Monday, February 18, 2008

Beautiful Spring Day

Today was another beautiful spring day in town. We did a little unpacking and organizing in the apartment, then went across the road and paid for the internet that should be in the apartment tomorrow. After that we went over to the Foundation to meet with Elder Yang (who just arrived last night from his home in the U.S.) and his assistant John. We have started to fill in a schedule that we will start next week. It looks like a couple days a week at the orphanage in the village, teaching art lessons and playing with the kids. One day a week taking them on fun outings in small groups... maybe 10 each time, that way they will all get to go out once a month. Then one night a week, I will cook supper for the 14 kids at the town orphanage for older kids, followed by games and crafts with the girls.
We have discussed with Sergey from the Lepta plus foundation (that works with Loads of Love) about medical supplies for the orphanages. There are many people coming to the capital city that would like to help, but do not know what is needed, and want to be sure that what they do bring gets used properly and not just sold. Sergey has in place a system that would recieve any supplies, then keep record of them, and bring them around to the orphanages as needed, and have them keep an acount of where the items are used. I guess paper work is something that they are famous for in these parts. Maybe tomorrow we will go over to the Baby Orphanage and talk to Tatyana,the director, and let her know of our plans as well as bring her some of the most beautiful hand knit outfits you could imagine. We had meant to keep a low profile for the first couple of weeks, but sometimes that is hard to do. While we were at Sergeys office, the assistant to the director of the village orphange came to see him. The director is having liver problems and is in the hospital. This morning the power company came and inspected the wiring since all the renovations. They had not been getting a correct reading and came to find out why. Upon inspection it was found that the security stap on the meter box had been damaged. The fine for this is $2000 and the estimated electrical bill for the extra power since last fall was another $500. They are going to turn off the power tonight and charge them an aditional $10 a day in late fees until this is settled. Sergey and the assistant contacted them right away, and were able to negotiate with them , and they agreed that because it was an orphanage they would reduce the fine to $1000, and if they paid today they would wave the past due $500 and leave the power on. We will see what we can do about finding the money for them, but in the mean time....... well lets just say that I feel so blessed that we have a wide base of support. You can all give yourselves a little pat on the back and know that the lights will stay on in the village orphanage tonight.
The rest of the day was when things got exciting ... but lets see if this post will upload first.

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