Jen here. Today we had our interview with the minister of education (who turns out to be a mathematician - so we had it easy). It was quite routine and we were prepared for the questions beforehand by Olga (she is the local representative of our agency) and our translator.  We also visited twice with Benjamin Aidos who was happy (but not ecstatic) to see us. When we arrive the children in Aidos's group all run to the gate (the playroom is closed off with a baby gate) calling "Adios mama! Aidos papa!" Aidos plays with us for an hour or so and then he rejoins his group and everyone shouts "Paca! Paca!" (Bye bye in Russian).

I wanted to show you a couple pictures so you get a feel for the city of Uralsk. These pictures are absolutely typical of scenes here. It is stark and gray and flat and I'm sure it is incredibly muddy when the ground isn't frozen. As far as I can see, everyone lives either in a decaying high rise apartment building or a shanty made of whatever pieces he or she could find. Many people have no running water - we see people lugging big tin pails of water. There are packs of dogs and huge flocks of noisy crows all over the place. It is a harsh place to live especially in winter. However, the people treat us well, we are comfortable,  and the children in the babyhouse make us laugh every day.

Steve here. I have been able to do a little bit of running here in town.  Mostly, the schedule favors doing that in the morning.  It's what I'm used to, and we usually run errands or meet people in between our two visits, and after the afternoon visit, it's a bit too dark.  We also had a strong warning from some Americans who are a couple of weeks ahead of us in the process about "standing out" too much.  But I feel perfectly safe if I run relatively early (7:00 am).  It's still dark out, but at that time, trouble will be in bed for the night.  (I should also point out that at no time yet on our trip have I ever felt unsafe).  I mostly stick to the street outside our hotel.  It's wide and has a nice sidewalk and I can run it for several miles.

A couple of days ago, I did run in the afternoon, up to a wooded park that follows one of the rivers in town.  There are several short trails through birch groves and people were out walking with their children or dogs.   On the river's shore there was an abandoned fishing boat - it was big (maybe 35-40') and had been stripped of all its useful parts.  It was pretty much just a corroding shell.  Somebody had painted "Титаник"* on the bow.  Get it? :-) 

There was also a small amusement park with several rides.   I think that it must have been a really pretty spot at one time.  However, like most of the rest of town, it looked tired.  The Ferris wheel was a rusting hulk and the bumper cars were decaying alongside and in the river.  It made me sad.  There has been a fair bit of time for reading while we've been here, and one of the things that I've been working on is Stephen King's "Gunslinger" series.   (Please, no comments from the "literati".)  The story is about a man who is trying to fix what is wrong in his world (and in all worlds) by finding a Dark Tower.  His world was once a place of great marvels, more advanced than our own in some ways, but now, it's mostly just falling apart.  When King describes this place, he says, "The World has moved on." It strikes me as a remarkably apt way of describing Uralsk.

So far our trip has been a great adventure!  In spite of the challenges it faces, the town offers us so much.  All the people we have met have been wonderfully friendly and helpful.  We've had fun eating out at the local restaurants.  And of course, the town has given us one of its precious children.

* "Titanic" - If your browser doesn't support the cyrillic alphabet, you probably just got gibberish there - sorry!