The Way Things Are

Life is still going very well for me.  Because our school has moved to a farther location and we have been taking the bus back and forth, we decided that it would be in our best interest and save us money if we invested in a bus card.  Through our school we can get a bus card for five thousand tugrugs a month.  If we just paid our fare every day to and from school it could cost up to sixteen thousand tugrugs.  It is clearly a better idea to get a bus card.  Most of the buses here are sparse with only a few seats along the sides with a lot of empty space in the middle for standing room.  Most of the buses look like their just made of sheet metal affixed with rivets.  This morning we rode on a bus that was more like a tour bus.  The seats had high backs and arm rests.  Since it was outbound and still early in the morning there was almost no one else on the bus.  There were a lot of free seats and certainly room to sit down.  It was a much better experience than when we took the #4 home from school the other day.  For the bus cards we needed some passport sized photos.  We didn't have any, so yesterday afternoon I went to the local printing shop and got 8 pictures each for Kevin and me.  On the way home I stopped at the store and got milk in a bag.  At the first market I stopped at the milk was 530 tugrugs a bag.  I thought it would be the same at Orgil so I went there.  At Orgil however, it was 550 and there was milk spilled.  There was no way to tell which one was leaking so I want back to Byanzorkh and got them there.

John

About Prayer Again

It's Monday, so we had prayer again today.  There were 8 men there, the most that there have been since I've been coming.  Then we went out to Milly's for lunch.  The internet we use at our apartment is on rations of sorts, we are allotted 2 gigabytes of download and upload a month.  We aren't sure why, but our rations have run out for this month.  Today we went to pay for next month's service.

John

Another One Rides the Bus

We have taken the bus to school for two days in a row now.  So far there hasn't been too many interesting happenings.  Both days we have met our Italian classmate when we got on the bus at the stop near our apartment.  Yesterday we were waiting for the bus after school and we had been waiting for a few minutes.  In the mean time we thought about maybe taking a taxi.  Then a drunk came over and started asking for money.  We kept telling him no and to go away  but he kept hanging around.  Kevin was about ready to "take him out."  We used our best Mongolian to tell him to go away and that we weren't going to be giving him any money.  Finally we decided to take a taxi.  We put our hand out just like the Mongolians do and it was no time at all before a car stopped and we hopped in.  "Nig khel, yamar untey vey?"  We asked.  "Taivan zo," came back the reply.  We told him our destination and we were off, at a snails pace no less.  Finally we had him drop us off near the Dean's and went on our way.  Today we decided to wait for the bus, it is significantly cheaper.  I asked Alfredo where the bus stop near school was.  He said that bus #4 goes down Peace Avenue and there is a stop right in front of the Wrestling Palace; the cost is also half of the #32.  We decided to take that bus home.  Unfortunately, any bus heading in to town is going to be packed and is going to have pickpockets.  We boarded the bus at it's rear and switched our backpacks to our fronts.  Inside there was the man that collects people's fares.  Kevin gave him 200 T and then I gave him mine.  He then gave me a ticket but wasn't giving one to Kevin.  In Mongolian he was saying he needed to pay.  I wasn't to have Kevin pay again so I started protesting.  "Ter oogson. (He gave)" I repeated .  A Mongolian man next to us coroborated our story telling him that Kevin payed.  After a while I asked if he was going to give Kevin a ticket.  He continuted to insist that it cost 200 T.  Finally the man next to us just gave Kevin his ticket and we left it at that.  He didn't bother us any more.  As we got closer to the city center people kept boarding.  Eventually I made my way up to the front of the bus.  Finally we got to our stop and we disembarked.

John

Repetition but not Repetitive

The landscape has put on it's winter coat. The grey and brown of concrete and dirt continues to poke through but are softened by their new blanket of snow. It was surreal to look out of our window yesterday and watch the small white powdery flakes swirling down from a grey and lowering sky. The mercury has been dropping lately and I don't suspect that it will be arrested any time soon. It's snowed once already this year, but each time it seems new and (I'm sorry, I know it's cliche) magical, almost mysterious. It's beginning to be dramatically different from the place I call home.

John

Lost

That's the word of day here in Mongolia.  Another good word is "disorganization."  Last week we had a break from school and all classes were off except one.  The school decided that that was the prime time to move their location.  So we'd been hearing about the move two weeks before the break but we were never told exactly where they were moving.  I think the most information we were given was that it was moving somewhere near MIU (Mongolian International University).  Well let me tell you, there are a lot of buildings near MIU.  So last night we asked Mr. Dean if could call someone about the new location, he has connections with people from there.  He never did get a chance to call so we fell back on plan B: Wing it.  A.K.A. we were flying by the seat of our collective pants.  Mr. Dean had to take his car into Gustavo today for work that he's been trying to get done for months now so he couldn't give us a ride unless we wanted to arrive at school 45 minutes early.  We didn't, so he arranged for Buren to drop us off.  This morning we recieved a call from Mr. Dean saying to meet Buren in front of church.  We got there and in less than a minute Buren showed up and we were on the way.  As we started away from the curb Buren asked us a question in Mongolia.  I only understood a few words but I thought he was asking us where to go.  "What?"  I thought to myself.  "Didn't Mr. Dean tell him that we needed to go to MIU?"  I told him MIU and he got the picture.  I think Mr. Dean had told him but maybe he was just asking for confirmation.  A few minutes later Buren dropped us off at MIU.  After thanking him profusely Kevin and I stood there thinking "What now?"  We began to wander in an arbitrarily chosen direction looking for any sign of where the new school is.  Finally I called our old teacher, Chimgee.  Through her broken English I gathered that it was somewhere behind the large round Catholic building.  So we were off again with a direction in mind.  In no time we had the Catholic building in sight and were headed that way.  When we finally got to front of the building we recognized some of our fellow students.  Unfortunately they recognized us too.  "KEVIN, JOHN!"  They called out to us.  In the words of Kevin: "Oh buggar."  Finally we thought we found it.  We all went inside but it seemed like it was vacant there was no one around.  We went upstairs, but still no one.  I figured that couldn't the place or there was no one there anyway so we went outside.  We began to look around the building and behold, there sat the school's bus.  Our Korean "friend" was little ways ahead of us but turned back saying there was nothing back there.  I didn't believe him and went to check for myself.  Just a few meters ahead in the side of the building there was a door and inside were the teachers.  At last we had found it.  As a note, there were no signs anywhere around the entrance or anywhere leading to the new entrance.  That's organization for you; that is Mongolia.

John

Friday: Our Full Good Day

Pastor Dean teaches every Friday at a local public school. He took two weeks off while Pastor and Mrs. Jaquith were in town but picked it back up this Friday. Since we didn't have school this week, Kevin and I went along with him. At the beginning of the class we introduced ourselves and Mr. Dean asked the students questions using us as object lessons. I also paired up with a student during practice time. Mostly we just sat in the back of the class watching though. It was fun to go along and see what kind of teaching he does and to get an idea for how we might go about doing the same thing later on. The funniest thing was when Mr. Dean's phone rang and he answered it in class. In the afternoon on Friday we went the Tuukhee Muuzae: The National History Museum. It was quite interesting but if you want to see any pictures you'll have to ask Kevin for them. I didn't take any because there was a surcharge of 10,000 Tugrugs. We really had a good week but I'm looking forward to starting language studies again. I'm not looking forward to the school's farther location.

John

Keeping Busy

Having an entire week of may be bad for my morning schedule but I am enjoying the free time.  I've gotten to skype with my family a couple of times now that Kevin and I have internet at our apartment.  Despite not having scheduled classes I have been trying to keep up with my language study by working on some assignments that our teacher gave us.  I decided early in the week that it would better if I didn't wait until the last day to get all my homework done.  I'm writing (in Mongolian script) an essay/letter to my teacher.  I also have to write out a Mongolian Proverb in Mongolian script.  Soon, I think, Mr. Dean may be starting some sort of Bible Institute, at the same time Kevin and I may begin teaching English as another way for us to reach out and minister.  Yesterday we had a meeting with Mr. Patterson along those lines.  Today we met briefly with Baska ans his girlfriend, Pagmaa.  Kevin and I may meet with both of them more to teach English to them.

John

Good News From a Far Country

What blessings we have had recently.  Mr. Patterson related to us today that the whole time his parents were here they had no problem with their electricity, their hot water, or their heat.  The day after they left they had a six hour power outage and the power came back just long enought for them to make dinner.  It then went off again so they ate their dinner by candle light.  Mr. Patterson said that he was taking a cold shower in the dark and praising God that they had no problems while his parents were here.  We have also been really blessed.  Last night I finally got out internet set up at Kevin's and my apartment.  The router we got was from China so all the menus and the setup wizard were all in Chinese.  I tried to fumble my way through it and finally with some help from Mr. Dean got it working.  We were so happy to be able to skype home and hang out at our apartment.

John

Hospital Visit

Before prayer today we wanted to make a visit to Buren while he is admitted to the hospital.  He went in some time last week because his nose was bleeding, it's problem that he has had before.  We went to the hospital and made our way to Buren's room.  We weren't stopped from going down the hallways where the patients are kept like Mr. Dean has been before.  When we got to his ward we asked the nurse at the desk if he was there; she said he was not.  It was getting close to prayer time and we hadn't found him so we thought we should get going.  When we got down to the first floor we met Buren on his way to the third.  We went back up with him for a few minutes before moving to prayer.

Mr. Dean told a story about one other time Buren was in the hospital.  He wanted Mr. Dean to open the door to his storage container for some reason.  Mr. Dean couldn't get it so Buren checked himself out of the hospital, went and got the container door open, and then checked himself back into the hospital.

John

Hoe Down

Last night we had a hoe down at the Muller's. The Muller's are leaving on furlough toward the end of this year and a couple has come to cover for them while they are gone. Part of the reason for the shindig was to get acquainted with the new people. The other reason was just for fun. There was a total of 41 people present last night, the most that they have ever had at one time. There was so much food, chili, BBQ pulled beef, salmon dip, pizza bites, and whole lot more, with dessert on top of that. There were even s'mores over a fire. I guarantee I ate too much. We stayed late and talked a lot. There was a young lady from New Zealand there who was working for a month at the prison clinic for some sort of internship.

We had another adventure on Thursday. Kevin and I had wanted to go to the black market, Narantol Zakh, but didn't think that we wanted to go by ourselves. When Pastor suggested that we go, we were all for it. There was only one problem: we didn't know where it was. That doesn't seem like that big of a problem, it's easily solved by asking someone who knows. The problem with that is that you can't ask for directions if you don't think you need them. That was the biggest problem, I thought I knew where to go. So we headed out thinking we knew where we were going. All that wouldn't have been a problem had I been carrying my cell phone with me. But pickpockets frequent Narantol and in that wise I took nothing with me but some cash. To make a long story short, an hour and a half later and one river crossed we finally made it to Narantol. When we finally did make it, it was because we met someone on the way who knew where it was. I felt bad for leading everyone on a wild goose chase for and hour and a half but we all had a good time and it certainly was an adventure. I would have posted a picture to document the event but I left my camera at the apartment so it wouldn't get picked. Oh well.

John

Flood Stage

We are still experiencing internet difficulty and it makes timing blogging hard.  When I think of it I can't get on the internet and when I have the internet I'm not thinking of blogging.  The engineer came today and couldn't get it figured out.  I'm hooked up right now to the regular (fast) internet but it's not cooperating with the router so only one person can be on at a time.  We've started another week of school and now we're learning about genitive cases.  I've also been reading books that Mr. Dean has been recommending and I've already been through two besides my own novels that I brought.  Now I'm reading a book called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.  Written by a doctor who specializes in leprosy care.  It's very interesting and the author uses many fascinating illustrations from his past experiences.  We are really enjoying having the Jaquiths here.  I'm glad to hear preaching in English; I had no idea how good it was going to be hearing pastor's preaching again.  I guess we never really know what we have until we have to do without.  We had a really great time at prayer today.  There were 7 men present, the most we've had since I've been here.

Walking to school and home has revealed some interesting personal encounters over the weeks.  So far I've been engaged in conversation by two drunks.  More interestingly a group of three ruffians tried to pick my pocket.  We passed them at the bus stop and they began to follow us.  As we reached a narrow stretch of sidewalk two came up in front of us and there was one behind.  The two in front began to make a little tussle then one pushed the other and he bumped right into me.  At the same time the one behind bumped into me as well.  I was sandwiched between the two.  I shrugged them to the side and they ran off.  My camera was in my pocket with the lanyard hanging out but I had my hand on it so it was safe.  Nothing was taken (as far as I know) so everything is okay.

John

A Plea

God grant me these: the strength to do
  Some neede service here:
The wisdom to be brave and true;
  The gift of vision clear,
That in each task hat comes to me
Some purpose I may plainly see.

God teach me to believe that I
  Am stationed a a post,
Although the humblest 'neath the sky,
  Where I am needed most.
And that, at last, if I do well
My humble services will tell.

God grant me faith to stand on guard,
  Uncheered, unspoke, alone,
And see behind such duty hard
  My service to the throne.
Whate'er my task, be this my creed:
I am on earth to fill a need.

~Edgar A. Guest

Toil and Trouble

We've been struggling lately with our internet connection.  (I wrote this post last nigth but the internet went down so here it is.) We had gotten a new router and thought that that had solved our problem. We have now been out of internet for the past two days now. I try no to let it get to me but it it's impossible to ignore. Other than that we are doing fine. The Jaquiths got here alright and they brought goodies from the States. Tomorrow is our last day of school before a week long break. Unfortunately the school is moving to a most distand location and I'm not sure how we're going to work out transportation. The weather has been nice, but I notice it has been getting colder. All-in-all we are doing great and really having a good time.


John