In this pic there is a famous stone. When we were coming close to it an enterprising young man rushed up to us and said,"Do you want to know about this stone?" and the people with us said, "how much do we have to pay you?" He said,"let me tell you my story and you decide how much." He proceeded to tell us about this rock. He said three kings ruled Kazakhstan but one of the three was the main king. An invading country wanted to take them over. the main king said if we all came together we can save our country. so the other 2 kings gave him command over all the armies and met at this spot with their armies, where the main king rallied the armies with his speech on this rock at this place, and they prevailed. the young man also said that if you walked around this rock seven times and made a wish that legend says your wish will come true. We paid the young man pretty good, he also had a stash of goodies, soda, popcoen, and candy, that we could purchase any of if we wanted. He looked to be between 12 and 15 years old and had a thriving business. Of course we walked around the rock seven times.

These are the pople who invited us up to the resort and to do a power point training on the Family Enrichment Program. from l eft to right-Murat, Alma, Pamela, Jack, Kamka, our champion and angel, Ramazan-Kamka's husband, and Mira in front.

Sat. morning they took us for a drive about 30 miles away to what they call Borovoye. In this pic there is a tower over looking a Lake Kapau which represents the Kazak symbols on top, a golden eagle, and their flag symbol.

This pic is inside the resort, the pools are empty in this pic and the resort is only about one third full because it is so late in the year and it is so cold. The days were absolutely beautiful while we were there. In the morning there was frost on the ground, and they only heat the main building. The room we stayed in was very cold but we slept with lots of blankets. No hot water and the shower was ice cold, but we didn't mind. we were very happy to be there to see the beautiful landscape with the trees and mts.

On Friday Sept. 18,09, we went to a resort which is north about 4 hours, close to the russian border. This is the front gate to the resort. The words say the resort by the lake. there is a nice lake about half a mile away. Everything in Kazakhstan is fenced off and has a guard house. It is a tradition left over from the russian empire. Our apt. bldg. is fenced off and has a guard house.

This is a Christian church that is being restored to what it looked like before the Russians destroyed all the Christian churchs in the 1930's and 1940's When we first got here they were at the very beginning of the restoration. they have come along ways in 3 months.This city has 2 Christian churchs in it of 700,000 people.