"Thank your parents for me..."

Hi! It’s Andy in Almaty having an amazing time, of course! Today, my group worked with a woman named Valentina who lives alone in her apartment in the city. At the start of the morning, Valentina seemed tired and unhappy. She had to keep lying down. After a while, I tried to speak Russian to her, and she seemed pleased, so, with the amazing help of Perry, we started asking her questions about her life. Valentina told us that she was a doctor for 40 years. In 2001, she was diagnosed with cancer and had to stop working to begin her chemotherapy. Because she went into early retirement, she only receives a pension of $100 a month- an impossibly small amount of money to live on. I was so upset to find out that a woman that dedicated her life to helping others could retire with such dismal circumstances. She has almost no family nearby, and has little in the way of companionship while dealing with such terrible problems. Without her daughter, Valentina probably would not be able to survive. Her daughter sends her a lot of money to help pay for her expenses. She moved to South Africa six years ago, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her daughter, who is now thirty, received fourth place in the last Olympics for pole-vaulting! Valentina was so proud of her daughter’s successes. She seemed pleased by all of the questions, and urged us to ask more. Of course, the conversation was broken up by bouts of cleaning (we washed windows, scrubbed floors and hung curtains) but eventually the chat moved to the kitchen, where we sat down for tea and bread and cheese. As the only Americans in our work group, Valentina looked at Derek and me with a lot of curiosity, it seemed. She asked us a lot of questions about ourselves. She wanted to know what we study, if we cook and about our Judaism. She asked us about American politics, drugs in America and how we like Kazakhstan. Likewise, we kept asking her opinions on Kazakhstan. She did not seem pleased with the government politics and the way they are running the country. However, she was emphatic about how much she loved healthcare in Kazakhstan. I had heard a lot of negative views about the healthcare system in Kazakhstan. So, I was surprised when, a cancer patient no less, was really pleased with medicine in the country. The long talk we had with Valentina was great. She kept praising us for our good work and how nice it was for us to visit her. But, I think the best part of the morning was when she said to us, “When you go home, thank your parents for me. They raised you very well, that you come all the way to Kazakhstan to help us. You are very good kids.” Valentina is very lucky that she has a daughter who supports her. But, I’ve heard a lot of stories from other groups about Hesed clients whose children passed away before them. With such small pensions that most people receive, it’s hard to imaging how these people survive.

On a lighter note, we’re going to the observatory tonight. Hopefully it won’t be cloudy, so we can see the stars!

Also, Ben G. looks like Harry Potter.