There is nothing like a sandwich with mustard. I forgot to buy it in UB and so I searched a bit here yesterday. I found dry mustard and decided to buy it.
I made mustard myself. I looked up a recipe online! Easy!
Yeah... fried "yham" (salami like meat) sandwiches with mustard for lunch!
6.15.2009
Things I see
Today I went to the market. It was like ole mother Hubbard here, no food. So I set out.
I listened to Mongolian radio, mostly grainy rap, that Mongolians love. I drive out on the dirt road, moving slowly dodging large potholes, and watching carefully for livestock. Livestock are allowed to roam around all day-you know free range! I get to the "black" road, the paved road in our town. I see pigs running in the rain and drinking from the creek. I see an old gentleman riding a bike with a violin in his hands. It it wrapped in a plastic flour sack to protect it from the rain. I slow down and yield for a taxi that is going towards Russia. I turn the opposite direction and head for the school where Peter works. I see a group of workers laying a sidewalk, mixing cement by hand in a trailer and scooping shovelfuls into the wooden forms. I turn the corner and arrive at the school.
I walk into the school and enter, unexpectedly, to a prayer meeting. They are praying for my family, especially for Peter to get well. (Peter has a fever.) They pray for the health of others as well and then they all say, "Amen." I greet them and everyone goes to their work. They have been meeting at a staff Bible study. Two of them, our teachers, have asked to study the Bible. They are interested in Jesus. Ariunna is teaching them. How encouraging!!! I drop off some instructions and money for our work permit. Enkee is going to UB to get it for us. She is four months pregnant and looking good. We talk for a while then she gives me juice for Peter and Sierra. She tells me it is good for them because of all the vitamins. I say goodbye and head for the market.
I decided to shop outside first. There are little stands like a swap meet. I go to the gardener section. There is a fresh bunch of lettuce on the table! That is a rare find so I buy it. She has radishes too. She planted her vegetables in the house in April. She is also selling little seedlings. I buy 8 tomato plants, 10 bell peppers, 2 watermelons and 1 mystery plant.
I carry my veggies and different dry goods that I have picked up back to the car. I pass a train container that is filled with 20 pound bags of flour. I buy one and 10 pounds of rice. The man I bought it from carries it on his head up to my car.
I head into the building at the open market. It looks similar to outside, little booths like a swap meet. There are piles of potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbages and garlic in the vegetable room. I find one woman has new potatoes that are from this season. I buy them right away. New potatoes are so much more creamy and moist than potatoes that have wintered over. I also buy fruit from the women who import it from UB.
It is so interesting that they all (10-15) people all sit next to each other selling the exact same thing. It is a bit nerve wracking because choosing to buy from one is a rejection of another. The idea of capitalism is lost here. There is a different system. The tandec whon (known person) system. You buy from the one you know. This gets tricky when the one you know has the worst quality produce. Today I only bought two apples because my fruit girl's produces was BAD!
I leave the vegetable room with around 7 pounds of produce in my bag. I head to the meat room next. Same thing here, 15 women all selling the same thing. The meat is piled on tables out in the open laying there ALL day! I have no tandec whon here. I don't want one. I want only the best meat. I don't look anyone in the eye, they all begin to yell. They yell at me that there's is the best meat. They say "oye oye nash ir." (hey you come here!) I don't look at them. I don't buy based on who I know. I keep my head down, I look at all the meat. I buy from the person who has the best meat. I buy a big blob (about 5 pounds) with just a few bones and no fat.
I leave this room and go to the milk room. Here the tables are filled with pails of sour cream, milk, and yogurt. There is something like butter that is sold in plastic wrap and dried milk curd.
In this room the yogurt looks lumpy so I don't buy any. I do buy some nice looking sour cream and 30 eggs. I head back to the car and put down my heavy bag. I start the car and head to my favorite store.
It is my favorite store because it is the only store in town that you can take a hand held basket and walk around the 3 isles and choose what you want. The prices are marked and it is kind of an American experience. They don't have diapers today... sad news. Then my language teacher arrives and tells me her mother is coming into town tonight on the train. Now I am careful about how much I spend. It is difficult to spend money in front of my friend. However, I need a few things, so I decide to ask her what she thinks about each brand and go with the brands she suggests. I buy about seven things and decided to check out.
We say goodbye and part ways. I head home to put away my groceries. I was gone two hours and spent $55. I come home with about 4 bags of groceries and bulk flour and rice. I am a bit tired from shopping but glad to have food for tonight!
I listened to Mongolian radio, mostly grainy rap, that Mongolians love. I drive out on the dirt road, moving slowly dodging large potholes, and watching carefully for livestock. Livestock are allowed to roam around all day-you know free range! I get to the "black" road, the paved road in our town. I see pigs running in the rain and drinking from the creek. I see an old gentleman riding a bike with a violin in his hands. It it wrapped in a plastic flour sack to protect it from the rain. I slow down and yield for a taxi that is going towards Russia. I turn the opposite direction and head for the school where Peter works. I see a group of workers laying a sidewalk, mixing cement by hand in a trailer and scooping shovelfuls into the wooden forms. I turn the corner and arrive at the school.
I walk into the school and enter, unexpectedly, to a prayer meeting. They are praying for my family, especially for Peter to get well. (Peter has a fever.) They pray for the health of others as well and then they all say, "Amen." I greet them and everyone goes to their work. They have been meeting at a staff Bible study. Two of them, our teachers, have asked to study the Bible. They are interested in Jesus. Ariunna is teaching them. How encouraging!!! I drop off some instructions and money for our work permit. Enkee is going to UB to get it for us. She is four months pregnant and looking good. We talk for a while then she gives me juice for Peter and Sierra. She tells me it is good for them because of all the vitamins. I say goodbye and head for the market.
I decided to shop outside first. There are little stands like a swap meet. I go to the gardener section. There is a fresh bunch of lettuce on the table! That is a rare find so I buy it. She has radishes too. She planted her vegetables in the house in April. She is also selling little seedlings. I buy 8 tomato plants, 10 bell peppers, 2 watermelons and 1 mystery plant.
I carry my veggies and different dry goods that I have picked up back to the car. I pass a train container that is filled with 20 pound bags of flour. I buy one and 10 pounds of rice. The man I bought it from carries it on his head up to my car.
I head into the building at the open market. It looks similar to outside, little booths like a swap meet. There are piles of potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbages and garlic in the vegetable room. I find one woman has new potatoes that are from this season. I buy them right away. New potatoes are so much more creamy and moist than potatoes that have wintered over. I also buy fruit from the women who import it from UB.
It is so interesting that they all (10-15) people all sit next to each other selling the exact same thing. It is a bit nerve wracking because choosing to buy from one is a rejection of another. The idea of capitalism is lost here. There is a different system. The tandec whon (known person) system. You buy from the one you know. This gets tricky when the one you know has the worst quality produce. Today I only bought two apples because my fruit girl's produces was BAD!
I leave the vegetable room with around 7 pounds of produce in my bag. I head to the meat room next. Same thing here, 15 women all selling the same thing. The meat is piled on tables out in the open laying there ALL day! I have no tandec whon here. I don't want one. I want only the best meat. I don't look anyone in the eye, they all begin to yell. They yell at me that there's is the best meat. They say "oye oye nash ir." (hey you come here!) I don't look at them. I don't buy based on who I know. I keep my head down, I look at all the meat. I buy from the person who has the best meat. I buy a big blob (about 5 pounds) with just a few bones and no fat.
I leave this room and go to the milk room. Here the tables are filled with pails of sour cream, milk, and yogurt. There is something like butter that is sold in plastic wrap and dried milk curd.
In this room the yogurt looks lumpy so I don't buy any. I do buy some nice looking sour cream and 30 eggs. I head back to the car and put down my heavy bag. I start the car and head to my favorite store.
It is my favorite store because it is the only store in town that you can take a hand held basket and walk around the 3 isles and choose what you want. The prices are marked and it is kind of an American experience. They don't have diapers today... sad news. Then my language teacher arrives and tells me her mother is coming into town tonight on the train. Now I am careful about how much I spend. It is difficult to spend money in front of my friend. However, I need a few things, so I decide to ask her what she thinks about each brand and go with the brands she suggests. I buy about seven things and decided to check out.
We say goodbye and part ways. I head home to put away my groceries. I was gone two hours and spent $55. I come home with about 4 bags of groceries and bulk flour and rice. I am a bit tired from shopping but glad to have food for tonight!
6.11.2009
Blank Canvas
I have a huge yard. When I look at the huge dirt field in my front yard that is slowly being covered by weeds, it is overwhelming. I have a temptation to say, "oh well, let them grow up over my whole house for all I care."
But then I open the fridge and find only carrots and cabbage and I think, "I better get out there and plant!" So I slowly and with no enthusiasm at all, I find my seeds. I think boy this is going to be a lot of work. I decided to plant corn yesterday. I went out into the blistering heat and planted fourteen rows of corn. While I am planting, I start thinking about all the delicious corn that will grow. I pray that God will bless this labor and give us a harvest. I act in faith because putting a dry seed in the ground is just that, faith that something will grow and that something will be food. Then I start to think about the possibilities.
At that moment my yard becomes a canvas. What will I do and how will I do it? I finish the corn and think. What else can I plant around this corn? I open my gardening book and find that potatoes and corn are good to plant together. Great, I will plant the potatoes that grow with their pretty dark green leaves beneath the corn. They will help me with weeding. Where they grow weeds will not grow. I am happy. I plant seven rows of potatoes beneath the corn. I am hooked and can hardly wait to plant the rest of the yard.
I go back to my seed box. I find my orange marigolds and tall purple cosmos. I plant them in my flower bed along with a row of dark green spinach. I always think Disneyland is cool with the artistic way they plant vegetables in tomorrow land. They can be used like little shrubs.
Turn on the sprinkler and begin to look at the yard. I decide to weed the left hand side so that I can plant butternut and acorn squash. I throw in some pumpkins while I'm at it. These grow in huge swooping vines and cover the yard like a ground cover with huge heart shaped leaves the size of elephants ears! Everywhere they cover holds the weeds down and provides us with delicious squash as well.
I turn to my little gazebo we built two years ago. It is looking sad and needing some attention. The roof is falling and so we propped it up. I will get a fabric roof for it this year. During the summer the children and I eat almost all our meals in there and even put a little pool in there so they can play in the shade. But yesterday, it just looked sad. So I got out my paint and painted it blue and white (the same colors as our house.) I will plant green beans to grow up it's sides. Soon it will be covered with pretty leaves and little white flowers.
I had to stop there and make dinner for my little ones, but I am no longer dreading my yard. I finished the day reading gardening books and planning what to do next! I am really excited to see it grow into my little art project on my blank canvas!
But then I open the fridge and find only carrots and cabbage and I think, "I better get out there and plant!" So I slowly and with no enthusiasm at all, I find my seeds. I think boy this is going to be a lot of work. I decided to plant corn yesterday. I went out into the blistering heat and planted fourteen rows of corn. While I am planting, I start thinking about all the delicious corn that will grow. I pray that God will bless this labor and give us a harvest. I act in faith because putting a dry seed in the ground is just that, faith that something will grow and that something will be food. Then I start to think about the possibilities.
At that moment my yard becomes a canvas. What will I do and how will I do it? I finish the corn and think. What else can I plant around this corn? I open my gardening book and find that potatoes and corn are good to plant together. Great, I will plant the potatoes that grow with their pretty dark green leaves beneath the corn. They will help me with weeding. Where they grow weeds will not grow. I am happy. I plant seven rows of potatoes beneath the corn. I am hooked and can hardly wait to plant the rest of the yard.
I go back to my seed box. I find my orange marigolds and tall purple cosmos. I plant them in my flower bed along with a row of dark green spinach. I always think Disneyland is cool with the artistic way they plant vegetables in tomorrow land. They can be used like little shrubs.
Turn on the sprinkler and begin to look at the yard. I decide to weed the left hand side so that I can plant butternut and acorn squash. I throw in some pumpkins while I'm at it. These grow in huge swooping vines and cover the yard like a ground cover with huge heart shaped leaves the size of elephants ears! Everywhere they cover holds the weeds down and provides us with delicious squash as well.
I turn to my little gazebo we built two years ago. It is looking sad and needing some attention. The roof is falling and so we propped it up. I will get a fabric roof for it this year. During the summer the children and I eat almost all our meals in there and even put a little pool in there so they can play in the shade. But yesterday, it just looked sad. So I got out my paint and painted it blue and white (the same colors as our house.) I will plant green beans to grow up it's sides. Soon it will be covered with pretty leaves and little white flowers.
I had to stop there and make dinner for my little ones, but I am no longer dreading my yard. I finished the day reading gardening books and planning what to do next! I am really excited to see it grow into my little art project on my blank canvas!
6.10.2009
Kitchen before and after pictures
Here it is. I am not completely finished but wanted to post pictures.
Improvements-
The walls are repaired and papered.
The counter top is tile now.
We got new top cabinets.
Highlights-
I can't believe the glass cutter worked. I must say, it didn't work well. We had several broken tiles and it came down to the very last tile. We don't have a single whole tile left. There was several jagged cuts that we made with pliers and it was questionable to use them but we had no choice! I was a little discouraged. But then I opened the grout- it was white. You must understand there was only one store in the whole town that had grout. There was only one 4 pound bag. When I asked the shop keeper what color it was she shrugged. I was so happy that it was white because the print on the tiles is white and it matched so well that it hid the poor cuts and placements of the tile!
I can't believe the glass cutter worked. I must say, it didn't work well. We had several broken tiles and it came down to the very last tile. We don't have a single whole tile left. There was several jagged cuts that we made with pliers and it was questionable to use them but we had no choice! I was a little discouraged. But then I opened the grout- it was white. You must understand there was only one store in the whole town that had grout. There was only one 4 pound bag. When I asked the shop keeper what color it was she shrugged. I was so happy that it was white because the print on the tiles is white and it matched so well that it hid the poor cuts and placements of the tile!
Just a small thing in the scheme of life, but I am so thankful for a clean kitchen. I spend several hours a day in there and it's a nice inviting room now.
6.08.2009
Eternal Love
This was our first Sunday back to church here in Mongolia. We attended and the meeting has switched locations from the small teacher supply room to the large meeting room. The chairs were set up and tea was made. There were about 12 (a total of 20) new people who have begun attending. We had tea and then began with singing. Prayer time was excellent with many more people willing to pray aloud and together.
Tsagaa taught about the character of a Christian and everyone followed along in their Bibles. There was a lot of discussion and participation!
Then at the end after prayer, they began discussing the name for the church. People had begun calling us the school church, because we meet at the church. They discussed the name for awhile and came up with the name "Eternal Love Church." So it's official!
They are also beginning to tithe and want to have discussion about this topic. We are excited to see how God grows this church!
Tsagaa taught about the character of a Christian and everyone followed along in their Bibles. There was a lot of discussion and participation!
Then at the end after prayer, they began discussing the name for the church. People had begun calling us the school church, because we meet at the church. They discussed the name for awhile and came up with the name "Eternal Love Church." So it's official!
They are also beginning to tithe and want to have discussion about this topic. We are excited to see how God grows this church!
6.05.2009
Another day in Mongolia
We wrapped up another day here. Our kitchen walls are repaired and the wallpaper is hung. It looks so great. We have always had broken up walls in there and so it is really great to see clean and solid walls!
I bought the tiles for the countertop and a tile cutter today. It is a knife-like hand tool and if it cuts the tile well, I will fall over with surprise. The tile cutter cost $3, I even splurged and decided not to get the $2 one, so if it doesn't work, I won't be out any huge expense! ;) I was able to buy 31 tiles and we only need 19, so we can make a lot of mistakes. The store only had 31 so hopefully well get the hang of it quickly. I asked the women at the store how to use the cutter and another customer had tiled before and said to soak each tile for 20 minutes then to run the knife-tile cutter over the tile twice and then to put it on a flat edge and snap it off. Hmm we'll see about that.
We were able to find the tile morter and tile, but i need small backsplash tile and grout. Hopefully I'll find that soon.
I bought the tiles for the countertop and a tile cutter today. It is a knife-like hand tool and if it cuts the tile well, I will fall over with surprise. The tile cutter cost $3, I even splurged and decided not to get the $2 one, so if it doesn't work, I won't be out any huge expense! ;) I was able to buy 31 tiles and we only need 19, so we can make a lot of mistakes. The store only had 31 so hopefully well get the hang of it quickly. I asked the women at the store how to use the cutter and another customer had tiled before and said to soak each tile for 20 minutes then to run the knife-tile cutter over the tile twice and then to put it on a flat edge and snap it off. Hmm we'll see about that.
We were able to find the tile morter and tile, but i need small backsplash tile and grout. Hopefully I'll find that soon.
6.04.2009
We made it!
After a week of travel, we made it back to our house. It is good to be back in our house. The flights went well. The kids only slept a couple of hours, but were good and healthy. We arrived in Korea after about 12 hours in the air. We had a little three hour layover, much nicer than our typical 20 hour layover! We found our gate and rested a little bit. When we got onto the flight to Mongolia, we had all been awake for about 24 hours. Thankfully we all fell asleep and didn't wake up until our decent into the Ulanbaatar airport.
We had checked 8 Rubbermaid containers and all of them came through without hitch. We walked out and our friend Mike was waiting for us with his big van. He helped us load our half ton of luggage and we drove to our apartment in UB. Our team rents and apartment in the city so that we have a place to go we have work to do in the capital. We arrived there at midnight and all went to bed until 4 am. Then we woke up and had some french toast. We had some work to do when the sun came up and the government offices opened.
First, Peter changed a tire and had it repaired. The man at the repair shop located the holes in the tires by spitting on it repeatedly to see where it leaked air. Then Peter went to register us with the Mongolian government. That took all day and at the close of business it was still not done. So he came home, oh so happy! Thankfully our friends hosted us for dinner and the day wrapped up well!
The next day we went to pick out some paint. The first time we painted our living room, be chose red, yellow and green. I don't know why! Well I had an idea, which ended up looking like a big top circus because the colors were not subtle enough! So we chose a light taupe kind of color. After we painted, I would call the color mushroom pearl. HMMM... ?not exactly what I was hoping for, but MUCH better than the circus I described earlier!
Later on that day we stocked up on supplies: cheese, peanut butter, and chicken. Then we came back to the apartment and drove up to Sukhbaatar. The drive was good an uneventful, save one policeman who decided that the tubs on top of our car were unsafe and he fined us 5,000 tugriks ($4.30) and then we continued up to our friends apartment in the city center here. Our teammate and friend hosted us for dinner and then we all went to bed.
The next day we came out to our house. It was a sad sight all boarded up and abandoned. However, our neighbor and guard for the winter did a great job making sure nothing was stolen. The fence was all there and the house untouched!!! We started to open the numerous locks and pry off two by fours Peter had used to sealed off the garage. All the windows were covered with ply board and screwed in with five million screws, but there was no electricity to see inside the house, or use a drill to remove the screws. We called our friend, who helped us call the electric company. They came out right away and turned on the power! The house was in great order and it wasn't even filled with dust like I thought it would be!
The next day we came back and painted the big top circus room!!! I can't tell you how happy I am to see those colors and the grime on the hallway wall disappear! Painting this room took all day because there are 7 doors and two windows, a staircase, a built in TV cabinet and radiators to paint carefully!
The next day our friends Dashaa, Munkbold, Sharon, Les and his son Victor came to help us move our stuff from the garage at our friends house to our house. We are moving in slowly STILL. We decided to not organize the kitchen yet, since the walls are falling down.
Yesterday we hired a friend of a friend of a friend to repair the walls and today he and his daughter are wallpapering. It looks so clean, fresh and new. We have linoleum counter tops that we are thinking of replacing with tile! I even found a tile in town that I like! That is amazing! It is funny to shop for home goods here. I had only two choices of wallpaper and only four kinds of tile to choose from and one color grout. It makes decisions easy in some ways because I usually hate one of the two choices!!!
SO that about wraps up our week of travel!
We had checked 8 Rubbermaid containers and all of them came through without hitch. We walked out and our friend Mike was waiting for us with his big van. He helped us load our half ton of luggage and we drove to our apartment in UB. Our team rents and apartment in the city so that we have a place to go we have work to do in the capital. We arrived there at midnight and all went to bed until 4 am. Then we woke up and had some french toast. We had some work to do when the sun came up and the government offices opened.
First, Peter changed a tire and had it repaired. The man at the repair shop located the holes in the tires by spitting on it repeatedly to see where it leaked air. Then Peter went to register us with the Mongolian government. That took all day and at the close of business it was still not done. So he came home, oh so happy! Thankfully our friends hosted us for dinner and the day wrapped up well!
The next day we went to pick out some paint. The first time we painted our living room, be chose red, yellow and green. I don't know why! Well I had an idea, which ended up looking like a big top circus because the colors were not subtle enough! So we chose a light taupe kind of color. After we painted, I would call the color mushroom pearl. HMMM... ?not exactly what I was hoping for, but MUCH better than the circus I described earlier!
Later on that day we stocked up on supplies: cheese, peanut butter, and chicken. Then we came back to the apartment and drove up to Sukhbaatar. The drive was good an uneventful, save one policeman who decided that the tubs on top of our car were unsafe and he fined us 5,000 tugriks ($4.30) and then we continued up to our friends apartment in the city center here. Our teammate and friend hosted us for dinner and then we all went to bed.
The next day we came out to our house. It was a sad sight all boarded up and abandoned. However, our neighbor and guard for the winter did a great job making sure nothing was stolen. The fence was all there and the house untouched!!! We started to open the numerous locks and pry off two by fours Peter had used to sealed off the garage. All the windows were covered with ply board and screwed in with five million screws, but there was no electricity to see inside the house, or use a drill to remove the screws. We called our friend, who helped us call the electric company. They came out right away and turned on the power! The house was in great order and it wasn't even filled with dust like I thought it would be!
The next day we came back and painted the big top circus room!!! I can't tell you how happy I am to see those colors and the grime on the hallway wall disappear! Painting this room took all day because there are 7 doors and two windows, a staircase, a built in TV cabinet and radiators to paint carefully!
The next day our friends Dashaa, Munkbold, Sharon, Les and his son Victor came to help us move our stuff from the garage at our friends house to our house. We are moving in slowly STILL. We decided to not organize the kitchen yet, since the walls are falling down.
Yesterday we hired a friend of a friend of a friend to repair the walls and today he and his daughter are wallpapering. It looks so clean, fresh and new. We have linoleum counter tops that we are thinking of replacing with tile! I even found a tile in town that I like! That is amazing! It is funny to shop for home goods here. I had only two choices of wallpaper and only four kinds of tile to choose from and one color grout. It makes decisions easy in some ways because I usually hate one of the two choices!!!
SO that about wraps up our week of travel!
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