a busy weekend at the farm

Last weekend we put the yurts up.  I had a great vantage point to offer some instructions and keep track of the 61 guests we had join us for the day.

While some where puting up the yurts, others were busy making the ploff.

great meal enjoyed by all 

it was nice to see the kids from one of the orphanages that we do stuff with .. the boys on the farm love to spend time with them 

Dianna came as well to see the farm . She is hoping to get into the University in Tokmok and then stay at the farm weekends and holidays 

On their way home from the bazaar 

 

Julies cow Carol-Anne had a calf a couple weeks ago and she is producing more milk then the calf can drink, and this is her first calf so she is not very used to us milking her.  So Sunday we got her a second calf. She came right over to the truck to claim the calf as soon as we got to the farm. 

We sold 3 of the geese and bought 11 more babies to go with the one female goose we kept .

Our big Turkey died a week ago, so we got a new male turkey since the females are all starting to sit so they need a male .. He is a little smaller then Hans was but he is a showman like Hans 

 

So Julie says that  in one day we arranged 7 marriages and facilitated 12 adoptions .    

They should be celebrating

 A time when they should be celebrating.  

 

Olga got a call from the hospital tonight.    A new mother had a difficult birth and the baby has been week,   The father is home with the kids, but has just had an operation and is not able to work so the family does not have food, and this may be why the mother is stressed and not able to nurse. 

Olga went over last night to bring a bit of food to hold them over and see what needs to be done.  Formula is $20 and for about $50 we can get them enough food to last about a month.  We will also get her some Vitamins.  We did have some donations to purchase some vitamins, so we are just looking for help with formula or food . 

Life on the farm

Julie and I have been staying out at the farm this week so that Aigoola can have a bit of a holiday.  The first couple days were beautiful weather and we got a lot done up at the kashar.   The yurts are going back up on Saturday so we are going to have a big yurt raising party . 

The benches were all sanded and varnished 

The yurt platform had a fresh sand and varnish as well 

the winters dirt was swept away 

We have a small part of the barn that does not have a roof on it.  This will be Julies secret garden safe from all the animals that graze an the land .  We will have all the fixings for ploff here . 

Today was a rain day so we spent most of the day in the green house .  

these are our sweet potatoes.  As they grow, we roll up the bag and add more soil 

the cucumbers are still small but there sure will be a lot of them .  Look at how many you can see when we zoom in. Rather then one, there is a cluster of 4 

For lunch today we made a really good Chinese soup with bok choy from the green house.  The boys were eager to help cook. 

OPut in the garden the cabages we planted a few days ago in the plum patch have all taken root and standing up nicely 

In the green house today we moved all the starter plants into the rows, then planted the tomatoes into the ground in one green house and watermelons in the other .. We have planted the watermelons beside the spinach arugula and the lettuce.  in about a month we will have fresh from the fields so we will be able to let the watermelons grow into those spots for the summer when the green house is otherwise to hot to grow. 

Here is how I get into trouble.

This is how I get into trouble.   I was contacted by a local organization.  In there group there is a Babushka that needs help.  She has been going blind and there is an operation that can repair this.  The operation is $400.  $300 is the operation and $100 is the hospital care and follow up she will need.  The organization and all their members have been trying to raise funds to help her, and so far have managed to collect $140, leaving them $260 short.   As soon as they have the funds she can get the opperation, however her vision is rapidly deteriorating , and it is now becoming critical.
   Here is how I get into trouble.. everything in me wanted to respond by saying yes go ahead, but we simply don't have the un designated funds at this time.
What I can do is advance the funds as soon as a donation is made so that she will not have to wait for the funds to make their way through the banking system.  Once again if you would like to help with this please let me know and I will keep everyone posted as funds come in.

Thanks to a quick response this need has been met .

Taking down the carpets.

Eleven years ago we were blessed with an apartment to live in here in Tokmok.  The apartment did need a bit of work, but it was everything we needed.

  There was one room that was a little rough. Our first night here Bekah was in that room, and there were sparks and smoke when we tried to plug in a heater, and the wall had a huge patch of plaster falling off.  I think a little overwhelmed with everything and all the changes that we were facing in our new land.  Our first few weeks we worked hard at setting up the girls room and the main living area.  For Julie and I we just taped up the plugs and hung a large carpet on the wall to cover the problem .  

Every year as part of our agreement for using the apartment, we do some small renovations and repairs to keep the apartment up.  But every year we put off our bed room.  Julie would talk about it, but knowing the mess of the wall, I could not bring myself to tackle the mess behind that carpet.   

We have the farm gardens all in good shape, but we have few weeks before we can start the main planting in the gardens.  We decided that we would bring a couple of the boys from the farm on the weekends to help tackle the wall...  must admit there was a bit of tossing and turning for a few nights at the thoughts of the crumbling wall behind the carpet. 

The day came and we started to tackle the room .  we picked out some wall paper and I bought lots of plaster.  We emptied the furniture out of the room and set it all up in the living room because I knew that this was going to take a long time with such a big job ahead of us... Finally the room was empty and all that was left was to take down the carpet to make a plan to tackle the huge mass of crumbling plaster and bricks that we were going to expose. 

Well we reached up and un hooked the carpet and stood there a little shocked . 

What we had revealed was a bit of a shock to us .  There was a tinny little bit of the outer layer of  plaster that had fallen off, everything else was solid and in good shape.  An hour later the was all plastered and smooth and ready to wall paper.  

It got me thinking .. how many things in our lives have we " covered with a rug" because with all that was going on in our lives, we could not deal with it at the time.. just cover it over and pretend that it does not exist.  Then as time goes buy, the "crumbling wall" continues to grow in our thoughts and minds.  Every year we don't deal with it the mess being covered up grows bigger , until we are overwhelmed and its starting to keep us up at night. Only to find that when we face it head on, the problem really only exists in our minds .  Julie is the mental health worker, so I am sure she would have the right label to give me, but that's ok. One more carpet in my life has been taken down, and I survived it. 

Over the next couple days the boys worked hard to help put up the new wall paper, and trim and paint around the windows and the heating pipes and hang the tapestry. 

Happy with a job well done, we are going to sleep well tonight.  Tomorrow we will move out to the farm, and Aigoola will move to our apartment for a bit of a holiday, and her room is ready for her. 

WOW , what an exciting opportunity to be a blessing.

About,  10 years ago  an individual donor purchase a house for Aigoola to live in after she left the orphanage with her family. When Aigula and family moved on eventually to be the house mom at the farm, the house was used for two years as a womens rehab center.

 Three years ago we had another young family         (Baktaguls sister Jazgul that she was in the orphanage with) move into the house .  They have 4 of their own children and also care for a niece. Her he husband  looks after cows in the mountains during the spring summer and fall.  

After ten years of providing this house free of charge, as well as maintaining it and upgrading it with a city heating system, This donor would like to move on. 

The prospects of selling the house has Jazgull in a bit of a panic as she does not know where she will live with her family.  She has asked us to help her to find and help with financing of a new home for them before this house sells.  Anything that she is finding requires so much work that by the time it is finished would be as much as this house is.  

The obvious solution is to find another sponsor who would be interested in purchasing the house and allowing us to continue to use it for this purpose. 

There are a couple options... one is to purchase it as a donation to LINK127  and receive a charitable tax credit,  or the other option is to purchase it as a long term investment , knowing it would continue to support families as they move out of poverty. ( there would be no Charitable  tax receipt issued )   We would then start charging Jazgul rent that would be saved for them to one day purchase their own home.   

The house is currently up for sale for $10 000 US .  if you or anyone you know might be interested in investing in what we do here, please let us know.

More vitamins delivered

Yesterday I shared the great news about the availability of good quality vitamins here in Kyrgyzstan now.    right after that post we got word of a mom with a 6 week old baby that was just diagnosed wit TB.  The best treatment for TB is a high vitamin diet.  We were able to bring the vitamins last night to Acel and she will arrange to get them to her.  Something as simple as this could very well save her life !

We have talked with our friend that we will be getting the vitamins from, and he has shared with us that he can even deliver the vitamins for us in the Bishkek region.  We have had a couple donations last night toward vitamins, If you would like to help with this that would be great.  This is something you could bring to friends, service clubs or churches that might be interested in making a significant impact in the lives of so many. 

 Acel is expecting next month,  so while we were there we brought her a beautiful quilt for the baby that came with one of the teams last year that we were saving for this special occasion. 

Out at the farm the work in the gardens continues. close to the house there was a large raspberry patch.  We have moved them out into the big garden, and have now planted this area with strawberries.  This will allow us to keep a closer eye on them.  Some of the boys like to spend their day sitting in the strawberry patch, and as a result we do not get very many.  with it a little closer to the kitchen we may all get to have some this year .. I think we will plant cabbages over at the boys side this year. hahhaa  

Vitamins for Kyrgyzstan

Over the last 10 years we have brought thousands  of lbs of Vitamins to Kyrgyzstan for the orphanages, institutions and families in need.  It is such a great blessing to people here as until recently, good quality vitamins where not available, and those that were did not have quality consistency.   When your main diet is bread and tea, or other equally as unhealthy meals. this becomes more then just a supplement, but  is the main source of nutrition.  Good Vitamins are even used and very effective  as medications  for things like TB, Rickets, and even common colds that with out vitamins may turn to life threatening pneumonia.   When given to pregnant women, they take away the craving to eat dirt from the irrigation ditch ,  It prevents kids from licking the white wash paint on the sides of the buildings, and the list goes on. 

 We have faced many challenges over the years .  Things like getting the donations of vitamins in the first place.  Then when we get them we need to get them to Kyrgyzstan . shipping is expensive and difficult.   We generally ship them with teams when they come,   This means that when we don't have teams coming  we can only bring what we can fit into our own bags, which is not nearly enough.   The next problem is getting through customs.  We have had terrible problems in the past , and Bekah has even had her passport taken and she was held at the airport when trying to help get a bag of vitamins through .  We carry documents from Hospitals , schools, orphanages, and charities requesting the vitamins as well as letters from us requesting the traveler to carry them for us. But still the customs officials see them and just see dollar signs.  It is legal  to bring  certain quantities of each different kind of vitamin so we have to strategically pack the bags being careful that each traveler does not go over the allotted amount of each...  It is an incredible amount of work, but it is soooo worth it . 

Like I mentioned , times like this spring when we do not have teams coming, we are running short , and have to save them for medicinal purposes .   

We now have another solution.   There is a young family that lived with us here, and had also worked as a social worker , so they have seen first hand the benefit of the Vitamins.  Over the last year they have worked at sourcing good quality vitamins and have done the leg work to get them through customs and delivered right to Bishkek.  

We are now able to get trusted, high quality brands , right here in Kyrgyzstan .   People are always more eager to go out and purchase the vitamins them selves and donate, but not always as interested to send the same amount in cash .  But here are a few benefits to now being able to donate directly to the vitamins. 

With over 150 different kinds of vitamins and minerals from about 20 different brands available, we can purchase exactly what is needed at the time.  

We can purchase the type of vitamins needed when needed so we do not have to stock pile when we bring them and then continually sort to make sure that they do not go out of date. 

We do not need to  worry about loosing them at the boarder. 

We can free up space in our bags for other needed items like medical equipment for Dr Tatyana.

and we are supporting a young family that we have worked with for a few years as they develop this much needed business .  

The cost for the vitamins  here in Kyrgyzstan is between $15 - $30 after tax and delivery.   I did a quick look on the Walmart web site  to see how this compares,  and as you can see they are a comparable price . 

If you are interested in helping us get vitamins out to those in need this spring , and into the future , please consider making a donation, and in the memo line just put the word Vitamins 

April 1 update

Before I go to today's update,  I wanted to share about a couple needs.  Many of you know Sergey that works with us .  When we got here we found that he had been up at night with head aces, and not sleeping.  We had him go to a Dr in Bishkek for a treatment and this has made a significant difference for him.  We covered the first treatment ourselves, it was $40,  The problem is that over the next couple months he will need three more treatments .  I am looking for sponsors to cover this for him , maybe one or all three, what ever you are able to do would be a great help. 

I had shared about a need at Olga's center to combat the black mold.  So for we have had $100 come in toward fixing that and have been able to get a good start .  It turned out to be worse then we thought, and one of the walls we have taken down all together , The boys from the farm have been helping with this , and today we got some money to her to start the re construction and repair of the walls after the cleaning .  We would still like to replace the windows if funds come in for this .  

 At our apartment where the girls stay while in school we had to do some renovations as well .  In the girls room, I have no idea how old the wall paper was there and it was in rough shape, then this winter there was a family that needed a place to stay for a few months .  There kids managed to do a number on what was there , so that ended up moving up our priority list. 

The boys did a great job. They started off a little shaky, but mastered it in no time flat.   I think maybe they could go into business by the time they finish all the papering we need done . 

Out at the farm today , they scraped off the railings and the floor in the cafe and put on a fresh coat of paint and varnish.  Later this week we will bring the furniture back out and be ready for the summer .  

Out in the garden we started planting the crops that can handle a late frost.   Peas, carrots, spinach, kale, Swiss chard and radishes.