A good day !

Today we traveled into the Capital for some long over due visits.. We picked up some friends along the way, and by the time we got there the bus was full.... The first stop was to the hospital... wanted to see a few of the children that we have sponsored operations for, and bring food and diapers to them and their care givers... The first one we found was the little boy from the village that is in for the cleft pallet operation.... His father was at the hospital today as well... It was nice to run into him there.. He said that our friends had been so good to them, and had been stopping in every day to make sure that they are OK... Arafat has a bit of a cold, so they have not operated yet, but are expecting to any day now.... ... We gave the father a little more money to help with food and travel expenses.. I know that he was pleased to see that we would personally take the time to stop in and visit... We then checked in on one of the little babies that we helped with the Hydrocephalus operation... it was just done, so I waited out side, and My friend that has been taking the lead went in to make sure all was well and that the care giver did not need anything... The baby is doing great... I am so relieved that this operation was done when it was ... It truly was time sensitive, but in the 11th hour, the need was met...
from there, Sergey and I ran a few around town while the rest went to the baby orphanage for a visit and to bring Diapers and Yogurt for them... With the rain that we have been having, getting diapers to dry has been difficult, and the disposable ones are like gold to them... and you would think that they are gold if you tried to buy them... that are about twice the price of the ones at home.... that is unless you step back and let me do the negotiating... we got an awesome price, so we just bought twice as many... either way they were very blessed... When the team got there, every one was waiting .. we had made sure to make prior arrangements with the government, so this was an official visit, and the director and the care givers were all there... the team had a great time, and were so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to help..
Lunch was at one of the more western restaurants... all that was missing off the corn and pea pizza was the maio and ketchup....

When the last piece of pizza was gone, their was left a small pile of unrecognizable items... I looked over at Dave and said "I don't quite recognize what that might be" he said "And that's why they are still there my friend ".....

After lunch we dropped a few off, and picked a few up, then headed over to an amazing facility.. This is a place that children are brought to when the police first find them living on the street... When you think of street kids, you never think of three year olds.... I takes a few minutes to get your mind around it. This is an incredibly loving place, and the kids are so well cared for here...It is likely the best centre that I have come across in all Central Asia... They have a school for those that do not have documents yet, or are to far behind, and also provide crafts as a form of therapy for the kids... They then have a Little store where the kids can sell there things... half the money the kids get for there "Bank" that they can use for personal extras , and the other half is used to purchase the materials to make the crafts....

It had been a while since there have been any teams there, so they were getting a back log of items... ..Well lets just say they were doing the Dance before we left.... I will have to see what I can sell off to the PI team coming in this weekend ... if not the last few days Benson and I may be living on casha and rice...... We are going back there on Monday to do some new crafts with them... We have a young lady visiting with us and she absolutely fell in love with these kids and has brought a whole load of fun crafts to do with kids... We are also going to see if I can work out a deal for another 50 football outfits ... being so transient, it is difficult to keep these kids in clothes...

Tomorrow we will be heading out to the other end of the valley to set things up for a special weekend of celebrations when the team comes to town, also I must remember to call to the blind society to order some mattresses for the day care we visited a few days ago... I want to have them ready when the team gets here with the blankets and craft stuff so that we can bring them out on Saturday....

Today was a good day.....