These next few pics are pics of some of the children taking an afternoon nap in their beds. They have just had their lunch and they like them to have a little nap in the afternoon.Their beds are so unusal that is why we took pictures of them. this hospital/orphanage is extremely clean and well taken care of. They have a staff of about 160 people. The doctor has lead the way to make this one of the best hospitals in the country for orphans.

This is Dr. Serik Bupezhanov. He is a champion. He invited us to tour his hospital that he is incharge of. The church has helped them in the past and he wants more help. He is in the process of remodeling. He has about 174 children in the hospital, they are orphans. Most of these children, the parents have abandoned. they are all mentally or physically handicapped. they range from 3 to 18 years old in age. 55% are boys and 45% are girls. Alot of them are very severly handicapped.

This pic is Kamka. she is an angel. She is the head of one of the NGO in this area. She has dedicated her life to working with the handicapped. She has 2 deaf children of her own. she went to the govt. and ask for their help and they said they couldn't help her so she organized her own deaf school and now the govt. likes what she has done and wants to help.The school has grown to over 100 students, and she is working for other handicapped children's development.

As we were leaving the circus we took this pic of this handicapped boy in his wheelchair. On the back of the wheelchair it says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. the church did a wheelchair project here about 2 years ago. And this is one of those wheelchairs.

This is a pic of a camel. the first one we have seen in this country. We were invited to a circus and during intermission they brought out this camel for the children to ride. the circus was great and was from Moscow. It was in a huge circus building that on the outside it looks like a UFO, flying saucer the building is just for the circus when it comes to town.

this pic is our translator, Mira with a mask on. A few days ago some Kazak children came back from a foreign country to Astana and brought in the swine flu. so you see people all over the city wearing a mask. Everytime someone has the swine flu here they put out an alert and everyone who can puts on a mask. It has been going on for 4 days now. only about one fourth wear a mask. we don't.

This is a young couple we talked with on the bus. we ride a bus everywhere we go. they spoke a little English but wanted to know more. they were asking for our phone number as we were getting off and we missed an opportunity to invite them to our English class. we will carry cards in our pockets now so we don't miss the opportunities.

This pic is Jack, Pamela, SisterFrances Holmes and Elder John Holmes in our apt. after church. The Holmes are the Area Huminatarian Managers and are visiting us for 5 days. there are 20 couples like us in the East Europe Area they are responsible for.

The other visitor was Nadezhda, from Pavlodar, a city about 300 miles away. Her project will be 250 wheelchairs plus crutchs, and walkers she has been waiting for since May. She is a amazing lady. She is over 70 yrs. old. she has spent her life working with the handicap. what a saint. the project still won't be done for another couple of months. they just started making the chairs in China. Then they have to go through customs which will be a headache.

Last Saturday we had two visitors, one was Klyzyulgul. she is an NGO, her project was approved a few days ago. she works with deaf young adults and wants to set up training for the deaf to learn to be hairdressers. the church is going to buy the equipment for her. She will train 10 people every 2 months. she has 50 right now wanting the training.

This pic is a pic of Pam in front of the Presidental Palace, kind of like the white house. It covers over 100 acres of flowers, trees, ponds, fountains, etc. It is a new beautiful building.

We are crossing another bridge of the Isylm River. they have animals on every bridge, one on each side and at each end a total of 4.This is Jack standing by the ram bridge. the other animal bridge is a wild stallion. there are a couple other bridges, we will see what other animals there are.

About a month ago Pam lost part of her tooth because it needed a filling in it and we knew it needed to be fixed. we remembered seeing this place. so late one afternoon we decided to stop by and see if they would fix it. they said they would fix it for 5000 tenge we said ok, she went back in the room and came back with a new filling. It took about 45 minutes. so far so good. That is $35.

As we was headed to the busstop Pam wanted us to take a pic of this car. when we are away from the city this is the kind of car we see most of. they say they are Russian built and make a real funny sound like they are going to fall apart when theygo by you.they are very common in the smaller towns in the country.

The last pic and the next three pics are pics of a mosque that is at one end of this monument area to the left. A big beautiful building. we went inside but first we had to take off our shoes and Pamela had to cover her head. they had a few spare scarfs inside so Jack went inside and got one for her.

these next pics are us walking around on the ground in the monument area. look at the beautiful flowers in Kazak designs also the buildings that surround this area. this is a showcase of the city. there are still buildings being built around here.This is all new in the last 6 years.

up inside the big ball in the center there a man's handprint incased in bronze on a pedstal. it is exactly in the center of the ball. everyone takes pics of their hand in the print. and here is Jack with his hand in the imprint.

Mira told us about an area of the city to go see. so this morning we went sightseeing. The tower with the big ball on it is in a big area surrounded by tall beautiful buildings. It is in a monumental area with flower gardens and water fountains. we went to the top and took a panoramic view of the city.

The reason we took this picture is because there were only 3 men out of 50 people in the 1st city and 3 men out of 74 people in the 2nd city, that were doctors taking the training. there are very many more women doctors in this country than men doctors. Look how young most of them look. most of the women doctors look very young too.

This is Dr. Alyia doing a traing practical session with a baby maniquin with 6-8 people around her table learning.

This is a picture of Dr. Mark Underwood teaching in English and Svetlana translating for him in Russian. She is a translator employed by the church, and is also a member of the church. She is very good at what she does.The doctors really like her to translator for them.

This is a picture of Jack and Pamela and George and Marci Bennett, and Mark Underwood, standing by a statue of an angel holding 2 babies. they are the doctors that came from SLC to do the NRT.

These are the three doctors that flew here from Almaty last Sunday the 5th who helped teach the NRT in Karaganda. Dr. Aylia, Dr. Bectorgan, and Dr. Zarina. we had to entertain them for a few hours until our van came to take us to Karaganda.

this is a picture of Pamela and Osheen, he has a fruit and vegetable stand very close to our apt. we buy our fruit and veggies from him rather than the grocery store. we have made good friends with him. he speaks no English and we speak no Russian but yet we have no problem buying our fruit and veggies from him.

The Kazak people lost their early culture when Russia took their lands over and held the hostage until 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up and the nation of Kazakhstan was created. Their are very proud of their new nation and an opportunity to show off their culture. It is very obvious of this. this is Jack standing by an early Kazak warrior