December 6.  Weather still cold.  Morale is still good, but M&M supply is dwindling.  Have hidden last bag under my bedroll in hopes of survival.  Still optimistic that resupply ship will arrive before we starve...

Ok, it's not really that bad.  In fact, you can buy quite a lot of American-type food (including M&M's) at the markets.  Last night we made a spaghetti for dinner and Jon and Mary Lou joined us at our apartment. They met a Peace Corps guy (Warren) at the bakery and brought him along too.  He is from Seattle and has been living in Uralsk for 18 months. He gave us a lot of insight into the culture, the locals, and had recommendations about where to go in town. Warren actually claims to have ridden on the Ferris wheel in Kirov Park.  We were mighty impressed!  He told us that many of the recent improvements to the city (a beautiful new soccer stadium, new streets in some places) are funded by oil money from the USA and Great Britian. There are oil people (we met a very drunk Brit one night at the Chagala who told us about the project)  here who are working on a pipeline outside the city. There are many grand private residences being built among the shanties. While the stadium is a notable exception, the wealth appears to be concentrated. It is shame because this city could really use some public works projects.  In particular, the shanties don't generally have running water (people haul large milk jugs or buckets to corner pumps), and the natural gas lines run above ground.  When we walk the back streets, we marvel at the piping - it looks like the kid's card game of "Waterworks" as the pipes jog up to cross a driveway, then back down on the other side, cut left to get around a tree, split to enter a house, etc.  

Some of the wealth has trickled down.  Warren told us that the selection in the markets has dramatically improved in the time that he has been here.  For example, until recently, you could not buy steaks - animals weren't butchered so much as bludgeoned.  Truly!  We've had a couple of meals where the meat is just kind of pulverized together with the bone.  Very strange.  Cell phones didn't exist in the city two years ago, but now Warren has to tell his students (he teaches English at a local school) to turn their phones off.  And many of the residents dress very fashionably.  But there is still tremendous poverty.  On several of his runs, Steve has seen people digging in the garbage for food.  We can certainly survive without our M&M's.

*"Cold beer, please"