UP RIVER AND WORKING TO STRENGTHEN FAMILIES

TODAY WAS A VERY FULL DAY OF LOTS OF DIFFERENT IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES - Lynn left for home this morning and I have remained here to complete some important unfinished business. 

 

Last night we celebrated a birthday (see the picture) with Dabu,Tanya and Anita.  Dabu's birthday celebration was a yummy meal of logman, pizza, salad and of course cake.  David and Jayne joined us all and we celebrated in real Kyrgyz style.  It was a very special evening to be with our very special friends. Anita gave us a short concert to show here developing skills on the piano.  We dearly love this family.  One bit of sad news - it seems the eye surgery done for Anita in the past did not take and might need to be done again.  We are praying this is not the case.

 

Then, first off today - Lynn's ride did not show up and we were in a panic to get him to the airport by 4am.  His ride was to be here at 2:30am.  Seems someone forgot to tell the driver.  Oh well, after waking up half of Tokmok, we got a driver and Lynn was off and made the plane okay.  He is in the air Moscow to JFK as I write this.  Then at 6am my day started.  And then they decided they would not check his bags all the way home - guess they wanted his bags to live somewhere else.  So, he will have to pick them up in JFK and re-check them into the check in - meaning they just might want to charge him for two bags.  He did not have to pay for two with Aeroflot due to his international travel and that we fly a lot.  So we will see.  We have been having everyone carry back TONS OF CRAFTS made by our friends in the orphanages.  We are going to have a GIANT EXHIBIT AT KEMPENFEST IN AUGUST IN BARRIE, ONTARIO CANADA.  IT WILL BE AWESOME.  IT WILL BE A MAJOR FUNDRAISER FOR THE HUMANITARIAN WORK WE DO.

 

1.  We headed to Bishkek for a meeting with the Minister of Labor and Social Protection to continue our planning on our project.  We gave her the report of the first training and listened to her ideas for the future.  We will be working closely with her for the rest of the year to strengthen the field of staff who work with children and families.  We are very excited about this.  We have a big project going.

 

I gave her a full set of the curricula (see the picture)   that we are teaching along with electronic copies for the reproduction for the trainers - we are developing 25 nationals for the continuation of this training in the field.  These trainers are practitioners in the field from all over Kyrgyzstan.

 

We also talked about Iskra and the work being done there - the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is VERY sympathetic to the needs of the disabled.  We see this as a very exciting and progressive paradigm emerging.  This Minister is real AWESOME.  SHE TRULY GETS IT!

 

And we have some other things on the cooker......but details will only be given when we are sure they will happen.

 

2.  Then over to the visa department we went - heads bowed deeply - seems I forgot when I extended my stay her for another week -  that my visa would be running out today.  WHOOPS.  This could mean a fine of up to 10X the cost of a visa and my visa was $100.  So over to the visa department of government to beg mercy and file for an extension....and we CAME HOME WITH A NEW VISA!  Total cost?  $32.00 US.  Now, how is that for mercy and grace!

 

3.  German Embassy to drop off some papers.

 

4.  Social Worker Association and Bishkek Humanities University project -  to give them the plan for the next work in the area of abuse and neglect and help for those working with children who have been the victims.  We will have Dr. Jordan Greenbaum back to help us with this - if we see the plan will work.

 

5.  Final stop - The Lawyer Office to update our Registration to include our new project - Dayspring.  Seems we need to strengthen this statute to be more specific for the project in order to not present problems in the future.

 

TOMORROW

 

1.  Meeting with several different Tokmok persons about Dayspring - Social Services, etc.

 

2.  Completion of the registration in Bishkek.

 

3.  Meeting with the Director of SOS Children's Villages and Family Strengthening Project to continue our plans for future training and consultation with the staff who are working directly with families and children.

 

4.  Swetlie Put orphanage

 

5.  Meeting with Children's Inspector to deliver a new computer to them for their work

 

FINALLY - FOR A TEAM - ARE  YOU INTERESTED?  ONE FOR THE FALL AND ONE FOR THE SPRING!!!!

 

 

 

 

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Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

                                                                                by Robert Louis Stevenson