Something we didn't see every day - on telephone lines

My Dad was a electrical utility director and I was a safety manager for 20+ years.  So when I look out my window and see a man swinging from the utility lines with no barricades under him, I get a little nervous.

My wife would say, "Remember what country you live in?"

Lookie Here!

Its cute. They have about 4 demo bedrooms and a warehouse-like room with real Ikea brand products. We think someone shops south, imports a load, and then marks the goods up, like waay up! They have one couch style, one or 2 tables and one chair, and a couple of bed styles, some dishes and a light. But they are trying. They even have a line of poles out front flying a few dirty tattered flags. UB is coming up in the world!

Mongolian hospitality

Our newly-wed tutors invited us over for Sunday lunch for the first time.  They have a tiny table, a single bed and no chairs, but they served us 5 kinds of salad, mashed potatoes, rice, fried chicken, pickles and a new taste for us called Doan which looks like white snails and tastes like picked radish.  I said I liked them so they gave me a jar full when we left.

Liz opens a new jewelry sales outlet

This week, Liz set up a beautiful display of the Ladie's jewelry at the new Christian "Papa Cafe."  The pieces are draped over stones and hanging from twisted branches.  Now she will see what sells.

When you don't have the word?

What happens when your language doesn't have a word for a new foreign word?  We probably have a lot of these in the US, like "Manana," "Cafe," and "Bonsai."

In Mongolian, sometimes they spell the new word using Mongolian letters phonetically.  This picture is for a new movie.  If you can read the Cyrillic alphabet, you can sound this out "Syn-drome."  Some people call this Monglish; a mixture of Mongolian and English.

The Mongolian medical term for Syndrome is "Todorkhoi shinj."

Those clever Mongolians - Construction

Most buildings in Ulaanbaatar are built with reinforced concrete and cement blocks for the walls.  Wood is scarce.

So if the cement block doesn't fit the space you need to fill, you use brick to fill in the gaps.

Clever Mongolians.

Translation - almost right

In translation, you can be almost right and very confusing.  This sign is on a clothing shop near my office.  Brend and Brand; sounds pretty close to me.  If a Mongolian said, "New Collection World Brend" I would understand that they meant Brand.  When I say this in English, I sound like I could be saying "Name Brend."

This week I was describing the wet snow falling.  I meant to say, "Noiton tsas onagen." (Wet snow is falling.)  Instead, I said, "Noilon tsaas onagen." Which means, "Toilet paper is falling."  So close, but so wrong.  Many smiles from Mongolians.

Picking up the fallen

In this land of dust and wind, I am always impressed to see the apartment custodians sweeping up the leaves every morning; an endless job until all the leaves are gone.

Like sharing the Gospel, there are always more fallen to pick up.  But someday the opportunity to "pick up the fallen" will cease.  Perhaps very soon?

Undeserved honor

One of the undeserved honors I get as a member of the JCS leadership team, is to represent JCS at recognition events.  

One of the JCS projects, started by a missionary from Brazil, is called UB United.  Mongolian, Christian coaches manage a football (soccer) training program at 3 public schools.  World Vision provides the equipment and uniforms and the schools provide the gymnasium, field and kids.

This week I got to present medals to the students who did well in the outdoor season.  Football moves inside now until April.  There are both boys and girls teams.  Bible studies happen on Saturdays at neighboring churches.  (I'm the tall, bald one in the center-back wearing a Mongolian del-sweater.)

Loong laundry

Fall cleaning in Mongolia means getting the ger (felt tent) ready for a cold winter.  Gers are wrapped in long "walls" of felt that need to be washed once in a while.  Where do you hang a 60' (20meter) strip of felt?  On the fence.  I don't see this very often in the USA.

Leaves are Falling

Trying to rest away a cold on this Saturday when our solar powered wind chime wakes me up. Squinting, I look out the window to see for myself that the sun is shining. And the leaves are falling. One by one limp gold medallions drift past our square of glass 5 stories up.Today the wind will sweep ‘our’ tree clean of its color.

            Last year, autumn was short lived. The leaves turned color, fell and were replaced by snow all in one week. Winter has come more gradually  in 2010 (tho we have already had two days of snow). I’ve enjoyed watching the graduation from Christmas green, to lime to lemon to butter scotch.

            When I was in high school I promised myself I would communicate with those around me about worthy topics, issues more important than the weather. That broken promise comes to mind frequently these days. My opinion has changed. I believe, now, that there is a measure of camaraderie that  surfaces under shared sun or clouds.

            Last night I walked home through the rain. Avoiding puddles was a challenge as was steering clear of mighty muddy splashing waves being cast by passing cars and buses. As I walked over a bridge and then in front of a bank that is bordered by half a block of marble sidewalk, getting a brown shower seemed inevitable. I had to choose my zigzag route carefully as did the smiling pedestrians heading the opposite direction. But we all giggled as we passed each other as though we were sharing a carnival ride.

            How cold was it?

            How cold will it be?     

            It is windy, snowy, dry, or just plain beautiful.

The temperatures unite neighbors of a community giving us instant commonality.

            Here in this crazy climate, the weather is often something to endure, to survive. Both the extreme hot of summer and cold of winter often kills. Last winter, millions of livestock were frozen solid leaving herders penniless. Friends of ours were lost in a snow storm that killed one of their fellow travelers. Drought, sand storms, flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, blue skies. Weather affects our lives, it can cause disaster or delight. We cannot manage it but we can talk about it.

Busy Busy Ladies

2 weeks ago Liz and her ladies were in the countryside learning from a similar project. The air was fresh the hospitality wonderful. We learned a lot that we'll apply to our production.  Last week we attended a seminar called "How to Start a Small Business" sponsored by Gender Equality. There were many 'new' ideas presented that impressed them, like the importance of being friendly to make a sale and the idea of saving money. Thursday, we displayed our jewelry at a product expo put on by World Vision. This was a great opportunity to compare our product with others, to see packaging ideas and to practice new found salesmanship skills.
Today we joined half a dozen other women's issues focused groups for an all day street fair of sorts. It was especially aimed at educating the public about trafficking threats. The district in which we live and work is one of the largest in the city. And we learned today that it is the fastest growing with many people moving in from the countryside. This nomadic trend results in lots of unregistered kids who can't attend school without the registration. Of course, kids from the country would likely be more naive and more needy of friends making them vulnerable to 'friends' with ulterior motives. Besides all these special events, we shipped off a package of 50 pair of earrings and 33 bracelets. Phew!