Merry Christmas

Gratitude

Last week I helped give a ger (a felt tent) to a widow. She works as the cook and "house maid" for a Mongolian family. She is grateful that this family permits her 31-year old daughter to sleep on their kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is in a 2-room shack. There is not enough room for the widow to sleep on the floor also so she sleeps sitting in a wooden chair with her head on the table. Her daughter is dying of cancer. They expect her to die in January.
JCS received donations to buy gers for poor people. This widow and her daughter will have their own ger, two mattresses on wooden bed frames, a coal-burning stove and two stools. The local Mongolian church set up the ger and will provide coal and food for several months. The widow and her daughter are grateful for these tangible gifts showing God's love.

Blood

Stood in line yesterday afternoon at a Russian clinic behind teens in black dresses, white pinafores and huge white hair bows. We paid $4 each (up from $3 last year, then took turns sitting in chair right next to the receptionist's desk. As we rolled up our sleeves, the desk was suddenly surrounded by a dozen people coming back for their results. They all seemed eager to see what foreign fore arms look like. Glad it was just a blood test. We've heard there isn't much more privacy for other procedures. We visited with our tutor for 15 min in the hall and then had her go back in for our results. She was told Jim's PSA was 0 but Liz's WBC was way too high and she needs to see a dr. The number was the same as it has been since her CLL diagnoses. Praise the Lord. All is well.

"Frosted" trees

One of the blessings we have at our apartment is the view of 2 trees.

Trees are rare in Ulaanbaatar where any stick of wood us usually burned for heat in the winter. However, behind our apartment, reaching up 5 stories to our bedroom window, are 2 cottonwood trees.

Yesterday the conditions were just right to frost the trees.

Raising healthy Mongolian babies?

What is this man doing? He's standing outside our apartment building, holding his baby in the "fresh air" for about 20 minutes.

The current weather description is: "7F, Smoke"

Common Mongolian tradition says that babies need fresh air. Every day.

Even tho the temperature is very cold and the air is polluted with coal smoke, parents take their babies outside warm apartments for a daily dose of fresh air.

This is the warmest part of the day and the baby is completely wrapped in warm clothes with only a "breathing hole" between the hood and the scarf.

Impossible things happen

While putting away my clothes, my comb fell out of my pocket.

When I reached down to pick it up, I was shocked to see that it was "standing" on its edge! What are the odds of that happening? So I took this picture.

God is in the "impossible mission" business. Though it seems impossible that God should love and forgive us, He does. Psalm 78:38-39
"Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return."

Another solution to H1N1 - Horse meat

One thing you probably can't get in the USA - horse meat.

The Mongolian Prime Minister recommended eating horse meat as a nutritious way to prevent H1N1. It's available, canned and ready to eat.

It may look like a can of "Chicken of the Sea" but it's really "Horsey from the Steppes."

Mongolia's response to H1N1 - Ice Skate!

Mongolia's response to H1N1 has been to:
* close all schools except universities,
* stop all public intercity transportation (trains, buses and vans),
* close all taverns and clubs at 9pm (I guess you can't get H1N1 before 9pm?) and
* ban all cinemas, conferences, concerts and public gatherings.

AND flood the athletic fields so kids can go skating.

The schools have been closed for 5 weeks now.

Government television programming is almost all educational during this time.

No surprise - kids DON'T want to watch "School on TV."

Cold November

November 2008, it got to -20F once.

So far (21Nov) in November 2009, it has gotten below -20F 7 times. At about -10, your nose hairs freeze in 5 seconds.

Time for the heavy coats, boots, mittens and face coverings.

A cold way to earn a living

Each day, this man sits on the sidewalk curb with a scale in front of him.

People give him a few Tugriks (perhaps 50 cents) to weigh themselves on his scale.

He sits in the sun with a piece of carpet between him and the frozen curb.

Liz talks to this man everyday on her walk to school.