Thanksgiving Installment 2

So here's the other half of the story! It's a little late but I've been having trouble posting photos!

Friday, Day 3, Meals 2 & 3 So on Friday we had another Thanksgiving with our office staff. We prepped and invited them over for a long lunch...and it was a success. They pretty much LOVED everything which is a good sign! They especially seemed to like my grandmothers recipe for sauteed mushrooms which is a staple holiday food at my house! We also participated in the tradition here of writing something special on the Thanksgiving tablecloth. Many of them wrote how thankful they were for their jobs and the staff. When we went around verbally one even expressed how we together were like a family. I was so sentimental I could hardly get out that I was thankful for this year. Somehow I couldn't say more, the joy was so great! Friday night was followed up with leftovers and a game night for Sara's birthday. More food! :)

Saturday, Day 4, Meal 4 & Baking Saturday we gathered again for a Thanksgiving meal, yummy leftover sandwiches! We saved some food for those that had missed the staff dinner, divied up the leftovers to share at our Kazakh homes and called it a wrap!

Thanksgiving Installment 1

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! This post was really Jason's idea, but since you might not read his blog, I thought you'd be interested in our Thanksgiving...which lasted 4 days! This blog covers Day 1 & 2.

Wednesday, Day 1, Shopping
20 lbs potatoes
3 LIVE turkeys
2 huge pumpkins
8 cans mushrooms
8 cans corn
2 gallons milk
4 lbs butter
6 cans evaporated milk
6 dozen eggs
10 loaves of bread
2 bags frozen green beans
2 pounds of onions
4 heads of garlic (about 35 cloves)
10 batches of pie crust
1 bag marshmallows (imported!)
Flour, sugar, and the rest more than can be tracked!

Thursday, Day 2, Cooking & Meal 1
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Mushrooms
Creamed Corn
Plain Corn
Green Beans
Homemade Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan (Walnut) Pie
Apple Pie
Ice Cream

We literally cooked ALL DAY (9am-10pm) on Thursday breaking only for dinner around 5pm and a game of Canasta around 8pm while the oven was full! We joked that we had lakes of corn pudding, mountains of stuffing, and a whole city of pumpkin in various stages of roasting, cooling, and mashing!

Family is sweet

My host home is just me and my Mom and my host brother. They have work and school respectively in the evening hours so it makes for a quiet apartment. When my friend Farzana invited me to her home to meet her family, I was thrilled! I met Farzana through Interlingua, a local English school here that Interlink helped found years ago. Farzana is one of many English teachers but for some reason we just connected. It may be our love of music, our love of laughter, or that something you just can't put your finger on. In any case I spent an evening learning how to make manty (large dumplings) and one of many special Kazakh salads. I also got to spend time with her husband, son, and adorable daughter! Here she and I (not at home) but at the Interlingua 5 year anniversary party!

Meltdown!

Some things you have to learn the hard way.

So on a regular orphanage visit to Ulan we took melty-beads. If you don't know what these are, check them out, because they're fun. Anyway it basically entails small plastic squares, thousands of tiny beads, and an iron to melt them together. Hence being called melty-beads.

In any case, Ken, Kiikzhan, and I headed out to share this cool craft with Ulan kids in their free time. What we hadn't planned on was that it was a school holiday and instead of having the normal 10-20 kids, we were inundated and had up to 70 at one time! There wasn't room to walk and our supplies were definitely drained. I think a few beads were lost in the carpet but the other 4,999 were used!

Then...we realized a bigger problem. I had one iron and it took 3 minutes for each plastic craft. 1 iron, 3 minutes, 70 kids, and less than half an hour before we were to leave! Yea, we didn't do the math so well. We ended up extending our stay another 40 minutes and Kiikzhan and I fought to keep the children from sticking their fingers under the iron where they tried to take their still melting craft! In our last and absolutely final batch we had 7 crafts but 15 kids all claiming it was theirs! AGH! Definite meltdown!

But we kept our cool, figured out what belonged to who and headed home! That afternoon we were brave (foolish) enough to try again, this time armed with two irons! We ended up with only a small group of girls... Thank goodness!

The importance of big brothers

This month I've met two big brothers who are carrying a little bit of the world on their shoulders.

One boy, Pasha (14 years old), just recently came to the orphanage with his little brother (7 years old) and sister (5 years old). They stopped attending regular school and were found at home in poor conditions. For their well being they were placed at an orphanage.

I first met his brother and sister in the smaller children's group. Upon asking questions I found they didn't know their birthdays and had trouble with their family name. We later met their brother who was able to give us this information. Just imagine at 14 being the head of a small family! I felt how huge the burden was on this young man's shoulders. I'm thankful that he's getting help now from caring people at the orphanage.

Then, I got to celebrate his birthday with him. From his reactions I think that this may have been his first birthday celebration with cake, candy, music, games, and gifts. You could see he was working hard not to spend the time grinning, but he was definitely radiant. It was so touching to watch his eyes light up. And he even went out and brought me this little flower which I promptly put behind my ear. I plan to write him letters to encourage him in the future.

The second brother I encountered was Igor (thanks for the photo Sara). Igor has one younger brother and, honestly, he's a handful! I don't think he stopped for more than 2 seconds the whole time we were with the kids. And unfortunately it seems that the majority of dealing with his brother falls on Igor's shoulders. He is far to young for this responsibility that I'm sure would exasperate two healthy parents! I only spent a little time with him, but I plan to write him a letter of encouragement too. Being a big brother is important, but hard work!

Never fear, the clowns are here!

We've decided to make better use of our supplies and we're starting with the clown costumes!

What happened is we helped out at a Halloween Youth Impact carnival and then kept the costumes on for Ulan's birthday. They kids responded with so much joy that we wore them the following weekend at the Savva birthday party. Now we're considering wearing them on a regular basis. It reminds me of the Patch Adams philosophy which could be said to follow a proverb that says "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."

The Sky is Falling!

Winter is here in Kazakhstan announcing itself with the cessation of the rains and the introduction of SNOW! It's two days early, per Jason's prediction. He said the Internet called for snow on Monday, but snow came Friday...then again on Monday...then again last night...and is supposed to keep it up for quite some time. I've exchanged my jacket for my snow coat and we're walking around like plump snowmen here!

"Special Friends"

So every now and then, someone (or something) comes along to really touch your heart. Here are some of the newest office members who have been greeted with great emotion whether it be kisses...or running and shrieking! You will be relieved to know they have all found proper homes now, indoors or out, as appropriate!

Saramoldeava goes driving, Part TWO

We just finished up with our final delegation, the Kids Connection delegation. This was a group of sponsors from Lynchburg who come to meet the children they sponsor as well as to see the work that Interlink does here. There have been some really great moments you can read about on the Interlink blog. But here are some pictures of the kids...driving! Again!