Thanksgiving in Mongolia

We gathered Friday night after school for great food with our mission family. Instead of turkey, we ate chicken, a rare delacacy here. It was even more special because it was American chicken! Someone found it in a store in the capital a month or so ago.

Everything was great, and yes, we are thankful for so many who make it possible for us to be here. And we're thankful to the One who 'gives every good gift'. 

Here's the newest development and latest view from our house.

 

A tough croud, you say?

I've talked to tougher ones. But having some experience in front of people is always nice when facing an intimidating audience. They were great listeners, even though they don't know the language I spoke in. One of the young guys from church, translated the little bit I said. They wanted to know how their place compared to American prisons, and what was different between the two countries. I got a resonating laugh when I mentioned some of vices that I was saved from. 

A new friend - 20 years old

 

"Mongolian Idol" - Visit to a Prison

This week I went to the local prison. It’s about 6 or 8 kilometers west of town. The dirt roads are smoother now glazed with ice, but still a little like riding a frozen sea.

We passed over our town’s frozen river on a long bridge. You could see footprints in the snow on the river where people chop through the ice to get fresh water. Sled tracks stretch up the bank and lead to a whole suburb of houses without phone, heat, or water.

Our little taxi negotiated the ice-glazed dirt road and delivered us to the guard house of the prison. The guards shook our hands and showed us to the gate. We walked in unaccompanied by them. Opening before us was a large prison yard with a basketball hoop, a clinic and three buildings. The huge white wall with barbed wire on top did nothing to slow the icy cold air from the surrounding foothills. We stepped into the large building. I noticed it was a little warmer, but not much. I had my coat on and never took it off. The guys greeted us in socks and sweats, with shaven heads. When we shook hands, mine were warmed by theirs. I guessed it to be between 40 and 50 (F) degrees in the big room where they gathered.

My young friends from church officiated what I grinningly considered an episode of “Mongolian Idol”. Like the televised American singing competition, each man, one after the other sang a solo of a new worship chorus. I was astounded at their courage, thinking I’d never seen such in any North American gospel meeting. The last one to sing “I have a Savior” was young and shy looking. But he sang, with feeling, in a nice voice the perfect melody. All contestants received a prize of winter socks. Various presentations of the gospel of freedom followed. They engaged.

When we left I was extremely cold, like to the bones. This is the first time I’ve really felt cold in Mongolia. On our way back past the guard house, one of them came out in the cold wind and talked to us in his shirtsleeves (rolled up to his elbows). Leaning against a cold concrete wall in the afternoon shade, he seemed in no hurry to get somewhere warm. I tell you it was within 5 degrees of zero Fahrenheit, one side or the other. I couldn’t wait to get out to the car, and next to some heater drinking hot liquids.

I came home to Renee and the girls in a dark apartment. A power outage had stalled a half-cooked dinner, and made it impossible that hot beverage. I guess I’m not conditioned for cold yet. The life of a language student in a warm classroom allows little acclimatization to cold. In that direction, this was my first small step in a long journey.

Not the Moon - Here's a look at the countryside this time of year.

 

On the Road to Church in an Outlying Town

 

After Service Photo with Church in Outlying Area

This church is about a two hour drive (40 miles) from our town. The dirt road is quite raw; felt high seas in a small boat.

It was the first church other than my own that I'd seen. 

Home of Cowboys....President Bush Comes to Visit Mongolia

Check out a story on American Radio called: "Welcome to Mongolia, the Texas of Asia"
You can listen by clicking http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5012347

The similarities to Western-American culture, the respect for hats, boots, livestock, and singing with all of them, are unavoidable. Since I've never been to Texas, I formally described Mongolia in terms of another colder Cowboy State. I call Mongolia the Montana of Asia.

Launguage Bloopers

The word for and in Mongolain is "bac," pronounced "bas." We begin every day with conversation, usually about what we did the day before. As you can imagine, my conversation generally includes my girls. I often find myself saying "maggie bac lydia." Jeremy and I get a good laugh out of this as it often computes in my mind as "maggie boss Lydia!!!!"

One of the first words the girls learned in Mongolian we heard them saying around the house in a typical child sing-song voice. It happened to be "baexgue," which is the mongol word for "have not." It was then that I realized that 1. they didn't know what they were saying, and 2. the reason they had picked up on this was probably due to the fact that their mongolian caregiver was repeating it as often as they asked for a forbidden item such as gum, cookie, candy. . .the list goes on:) (Stranger things have happened--we came home one day and asked the girls what they had had for lunch to which they replied "cookie dough"!!!!!!) I had made cookies and put some dough in the refridgerator for another day.

We are beginning to learn handwriting instead of printing. We actually pronounced the capital as "Ulaanbammar" when trying to decipher the writing. We thought print was difficult! Upper case B is a mongol V. Handwritten lowercase g is a mongol d. Lower case p is a mongol r. T's look just like english m's. Handwritten mongol e's look like an english u. And our personal favorite is the letter N which is written just like an english H. What an adventure!

School Days

I think back to this summer after attending our month-long language learning techniques course in Chicago, how hard it was to tell folks what we had actually been doing. This was especially true considering that we came back knowing not a smidge of Mongolian but actually some Spanish:) Let me see if I can now shed some light on that mystery.

Jeremy and I study at school for 3 and a half hours every day. Our school meets in an apartment exactly the same as ours. (The whole city has the exact same set-up) Instead of bedrooms and a living room their are 3 classrooms and a kitchen which can also be used as a classroom. (one of the classrooms doubles as the director's office and holds the school's computer.) Our school has five teachers including the director. Jeremy and I have a classroom and a teacher all to ourselves. This is the way this school works. At the same time there are others studying in all the other classrooms, some one-on-one, some two on one like us. This country has basically one language learning textbook written in English and this is used by all--Koreans, Brazilians, Norweigans, Indians, Figians, Tongans, and us too. This series of three textbooks takes about a year and a half to conquer. The teachers then are willing to do student-directed study. Some study biblical language, some traditional mongolian script, some business or medical terminology, and some just review.
In chicago we spent some time learning about the different learning styles and what our individual tendancies were. How to get the most out of our studies--whether we needed more book time or conversation time. Whether we learn best in a group setting or all alone in the quiet. How to learn so it sticks with us. Jeremy and I found our learning styles to be fairly opposite. This makes an interesting classroom setting five days a week!
We are hearing from most of our collegues sent out to all parts of the world that the learning atmospheres are as different as all the individuals themselves. Some study in an actual university. Some are in a high school type setting where they switch subjects and teachers. Some are in warm climates where the outdoor setting allows for much conversation. As we are legally in the country on a student visa right now--the current setting is our option. And, as the winter begins to get colder and colder, I imagine our converstion opportunities will be limited.
We have a great teacher who is beginning to sense some of our needs, although the mongol/russian learning style is very traditional with written tests every week and emphasis on book work. I could write more about this, but I will say we value your prayers for our study time, our teamwork, and continued variance in our learning as we go. As is to be expected, some days it feels as though we have turned a corner, and some days as though we have hit the wall. It is great to be reminded by collegues that we don't have anything to prove or a timetable to meet, we have as many years as the Lord gives us to learn all this and do not have to get everything the first time.

Cornucopia

Since this is considered a journal, I may resort to some musings. I think another way to say cornucopia is "horn of plenty" although I am not sure if I remember correctly. As I think about the significance of these words in a north american setting, I wanted to reflect a little on the application here, in Mongolia. A few weeks ago we as a team celebrated Canadian thanksgiving. There are three members of our team with citizenship there. It was great fun to be together and to be thankful. We had beef instead of turkey, but it was an actual tenderloin from the capital! The "pumpkin pie" was made with another squash found in the capital, but tasted declicous. One thing about Mongolia is there is never a shortage of potatoes--so there was enough mashed potatoes and gravy to go around and around! What a refreshing time.

As I do my shopping here in Darhan and send shopping lists with the team who sometimes travel to the capital on the weekends, it is my tendency as a mother trying to provide and as one who has lived all my life in the states, to want to stockpile and fill my freezer for the long, cold, winter. I am quickly learning that this is not the way in Mongolia. A few examples. We have one "department" store here in Darhan. While we are pottytraining and trying to use cloth diapers, we still visit here pretty frequently for Pampers. They have Sam's Club style shelving from floor to ceiling. The pampers are displayed neatly from right to left on the shelf. Upon closer inspection however, I find that they are all size 5. I am looking for size 2. I pull one package aside to look at the stock behind it for a size 2, only to find that there is no "stock" behind it. The attendant was quick to tell me when I asked that they had size 5!!!!! I am learning to focus on what blessings are available rather than what seems to me to be lacking.

When ordering with a large group at a restaurant, we have quickly learned to diversify our orders. They may have chicken on the menu, but that may not mean they have it today. Also, this does not garuntee that they have enough for three servings! It is not uncommon for three to order chicken. The waitress returns to tell two of them that

Forcast Calls for Fur (Snow This Week)

 

VolleyBall Day with our School in a rented Small Gym

 

Dinner With Teachers and Friends

After a day out getting some needed excercise and shopping, we are getting some much needed fuel in this restaurant. It's nice to have extra hands to hold the girls. 

Bright Turn in Language Learning

Do you have a competitive spouse? If you're lucky you have a spouse who excells where you do not, and vice versa. It's a nice balance that God builds into a marriage, if you're fortunate.

Competition can be a healthy thing. It can drive us to our best. But have you ever say, played the same boardgame with the same person close to 20 times and never won a game? It kind of makes you want to play solitaire, or basketball for that matter.

That's how having Renee as the only other student in our class can be. Maybe I should have researched her grade point average more thoroughly - but then thoroughness is her strength.

Today we showed up to our class at a new time, not knowing if we would like it. And we had a third student show up! She is from Brasil and studied here a couple years ago. Our teacher says she may stay in our class a month or so. So today was a welcome change in our routine.

We like the new time frame and the new tri-lateral learning environment. Both feel healthy.

I thought our view of the school yard with calves keeping the weeds down might interest you. 

Horse Drawn Carts...

...can be seen everywhere, doing important jobs delivering furniture and building materials. We saw a piano being moved Saturday night with one of these. But this week Renee called me over to our window and said "Look". This guy way right outside our entry to deliver a bed.

Still nice enough weather to play outsite our doorway. It's nice being on the first-floor. 

Lydia got some extra time outside today and gave this kid a precious piece of styrofoam.

Horse Hand 1 - This guy has in front of him a huge jug of milk that he was selling. He must have carried it to town from the farm riding on his horse...a pretty small pony. His hat is a traditional Mongolian favorite. 

People.......

It has been on my mind the past couple of days to insert a peice about the
beautiful Mongolian people that we encounter every day. So far we have
tended toward the tangibles... physical surroundings and events. Let's
face it, our language is so basic at this point that our interaction is mostly
limited to short phrases and facial expressions. Nevertheless, there is a
multitude of things to be discovered even with these limitations. I tend to
be a little more long-winded than Jer in my writing, but I will try to give a
brief painting:)

Children: There are many children!!!! They begin "Kindergarten" (our daycare/preschool)
at age two here, although not all attend. We live next to one of these Kindergartens.
We can hear the children crying when dropped off in the morning. Every little girl I see
has her hair neatly combed and usually in braids or pigtails--and it seems to stay
that way! I have to learn from them! The elementary girls all wear big, really big, white
bows in their hair. While the weather is still tolerable, the children reign in the courtyards.
Although most of the actual outdoor toys are ruined or gone, they always seem to have
something to play. I saw a group of girls making "soup" outside our window yesterday.
(For those of you who may not know, this is Maggie and Lydia's favorite pastime). I have
met several new mothers with babies Johanna's age. The babies are usually bundled in
almost a down blanket which is then tied with string from neck to toes to keep them tightly
. All that shows is wonderful chubby cheeks and a stocking cap clad head. The boys
all love to practice wrestling, and actual fighting is not uncommon either. Uniforms are worn
to school. The boys wear little pinstripe suits, and the girls, skirts and pinafores. There are
no buses here, so everyone walks or taxis to and from school. Usually they are in no hurry to
get home and I see them with backpack still on at 6 pm walking with friends. They love
to practice their English; and will follow you saying, "hello" over and over and laughing.
Sometimes they laugh hysterically as they repeat your own conversation they overheard in
English. Ondras, a girl I like to call Laura Ingalls because of her grin, is a very poor girl who lives
under a stairwell in an apartment building. I met her while living with our Mongolian family.
She is about 10 and was excited to play with Maggie and Lydia. She had us come and see her place to show me with an extremely sad face that water was leaking from above and had now gathered about two inches deep in her "home." She pointed to it several times. I felt so helpless. We have since met an American family living near her who I hope will help. She
ended the tour by reaching in a burlap sack and pulling out two happy-meal type toys, one for
each of the girls, and then re-padlocking her space. It was very interesting to me the way that
the culture has provided for her. In a place like Mongolia, an orphan left outside to brave the
weather would not survive. I do not think there are "homeless" people here in Darhan like their may be in a place like the Phillipines. Even though her living situation is not nice, to a small
degree, her needs have been met. I hope and pray that God by His grace is working in me to
look, listen and recognize the deepest need of these people, and preparing me, in a culturally
appropriate and Mongolian way to meet the need, alongside Mongolians themselves,when the time is right. I am sure it will be an "as you go" kind of service, and I look forward to it.

The girls ride their first Mongolian Camel just outside our apartment.  

BA BA BAA BA!

Also in Chicago, the girls went to ‘school’ everyday that we had classes learning how to learn a new language. At the end of the four weeks, the kids put on a show with the song “I just want to be a sheep, Ba Ba BA Ba” as the showstopper.

The other day, Renee and I were having dinner in a restaurant. They hand you a menu, they return in a few minutes to announce that most of what you’ve read, they don’t have. So this day they returned to say they didn’t have any beef. We have already experienced Mutton and not sure we want to try Goat, or Horse meat without a Mongolian friend as a guide. Then the waitress points out that the Gulash is beef, and they have that. So when it comes it tastes pretty good, until Renee asks, “Do you think this is beef?” I did. But I also tasted some of the chunks of meat were smelling and tasting like Mutton. So I guess it had beef, and also Mutton.

So we amended our favorite children’s song from Chicago, "I just want to EAT a Sheep, BA BA BA BAH."

Language Learning

When we were in Chicago in June, we became friends with a family from Puerto Rico, relocating like us, but to a Middle Eastern country. They have two boys, who spoke mostly Spanish. This was a healthy concept for Maggie and Lydia, that there are words even their parents don’t understand.

Our first weeks in language study here, the girls have stayed with Orna, a Mongolian lady who comes to our house. At first it was tough for the girls to understand that she couldn’t tell them to go to bed, (or much else) because she doesn't speak English. This past week, they’ve really warmed up to her and celebrate when she arrives in the morning.

On our way out the door to school, I heard Maggie ask her: "How do you say (I forget what) in Spanish?" Even though they may think they’re learning that language, we hear them counting and saying hello and goodbye in Mongolian, when they think we’re not listening.

Here's a look at our 3 month old, almost.

Here's the newest excitement (and parental challenge) in the lives of the girls. As you can see, bunkbeds are quite a ball.  

Here is a Northerly veiw out the window of our friend's apartment. You can see the powerline, the round small structure is a Ger (felt tent). The hills are still a faded shade of green as cold air decends with October. 

Seems and Smells like Home

Asked when we were coming home from Mongolia someone said: "I think we are home".

Things are good here. Renee is baking apple pie.

Renee's Latest Reflections

Hello all!

I just wanted to write a few interesting tidbits about life here so far.
Shopping: There is one western style "supermarket" called Nomin. It reminds me of a cross between Costco and walmart. They have electronics--washers to refridgerators and stereos--, beautiful mongolian made rugs ( wool-from the next smallest city Erdnet), clothes, as well as the food and household items in a regular supermarket. We do not go here very often as the types of food they carry are pretty similiar to other places plus some European candy :) Each apartment building here is about 5 stories high and houses probably about 500 people. We are in building 4-4 on the first floor. Every building has its own little store (at least one) that carries the essentials--bread, boxed milk, TP, candy, flour, apples, potatoes (so far). It is quite nice having to walk only 40 yards if we need something. I'm sure it will come in handy when the temperatures drop. The building right across from us is even stocking "Pringles" and yogurt and tuna. He seems to be very aware that 4 Western families occupy two of the closest buildings. It is a little hard to get used to shopping so frequently and not stocking up like I used to at home. The majority of our shopping is done at the beerg--the open air market. Here they also have everything from pig's heads on a horse cart to electronics, curtains to tires, couches to banannas. This is fun (kind of). We are still learning our way around. You cannot just go and get what you want and go home. It is akin to a scavenger hunt finding what you want, and the weather can make it unbearable. There is really no real soil here, just sand; so when the wind blows it is good not to be outside. Thankfully we have had only a few days like this, but they say the spring is like this nearly every day. Someone asked me about grinding meat. There is a meat grinder in the market, if you like they will grind it after you purchase--I haven't gotten my nerve up yet. They grind quite a bit of mutton to make a meat pancake they call "hosher". There is something about the smell of mutton that is not easily gotten rid of. They do not have much lamb. Mostly mutton, goat (which they try to pass off as mutton), horse, and beef. I have yet to see the chicken. At first I was worried about learning my cuts of meat--now I just try to remember the correct word for beef. We have had some mutton--at our homestay, and by accident and at a restaurant--some of it is OK but mostly always not preferred.

School is pretty good. We love our teacher. She will be 30 two days after Jeremy. Of all the teachers, she speaks the most English. The classes are very small. One teacher: 2 students. She has agreed to teach us at the guest apartment next door when the weather becomes unbearable. All of the teachers are worried about Johanna being brought outside. Our two week crash course is completed. Studies included Post Office, Restaurant, Greetings, Introductions, Banking, Phone Lingo etc. The greeting is "Sang Ban OO"

Darhan is known as a city of youth. There are at least two universities here and it is true, everywhere you look, young people--all are learning or want to learn English. School boys in the courtyards think it is a grand game to say "hello" in the courtyard over and over. I think it is the only word they know. They will follow you around mimicing your words in English and getting a real kick out of themselves. For the most part though, English is not spoken here.

For all of you that have been praying for my aversion to the cold--how about this for an answer from the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift:

The apartment we are in used to be used as a Kindergarten. By law, Kindergartens are required to have extra radiators installed. Instead of having the usual 6-7 bars we have two rooms with 14 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is so warm right now (once the city turns the heat on Sept.15 there is no temp adjusting or "off" switch until they decide to do so-probably mid-May) that we have to have all of the windows open. Our temp gauges indoors are reading 80+ some days (and evenings).

Jeremy's knee seems to be healing. We are so thankful for the Korean doctor who has been treating the wound--daily for two weeks and now every other day. The only downside is he insists "no showering"! He doesn't want the infection to flare up again. He has given two injections and several rounds of antibiotics. What an answer to prayer to find someone to give it the attention it needed on this continual basis.

Slowly we are getting our place set up--trying to do so before the weather makes it impossible. Wood is fairly scarce here so furniture is an issue. You can find some things from China like shelves and coffee tables. We have some twin beds and chairs and table the mission is letting us use. We have a mattress and our bed we contracted with a German carpenter who lives here--should be done mid-October. We were able to purchase a kitchen hoosier-type cupboard from the mission, left by a past missionary, as well as a stove and refridgerator. Our next concerns will be with dressers and desks--a pretty important peice of being a student:) We got the cheapest automatic washer we could find--didn't think it much of an issue that it was a floor model and all the labeling is in Russian :) So this took awhile to figure out--in fact, I'm still not certain I am using it correctly. I was delighted though. Even though the romance of a wash/spin type which many have here was a draw, the price was the same and my efficient? sensibilities won out. There are no dryers and we have no balcony, so I usually dry on a drying rack in front of the heater at night so I can put it all away in the morning.

I hope this isn't boring --some will appreciate more than others.

Pray:

1.) The continuing adjustment, especially for the girls--not only is mommy's time taken up with school but also with new baby Johanna and extra effort of "life" here.

2.) Continued health--there have been some bouts with food/water reactions etc.

All for now--

Renee

When I picked Johanna up this morning, I could feel that she had grown...really stretching out. 

Trying to capitalize on the good weather. Days have been around 70 again. The heat is on in our apartments, which makes it around 80 degrees inside!  

Basketball is pretty popular. The other night I heard the bouncing ball well after dark. I couldn't see the court, but I could hear it. 

Lydia playing in front of our apartment and a western view. There is a big Buddha statue on the hill on the horizon. There were a bunch of people up there on Saturday when I took this. 

What's new??...Renee was sick.

We finished our two week survival course in Mongolian language. Renee is a superb student. Gold star time, for sure. Our final day, we went out with two teachers. They took us to a carpenter's shop and we bought a tiny little stool for lydia. Then we asked for something else, and she said she'd have to come to our house to take measurements. So we practiced giving our address and phone number, all in Mongolian.

Friday night we had extra spaghetti with the meat from the market that Renee ground a few nights before. So we had company for dinner. We really enjoy our friends who have been here for two years with CAMA. Maggie and Lydia play with their two boys who are 5 and 2.

Saturday night we went out for a meal while our friends watched our girls. It felt great. Except a few hours later, Renee started feeling sick and has been down most of today, Sunday. I think she's feeling better now. But she's had stomach sickness a few times now...

We're gaining on the unpack/setup process. It feels good to settle. We're getting more furniture all the time. Had a potluck dinner tonight with the rest of the mission family here. There was ateam of doctors from LA with us. They go to another town tomorrow w/ their travelling clinic.

All for now. JB

Homestay from Renee (news as of 9/10/05)

We got our internet set up the middle of this last week, but the placewhere we are staying does not have a phone, so for now we only can write whenwe come here to the apartment for something.How is everyone there? Tommorrow (Sunday) will be a week since webegan our homestay. It is going pretty well. We have already tried sheephead--I even had to choke down two peices because I got invited into the grandmothers room where she was feasting after they had already broughtus our taste. I was just innocently walking down the hall:) They are allvery hospitable and they of course love the girls and spoil them terribly. Ireally think their teeth are going to rot with all the candy.Some quick prayer updates. We just completed our first week oforientation with the team. It was very encouraging. Good to learn about Mongoliaand the team we will minister alongside. We were just informed that forlegal purposes we have to begin language study with a two week crash course onMonday! Yes, Monday. Originally, they told us we could begin after ourhomestay on Oct. 1st but now our Visa situation is giving us a monday deadline. In some respects it will be good because we will actually be living with Mongolian speakers to practice with. Our hesitations lie inthe fact that our apartment looks like a bomb exploded. I tore through allthe luggage to find warm clothes for this month, but nothing is unpacked.We are having furniture built--dressers, etc. But there is no where to putthings away right now, and while living with our family and doing orientation, we have not had time to go shopping for washing machine mattresses etc. I don't have to tell you--as a mother, you can seewhere this would make for a disorganized maybe frustrating life while tryingto be a language student. (I guess I will have all the long, cold, winter toset up house huh?) Anyway, another hesitation is that the Feilds--ourcurrent informant for the field and the homestay are going home end of Sept. fortheir 3 month home assignment. They are helping us procure a house helper/nanny and carpenters for furniture. I kind of feel like time is running out to have access to their help. That leads to the last hesitation--my girls. We have options open for my schooling times and locations and their care, we just have a lot of decisions to make acouple weeks earlier than we thought.I guess this is a good segue to the prayer requests:Pray for the decisions we need to make about school times, finding a caregiver, if Maggie will start preschool, and how I want to organize mytime and tasks for the next year at least, while in school. You know Iam not good at making quick decisions. Pray for His wisdom for Jeremy andI.Pray for Dennis and Marilyn, the new feild directors that were on oursame flight. While doing their homestay, their 3rd floor apartment wasrobbed two nights ago. They took the computer and camera and all his winter clothes. They are pretty shook up and are reallly feeling the loss ofthe computer as it had all the feild stuff on it too and the robber hasaccess to everything.Keep praying for Jeremy's knee--it has become infected. A Korean doctorsaw him for free yesterday and reopened the wounds and cut away dead fleshand gave him a shot!!! Pray for complete healing of the knee that he may beable to use it again soon.Pray for protection against the enemy--he is trying hard at every angleto discourage. Lord give us eyes to see and your Word to combat theseattacks.I have stayed healthy and the girls--praise the Lord, I have even dranktap water a couple times. I am managing to choke down the steamed saltymilk tea served at least 3 times a day. They say this winter is going to be avery bad one:) We can get a taxi to anywhere in Darhan for 9 cents!

This is the CMA church in Darhkan. The welcome we received was unbelievable. The presence of God transcends language. The caption above the guitarist/singer says in God is Love in Mongolian. 

Here is the view from our apartment window on the morning of September 16th, 2005. We had heard it might turn cold Friday. That's snow out there, folks. And it was cold! 

This is EEmay, the grandma of the family we stayed with for more than a week. She is carrying a big thermos of milk tea, a mongolian favorite. And also a new one of mine. She was is generous with hers and shared many a cup with me. She's 93. JB 

Weekends

Yesterday is two weeks in Darkhan. This feels like the first weekend we've had in quite a while.
We're back in our apartment after 10 days in a home-stay with a Mongolian family. They took good care of us, supplied a steady of diet of the Mongolian milk tea which is music to Jeremy's mouth - and candy for the girls which was the same for them. Now we are having to cook for ourselves while we set up a kitchen and whole household. It's more work, but we need to do it sometime before the homework from language school gets more and more intense.

Last night we did get to watch a DVD, first one for the girls, them after they finally fell asleep, one we got not a few laughs out of.

Then today was spent talking to grandmas on the phone and cleaning and setting up the house, unpacking all our gear. Tonight we ran our for burgers and fries. The burgers here are kind of breaded and come with cucumbers and ketchup. All told their not bad. And the fries are quite good. Tomorrow is church and maybe try to pick up some household gear at the market. Then we'll have to hit the homework again, sometime when the kids are asleep or on handsfree mode.

So that's it for our first full weekend in Mongolia.

"I've never had dinner on a plane before!"

Hello Friends and Family:

With all the goodbyes and farewells behind us, we are now aboard (Aug 30) our 11 hour flight to Seoul Korea, where we catch our flight on to Mongolia - I think about a five hour flight.

The girls are holding up well so far. Korean Airlines is really taking good care of us. They served us a meal in the first couple hours of the flight. Maggie's reaction made me think of you. Her eyes and voice lit up as she turned to us and said, "Hey! I've never had dinner on a plane before!." We all ate good, and hope to settle into some sleep soon.

Until later,
Jeremy

Traveling Mercies

We were just recovered from an emotional final farewell with my brother, wife and neice as we entered our gate area.

Right then we saw our friends and field director Dennis and Marylin coming for us. They had been at the gate for some time already. They remarked how they thought there wouldn't be many people on the plane. That was when we told them that all the other passengers were stuck in line. Our fifteen bags took about an hour to check in, Ugh.

Our carry ons were more than we could carry. So the Maves' help was great! Now they are entertaining Maggie and Lydia a few rows back from us - hence I have time to write this.

Jeremy