After Home Church with Nathan

We had not seen him since we left in June of 2020.

It was great to hear about his summer working at Mt. Rushmore!  He realized his dream of traveling to America and hopes to do it again next summer.

Fall Across Three Countries

Maggie found some corn somewhere outside the midwest Chicagoland bustle.

With her roommates from Wheaton College.

Johanna beamed into our Sunday night dinner from Germany.

She even ate with us!  Her lunch time is our dinner, six hours apart.

And she also gets our of their little village and into the country with dorm sisters.

 

Mongolian coal drivers stuck at Chinese border

A long line of trucks outside the tiny coal town of Tsagaan Khad has been reduced to a trickle, held up by China and Mongolia’s strict coronavirus measures, leaving the drivers stranded without pay or company. Some 3,500 increasingly wretched drivers have been quarantined in camps of 40 people while they wait.

B.Undrakh told AFP he spent 42 days waiting without making a delivery, having been quarantined outside capital Ulaanbaatar after one member of his group tested positive. After returning to Tsagaan Khad, the 43-year-old faced another 28 days of waiting. On the Chinese side, they are not allowed out of their cabs, or even to open windows.

Drivers are tested for Covid-19 in Mongolia then bussed over the Chinese border in masks and hazmat suits, where they undergo yet another test.

Mongolia’s vast South Gobi province is home to 12 billion tonnes of coal reserves — a key supplier to Chinese iron ore smelters. Last year, Mongolia exported over 35 million tonnes of coking coal to China — this year so far is less than a third of that.

But now many drivers are considering finding other work. There is already a shortage of drivers, with numbers down by around half according to Tsagaan Khad officials, and the impact on the small town has been devastating.

The main street is empty, with canteens and shops closed. Strict virus measures are necessary to keep trade flowing, officials say.  https://news.mn/en/796391/ 2021-10-22 Source: Agence France-Press

Week Off School - Pizza Party - Fall Festival

Clara and Josiah get back to their routine of catching their taxi to school around sunrise.  Then they got this week off for fall break!

Our friends invited us to Pizza Hut to celebrate a 75th birthday!

The pizza was actually good, as was the company, and cheesecake!

Friend and National Alliance President Pastor Lxavga (Luke) 

visits our home after recovering from COVID.

Johanna visits a fall festival with her dorm sisters in Germany.

Fall Scenes from Ulaanbaatar

Josiah wakes up with the city one Saturday morning

View of city from the Zaisan Monument, which marks Soviet and Mongolia era.

View of city over the Tuul River between sprawling traffic.

Another view from our 15th floor window; you can see a ribbon of smoke above buildings.

View of American School snow storm from September 29th

Clara Turns Fourteen!

Soon after returning to Mongolia and starting 8th grade,

Clara turned 14 last Friday!

She hosted a sleepover with her friends, but also wanted a 'family party'.

So we gathered around the table...

And the world...

with sisters from Illinois, Indiana, and Germany!

 

U.S. Sends More than 1 Million Doses of Pfizer Vaccines to Mongolia

 Good News from America

The United States sent nearly 900,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Mongolia.

The 899,730 doses, sent through COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing initiative co-led by Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), the WHO (World Health Organization) and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), are in addition to 188,370 doses of the Pfizer vaccine shipped to Mongolia in September. The U.S. has also provided more than $4 million to support the country’s pandemic response.

A low-income country bordered by vaccine-producing neighbors, China and Russia, Mongolia has been able to secure millions of vaccine doses largely through deals with Moscow and Beijing. It has administered at least 4,383,409 doses of COVID vaccines so far, according to its Ministry of Health. That’s enough for about 68% of the country’s population, assuming each person receives two doses.

Back in Ulaanbaatar

Jeremy's Birthday morning a blizzard type snowstorm blew in as a special gift.

Renee made his favorite apple pie.

And decorated it with a milestone number.

We arrived at Clara's school for the first day quite early, in part due to jet lag!

Then delivered Josiah into his class across the way.

Hurray for some of the few, if not only, Americans, at The American School of Ulaanbaatar!

Reentering Mongolia after COVID Evacuation

Third time's a charm! Here we are at the Cleveland Airport, getting dropped off by Renee's mom Ann in the church van. 

We got our bags unloaded and came back out for this final farewell. 

Then off to Detroit and Korea, where we caught some sleep on our 17 hour layover.

And into Ulaanbaatar on Monday morning September 27th.  Can you believe it was more than 15 months we were away!?