Wednesday morning, we met Eldos at the East-West office at a little before 10AM. Since we couldn't use the internet at Nurzhan's flat, they let us log on to a computer there so we could check e-mail and facebook :D At 10, he drove us to the old CALTC (seminary) office building to meet with an American who was about to move his family back to East Asia. They had been living in Kazakhstan for a little over a decade doing ministry, but were looking forward to returning to their previous field. He is with an agency we had heard of but hadn't encountered yet in our travels, so we had the unique opportunity to get his perspective on the organization. We felt that although they do great works all over the world, their style wasn't a good fit for our giftings or comfort levels. It was great getting to talk with a native English speaker, though, since the ex-pat we met in Ust had been our only other source in a week and a half.
After meeting with him, Eldos picked us up and we headed OUT into the country towards his village for lunch. They live over an hour outside Almaty and there we got to experience yet again, the "real" Kazakhstan. His brother had built the house for him a little over 3 years ago, but the electricity just got wired about 2 years ago and the plumbing still isn't connected. His wife (pregnant with #4) and their niece had prepared an excellent lunch for us and we enjoyed just interacting in their family life. We were driven back to Almaty late that afternoon and were planning on an evening to ourselves since Nurzhan & family were away. Then, I made the phone call.
One of the plans that had been laid down for us was to meet with another American named Andy, who helped run a ministry for recovering alcoholics. Nurzhan told us, "He is not normal", but coming from a shy Kazakh, we didn't really know what that meant. OH, we found out :D I called the phone number I had for him, a man answered and I asked, "May I speak with Andy, please?" The man replied, "Nope, sorry. He's gone back to Colorado." "Oh", I said. "Do you know..." then the man interrupted, "Nah, I'm just kidding. This is Andy." It was on. He and I immediately fell into a comfortable male verbal-abuse style phone conversation. Sound hostile and unloving? It really wasn't, because he is the living definition of ornery and brought out the best (or worst) of my streak. It was great! We met him at a brand new shopping mall a couple miles from our flat and just enjoyed hanging out with him. He is a recovering addict himself, so he can really speak intimately into the lives of the men he ministers to. We agreed to get together for lunch again on Friday before we left the country.
Thursday, Eldos and his eldest daughter, Malika, met us at the East-West office from where we planned to drive up into the Tien Shan mountains. Almaty sits at the base of that range and you can see their snow-capped peaks from everywhere in the city. One of the things Kazakhs have to boast about is the world's highest ice-skating rink, called the Medeu. The city is hosting the 2011 Asian games, so all along the drive we saw road construction and other physical improvements being done in preparation. The Medeu itself was shut down for the renovation it was undergoing. Behind it, you can see a looooong stairway that leads up to a scenic view. Eldos said, "We can climb that if you want." Like an idiot I said, "Sure!" I've never climbed so many stairs in my life, it was like the scene in Kill Bill where Pai Mei made Beatrix run up and down all those stairs with the water buckets suspended from a pole on her back. I didn't have the water buckets, but I think we climbed more stairs. Halfway to the top, I almost quit, but the fact that I was the only one struggling made me not want to be left behind. I told the others to not worry about me, that I would make it but at a much slower pace. I did :D At the top we saw a guy pull up in his car and pull a golden eagle out of his trunk for photo opps. Oh yeah, he kept a LIVE golden eagle in the back of his hatchback. Crazy. Going down was a lot easier than going up, even though our legs started to feel like jelly and the odds of falling were greatly increasing.
Our last day in Kazakhstan was mostly uneventful. We finished up the laundry we started the night before and Andy came over to help us eat the rest of the food we had purchased earlier in the week. He has been in the country now for almost two years and is looking forward to his first furlough this fall sometime. Nurzhan wasn't able to take us to the airport, but his brother-in-law had agreed to do so. He spoke no English, but with the typical hand-gestures and repeat the same phrases the other person doesn't understand 10 times, we were able to communicate, more or less. We made our flight without any trouble (though leaving the country isn't something they make easy-peasy) and landed safely in Seoul the next morning.
Kinda an abrupt way to end this long post, but that was how it was completed for us. God was beyond incredible to us the whole trip, and I do plan on one more post to synthesize our whole journey and where we think He is taking us next on this grand adventure of a lifetime.
