Another day.

From Neil: Hello everyone. Lora and Daniel are asleep right now. It has been a tough day for us emotionally and spiritually today. We have filled you in on the details of our days but their is so much else that goes on and is hard to put into words. This city is very dark and depressing. It is very damp and cold here now and it almost always looks like it is dusk. Even when the sun is out it is still hidden behind a gray cloud of pollution. This area is very strange as well. Since it is close to the borders of Russia, India, Afghanistan and the other "stans" there is a heavy Muslim population here. What is strange is that there is a Mosque just a few blocks from here but no churches (that are visable). However, in our hotel they are playing Christmas music and some of the songs they are playing include Silent Night, Holy Night and Joy to the World. All this in a Communist country with Buddhism as it's main religion. Since there are different ethnic groups here you can sometimes see 3 different languages on some if the business signs. There is always Chinese, but then there will be an Arabic dialect and then a Slavic looking one as well. Since it is so cold here most of the more touristy things are closed so we only get out of the hotel a couple of times a day. Our guide has taken us to a couple of parks and today we did go to a park that had a Buddhist temple in it. We also went out to shop for some white jade. Our guide has been really helpful and I know she is trying hard but there just isn't a whole lot to do at this time of the year. The other frustrating part about Xinjiang is that it is an autonomous region and not a province. As such, they go by a different time standard than Beijing. Instead of starting their days at 8 a.m. they start at 10 a.m. and then end it at around 7 p.m. This is throwing our schedule with Daniel way out of whack because their lunch times and dinner times are 2 hours later than what he (and we) are used to so it has been another hurdle to jump over. But even in the midst of all this things really are going well with Daniel. He really is very smart and picks things up quickly. He talks the ear off of our guide and she has been impressed (or maybe annoyed) with the questions he will ask her. We know that this has been hard on him as well but he is doing good under the circumstances. We know that without your prayers that this would be even harder than it is. Thank you so much for standing in the gap for us. We love you all and can't wait to get home.