We were there at the lunch from 1-5:30 pm. When we got ready to leave they didn't want us to go. It took us 30 minutes to get to the door. It was one of the sweetest events we have been to.

At this lunch there was alot of singing, dancing, and speechs. The last two hours we were there there was dancing going on for everybody. They all seemed to want to dance with us. We did our best to dance with as many as we could. This lady was a very beautiful woman and as we danced with her there were tears in her eyes and her fathers eyes and in ours.

Pavlodar is near the Russian border. There were alot of Russian older women at the lunch that sang to us, and prounced blessings upon us. This particular woman was 85 years young and she blessed us with long life, good health, and happiness. The other Russian women did the same.

There was alot of food we just couldnot identify all of it. there were three glasses to drink out of. Soon as we got our plate cleaned up they brought more food of some kind.

At 1:00 pm they served a huge banquet where we were honored guests. There were alot of important people and people who had recieved wheelchairs. Nadezhda, in the center is the lady we worked with on this project.

This is a pic of the media interviewing us about LDS Charities(which we represent) and they were filming the presentation of these wheelchairs. This was later broadcast on the tv news throughtout Kazakhstan.

This is the third group who were brought in from outside villages. This group is very activity. This is where the formal closing ceremony took place. There were alot of people to witness these people get their wheelchairs.

This second group, several small children this size received wheelchairs and accompanied by their parents. The parents were so grateful.

This is the sedcond group-it consists of children and young adults. The ones in this pic sang to us and we entered the room. We stopped and listened. After we were introduced they sang us another song"Childhood". It literally brought us to tears.

Mira, our regular translator coulnot go with us so she got a friend, Aizhon went with us. she was fabulous and is getting married Christmas day. She said, "this is the most impressive thing I have ever seen".

There were 3 different groups of the organization that received wheelchairs. This 1st group are the elderly in an assisted living. between 30-50 wheelchairs were given here.

This is a closing of the Pavlodar(a city 350 miles NE) Wheelchairs. Where 250 chairs were given to an organization by the church. This is Victor the director of "Optimist". He is taking the wheelchairs out of the boxs and setting them up. This closing took all day long, we enjoyed it.

After the grand tour they took us to a room where a table of refreshments were served. Alot of fruit, some sardines on bread, and caviore(fish eggs) on top of bread, and juice or water.

In this pic is a blood pressure mointor that the church gave them. The church gave them two of them plus, a glucometer, and electrocardiograph.

In this pic we are in a room they sometimes use for surgery and this is the gynaecology chair the church gave them with a portable lamp. Pictured assistant, dept. head doc, Pam, Jack Aiman, and Mira(our translator).

After the ceremony in which Jack spoke a few words and everybody thanked everybody they took us on a tour to view the equipment that was given by the church. In this pic we are in the intensive care room where an aspirator was being used on a patient, that the church had given them. Also there were 3 other patients who were very sick.

At 9 am on Nov 9 we went to Hospital 1 for a closing ceremony. we were just a little late and they rushed us right into a room of 50 doctors who were waiting to thank us for the hospitla equipment that the church had given them. Pictured are the dept. head doc(who we worked with), the head doc of the whole hospital, and 2 other docs who teach and work with the other doctors.

Last week Nathan and his wife Heather Jones and Desmond age 6 and Zoe age 3 came to visit and go to church here. Enjoyed their company. They are from Pavlodar-350 miles NE.