summers break is over... back to school

Last weekend was one more wedding celebration.  Most of Jengish's family lives in the Talas region, so last weekend his grand mothers arranged one more celebration.  The drive was hours through switch back and tunnels, across some of the most beautiful terrain in Central Asia  

 so many incredible sights along the way.. despite breaking down a couple hours from the final destination, the travel party did arrive on time for the celebrations .  

It was a wonderful time, and a great opportunity to learn more of the rich history of that region .

Yesterday was a holiday and for that reason , so was today.  But it was also first day of school for many of the kids we support.  
Today started off so encouraging, a young friend of ours from Canada contacted us and has arranged to provide monthly sponsorship for one of the kids we are helping.   we recognize that to make a difference here , it will take many committed sponsors.. today one more was added to the list ... so blessed. 
  So there was a lot of work , not just financial support , but a lot of advocacy for  kids who have no one else that seems to be pulling for them.  Some times we are not very popular but we never claimed to be here in a popularity contest , but are here as a voice for those who are not being heard.   In many cases we can do little more then challenge the powers that be to do the right thing, then step back and wait for that to happen.  such a difficult task . 

It was not all bad, we had the opportunity to help out 17 other kids today so that they could attend school , like our young friend here with Bekah that worked very hard all summer, and came up only $200 short of covering his tuition.  We were so blessed to be able to help him.  His goal is to finish school , get a good job and support orphans timing out of the orphanages work through the maze and financial restraints to attend collage or university .   A fine young man that I am sure will remember for years to come the impact that one of you sponsors made in his life today.  

Today was back to school for Baktagul as well , Like anyone returning to school she was a little apprehensive, but as the day arrived it was met with some excitement.  We got to see her in action yesterday.  Our babushka  neighbor came over to get her blood pressure taken .  Baktagul jumped right to it and got out her kit and was helped her out.  

 Today we had to go to the bazaar top get clothes for the kids from one of the orphanages, so Baktagul came along and  and got her nurses jacket, and some note books etc. 

after a couple more stops, including some more sponsorship stops and stops to pay the taxes, we went over to one of the orphanages to deliver the shirts for them .  The shirts sell regularly for about $8 to $12 each, but we have one of the young sellers that helps us out a lot.  We give him the list and he goes around the bazaar and finds what we need .. today he got us a dozen shirts for less then $5 each .   When we have the funds we will go back and get them the pants , we have a price of $6 a pair .. again more then half the regular price.  such a blessing ... It will be great when we can find a sponsor to help with this while the deal is still available.

As well as the shirts, we also paid for the first month of kindergarten for a couple of the kids as well as some paint and renovation supplies for the school for the older kids , part of the deal to get them to be aloud to go to school .  next we will work on note books for the kids .. this is about $10 a kid.  In total for the kids in the orphanage to attend school, it will cost about $75 each for the year.  and the two in kindergarten will be about $200 each .  

This evening we went to meet up with a family that we have been working with.  They are trying to get into a home before winter , and were excited to tell us that they had found a place and asked if we could come and talk for them to try to get the home at a price that they could afford.  

this room alone is about twice the size of the entire home that they are in now.

After seeing the house, we migrated out to the back yard and in the garden the negotiations began.  The owner is a nice man and we could tell he wanted to help, but financially things are tight for him as well .  The negotiations started at $17 000 US , and after about 45 minutes, the deal was struck and hands shaken  at $350 down and $50 a month for the next 7 months, then we would renegotiate in the spring .  This gives a winter home for our precious little family .

the kids were excited to see their new home 

Vlady was buy the house early today to bring us some more produce from the garden and to let us know that the foundation on the clinic was complete, and he was ready for the shipping container to be delivered .

Originally the plan was to have an exam room and a waiting room , but somewhere along the way the project has grown to include public washrooms and a procedure room as well as a sterilizing room .  We have agreed to break this down into two fazes and begin.  We will have the waiting room and the exam room open by this winter, then the rest we will call faze two and begin as soon as we have a funder in place .

Tomorrow we have another busy day , in the morning we are meeting Larisa at the mens home to check out the new floor , and bring her a projector so she can show movies to the men , then at noon Julie is going to a parent teacher interview with one of our kids, then in the afternoon we will head to the mountains with Vlady to discuss with a family looking for a micro loan for a cow barn so that they can board cows in the summer .   This is the same family that looks after all the bees, and the gardens .    A beautiful family, a beautiful location, and such a potential for them to prosper.