Last summer, this statue was built in the middle of an intersection close to our apt. Today (happens to be -40 out, but this is an unrelated fact), we ventured thru the traffic to visit the Four Friendly Animals. A dove sits on a rabbit who sits on a monkey who sits on the back of an elephant. The dove has successfully plucked an apple from the tree. To me, the moral of this fable is that we must work together to accomplish a task. 

             But Jim just handed me a book that tells the Mongolian interpretation. The animals are stacked according to age: the elephant being the youngest and the dove, the oldest.  The 3 youngest are helping the oldest, the dove, to reach the apple. It’s all about respect for elders not about mutual cooperation. Different world view. 

            We've thought a life sized elephant was a strange thing to build in UB but with either interpretation maybe it was a good idea, after all.

This is the top of a huge ancient oak that used to stand in the cul-de-sac beyond our Olympia home's driveway. It is now blanketing our yard and kissing the front door. It blocks the garage so that our daughter is stuck but she is safe. The only damage done was to the metal eaves and maybe a corner of the roof. Grateful. But also sad to lose the tree, yard, and potentially the other oaks in that stand. 

Winter Walk

2012 Promises Continued Change in Mongolia

Aslan Telling Jim His Secret

Cola Clause in Front of One of the Fanciest Bldgs in UB

A Favorite Path, Walked it 2x/Day Back in our School Days

These Temperatures Are Good for Something

Much More Common to Travel the Frozen River than to Use the Bridge

D.C. on Ice

May Have to Try to Capture the Ribbon Graffiti in Better Light

Happy New Year 2011pdf

Less than Perfect

     Not the perfect presentation. If I'm lucky, my Mongolian may have been as good as a kindergartner's. A group of hecklers (led by a jr hi boy) sat center front. People kept chatting, as I shared. It was like pouring my guts out in a bar. Not the perfect setting.
     But share I did. After-party feedback was that everyone had loads of fun. Most of the guests said they had never heard about Christmas, the gospel, or how God can radically change a life. It is unlikely that these 'ladies of the night' have ever been inside a church. So it might have been as strange for them to hear a testimony in a 'bar' (really just a coffee shop), as it was for us to speak there.
     Partly, as a result of this annual Christmas party, 2 new women have started working with us. I guess its just not about a perfect presentation in the perfect setting; nope, not about OUR perfection at all!

Color Camels and Culture

“There are 200 wolves in the town square,” our friend Edith reported in a rather urgent voice over the phone. We hurriedly donned our winter outerwear and 10 minutes later were standing on the square block of pavers surrounding a metal communist hero. Wolves were indeed everywhere. But to our disappointment and disgust, they were all frozen stiff. The winner had displayed 50 corpses, proving he was the best wolf hunter.

We didn’t expect to see wolves at a camel festival. Just shows our ignorance of the herding world. The colorful parade and races were less of a surprise. We felt privileged to take it all in and seemed very welcome as 2 of just a handful of foreigners in Gobi Altai for the weekend.

The exhibit hall was teeming with excited shoppers eager to see and buy treasures. Rope, milk, alcohol, yogurt, butter, boots, saddles, nose-piercers, harnesses; all made from or used with camels.

“That was one of the best days of my life,” I said at the end of the parade day! 500 camels, riders and animals dressed to a tee, strolled through town. An occasional ger (yurt), or kid-filled basket was strapped around humps showing how practical camels can be. Before and after the parade, we visited with herders, admired their medals, and even got to sit between a few of the warm furry Bactrian humps. The people were eager to be photographed, patient with our Mongolian and just as eager to show their animals as we were to see them.

The Gift

Yesterday, Erik was delighted to open a Birthday card holding $25.

Today, his money had been converted to new glasses.

"Let's see if they work . . . "

"The words look perfect. Amazing!"

"I can see!"

 

The Happy Glasses Club

                  Liz's commute has shrunk to a geographical triangle between our apt, the Streams shelter, and the JCS office. Occasionally, I venture into another part of the city and am always astounded at the changes that have evolved. Buildings are popping up everywhere. But I pass this site daily so was shocked when suddenly the playground had become a growing edifice. It's common to have a ger and guard live on a building site.

Celebrate Change

      Balloons and banners decorate the school yard. New uniforms. Fresh clean notebooks in shiny backpacks. Proud students in white shirts, big hair bows and pleated skirts. Flowers for the teacher and excitement to re-unite with the gang.
      In Mongolia, Sept. 1 is always the 1st day of school and it's done up big. Parents are late to work so they can participate in the door opening ceremony. Bribing the teacher with expected flowers is part of the deal. I passed a kindergarten around 5pm this evening. (K-g is really pre-school here and little ones start attending at 2 y.o.) At this daycare door, Moms and dads picking up their wee ones were holding tired, crying toddlers.
      Change is like that. The anticipation is part of the process, Jim says its the best part. Preparation, supplies, strategy, and celebration lead to hard work, discipline, struggles in adjusting, even sadness, but hopefully progress. Along the way there are relationships, growth, laughter, tears, frustration, and victory. Feeling like a pre-schooler myself some days.