Sadly, our time in Ustkamen had to come to an end. We woke up semi-early Sunday morning to be driven to the train station by our new friend, the pastor. We had purchased some sweets the previous night at Kazakhstan's version of Sam's Club to give to him and his family as a thank-you for all their driving and planning efforts on our behalf. They are an incredibly sweet and funny family, we look forward to seeing them again someday and hearing all about how they served our Lord.
The train ride back to Almaty was an improvement over the previous for several reasons. A temperature drop of about 25 degrees F, windows that lowered and our guide was able to get a berth in the same room as us to help translate for us. The ride was uneventful except for perhaps the most stunning sunset we have ever seen, and we're casting this in context of both Hawaii and the Carribean. We only put up four pictures because there were way too many to upload them all, so here's a taste. :D
The train commute lasted until 9AM Monday morning so when
we arrived, we were on the tired side. 
Our host picked us up and gave us a ride back to his flat. Due to the temporary weirdness of their family life, Megan and I decided that it would be best if we did all we could to remove ourselves from even the possibility of being a burden on them. We walked to a local grocery store and bought food to last us until Friday night when we were to depart the country. Guests never cook for themselves in Kazakhstan, but such was the need of the family that they uncomfortably understood the benefit of not having to worry about us. This added to our gratitude that they still let us stay in one of the rooms. It also gave us an excellent opportunity to pray for them and for them to be able to know that they had at least that support. It forced them to be a lot more transparent than they probably would have been otherwise and let us, their foreign brother and sister, love and help them in the small ways we could.
Our host picked us up and gave us a ride back to his flat. Due to the temporary weirdness of their family life, Megan and I decided that it would be best if we did all we could to remove ourselves from even the possibility of being a burden on them. We walked to a local grocery store and bought food to last us until Friday night when we were to depart the country. Guests never cook for themselves in Kazakhstan, but such was the need of the family that they uncomfortably understood the benefit of not having to worry about us. This added to our gratitude that they still let us stay in one of the rooms. It also gave us an excellent opportunity to pray for them and for them to be able to know that they had at least that support. It forced them to be a lot more transparent than they probably would have been otherwise and let us, their foreign brother and sister, love and help them in the small ways we could.
Tuesday gave us the opportunity to spend most of the day withEldos and his middle daughter by visiting a couple of the big bazaars in Almaty. He originally hadn't planned on bringing her, but after having been gone from home with us in Ustkamen for almost 4 days, she started to cry that morning when he was going to be gone again for even part of a day. She was really sweet but really intimidated by us. Hard as we tried, we couldn't coax a smile out of her until we paid a small sum for her to have 10 minutes in a bounce house. Watching her face light up as she played with another little girl was probably the highlight of the day. The bazaars were busy and chaotic, just what you might imagine. We bought some sweet pointy-toed house shoes for ourselves as well as some little souvenirs for co-workers and family. In between the two bazaars, about a 10 minutes walk, we felt like we had been transported back to the 1970s because there were real live Hare Krishna handing out copies of their book and talking to people. Apparently my (Ben) accent is so terrible that when I said "No, thank you" to one of them in Russian he immediately asked me "Where are you from?" (in English). I kept walking but then kinda regretted the opportunity to talk with the guy since he spoke my language.
Next up, a trip to Eldos' village, hiking in the Tien Shan mountains and meeting with a couple of Americans (one sane and one maybe not so much :D)
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