A very laid back kind of day today- a few trips here and there but mostly sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, drinking tea, chatting and laughing. It was lovely to see Ben, who got back late last night but it was priceless to see Adah's reaction to him when she woke up this morning. She just couldn't believe that he was really here and was full of cuddles and smiles.
Spent a wonderful time of refreshing prayer together- shed more than a few tears.
We finally stirred from the apartment at lunchtime to go to the other local restaurant- unbelievably we ate even more delicious food. The specialty: 'the big plate of chicken', another spicy chicken dish, 8 treasure tea, salty beans and rice. Couldn't possibly eat it all but Beth was able to give the leftovers to the lady who minds her pram downstairs.
Headed into the city proper, and got a much better sense of exactly how big the city actually is and how fast the rate of expansion is. Today is the day of Corban, the day of atoning for sins via sacrifice in the Muslim calendar. We arrived too late in the afternoon at the biggest Mosque in the city to see any of the day, but we saw lots of action and bustle in the streets and people buying the fried bread that is taken to others on this day.
Back to the apartment for final tea, chats, dosing up on various medicines to combat a nasty flu virus and a takeaway pizza for dinner. Having learnt our lesson from the last train trip we were ready in heaps of time, and for last cuddles with Adah before she went to bed. Out to the station with Beth where we made some teary farewells.
Why is leaving never as fun as going somewhere? The train trip was not looking nearly as fun this time around, even though we were on the better soft sleeper beds. Two dour gentlemen were our cabin companions, none of the shared jokes from our trip here.
This time we were the ones tucked in early- the virus making us tired and ready for bed. Back to Beijing by morning...
