Savva Orphanage Dec. B-Day party

Since we can't host a special Birthday party for each child, we have birthday parties for Savva, Ulan and Saramoldaeva orphanages once a month, celebrating birthdays for all children, in the given month.

In December, we went to the Savva orphanage, and celebrated birthdays for about 14 children.
We have cakes, snacks, candy and chips with soft drinks. We play games like Musical Chairs, 4 Corners and Hot Potato. We also have a time to give out gifts which are a package of school supplies. It's a lot of fun for the children and we really enjoy our time with them there.

We also take photos throughout the event and next month give out little photo albums for all the birthday children. They especially love letters and pictures.
How many of you get to have fun celebrating birthdays every month! We love doing that here. Wish you could join us.

Ulan Orphanage New Year Gift Delivery!

Here, in Kazakhstan, New Years is the BIGGEST holiday of the year. So we decided to do something very special for the children at the Ulan orphanage. With a generous donation from back home we took the children shopping about a month ago, as I shared in an earlier blog, then took the gifts to the office to wrap and give for New Years! This was the day of giving those gifts back to the children.
It was such a joy to be a blessing to these children who have so much less than we do. In the first photo I am at a table helping the children to open and assemble their gifts. Their faces were filled with happiness.

Here, in the second photo, I am standing with my sponsored child Dina, after giving her a volley ball. She loves sports and since I am here it is easy for me to give her a personal gift.
We had so many children to visit and give gifts to that the other Interlink staff all came to help out. Thanks to all of you back home for helping to make this possible, and a special thanks to the family who donated these funds so the children could buy something special.

Happy Birthday to Him!

It was a very nice Christmas Day and the whole Christmas season has been very good. This year was one of those rare times when we got snow on Christmas Day! We got a couple inches on top of the 3-4 inches we had already.


On Christmas Day Jason, Sara and Heather came over for a day long celebration. We started off with a delicious egg/sausage casserole and fresh baked pumpkin bread for brunch! Yum. Then we spent time lighting the Advent wreath and shared some appropriate readings. After that we opened gifts from back home. (Thanks to all who sent things ahead of time so we could have then on the 25th!) After gifts we watched "The Nativity", a very good movie. Then we started cooking our ham and potato dinner. Very tasty! After dinner we watched our new DVD "Santa Clause 3". Then we had a special time to sing Happy Birthday with lighted cake for the reason for the season!

The gang hung around long enough for a partial game of canasta and there were some phone calls home. All in all, it was a very pleasant Christmas Day celebration for the American team here.

Ember just returned home in hopes of returning full time. She gave us these pictures for Christmas before she left. They are all very nice. Ember is very talented with all kinds of art and photography.
All for now. I trust you and yours had a Very Merry Christmas!

Tis The Season

I hope you all are looking as forward to this Christmas season as I am. We have already begun to celebrate as the American staff here helped me host the seasons 1st Christmas party. A great time was had by all and 10 of my regular folks came. We decorated this tree, decorated and baked Christmas cookies, Had home made pizza and watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".


Later the American staff also had another picture taken by our tree. In Kazakhstan they don't celebrate Christmas, New Years is the BIG holiday here. So we are gearing up for that by spending time at the local orphanages and helping to purchase gifts for all the children with the help of folks back home. We have also purchased a new sound system for the Savva Orphanage in Merke. Music is a big part of Kazakh life as every party heavily features dancing. We were also invited to a dance and talent competition at the Saramoldaeva orphanage.

I trust you and yours will enjoy celebrating Christmas this year. Spend quality family time and join some activity to support the Christmas spirit in your community! God bless each and every one of you and thanks for remembering me while away this year.

Thanksgiving X2

One advantage of living in Kazakhstan is that we can celebrate things/events a number of times! This year, for Thanksgiving, the American staff took off and spent the entire day preparing for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. From turkey, to stuffing, to mashed potatoes and corn, to pie(s) Pumpkin. pecan and apple. You may wonder why it took all day to prepare dinner for 4 people, well the truth is we prepared for more than a dozen people! We first had a traditional dinner on the 27th and then prepared enough for the same meal(for a luncheon) for the entire Interlink staff on the 28th!

We also had a time for everyone to give thanks for the things they are grateful for in their lives this past year. We also have a white table cloth where everyone can write a Thanksgiving quote for a keepsake. It's nice to read what folks have given thanks for in previous years.

So we celebrated Thanksgiving twice! The most interesting part was pickling out live Turkeys at the local bazaar and taking them to a house where a lady, for a very reasonable sum, killed, plucked and gutted the three turkeys. The purchasing and cleaning of all three was about $75.

So what are you most thankful for this past year? I hope and trust you are thankful for a great deal. Thanks for taking time to view my blog. Feel free to leave a comment and drop me a line and let me know what is new in your part of the world.

Time to Grow (2004-2008)

One of the joys of working here in Kazakhstan is the Interlink Kids Connection sponsorship program started a couple years ago. It's a typical sponsorship program where an American family back home can connect with one of the children in our area orphanages. Letters and photos are exchanged while relationships are developed. The $200 a year, per child, enables Interlink to help these children in many practical ways. The Savva Orphanage in Merke was in need of a new water tower last year. Such expenses are not a part of normal funding. The government provides staffing, food, clothes and other necessities. There are no funds for large maintenance type of repairs. Interlink was able to provide all the needed funds for that new water tower. Kids Connection also helps out with celebrating B-days and other special holidays for the children. We've , in the past, provided funds for a sound system, material for draperies and performance costumes etc.

The advantage of being a local part of the staff is that I can sponsor a child and also visit that child on a regular basis. Some, join with a delegation coming here and can visit their child. What a special event that is. So Interlink is in the unique position to help these children and also have a net work available for sponsors to come and visit their child. But I can see Dina on a weekly basis, while also exchanging pictures and letters. I'm also learning Kazakh so I can chat with her in person. Included are two photos. One of Dina when I met her in 2004 when she was 8 or 9 years old. The second photo was taken recently and she is now 13. It's a joy to see these children grow and I'm delighted to be a regular part of their lives.

Ulan Carnival 2008!

Who says work is not fun??? We put on a mini-Carnival for the children at the Ulan Orphanage, Labor Day weekend. Due to a shortage in staffing we were limited to 6 stations. We had a Plinko stand, Picture board with a strong man and woman on a trapeze for the children to put their faces in, Ladder toss, Clown Bean Bag toss, Ring toss over wooden milk bottles and the all popular Gorilla sponge toss with yours truly as the target.


As you can see these children through the soaked sponges with great determination. Fortunately for me most of them missed though given 3 chances. Fortunately for them, some of them succeeded. All in all we had a very nice time. The weather is still nice and this was the weekend before they started back to school. Prizes and candy were awarded. The children also received a Camp "T" shirt and a carry bag (made by a local Kazakh woman) donated by an American Delegation from Muncie, Indiana.

The children have two dormitories. One for younger children and the other for the older pre-teens and teens. The teen building is undergoing renovations so all the children are cramped into one dormitory for the next few weeks or until the remodeling is complete.

Sorry you could not be a part of all the fun, but your continued support from back home makes all this possible.