But We're Still Alive

The first week of July we walked all over town hunting for vinegar, cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to make Jim a cake for his July 5th birthday. Most things were commonly found in (husny delgurs) grocery stores. Cocoa powder and vinegar were the tricky ingredients.
Some missionaries were leaving the country, so we made arrangements to buy their corning ware baking dish. We called July 4th before going to their apartment to pick up the pan. Bad news, they had sold it to someone else earlier in the day. Boo hoo, no cake for Jim’s birthday.
Last week we finally found the likes of a cake pan. It is really a roasting pan so is too big but we thought it would work. So, on the morning of July 12th I mixed up the batter. The recipe was for Goofy cake, you know, substituting oil & vinegar for eggs? When I opened the small bottle of vinegar the smell about knocked my socks off. Yep, it was vinegar alright. After I finished mixing, the batter bubbled like a volcano. A taste test revealed a strong vinegar flavor. I added a little more sugar trying to balance out the vinegar but our hopes for a lucious dessert waned.
Ready to pop it into the oven, we couldn't figure out how to get the oven hot. We thought maybe it was broken so eventually gave up. When our friend, Boggie arrived to watch Naadam, we asked for her advise. She couldn’t figure it out either. But she inspired Jim to find the owner's manual. He read that the clock needed to be set before the oven could be turned on. Ta da, the oven was hot. This was hours after mixing the cake so all the baking soda & vinegar had lost their leavening power. It baked fine, but looked like brownies rather than cake.
There is a dominate vinegar taste curbing our lust for more. A week later, most of it is still in the pan.
We learned at class last Thursday that the Mongolian picnic meal, 'harhog' means 'poison garbage.' Jim decided that I made poison cake or Goofed cake. I don't have enough ingredients to try again right now. Flour and sugar are sold in 1 kilo or 50 kilos bags. The vinegar we used is Russian and 70% something. I'd never heard of a vinegar percentage so thought the small bottle would be better than the other kind that came in a big bottle. Boggie said I should have only used a drop but I used 2 tablespoons. Yikes. She explained that people have been known to burn their skin with the stuff or even to kill themselves drinking it. Poisoned cake? Maybe but we’re still alive.

Mongolian State of Emergency 1-5July

On Sunday, 2008June29, Mongolia had national elections. Hundreds of candidates from many parties campaigned for 80+ positions in the national legislature.

Again, the Mongolia People's Revolutionary Party won a majority of the positions. This party has been the majority for 4 years now and many people accused the party of vote fraud.

On Tuesday, 2008July1, a group gathered outside the national Mongolia People's Revolutionary Party headquarters to protest and things got out of hand. Protestors began throwing rocks at Police and then lit the party headquarters on fire. The 4 story large building burned uncontrolled as fire trucks were prevented by the protestors from getting to the burning building. The neighboring national art museum caught fire and many works of art were destroyed. Five protestors were killed. http://www.mongolia-web.com/content/view/1879/154/

During the riots we were gathered about 2 miles away with other JCS missionaries for a monthly potluck and prayer time. We prayed for the protesters and the government, but we were unaware of the violence that was happening.

The government declared a national State of Emergency, emposed a 4-day curfew from 10pm to 8am, limited gasoline sales, required all foreigners to carry passports and arrested 700 people. The day after the violence it rained several inches and no one wanted to be outside. Tanks and armed soldiers blocked off the core of the city surrounding the Parliament Building.

Our Mongolian language classes continued, altho our Mongolian teachers were shocked at the behavior of the protestors and violent response by the police. Each day we rode the bus past the burned building and walked across the Parliament grounds (Suhkbaatar Square) to our school.

The days after the burning, the legislature met in emergency session and there was a proposal to ban all foreign media, including the Christian television station called Eagle. Eagle has been broadcasting national news for many years and is a respected source of free speech in Mongolia. Many prayers were offered to keep Eagle broadcasting and the proposal did not pass.

This has been an unusual month of us and Mongolia. Sandstorms delayed our arrival. Unseasonal rains have flooded the streets. Rioters have burned the Communist party headquarters and 700 people have been jailed. We all need the “peace that passes understanding” that Jesus offers to all.

Again, thanks for your prayers.

Our Apartment

Thanks for praying that we would find an apartment soon. For the last 3 weeks, we’ve been living in the apartment of a single missionary who is in the states for 2 months. We’re grateful for her generosity and it was wonderful to have a furnished apartment immediately.

Our current apartment is owned by the parents of a missionary from the US. He has a Mongolian wife and a 6 year old son who speaks English & Mongolian! Altho the apartment rents for more than we budgeted, it is well furnished, we have an American landlord and it has reliable access to the Internet. He also plans to put in a security system. This is a real answer to our prayers.

The apartment is on the 5th floor (no elevator) and overlooks one of the busiest intersections in Ulaanbaatar. From our living room window we can see the ger-district (tent homes) on the distant hills, a Buddhist temple and a Korean Christian prayer tower. The Mongolian University of Science and Technology is across the street. This site is close to bus stops, grocery stores and about one half mile from the JCS office.

The apartment has 5 rooms; a little bathroom with a shower and an auxiliary water heater, a little kitchen with a washing machine, full range, tall, thin refrigerator and a microwave, a living room/dining room and two long, thin bedrooms. Each bedroom has a closet. Part of the rent contract is that we must move out of the apartment 3 weeks/year so the landlord’s American parents can live in it when they come to visit. Hopefully this will occur when we are visiting the States or in the Mongolian countryside.

We are very happy to be here and finally unpack. We are starting over in furnishings and forgot how we take things for granted. This week while cooking pancakes, Liz discovered she had no salt, baking soda or spatula. She got creative.

Even with great furnishings, there are challenges. The city supplies hot water to everyone, and until today, the city had all the hot water in our district turned off. Thank the Lord for the auxiliary water heater. All the electricity and water has been off a few times this week for a couple hours.

Thanks again for your prayers for our apartment. Once again, God has answered your prayers for us. Blessed by Him & you, Jim & Liz

Our Apt Building

A Typical Day in Mongolia?

I awoke at 4:30am. The sun was just peaking over the hills providing a beautiful pink backdrop to the ger & baisan (building)-covered hills out our front windows. I went back to sleep. At breakfast, Jim commented on the clear visibility allowing him to see more gers than ever. Weather Underground predicted 80F with no mention of rain.

Our new apartment is conveniently close to a bus stop. After just a 5 minute walk, weaving our way across a 6 lane road, we hopped right on board the waiting bus, even finding an empty seat. Ten minutes later we got off about a 10-minute walk from our school. But we took a 10 minute detour trying to find a new route. We discovered the Polish Embassy and the American Peace Corps office in the process.

We, including the teacher, were tired today, Wednesday slump? Reviewed opposites this morning, including new ones: hard-soft, day-night, fast-slow. We played with paper dolls asking each other if we liked specific items and learned how to ask how we are feeling, and how to offer sympathy. The correct Mongolian phrase for sympathy is “Poor animal.’ Looking at a map of the city we learned ‘school,’ ‘church,’ ‘bus stop,’ ‘street,’ ‘restaurant,’ ‘grocery store,’ ‘post office,’ ‘apartment building,’ and the like. The learning method is so effective that we are both eager to take our turns constructing new sentences. It is amazing how fast three hours goes by.
It was pouring down rain as we exited the building. We waited on the steps for 40 minutes hoping the clouds would clear since we hadn’t dressed for rain. Aborting plans to go shopping, we quickly walked to the nearest bus stop, carefully maneuvering flooded streets and sidewalks. However, we got drenched.

A few hours later the rain appeared to cease so we ventured from our apartment to a local grocery store (Nomin) we had not visited yet. This store had a rather large selection of household goods so we got important things like a toaster, potato peeler, and pitcher. We saw interesting items like “Wholey Vegetarian Mutton Chunk” and a drink called “Pocari Sweat.” The latter is totally unappetizing. At check-out, we attempted to get a Nomin discount card but the supervisor was hanging around so the clerk didn’t want to take the extra time trying to communicate with us in our kindergarten state. After tallying our total she asked, “Nomin Carta?” That’s what I had been trying to ask for but I’d failed to use the name of the store, instead I asked about a “delguur (generic term for store) carta.” She finally understood that I wanted one but said I must go to the main store downtown, the Ick Delguur, to get my very own.

After loading our 4 backpacks with goodies we headed back up the Sansar hill (no one knows why this area is called ‘Outer space’). Remembering this morning’s lesson, we read signs like ‘grocery store’ and ‘café’. We understood all the words on one: Apples, Fruit, Groceries, Vegetables, Meat. What more could you ask for?

As we passed the World Vision headquarters, we watched a couple of guys unload a sheep and drag it into the front door of the office. This weekend is a major Mongolian holiday, Naadam, so we suspect the World Vision staff will be celebrating by having a picnic with that sheep as the center attraction. He’ll be transformed into Khorhoc (steamed mutton, onions, potatoes & carrots backed with hot rocks) over a fire. Literally, Khorhoc means “Poison garbage.”

Walking home, the sky was so clear and blue we could hardly believe that it had been raining buckets all day long. But puddles along the way jarred our memories. Trekking up the 9 sets of stairs to our 5th floor apartment took us through aromas of cigarette smoke, mutton, and soup. There is no water right now, but it will probably come on in a couple hours. That has been normal for 3 of the last 5 days. We have learned to keep a spare bucket always full.

Home again.