The Heap

Yergeldi's man-purse, which cracks me up.

Unfortunately yesterday Yergeldi's nice car broke down, so we had to ride in his second car, a much older and less comfortable ride. He told us in Russian that this is what it's REALLY like to be in Kazakhstan! Or at least that's what we think he said.

A beautiful view on the ride to Shchuchinsk.

A typical house on the outskirts of Shchuchinsk. The country is changing and growing, but the majority of people here are extremely poor. They make in a day what we make in half an hour. And that's the people who are paid very well.

So it was all fun and games in the car. We RACED down the road at a blistering 40mph. Then Yergeldi decided to take a shortcut, and so began the demise of the vehicle. The roads are similar to Costa Rica in their quality. We quickly bottomed out and lost something or other... was it the transmission? Hell if I know, but here is a picture of the sad car as we walked away. Yergeldi was pissed. He's a formidable man when he's angry!