Earlier today I posted a photo on FB with the caption "If we start by doing what we CAN do, before you know it you will have done what others said could not be done." This is so true of the storey today.
Nadia is about 73 years old. 70 years ago she lost her parents and went into the orphanage system here. She worked her whole life as a nurse in a local hospital. 6 weeks ago, there was a fire in her home, and her only son died in that fire and the house was destroyed.
Now she is completely alone and can not find any one to help. Just now the city and social services here were able to help her a little, just enough to cover funeral expenses. Fortunately her house had a small summer kitchen that she has moved in to
At this point she only has a bit of clothes and a couple thin blankets and the house is cold and has no heat. She is now having medical problems from the living conditions and the stress as well as more chronic back pain. Certainly all this is not helping ..
So where do you start .. Well last week the TV news came out and did a story about her and gave out her information for any one that wanted to help her. With that she started to get lots of phone calls .. not people wanting to help, but people trying to get her house and property form her.. "cockroaches."
We were there with our friend Marat. He is a very caring young man that we know here in Tokmok who works hard to help so many people. He was the one that contacted us about Nadia. We surveyed the situation and have come up with a bit of a plan. First step is to care for Nadia's immediate needs. heat, food, clothing, and washed up and to see our Dr Tatyana
First step was to get some in floor heating that we put under the carpets in her room , and we will cover her electrical bill until summer. ($75) The next step will be to put a bit of tin on the roof on the house so that the water does not damage the structure where the roof had been torn off. This will be another $100. We are hoping that these funds come in before next Wednesday when we will take the kids from the farm and the truck and go and repair the roof and start the cleaning process. The next step will be to raise the needed funds over the summer .. about $3000 US to replace the windows and doors, gut the house and rebuild it when we get back here in the fall so that she is in before winter. We will also start spreading her needs locally and see if we can get furniture and other needed items that we can collect up for her. We have space in our garrage that we can store the donations until the house is rebuilt.
Jengish asked her what we could do to help her.. she said that a small manual washing machine would make things a lot better for her ... Its so strange , we have asked older women on their death beds what we could do to help and they have said " A washing machine " It must be some sort of a comfort thing, Or maybe if I tried washing my clothes all the time with out one I too would feel the same way.. but either way, if a donation ($150) comes in this week, we will bring her one next week when we go with the kids.
We had another mother goat give birth today.. This one was a difficulty birth and the mother needed some intervention, but buy the time we got to the farm both mother and baby were doing well
It was nice to come in to the barn and see the nice row of box stalls , even nicer to know that they are all full of happy mothers and their babies
while we were at the Bazaar we got a baby bath for Masha, Nastia's daughter, and a decided to get a second one for Goosey .. She spent about 45 minutes playing in it.
After her bath, Goosey came out with us to see Boomer
Aigoola had the boys busy moving the manure pile further out from the barn. It had been right outside the back door to the point that the animals soon could walk over the fence. Now the pile will be further from the door and on the edge of the garden for easy access for fertilizing
We had to get back to the apartment by 6 pm today as we were having a special guest . Nadia came to use the shower at our place, then stayed for supper . It was nice for her to sit at a full table and have others to talk to. Our friends from Ohio brought a few bags of bracelets that friends had made. We have a few left so we gave Nadia one. She was very please .. Thank you .
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