My new host family was tremendous, mostly due to the unceasing efforts of the matriarch, Turimzhan. An indomitable widow who has 5 children and 7 grandchildren, it was Turimzhan's kindness that enabled me to join her family in the first place. Although she was not initially on the list of potential host families, she adopted Andrew after something went wrong with his first family. This meant that her oldest son, Murat, was no longer able to live in his room, but instead slept on the floor outside it, and that her grandson spent his nightson the sofa in the living room. Then, when Andrew's sad decision to go home came and Amantai asked if she would be willing to rescue me as well, she unselfishly decided to keep the cramped living quarters for three more weeks.

From youngest to oldest, the people who slept at her house were Mohammed (grandson - 9), Zhanna (daughter - 21), me, Murat (son - 31). Mohammed and I spent a great deal of time playing war (the card game that lasts as long as my childhood swim meets did), balancing an umbrella on various fingers, wrestling, and finally practicing solving a Rubik's cube. Since in Kazakh families age is revered over anything else, Mohammed spent a lot of his time doing small chores for the adults, like fetching cell phones, grabbing food from the refrigerator, or putting things away. He also seemed to get yelled at a lot for not doing his homework, but I think that's just a condition of childhood. At any rate, Mohammed and I had great deal of fun together.

Next in the line came Zhanna, a very intelligent girl who just graduated from university and works as a computer programmer in Almaty. This means that she gets to borrow her older brother's car and make the hour long commute on the treacherous Kazakh roads 5 times per week. The few times I got to share this experience with her I was quite impressed with her skills, and even more impressed that she had so far survived. Zhanna spent a great deal of her time looking at her reflection in whatever surface she could find, a habit which I tried to make fun of every chance I got.

Why Murat is still single and living at home is a mystery to me. He works in the IT department at a bank about 15 minutes away from the apartment, and is eternally joyful and helpful. Unlike the other males whom I've seen in Kazakhstan, Murat doesn't shy away from making food, doing his ironing, cleaning the dishes, or taking care of his laundry. Perhaps it's because he's older, but I like to think it is because he inherited Turimzhan's kindness gene. Murat is also constantly laughing and joking, which is a trait that I find quite agreeable. Zhanna and I spent more than one night wondering why so many Kazakh girls are married to drunken losers and gentlemen like Murat are still single.

Finally, we come to Turimzhan. In addition to keeping the household running smoothly, Turimzhan teaches elementary school classes 6 days per week and is writing a 3rd grade mathematics textbook in Kazakh. I'm pretty sure that the woman never sleeps, as the two times that I happened to walk through the living room between midnight and 5 am, she was up at the computer typing out her textbook. Whereas my previous host family saw the modest sum I was giving them as income and attempted to feed me as cheaply as possible, I'm convinced that Turimzhan sought to spend the entire allotment and more on food just for me. A typical lunch (which she insisted on packing for me since the few times I tried myself I didn't achieve her gold standard) consisted of a triple-decker sandwich, an apple, an orange, a bag of cookies and crackers and candies, a milk box, and a tupperware container with some sort of entree. Additionally, I could not get away with eating less than two helpings at any meal. By some genetic mishap that if studied and made available in pill form would certainly collapse the entire diet industry, I was unable to turn this increased consumption into any weight gain, so Turimzhan continued to insist that I eat more. Although she did allow me to do my own laundry and ironing, which I appreciated, she made sure that Murat and Zhanna were there to help me if I needed to buy something, had a Kazakh question, or simply was looking lonely.

I'm eternally grateful to this wonderful family, regret that I was unable to spend more time with them, and sincerely hope that I have learned a thing or two about generosity from them and can pay it forward in the future.