Mongolia 2006 Journal

This is my personal journal for the July 2006 Mongolia VIM trip. Team members are Rev Allen (team leader), Erin (his wife), Rev Jeremy, Rev Marsha, Nancy, Steve, Dixie, Ernie, Floyd, and Rev Jackie. Six of the team are from Oklahoma, one from Missouri, one from Tennessee, one from Arkansas, and one from Texas.

Thursday - July 13, 2006

Uneventful flight from KC to Atlanta. While I was eating at the counter in the Atlanta airport, a guy several seats over (white shirt, dark tie, black pants) was talking on his cell phone with an ear piece while eating. "What is pneumonia compared to the Kingdom?" "What is breath to the Kingdom to come?" Sounds like he's telling someone don't worry about dying as long as you are saved.

I was the last team member to the Korean Air gate and I think Allen was starting to get worried. We had a short team introduction and level setting before getting on the plane.

During the flight, I checked the time after the 2nd movie. Still 7 hours to go! Ughhh! The first two movies were not mainstream nor English and I didn't even watch them. Tried to rest as much as possible, but never really slept. There is lots of turbulence which creates a bumpy ride for the big 747-400. Ernie, retired Boeing, tells me this is the latest 747 model. About half way through the flight I remembered my ear plugs. They helped quite a bit. The seat next to me was empty, so I could lie down. Using the other fold down tray was nice. Lots of foot room.

We landed in Seoul 4:10 pm local time (it was 2:10 am Friday CDT). There's a 4-5 hour layover, but the international transfer area is nice. Rats - I forgot my air pillow on the plane. It served me well for many years - I'll have to buy another. The flight to Ulaan Baatar is several hours more. One of the stewardesses reminded me of Sherry Habben, except only Korean (not American), except only black hair (not blond), except only 20-something (not … never mind). We arrived in UB at 11:12 pm (9:12 am CDT), but by now I've lost track of which day is in which time zone. It's now too confusing to keep track of.

A small bus picked us up at the airport and took us to the Catholic Education Center (hereafter referred to the Catholic Center). It's a nice 4 story (plus basement) building run by nuns. The walls are 2 feet thick. It's for girls from the countryside to come in and learn new skills (I think - more or less). There are dorm rooms for 2-3 people, all with private bath room. Some have private showers and some use a common shower room off the hallway. There are enough beds for 60-70 girls, but they are not in session right now. Our rooms are on the 2nd floor.

We are welcomed and "checked in" by Sister Mary and Sister Margaret (not to be confused with Sister Mary Margarita back at the ranch in KC). Ernie and I share a small room each with a small twin bed. The mattress is more hard than soft. There was some orientation by Millie and other helpers. It was 1:30 am Saturday before we got to bed. After 2 hours I woke up thinking I rested well and it was time to get up. But it was still dark outside. Didn't sleep well the rest of the night/morning.

Saturday, July 15

I went out for a walk around 6:30 am, but the gates around the compound were locked. The air was cool, but not cold. The first look around showed quite a mix of building styles. A group of people gathered in the plaza across the street. Some were dressed in traditional costumes. Most seemed young. The first two days this was the case, but I don't remember them after that. Never did understand what was going on. It may have had to do with the festival just completed or the 800 year anniversary of Mongolia.

We should remove our shoes upon entering the building and put on house slippers. It is so dirty and dusty outside, this helps keep the inside cleaner. This is not only true at the Catholic Center, but the gers and other private buildings as well. The Sisters are very helpful, but stay out of site for the most part. We are apparently the first group of outsiders they have rented to. I hope we don't set a bad example. They truly have a servant spirit.

Today is for seeing the city and relaxing after the long flight. We visited a money exchange and most folks got Mongolian money for souvenirs. Throughout the day we stopped at various sites and shops: a Soviet monument on a hill top (great view), the Winter Palace (too bad it's not better maintained), a cashmere shop.

We visited a Buddhist Temple. Inside was a 3-4 story bronze Buddha. Around the perimeter of the inside were many prayer wheels. Also, rows and rows of little Buddhas going up the walls.

We ate at an Indian restaurant, then back to the center to eat a delicious cake that Millie got us, devotions, and a team meeting. Several of us walked across the street to the grocery store to see what they had and got a few things. Hot showers felt great. A few of us gathered in the common room and just talked about stuff. Good team building.

A general comment about traffic in UB. It's crazy. Cars are small. Traffic is congested. Some cars are "left handed" and some are "right handed" although driving is on the right side. If a car is two inches ahead of another, it seems to have the right-of-way to pull into a different lane. Most of these maneuvers are performed at slow motion speed, so there's no danger of being injured. There are also no air emission standards and the air is very polluted from vehicle exhaust. I developed a cough before leaving and was treated for Bronchitis after I returned home. Several others on the team came home with respiratory aliments of one kind or another.

Sunday, July 16

Let me explain the layout of the mission church property where Millie is at. There is a brick building which serves as offices and a school. The property is surrounded by a wooden fence. Most property in Mongolia is fenced unless they are too poor. There are two "regular" sized gers, maybe 20-25 feet in diameter. A ger is a round tent which is very common in Mongolia, even in the city. Its insulation value comes from a heavy felt lining. Only the well-to-do have regular houses or apartments. One of the gers is currently used by the workers replacing the wood fence with a brick one. The other is used by people helping and preparing food for Mission Bible School (MBS). A third ger is very large and serves as the sanctuary. All gers are one room only - no plumbing.

Great worship in the big ger (or Sanctuary) with Millie. There seemed to be two services. One was going on when we got there. This was mostly kids and youth. Then Sunday school. Then the adult and teenager service was held. I played some guitar with the praise team. Even though Millie knows Mongolian, she preached in English with a translator. The Lay Leader led, what I would understand, joys/concerns and the pastoral prayer. The style is what we would call a praise service. Lots of singing, dancing, and hand motions. Even the adults really got into the act. Our team did a song for them and Erin sang a solo - she has a beautiful voice.

In addition to the 2-3 musicians (guitars), at least two girls led the hand motions. They were all on a short stage up front. They all wore they same style/color of shirts giving them a uniform look - making them stand out as being special.

Something in their worship style is saying "Amen" multiple times during prayer - maybe after every phrase. We are told it is something they picked up before Millie got there - she did not teach it to them. Basically, if they agree with or are moved by what is said, they say "Amen".

A cute little 10-year old girl sat next to me during the first service. During a song we were raising our hands so I took her hand in mine. After the service (and throughout the week) she was always smiling and waving at me. She was one of the team's favorites (and she was one of mine). After the 2nd service she was back, ran up to me, and gave me a hug. We went through my English-Mongolian translation sheet and she knew English fairly well for someone that young. She seemed to read English better than Mongolian, but it occurs to me that she probably knows Mongolian with the different alphabet (not English letters).

After lunch, we did inventory back at the mission center for all the supplies we brought. It was a big mess for a while, but this job usually is. Then we did planning for MBS. When we started, we thought we would plan all 3 days, but it's all we could do to plan one day at a time. Nancy and I had the youngest and largest group: 4, 5, 6-year olds. This should be interesting!

A general note about eating out. The meals are very cheap by U.S. standards. You could get a really nice meal for the equivalent of $6-8. Millie had 3 dogs back at the mission church and they ate very well this week from all the doggie-bag leftovers. Virtually everything was put into the bag! It got to be a team joke.

Monday, July 17

At the beginning of the day, before we leave for MBS, we need to pack one small bag for staying with our host family tonight. We will pair off and have an overnight stay in a ger. We need to be at the mission church at 9:00 am for 10:00 start of MBS. The plan changed from what we originally thought coming into the trip. Basically a 5-day program will be fit into 2.5 days - just half the time. With the amount of planning that was needed, this is a good thing. Five full days would have been a challenge. I didn't keep a lot of notes about the details of what we did with the program. It's not that important for this journal. It was a Treasure Seekers theme.

Ernie and I stayed with the Batbold family - the 21 year old son is the worship music director. Mom and Dad are Enchmend and Bayarkuu. There is a 16 year old brother named Gantulga. An older sister, Battsetseg, was away at school. Names here are so difficult to pronounce and remember. There is no close English equivalent to associate with. It's just some foreign word than doesn't mean anything to us. I guess I really don't know what the music director's first name is - everyone seemed to call him Batbold. 

The house was a long ways away. We took a taxi to get there and passed the Catholic Center on the way. We go down some rough looking alleys(/streets) before coming to their ger. Next to the ger are two tool shed-sized shacks that serve as the 2 boys' bedrooms. I can't believe they could stay there in the freezing winter with no heat - they must come into the ger then (but don't really know for sure). The family is expecting us and they are very hospitable. There is a computer (but no internet connection) and a TV inside, along with various pieces of furniture. No running water inside, but a sink is outside along the back fence. A slit trench outhouse served as the bathroom. This was the case at the mission center too and probably every ger in the city. As in other buildings, we take off our shoes inside. We had our first taste of "milk tea".

A lot of the time we would ask a question and the answer was a smile and a "yes" (even if it wasn't a yes/no question). Batbold spoke passable English which helped a lot. "Mom" was a Soviet trained cook and "Dad" drove a truck. We were served refreshments. Batbold showed us the family picture album going back many years. Then he showed us an album with just his pictures.

They showed us several games played with sheep ankle bones. A common tourist souvenir is a fortune telling game using four bones. Traditionally there would be many bones in a set. The bones are very common - even to find on the ground in the country. The bone can land in one of four positions: sheep, goat, camel, and horse. We played on the floor on a mat.

One game was like marbles, where a piece is hit into a like piece, but it can't touch anything else. If you hit it, you get to take one of the pieces. The most pieces wins. Another game was a horse race where a player advances based on the roll of the bones. There are many other games, but the tourist usually only sees the fortune telling.

After teaching us some Mongolian games, they brought out a deck of cards and wanted to learn some American games. The only/easiest thing we could think of was Blackjack. So here we are in Outer Mongolia, teaching a family how to play Blackjack. It was funny to hear "Mom" say "Hit-ta me"! (and she understood the meaning of the other "hit me"). Then we played a Mongolian card game that used the concept of trump.

Batbold is the only one in the family who is Christian. The family comes from a Buddhist tradition (I think a great-Uncle was a monk whom the Soviets killed), but were basically non-religious. However, they accepted and supported Batbold's Christianity.

The next morning she fixed us, what I'm sure was, a big breakfast. And some mare's milk. We killed some time and took pictures before walking to the main street several blocks away to catch a bus (less than 25 cents). We still had to walk part of the way because the bus did not go near the mission center.

Tuesday, July 18

Fred is a 24-year old who we all thought was Mongolian, but he is from California. The previous year he was with a VIM team likes ours. This year he is here for about 5-6 months as a volunteer missionary. GBGM is paying his room, but that's all. He plays guitar and bass and leads some of the songs. He taught the kids most of the songs they use for praise service. I think the songs came from Vacation Bible School material. Catchy tunes though and lots of fun with the dancing and hand motions.

One notable MBS activity today was the Shepherd and the sheep story. To cap it off, I played the Shepherd using a broom handle as a staff. All the little kids were sheep. They followed me saying "baa-baa-baa" as we walked outside the ger and around the property. A couple of times I stopped to see what they would do - they stopped too. They were a little perplexed at first and stopped "baa-ing". The "baa-ing" started again when I started walking. The other people outside got a kick out of it, too. It was cute.

We were pinched to fill about 15 minutes. Luckily our class was in the big ger and had the PA system. We let the kids come up and sing a song to the others. I called it karaoke, but there was no music. The kids really enjoyed having an opportunity to perform. They were so small and cute, yet they knew their songs well.

Wednesday, July 19

This morning session is the last half day of MBS and it's on sending forth. At the end, we sent our little kids scattering to all corners of the property. I played guitar with others at the opening and closing sessions. Plus "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" with Erin's MBS class. I got copies to the four songs we've played during the week to bring back home.

After lunch, Jeremy and I walked with some of the kids down back alleys (I guess these are probably residential "streets") and along a busy section of paved street to a large athletic field. Jeremy took the kids who wanted to play soccer (all the boys and a few girls) and I taught two undersized teams of Mongolian girls how to play kickball. I never guessed I would be doing that! During a break, one girl suggested we play volleyball. When I mentioned that to Namue (our VIM coordinator), she insisted we keep playing kickball. We had fun arguing about it and she said she will be having them play it after we leave and she wanted them to learn as much as possible while I'm there - in other words make it easier for her! It was lots of fun.

I had the devotional tonight before dinner. After dinner we went to a theater that showed traditional Mongolian music and dance. There was a small orchestra up above the stage. Everyone had very colorful costumes. Two men performed traditional low throat singing which sounded very different.

Something else that was done this week, although I personally did not help, was the construction of a "gazebo". Actually it was a large rectangular roof to offer shade for the ladies who worked in the garden - named "Our Farm". We'll leave money for picnic tables and benches to be made. It can also serve as an outdoor class room. The ladies were excited about it.

Thursday, July 20

Today is the Hospice day. We split up in morning and afternoon teams. One group goes to accompany home hospice visits and the other group can go shopping - then switch in the afternoon. Dixie and I went on two afternoon home visits with Helen and a woman doctor. We did not have to do anything - just be there. (If anyone is interested, I copied a CD of photos that Helen asked me to mail to someone when I got back home. This contains lots of pictures related to the Hospice work here. I also have some Hospice pamphlets printed one side in English, the other side in Mongolian.)

The first visit was a man with liver cancer. He, his wife, and some other family members lived in an apartment building. There always seems to be a bowl of hard candy for when guests drop by and she offered us some. He laid on a fold-out bed in the living room where he could watch TV. He wasn't doing very well and was barely coherent. They checked and treated for bed sores, and arranged for additional treatment tomorrow. When he was helped up to go to the bathroom you could see he was skin and bones.

The second visit was entirely different. It was in a poor, shanty-town house. We were offered refreshments as seems the custom. The adult daughter lived there too and Helen said she is an excellent care giver. The old woman sat up on the edge of the bed when we got there. She was in good spirits and conversed well despite the fact she was virtually deaf. The doctor sat next to her on the bed, asking her questions by shouting about 3 inches from her ear.

She wore this light blue hat. At one point she said something, pulled the hat further down on her head, and smiled. She has apparently wore that hat for 8 years. She was making some sort of joke about it. Before we left we huddled around and I was asked to give a prayer. I know she wouldn't understand the language (or even HEAR me) so I sandwiched her hands in mine as I said a prayer. As we left she came out on the porch with the aid of her daughter to wave good-bye.

Friday, July 21

Easy schedule this morning before leaving for the prison at 10:30. It's a detention center for criminals serving less than 6 months, lesser crimes, etc. About 200-300 were lined up in rows on the outdoor courtyard where they were instructed by guards to squat or sit down.

The Missionary at the other Methodist site had made inroads with the prison management in bringing ministry into the prison. We saw her a few times during the trip, but today was the most we worked with her.

We basically did a little service including an opening, Jackie's testimony, group song, my testimony, Erin's solo, benediction and Grace for the upcoming meal. We then handed out Styrofoam box lunches with a bag of drink and fruit. They came through in a long line and we got up close and personal with these people. There were also several women prisoners in the group likely for prostitution or robbery.

My testimony was the story from Slovakia where the pastor almost got arrested at the border. Later he worked that experience into a Grace sermon when we did a prison visit there. It might have been a heavy subject for non-Christians, but it was a prison story that I thought might speak to them at a more personal level.

Dixie, Allen, and I took 50 lunches inside were we served those in "the hole". There was a hallway with an additional locked gate which contained 6 cell rooms. We stood at the opened gate with the food. The guards let the prisoners come out single file, one cell at a time to pick up their meal. Then they went right back. There was one cell of women, too. These characters are even rougher looking than the group outside.

After prison, we stopped by another building that was going to be converted into some kind of mission site. There seemed to be a lot of politics surrounding the whole thing. Unfortunate.

In the afternoon, we met the mission church members to start a 3-day retreat that was previously planned. We were just lucky to be here at the same time to participate. It was a 3 hour taxi van ride on the best highway in Mongolia. That is to say it was a long, rough, and bumpy ride.

We passed through a city, Baganuur, after which the paved road pretty much stopped. It was several more miles over terrible dirt roads and giant potholes. This took us to a "resort" made up of a mess hall/conference center, 6 gers, and numerous small square cabins for sleeping. And a 2 hole slit trench outhouse for 120 people. The Americans, Millie, praise team, and translators took most of the gers. Everyone else squeezed in somewhere. I felt bad we got preferential treatment at the expense of the others.

During part of the free time this evening, the youth played a game with a volley ball. Form a circle and bat the ball in the air (like in volleyball) until it touches the ground. The last person who touched it goes into the center and squats down. More and more people will end up in the center. Sometimes a person would spike the ball hard into the center group (which I thought was kind-of mean!). I asked why and a rule is if you hit a center person then it goes out and touches the ground, you are not "out" - you are "safe". If a center person catches the ball, then all those in the center go back out to the circle. It's like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Darkness forced an end to play.

Saturday, July 22

The retreat was parts of three days and two nights. This is the first/only full day at the retreat and the schedule was very full. I'm out of bed at 6:20 am so I took my camera and walked up the road. It came down a steep hill to the camp which was by a river. So it was a steep walk up the road. It was also cold and windy - something I wasn't quite prepared for. A jacket would be nice. One of the older Mongolian women walked up to the top of the hill where I could see her raising her hands, singing, praying, chanting. She was easy to see because she wore a bright florescent orange overcoat. Several youth were out and running about at this early hour. I got some good pictures that others did not get.

Back in the ger, Allen was working on a fire in the stove. It was difficult because there was little kindling - just chunks of wood and few matches. A fire helped to take the edge off a cold morning.

There were 4 wooden beds in each ger. This worked out good because there were 4 of us guys since Jeremy had previously gone back to Seoul for the World Methodist Conference. My bed tilted front to back. One of the back slats was also broken which made a nice depression for my butt. I slept great, but the others complained about being cold. It was nice and warm in my sleeping bag.

Our breakfast started out with the ever present milk tea - which none of us really liked that well. Not as bad as straight mare's milk though. Other breakfast courses included rice soup, bread, and coffee.

For purposes of the retreat, people were broken into small groups and we Americans were split up. I was in the "Agape" group with 8 people - our color was purple. Nana, one of the excellent praise dancers, was in my group and acted as translator (of sorts). Each team had a team leader. During our first get together as a team, we exchanged names and ages (20-64).

A note about Millie's dog that came with us on the retreat. It's a half-half breed about 8 years old. She brought it with her to Mongolia. We decided it was tri-lingual: Korean, Mongolian, and English. It must be a very talented dog!

The theme for this year's retreat is "blessings" or "be a blessing". It was the topic of Millie's first message. She told the story of the face in the stone mountain. The villagers thought the person with this face would be the village's savior. To make a long story short, after a series of pretenders, a boy who had grown up in the village doing good and died an old man there turned out to be the face in the stone. Afterwards I told her of the Jesus face I saw in the Peruvian Andes. (from back home I emailed her the picture)

We divided into our groups to answer the questions: what is the most important blessing, who can receive it, how do we find a blessing. The small groups will report their answers back to the larger group.

There were several fun team games. We had a volleyball tournament. Our team kicked butt for 3 games then played for the championship and won. Afterward I was telling this one woman on my team (via an interpreter) how well she played. She said that when she was young she played volleyball and had many medals! No wonder she was so good. We had a ringer on the team and didn't even know it.

The daily schedule ran pretty well. Millie gave an afternoon message about being respectful. Right after this we continued volleyball and everyone seemed to be yelling at each other. Short memories.

One of the older men repeatedly indicated to several of us that he was a Christian. He did this by crossing two fingers (different hands), then pointing to himself. He did this once to Floyd using his middle fingers and Floyd wondered if the old guy was flipping him off. We decided it was a cultural miscommunication and no harm intended!

The team did a craft project. Each table had a variety of materials and they were to somehow demonstrate their team's name. Our 8.5 x 11 poster had lots of things on it. Different colored paper was cut up in tiny pieces, then glued on to make a confetti border. The team leader was a good artist and drew hands holding the world/Mongolia. There was a rainbow and sun, too. I am in possession of the poster.

Another group activity was making little dramas of Bible stories.

After dark we had a large bon-fire. Most of our cameras came out and EVERYBODY wanted their picture taken. Throughout the entire time in Mongolia, people (young and old) wanted to be in the picture. Take out a camera and 10 people would suddenly appear. And of course they wanted to see the picture right away on the display on the back of the digital camera. Millie finally said "Just tell them your battery is wore out" so we didn't have to keep taking photos. On Sunday a picture starting out with just one of the Mongolian ladies and Nancy grew into a group shot of almost everyone at the retreat!

Sunday, July 23

This is our last day at the retreat. I walked up to the top of the higher hill overlooking the camp. There were others who happened to be walking up, too - it was about 7:00 am. It was cold and windy at the top, but a wonderful view.

The other folks gathered around a large rock on the side away from the wind somewhat down from the crest. This way they were out of the direct wind. I could see they had their Bibles and were sitting in a circle, so I joined them. This turned out to be, what I call, the "Mountain Top Prayer Meeting". There were 11 of them plus me - all but two were women. They prayed separately, together, sang songs, and read the Bible.

After quite a while of this they started getting up. I thought "OK" - they're done - I'm cold - it would be rude to leave. But they were just splitting up for some individual prayer time. They moved from 5-15 yards away in different directions to kneel, sit, or lay prostrate on the ground for another 15 minutes of prayer. Then they started to conclude this and come back to the rock. I thought "OK" - they're done - I'm cold - it would be rude to leave. But they gathered back around the rock for more. They asked me to pray for Mongolia. Everyone each offered up a prayer.

During this time one of the women came over with bath towel she had to help keep her warm and placed it over my shoulders. She could tell I was cold. I graciously accepted the towel - it really helped! Then we turned to the left and placed hands on that person's shoulders. Somehow they communicated to me that we prayed for that person. After several minutes we turned the other way and did the same thing for that person.

I looked at their Bibles as they read. They were very worn and used. Sections were highlighted and underlined. Some had section tabs pasted in. These Bibles were used everyday. During a Bible reading, I borrowed one and found (by counting the books) my favorite verse, Acts 8:38-39, and pointed it out to them which they read. One woman even made a note of it in a list she kept in her Bible.

It was 9:00 am for breakfast and we were still up on the mountain. We finally finished, took some pictures, and came down the mountain to eat. It was a very unique and moving experience. I'm very glad I happened to take that hike up the hill. Later I heard that group and/or a different group met every morning for group prayers. They are truly Prayer Warriors.

Sunday service had lots of singing (as usually) and responsive readings in two languages.

Then the Baptisms. As previously planned there were around 30 people to be baptized in the river. The river was COLD! Poor Allen got in first and almost fell totally into the water when he stepped where the bottom dropped off sharply. Millie went it too and the first guy - one of the older men - came into the water for the big dunk. After that first one Allen shouted to send them two at a time! No one wanted to stay in the cold water longer than needed. So they came - two by two - Allen and Millie both performing the dunking. Two of the older boys assisted others into the water and helped with names. I don't think this was planned, but they saw the need and just jumped in to help.

A surprise for Millie was that Namue was baptized, too. The team knew about it ahead of time, but Millie didn't know until Namue stepped into the water. Both Allen and Millie gave her the dunk and everyone was very pleased. When all was said and done, 32 people were Baptized - a very special experience most of us will never have an opportunity to repeat.

During some of the free time before we left, one of the youth fell and dislocated his shoulder while playing soccer. He was obviously in a lot of pain, but no one had the experience to fix it. Urjee (the Lay Leader) and Batbold (the musician/translator) would have one of the van-taxis take him several miles over the virtually nonexistent road to the hospital in town.

I had an old white cotton tea towel in my pack so I ripped it in half and tied the ends together for a sling to help immobilize the arm. After catching up with them and waiting to find the taxi driver, I ended up going with them. Batbold sat on one side and I on the other, each with an arm around him to keep him from bouncing around too much (Mission: Impossible). He would see a big pothole coming up and would stand up a few inches to act as a shock absorber. On the way into town, we picked up 3 girls walking along the dirt road and gave them a ride.

The following attempts to detail the hospital trip experience for those who were not there. The multiple story Soviet styled building did not have any large marking that I could see that identified it as the hospital. We came around the back of the building to a door that had a form of red cross over it. After going inside, they had to hunt around to find someone to help us. A nurse came and took him into a room with a desk and an examining table. Most of the activity seemed to be administrative, although I doubt there were any insurance forms.

We seemed to be waiting a long time doing nothing. It turns out that since it is Sunday, they have to call in the Doctor and X-ray technician who are on-call. While waiting I noticed the design on the old linoleum is virtually worn off in the high traffic areas of the room. There's an old locked glass case containing supplies and medicines, some in brown glass bottles. The phone on the desk has a rotary dial.

The door frames had settled and have large cracks around them. The door that separates the examine room hallway from the lobby is missing one of the door panels - there's just a square hole in the door. The walls look like they've been painted over the years with 10 coats of thick enamel paint. Inside the back door was a small common room which then went into other areas. Occasionally people came in and out of the back door which slammed with a loud bang.

A single toilet off the lobby was is a small dirty utility closet filled with rusty pipes. The top of the tank was missing. It had an old wooden seat. At least there was a sink, but only one of its two faucets worked. Can't remember if there were paper towels or not.

Urjee and I went back to camp and Batbold waited with his friend. They phoned one of the taxis on its way to pick up the group at camp to pick them up at the hospital when they come through town. It turned out, as we found out later, that while an X-ray was taken, the Doctor never came in (or never got the message). They sent him back to camp (after we left) and he had to bounce for 3 hours back to an Ulaan Baatar hospital to have medical attention!

Even though we had a wonderful experience at the retreat, I think the team was glad to be back in the city. We ate at a German food restaurant some of us had been to before. Dinner was a disaster. The waitress did not know English and was apparently fairly new to the job. Food was mis-delivered - too many people who didn't know the language were trying to fix things - and worse, most of the team members seemed to be snipping at each other for some reason - not sure why we were doing that if we were suppose to be in a good mood.

The reason for the good mood had to do with the Lay Leader - Urjee.

During the week we learned Urjee's story. Her husband was partially paralyzed or disabled due to an accident and they have 2 teenage children. He could not work on a regular basis. The husband and kids were in the country watching a herd of sheep or something. We could see she was very active in church, MBS, and other special events while we were there. We also learned that she was temporarily living in one of the two smaller gers on the church property - they did not have their own home. It was learned that a ger only cost $500 dollars so the team decided to buy a ger for the family. She was invited to this dinner where the surprise would be announced.

Apparently the government provides free land, but you need your own ger. They already had the land (or could easily get it) and the wooden fence that was tore down around the mission church can be used by them.

She joined us at the restaurant after we had ordered. Allen had money in an envelope we all signed. As Allen's words were translated explaining what we were doing, she got a big smile, but at the same time not really knowing what to say or do. She said she prayed everyday for months about a new home. This was really an answer to prayer. She said they would buy the ger Monday and have it up by the time we leave (Tuesday). We were all very happy for her.

Monday, July 24

Today we went to Terelj National Park about 90 minutes away. The road was very bumpy - we are all glad we chose not to go on a different 5 hour trip. Some of us took a very short tourist ride on a two-hump camel. Millie and Jackie rode the little Mongolian horses. It was sprinkling and we spent a lot of time in one of the rent-a-gers (like a ger hotel). After we ate lunch we didn't have time to do anything else. The trip was rather anticlimactic.

Back in UB, Allen, "Bill", and I took a taxi to the black market where he was going to meet his Mongolian "grandfather" to help pick out a full Dell (a traditional Mongolian "bathrobe"). While there I got the idea to buy myself a Dell jacket, which I did. Millie later said it was very good material.

We saw Urjee outside the market in the "ger section". She was buying her house!

A note about Namue. As the local VIM coordinator, it seemed she was always with us and we greatly relied on her for translation, advice, and being told what to do next. She was Korean, like Millie, and they were great friends. The little rule I used to remember her name was that it rhymed with "Shamu" the killer whale. She is a bundle of energy. We were also fortunate that she arranged for some of her students to act as translators. They were all very good. 

I think it was this day that some of us visited the history museum. Mongolia has a rich ethnic history and it's 800 year's old this year. Its big claim to fame is Chinggis Khaan (aka Genghis Khan).

That evening we ate at "Millie's Café" which was more American than the California Café. That evening, back at the center some of us played UNO. Nancy had not played before, but she learned quickly and held her own.

Tuesday, July 26

This is our last (and a long) day. The morning was easy going - no big rush. Took a long hot shower. It will be a while before the next one. We had a team meeting and planned out the day. I went with Allen to take some things to the mission church.

In the evening after dinner, we went to see Urjee's new house, that is, ger. It was WAY UP THE HILL from the ger church. It was literally almost at the hill top. There were lots of church members there as they were expecting us.

As we went in the new house, which did not exist one day previous, we took off our shoes inside the door after entering. We lined up on one side on the floor and the local church folk filled up the rest. Someone said they counted over 30 people in the ger.

There was no furniture, just a stove in the middle for heating and cooking. There was a pot of mare's milk warming. Allen was offered the first cup. He said "just a little" as he indicated with his fingers, but Urjee filled up the cup all the way. Someone translated that it was a sign of respect to receive a full cup. I received a cup too, knowing I would not drink it all. This milk tasted very different than previous occasions, and this was not as good. Helen, who was next to me, said that mare's milk really varies in taste (maybe it depends on what the horse has been eating!).

Small speeches were made, gifts were given to the team, all were excited for the occasion, yet a little sad knowing this was the last time we are all together. We had the taxi van move down the hill a little ways so it wouldn't tip over on its side when we all got in (it was listing to port quite a bit).