney being a Mormon, so he is keeping up to date with U S news.  We enjoyed meeting him.  He is trying to help the veterans of the war to be employed and productful.

 

 



We had another project closing this week.  The church obtained this electro-encephalograph for the Children's Hospital.  They are demonstrating its use for us.  The machine they had previously was so old that they could no longer obtain replacement parts.

 

We also got to visit the nursery of the hospital.  These babies have been abandoned by their families.  They have illnesses but when they recover, they will be sent to an orphanage.  I wanted to take one home with me!  Sometimes they need volunteers to rock the babies, but right now they have plenty of student nurses that are caring for them.

 This one has so much hair, he reminded me of a couple of our grandbabies!

I've made a few baby caps that we donated to the hospital.

 

 

 We visited a children's village in Astana.  These are group homes with about 6 children and a group mother.  The boy's eyes sure lit up when I said I wanted a photo of them!  And I noticed how tidy their bedrooms were.

This looks like a nice neighborhood until you get too close.  The contractor cut corners while building the houses, so there is very little insulation and it is cold.  Also it is far from the city, so some people have moved out and gone back to the city.  The house below was donated to the orphanage by the city, but they have had to obtain donations to repair it to make it liveable.  Last year they had a garden in the back, but did not plant this year because of the remodeling.

When the youth get older (9th grade), they are moved to another home with more kids in the hopes that they can learn to be independent.  Because when they turn 18, they are no longer in the state's care. 

 

This facility would like some beds for the children when they become ready to open it again.