Birthday Party Continued....

I was hoping Joe could blog but right now he is teaching Alena and her friend Aigerim English. Much has happened since our last blog. We left the birthday party at the orphanage early because of the power outage and went to our translator's 27th birthday party. It was a great honor to be invited to go. The three families and our drivers were treated to a feast. There were all kinds of salads, nuts, candy, fruit, and meat pies. Plus they made Manty, which is a type of Kazak steamed dumpling, and horse sausage. Yes horse!

Kazaks were and in some places still are a nomadic people. The horse is a very important animal in the Kazak life. Very much like the buffalo is to native Americans.

Not only do they use the horse for transportation, but they raise horse as food as well. It is hard to think of eating horse meat but when in Rome!!!!!

So, as not to be rude, we all tried the horse sausage. Horse is just like roast beef! Seriously it is. I do not think I could eat it often, as I like horses way to much. Just give me chicken anyday!!!

As in other parts of Asia, elders are held in great esteem. This is a custom I
personally like very much. Elders have so much to teach us and as a middle age woman, I wouldn't mind being revered as I get older, ha-ha!!!!!

Zhanara, our interpreter, has an older aunt who is in her 60's. She looked older than my parents but was about their age. When she came in the door, everyone paused. She gave the prayer and toasted Zhanara. Joe got up and made a toast, acknowledging the aunt of course, and the aunt was very pleased. Later on Zhanara told me that she thought Joe was a very handsome American. She did not know American men could be handsome and she was surprised! You go Joe! I have never been so proud!

After we ate we did the traditional Asian party game..... Kareoke! Zhanara loves to sing. So we spent the next few hours singing kareoke. When you finish a song you get a score. We all ended up singing and I think Jameson got 100 on one of his songs!

The Power continued to go on and off but we had a wonderful time.

On Saturday. We broke from our routine to get Alena her passport picture. This has been the first tangible thing we have done towards getting her home. We hope and pray that we get a quick court date. We are anxious to get home.

I better go. Thanks for takin g the time to visit our blog. We love knowing that you visit. We shall update soon.

Love,
Joe, Kelly, Jonathan, Jameson, and Alena