Year 3

11 January 2009
Aktobe

Part of the explanation for why I haven’t written is simple: I’ve been really busy and when I return home, simply tired.  The other, and more difficult reason to explain, is that I have felt slightly overwhelmed.  Not because work or life here has been overly stressful, but simply the breadth of what we have been working on and what I’ve done since I last wrote has been a lot.

Since “Golden Heart”, in November, I planned and hosted a charity party in Aktobe with two friends, traveled to Almaty for our “Mid-Service Training”, attended two charity concerts in Almaty planned by a friends, took a trip to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan, delivered presents for disabled children dressed as Grandfather Frost with our local volunteers, helped my organization move into a new office in an apartment building built solely for disabled individuals in Aktobe, finished reading Solzhenitsyn’s  “Gulag Archipelago” (Volume 1), did a lot of work with our Volunteer Club: DAR, English Club and English classes, and am planning a second charity party for the end of January.  And there was Hannukah, Christmas, New Years’, and Old New Years’.

Our new office is a much larger space than the old place.  Before, we were in one small room with a window-divider down the middle, situated at a law institute.  Now, we have between three and five rooms on the ground floor of this new apartment building, built specifically for free housing for disabled individuals.  There are currently 30 families living on the five levels.  On December 31, I went to deliver gifts to each of the families, dressed as Grandfather Frost.  Some apartments only have one person living there, but others have huge families, up to ten people in one two bedroom apartment.  Since many of the new residents moved there from the villages, their apartments are two bedroom reconfigurations of their previous home: old blue dressers, big wooden cabinets, and lot of carpets, but now with running water (that very often is not available in the villages) and an elevator.  We received office space on the first floor due to the extent of work our organization, and particularly our Director put into making the apartment complex a reality.  The entire building was paid for by the government and the Prime Minister came for the official opening.  It now feels like we have a space to match the depth and amount of work the organization pursues.  In addition to offices, we’ll be installing rehabilitation rooms, including weight lifting equipment and massage beds, a conference room.  There is still a room or two that may be available and we have a number of ideas for how to best make use of the space to help not just disabled individuals, but the poor and hungry in the area.

The next event after “Golden Heart” was a charity party, “Tres Hombres Party”.  This was the first time a party of this nature occurred in Aktobe and I was amazed by the outpouring of local business support.  Two of my good friends and I were sitting at a bar a few months ago and came up with the idea of planning some sort of event for the 20 and 30 year olds that could raise awareness about social needs and bring needed resources to these populations.  Our first event raised around $2,500, all of the money was donated to my organization to assist in paying for “Golden Heart” and to buy New Years’ gifts for ten extremely poor families with disabled individuals around the city, which we then delivered.  Tickets went before we started selling them, with only 100 spots we managed to squeeze around 120 people into the cafe for hours of performances, competitions, shows, and dancing – all with a Latin American theme.  Due to the success of the first event, we’re organizing the second party for the end of January – new space, new theme, new charity, and continuing to grow the idea of corporate and individual social community responsibility.

Mid-Service Training and the charity concerts in Almaty were fun, but the highlight of the trip was my vacation to Kyrgyzstan.  It is a beautiful country with amazing mountains, only a six hour drive from Almaty.  I recommend it to anyone interested in mountain sports – lots of backcountry, steep, and high snow-covered peaks.  Sleeping seven people in a room meant for three (and one night eight) was another highlight, especially with everyone in the room being sick at some point.

There’s lots more to share, including the amazing work of our volunteers, the upcoming trip to Astana to sign the grant forms for our wheelchair factory, Kazakhstan New Years’ number two, the Hannukah concert in Aktobe, and a visit from another friend from America.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years’ and holiday season.  Our eulkas (Christmas trees) will be up here for another few months, usually until the snow melts in mid-March.  Happy Year of the Cow and best wishes for a new year of happiness, peace, and excitement.