5th Floor, Phew!

Here is Liz in front of our apt. door. She looks happy to be home but you don't know how happy! Living on the 5th floor without an elevator takes some getting used to and we aren't there yet. We have both agreed that we'd like to live on the 3rd floor since that is about where our bodies begin to complain as we climb the stairs. On hot days when our clothes are drenched in sweat, this climb is especially tedious. But we know its good for us in the long run and before we know it, we'll be acclimated again . . . we hope.

When it Rains it Pours

Boom! The metal sign on the roof next door shook so hard in the sudden wind that its banging sounded like the thunder that soon followed. Only 20% chance of rain today. Jimmy called about 4:00 and suggested I unplug the computers and appliances. A few minutes later lightening

flashed and buckets of rain mixed with hail drenched our world. Within 5 minutes the steep driveway to our apartment building was flowing like a river. Within 10 the playground out front had become a lake. This is not the gentle northwest drizzle that we are used to. Today's downpour mimicked yesterday's.

The prediction for yesterday was for temperatures in the high 80s so I dressed for heat: a skirt & sandals (that happen to be water shoes). I was drenched and chilly when we arrived home, but the water shoes came in handy, especially as compared to the suede tennies I wore during a similar storm last Friday.

When it rains, our 45 minute walk becomes an adventure as we wade through rivers, previously known as streets, seek to avoid camouflaged open manholes, and slide through sidewalks covered in mud. After drying off last night, we read an e-mail announcing that the

meeting we intended to skip had been canceled. We heard later that in another part of town the streets were filled with 3' of water! Will we ever get used to the extremes?

Friday's flash flooding washed away gers and killed 26 people. Today the torrent stopped after only 40 minutes. The road-rivers have stopped flowing and the playground lake has started to evaporate. Ladies are bagging up the fresh silt carried down by the rain. Will they sell it as soil or just move it to another location? The birds are chirping, the sirens have stopped screeching, the storm has passed and things are already beginning to dry.

Unpacking

We are back in Mongolia, getting used to the time zone and altitude. It is nice to have an apartment ready for us to settle back into. Our boxes and our bodies arrived last Saturday a.m. Here we are unpacking. So what did we bring back with us? computer keyboard & speakers, alfalfa sprouting seeds, chocolate chips, bed sheets, beads & fabric, books, hot weather clothing, dried mushrooms, vitamins, children's books for language discussion, almonds, walnuts, pecans, pickle fork, sturdy carrot peeler, standard/metric measuring spoons & cups, Osmocot, lotion, Tom's toothpaste, picture frames . . . you know - the essentials of life.

Packing

This year, the BIG move doesn't seem as scary but it is no less sad :(

We've heard that the hard part of this life is always saying 'good bye' to someone.

Definitely not the fun part!

We have more boxes to take than last year, how did that happen??

Countdown Begins

We now have tickets reserved for returning

JULY 9

with scheduled arrival of July 11.

July 11 just happens to be Naadam, one of the biggest holidays in Mongolia.

Hope we'll be able to find a taxi. Please pray that luggage arrives safely at least possible cost.

The countdown begins.

E.R. Visit

Not for us but for Liz's mom. She had been out to dinner and suddenly started acting strangely She couldn't see and then became unresponsive. Focus at the e.r. seemed to zero in on the her low blood sugar. We took the neices home before hearing a final diagnosis.

We've Got Mail!

Just emptied our post box. The little white envelope with a return address in Washington D.C. contained our familiar blue passports with a page full of Mongolian letters. Long story short . . . our visas have arrived. Next step: plane tickets.

No Visa Yet.

Jim called D.C. and learned they were waiting for a paper they already had. He was told our passports would be mailed last Tuesday. Nothing has arrived yet, maybe tomorrow?

No Visas Yet.

Kind of feels like the last month of pregnancy - - no baby yet :)

Visas?

There has been progress regarding our new visas but we still don't have them in hand. Our passports & visas are supposed to rendezvous in WA D.C. some time soon, maybe this week. We are waiting to explore ticket options until we have those little blue books 'visa'-stamped and at our Olympia address.

We had pasta salad and sparkling cider on our patio tonight with roses blooming and birds singing nearby. We must confess we aren't exactly eager to get on that plane and head back to grey heat, a classroom & responsibilities. But we know that is where we should be for now, so we are trusting for our Father's perfect timing. Besides the suitcases we brought, we have accumulated quite a stash of stuff (from smoke detectors to alfalfa sprout seeds) we'd like to take back with us. Please pray that we'll be reasonable in packing and that we'll be able to check our boxes all the way through a couple of airports in Asia.