Saturday, October 3, 2009

We were invited to a hospital that would take us 500 miles from where we live. A 10 hour bus ride in the middle of nowhere, southwest of Astana, to a village called Zhairem, of about 5,000 people.The hospital serves about 10,000 people. There is a big mining operation in the area that mines several precious metals. A few miles from the village we saw a herd of camels, the first camels we have seen here. The people told us that there are quite a few herds of camels in the area. The roads were very bad and the bus averaged only about 50mph. The driver would drive in the middle of the road but when someone passed him he had to move over to his side and it is all broken up. so he was constantly going back and forth on hte road, which made ofr a very interesting bus ride. we had 1 pit stop at a farm house that had been turned into a restraunt. we looked at the food and we weren't to interested in it but our translator wanted us to buy her some food. We ate some candy bars and crackers we had brought. It was 4pm when we got to the village. we called the hospital and they sent a nurse in an ambulance to pick us up. They use their ambulance like a taxi when not in other use. We have seen other hospitals do the same. This has been about our 4th ambulance ride, so when an ambulance goes to get us we aren't surprised. When we got to the hospital they introduced us to the staff and fed us. They took us on a grand tour of the hospital and showed us every patient and told us that none of the patients wanted to be missed. we took pics of every person in the hospital. They said to have two Americans to come way out here to see them was something that had never happened before. we talked about things they want and need for the hospital and then they took us to another and fed us a big meal. The surgeon of the hospital, a great hospital invited us to come to his house and meet his family and when it was time he would take us to the bus station at 9pm for our bus ride back home. We spent over an hour at his home with his wonderful family. We thought this family would make great members of the church, they don't drink, or smoke and had strong moral standards. If only we could have taught them the gospel. We are forbidden to teach the gospel. We caught our bus ride at the station which is in the middle of a field in the dark for our 10 hour ride back home. In the middle of the night the bus did a pit stop in the middle of a small village. Jack jumped off the bus to find a restroom, on his way back to the bus a policeman stopped him and wanted to know what Jack was doing there in the middle of the night. He thought Jack was stealing something and wouldn't let him go back to the bus. Jack thought he was going to miss the bus. He knew the bus driver wouldn't wait for him, but every time Jack started to go to the bus the policeman would stop him. All Jack could say is english and american. the police finally asked for papers. We are told to carry our papers with us all the time. So Jack pulled his papers out of his wallet, the policeman looked at the papers and gave them back and said Jack could go. Jack ran to the bus and got on just before it was leaving. We got back home at 8am the next morning. What an adventure we had. It was awesome.
Posted by Shaws at 8:59 PM 0 comments