:) That's "Happy New Year" in Russian!! I've been hearing it non-stop for about a week now.... since the people here don't celebrate Christmas (because its a Muslim country) their "Christmas" is really celebrated on New Years.... they buy cakes, give each other gifts, and honestly the whole city of Bishkek goes CRAZY with fireworks and alcohol and everything shuts down for a couple days for the whole town to party!! The firework show was incredible... there were fireworks in every direction lighting up the whole sky! It was beautiful.
My last day of 2008 was spent in an orphanage with handicap/mentally disabled orphans who were absolutely precious. Here are some pics from there... and also from working at this ministry called "TeenChallenge" which primarily took place on a farm right at the foot of the mountains, where we had a snowball fight:) ... and also from the first snowfall we had on the day after Christmas! :)
Eating lunch at the Teen Challenge Center.... the sweet guys served us a Kyrgyz dish called "Plov"... and culture is that its rude to not eat EVERYTHING they gave us.... but oh my gosh it was way too much food tho.
The GUYS even thought it was way too much food:) (And they're fattys.)
Precious little orphan kids
My Leader, Brandon, getting attacked by snowballs at the farm:)
Daniels hair-froze... the boys were in awe:)
Loving the pretty snowfall!!
Making Christmas cookies! :)
