New Year's fireworks

In case you've wondered whether Mongolians celebrate New Year's Eve with fireworks, they do. Nothing too fancy, but last night I did get to see a few nice fireworks from my window around midnight. What I wasn't expecting, however, were the indoor fireworks earlier in the day in my apartment. Due to the decrepit condition of the apartment buildings here (recall my earlier plumbing disaster!), the circuit breakers can't handle a certain amount of power that Americans are accustomed to. The problem is, you don't know what the limit is until you cross it.

Yesterday afternoon, I discovered the limit in my apartment. Apparently, I cannot plug in a space heater at the same time my oven is on. All the electrical outlets in my apartment are wired to one breaker. The lights are on another, so thankfully they were unaffected. With cornbread baking in the oven, I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and noticed black smoke coming out of the wall outlet in the far corner. Then I could see a tiny fire through the socket holes. I then commenced freaking out. I immediately called our staff, one of whom is our electrician, and asked him to hurry to my apartment. While I was on the phone, a second pop and fire occurred in the outlet, and more black smoke. The little fires were short-lived and contained, and the walls are solid concrete so I knew the likelihood of a major fire was low. But still - add this to the list of things I've never, ever dealt with in my life, and it resulted in a mild amount of panic.

As always, God took care of me. Our electrician Munkho was over in a flash, and he had the whole thing fixed within an hour. That is, except for this poor burned up outlet:

Munkho explained what happened, and how in the future I can only use the oven or the space heater, but not both at the same time. Which is fine, because the space heater isn't absolutely necessary, and as it turns out, the oven sort of serves the same purpose!

Thanks to Munkho, I enjoyed the rest of my day, and watched movies all night until 1am. It was kind of cool reaching 2008 before most of the world. Happy New Year!

Camel crossing

This morning, I set out on a 1.5-hour trip with a few of our staff to a town called Dulaan Khan. We were delivering school supplies, food and winter clothes to school children who were in great need. About halfway there, we came upon a beautiful herd of camels. Our driver stopped, and the herdsman started riding toward us. Before I knew it, I was out of the van and on top of a gigantic Bactrian camel.

Although you may associate camels with hot, dry, sandy desert, these 2-hump camels are native to Mongolia and thrive in the extreme cold. The big guy I rode had a dusting of snow on his head! He was so huge, he dwarfed the horse next to him. Of course, Mongolian horses are smaller than American or European horses.



It was a fairly large herd, with a few white camels. They were really beautiful animals. But trust me, they don't make beautiful noises. If you agitate them, they sort of squeal and shriek. It was a treat to see, and if you want to see a few more pictures you can click here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=m1glqs2.6v88dyaq&x=0&y=7j3cig

Christmas kids: Part 2

As a followup to my last post, I wanted to post this picture of our toddlers. They were the last group we visited. They range in age from 3-7, with one girl and 9 boys. The girl is handicapped, as well as the boy I'm holding. His name is Chinzorig, and he has cerebral palsy. They loved their visit from Santa.

Christmas is for Mongolian kids too!

This week I have had one of the best times of my life. I've always loved gift-giving, but celebrating Christmas with our orphan kids has given me great joy. My good friend Justin agreed to play Santa, and he was a major hit. As it turns out, "Ho, ho, ho" needs no translation. On Monday and Tuesday nights, I visited the kids and read them the Night Before Christmas story. They asked me questions about Santa, and then Santa Justin knocked on the door and surprised them. You should have seen the amazement in their eyes. There was Santa, right after I told them the story!

Santa Justin delivered small gifts to each child, plus a small chocolate. Every time he said "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!" and patted his belly, they laughed. And they all wanted to have their picture taken with Santa.

Our kids know the true meaning of Christmas. They know it's really about the birth of the Savior Jesus. But every kid loves Santa, and I wanted them to experience that excitement. The younger ones will all be singing Christmas carols in church on Sunday. In the meantime, there will be lots of drawing in new notebooks, matchbox car races, and superhero action figure battles.

Frosty the Tomato

Tonight I visited our young girls' apartment, as I normally do on Tuesday nights. Four nights each week, I spend an hour with our kids teaching them English and enjoying their company. Christmas is growing in popularity in Mongolia, and our kids have shown a tremendous interest in learning more about it. They are even learning traditional Christmas carols to sing in church (translated into Mongolian, of course). I arrived at their home tonight armed with an old Frosty the Snowman book and my iPod+speakers, with Harry Connick's version of the old tune. With the help of my translator, I read them the story, and then played them the song. They absolutely loved it. The girls are eager to pick up new songs and more English. Some have better English abilities than others, and tonight one of them struggled to repeat the word "snowman," instead it inexplicably came out "tomato." So as I started the song for a second time at their request, she mumbled something like "Frosty the Tomato." I giggled quietly and discreetly, but there was no way NOT to giggle. They are such a blast.

Winter necessity

Thought you might want to see my winter coat. Thanks to the sacrifice of a few good sheep, it's the single most important item I own in Mongolia. This picture was taken about a month ago, on a nice sunny day. The temperature was about 30 degrees, right around freezing. Now, the daytime high is running around 10 degrees, and I won't be standing outside long enough to take a photo, if I can help it. For my mother and other concerned readers, yes - I do have a hat which I normally wear.

I've been wondering if this coat will make the trip home with me or not. It would literally take up an entire suitcase, and when would I wear it? A decision to be made in the future.