Feeling French

Isaac got a marker the other day and VIOLA! He drew a french mustache on half of his face.  I guess a little of that time in Paris was coming out in him.  He is so much fun.  It is SO ultimately different having a boy after all the girls.  I never before had a plastic horse in the toaster, or found the missing remote control batteries in the fridge.  I really never considered, before Isaac came along, that I would ever have to say "Don't drive that car in your food" at the dinner table.

   His favorite thing to do is get a plastic stool from our schoolroom, and sneak to the kitchen to get something to eat.  If someone is in the kitchen he says, "Please go away" so he can do his thing without being seen, or stopped.  At least the boy has manners, he always says Please.  Gotta Love Him.  

Women's Sumo???

We went to the countryside with Eagle TV employees.  We got to the place and everyone unpacked their things and then went to sit outside and wrestle.  Yep, that's what they do here for fun instead f the good old game of football, or baseball, or frizbee.  Mongolians LOVE wrestling.  They even listen to sumo wrestling on the radio, like we would listen to a baseball game.  When we first moved here, Anna was 5, and if she would walk in the room and sumo wrestling was on, she would cover her eyes and say, "Ooooh yuck, please change the channel".  Anyway back to the retreat.  All the men signed up and their names were drawn randomly to wrestle each other.  Of course Tony signed up, but he wants to talk about that on his blog. The men didn't do Sumo wrestling, they did traditional Mongolian wrestling, which is nothing like the wrestling done in American High Schools. SO all the men finish and they start asking for the ladies who want to Sumo wrestle.  They ask me if I wanted to wrestle, but have you seen the outfits they wear??? No thank You....no really they wore clothes, thankfully.  All my older girls wanted to do it though, so I got some good shots of them getting beat.  They really had no chance.  These other ladies have done this their whole life, and this was our first time.  They had fun anyway and that is all that matters.

A Sense of Freedom....and Fear

I have had a Mongolian drivers license for 2 years now, and drove for the first time today!  Yeah, I can drive now in the land where the lines on the road are purely decoration, and those pretty red, yellow and green things hanging in the air, yep, they are decorations too.  Now I will be able to help out with the driving and going around town, and hopefully not be so dependant on my chaufeur, Tony.  I hate to admit my biggest fear is not an accident, it is of hitting someone, the Mongolians have no fear of vehicles and walk out in front of cars all the time.  We have actually had people walk into our van more times than I can count.  SO we shall see where this freedom takes me......   YeeHaw

Normal Boring Days

O.K. today is just a boring, normal day.  I don't want everyone thinking we are always out playing in the countryside.  The girls are STILL doing school.  We have a countdown and goal to be done August 7.  I think most kids in the states will be starting about then......

   SO we are still doing school everyday and working in baseball 3 days a week for the month of July.  It is actually hot now, highs in the upper 80's this week, I know that doesn't sound bad, but with no A/C it gets pretty hot.  The heat will only last a couple of weeks though, it will start cooling down by the first of August.  Last night we were outside cooling off and talking with the security guard that works at our apartment building and he told us that it is Fall already, He says after Nadaam it is Fall.

   Since it is hot I made chocolate pudding (from scratch) to make pudding pops with.  Also had to make some hamburger buns for dinner, the dough is rising, but I am dreading turning on the oven to bake them.

  Then of course there is the never ending laundry.  I don't have a dryer here, we just hang everything.  I usually wash 3 loads a day, that is all the room I have to hang, so that works pretty good.  My least favorite load is whites, it is so tedious to hang all those socks!

  I just don't want anyone to think that we have been out playing in the countryside all summer, the pictures I have posted consist of about 3 days out of the past 6 weeks.  All those mundane daily chores have to be done on this side of the world too.

Summer Meat Market

O.K. First things first.  Stop and thank God for the FDA. 

  Here it is in live color, all the meat you could ever want and then some.  The sheep, complete with fat tails(which is a delicacy) and huge legs of beef hang all over the building.  Outside in the heat, in the backs of trucks, are more carcasses to choose from.  Amazingly enough there weren't flies all over the meat, i don't know how they do that.  Then when we were leaving I noticed this big truck backed up to the door loaded with huge bags of bones.  We stopped to ask what they were going to do with these bones, thinking glue factory.  But, no, they are taking the bones to boil down to make soup.  They make a soup here that is meatless, just broth and they thicken it with flour, we would call it gruel.  SO ENJOY!

Haircut

O.K. most women are really particular about their hair.  Getting the perfect stylist is important, you find someone you like and you stick with them.  Usually they know just how you want your hair, and this is a PRICELESS relationship, am I right?

  SO just for a minute, imagine with me going into a foreign salon, where you are basically a mute, with a picture of the haircut you want, and the ability to say "layered".  You are placing the "do" in their hands!!!  I understand a lot of Mongolian, but can't say as much as I understand.  But this I understand - Translated for your enjoyment-  This woman has the weirdest hair I have ever cut, it is like baby hair.  

  Mongolians have very asian hair, of course.  It is very thick, coarse, straight hair, and they truly don't know what to do with my hair.

  Enjoy your stylist, give them a hug the next time you see them!! 

Manshuur Heed

We went out for the day with some friends.  About an hours drive from the city, tucked up in the mountains, are old buddhist monastery ruins.  (warning: history lesson) When the lovely Russians invaded Mongolia, they wanted to get rid of all religion, and all educated people.  So they killed over 1000 monks who lived at this monastery, but told the people that they had sent them off to Russia.  The bodies were all found many years later when the city dump had to move to a different place.  

  Anyway, the setting of the monastery is beautiful, with a small creek running and a gorgeous view.  Lots of people go out there to spend the day and have a picnic, which is what we did too. 

Market day

Today was NOT the day to go shopping, but we had to do it anyway.  Tomorrow (July 11) starts Naadam.  This is a 3 day long national holiday, sort of like the Olympics meets the county fair.  There are 3 main sports of Naadam, horse racing, wrestling, and archery.  SO we have been putting off our grocery shopping and had to go today because tomorrow most all of the shops will be closed.  Everyone else in Mongolia was shopping today too, it was crazy. The traffic was really awful, but it gave us a chance to take some pictures.  The market we went to is called Bars, it is just a big building with lots of little rooms with people selling assorted things.  This market is beside the train station, so things are brought in directly from China, so we get a nice variety of things in the summer.  The sheep in the back of the truck was taken on the way.

The Great Unknown

I almost feel like i shouldn't write anything today because there is so much unknown, that I really don't have any answers.  Tony had a meeting with the director of Eagle TV yesterday and it seems it is just a matter of time before eagle is shut down, unless God intervenes of course.  There were several anti-Eagle people elected into parliament and the Eagle director has had almost continuous meetings since all of this happened.  Eagle is being blamed for the riot because they were the first station to have live coverage.   Yes, this is absolutely preposterous, but sadly true.  So we are just taking things one day at a time, I guess the way we should be, Tony is still writing the lessons for Eagle.  OUr visas are through Eagle, but if that does fall through, Tony can register as a language student again, as a way to stay in the country.  Tony is admittedly discouraged about all this.  He has basically just gotten started at Eagle and now .......what?  

   God gave me a verse in my Bible study this morning though, isn't it amazing how He always gives us what we need?

     Isaiah 55:10-11  For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, an it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

A Day Out

This week haas been admittedly stressful.  Everyone is wondering what might happen next.  SO we went out of town for the day.  Here in the summer, everyone goes out to the countryside (anywhere but the city) so some friends of ours,  who attend our Bible Study, invited us to their summer house.  It was so nice to get out and breathe some fresh air, and just enjoy being outside.  Isaac had a blast throwing rocks in the water.  The house has power, but no water.  They do all the cooking on the wood stove that is kept in the ger behind the house, that way the house doesn't get hot.  There is no heat in the house, so it is only used 2-3 months a year.  Of course, with no running water, there is also no tiolet, sink, etc.  but, it is great for a summer get-away. 

Riot Results

Today lifted our "State of Emergency".  Things are pretty much back to normal around town.  They had said the main street through town would be closed these past 4 days, but it was open 2 days after the riot.  Meetings are taking place at Eagle TV, where my husband works.  Eagle TV was the first station to have live broadcast of the protests, so they are being blamed for causing the riots, and may possibly be closed down.  The next few days will be very telling as to what happens with that. Here is a picture of the Socialist party building that was burned in the riot.

A State of EMERGENCY

O.K. so my vote for peace and quiet obviously wasn't counted.  Last night (Tuesday) there was a HUGE protest because the socialist party dominated all seats of the parliament in the election that took place on Sunday.  There were thousands of Mongolians at the socialist government building, first yelling and rallying then people got all riled up and started throwing rocks, busting out the windows, then that got more people spurred on and they threw a fire bomb, and burned the building down.  This is all right down in the center of Ulaanbaatar.  We watched it all live on television and sat in shock that this was going on.  Mongolians are usually extremely passive people, but they are angry now.  I really felt sorry for the policemen.  There were only about 50 police against all these angry people.  They started attacking the police.  One policeman was blinded, many more severely injured.  

   The news as of today is that there are 6 confirmed dead (I suspect many more).  So we (foreigners) are under curfew, from 10p.m.- 8a.m. (no problems there) and you cannot go out without your passport.  If caught without your passport, you may be "detained" for up to 3 days.  This is just supposed to be until Saturday.  

   We aren't scared, it is just a little unsettling, not knowing what might happen next.  I do feel sorry for the Mongolians, they were ruled by communist for hundreds of years and have just had their freedom since 1991, and now face communist rule again.