Bayankhongor!!

Team Mongolia South now lives up to their name! Yes – we are finally at our destination, Bayankhongor. At this very moment I am situated in the YWAM building. This is where we eat , sleep, and try to shower! We are living here with the Mongolian staff. The students are away on their outreach program around Mongolia.
If I look out the window I see snow topped buildings, with smoke billowing from the roof, a few ghers and beautiful big mountains. This is a place where you can look out and actually see the cold. It’s hard to explain, I think maybe it’s because of the lighting. People are still out and about though. The streets are not empty! It’s not unusual to see a man or woman in traditional long coat type of dress with big leather boots walking down the road. What amazes me is lots of time people don’t cover their faces! Brr! Mongolians are tough! As we were walking to the ‘Big Market’ today we saw about 25 pool tables outside, and they were not empty! (It’s -30 C) There were by standers as well watching the tournament.
Yesterday morning we arrived in Bayankhongor on a 30ish passenger plane. The airport is very tiny!
We were in time for church, so we went to church in a gher! (A gher is like a round tent) It was actually quite warm. There was a wood fireplace in the middle. It was amazing to finally really take part in the culture. The Church service was much like ours, except in Mongolian. The congregation was very open in the worship, and we sensed and where impacted by a great authenticity. As a team we discussed how a lot of us go to church because our parents do. Christianity has been in Mongolia for about 20 years. So far from the people we’ve talked to don’t go to church because their parents did. There are no denominations in Mongolia (except recently in UB, the capital city). Laura our wonderful host (works here in the YWAM building) said once a Mongolian lady in the office once asked her what the word denominations meant. (They don’t have this word in Mongolian) This lady was quite good at English and heard Laura talk about denominations. Laura described what denominations were to her and the lady said something like “Now, why would you want to do that? We all believe in the same God!” I hope this continues to be true in Mongolia. We were introduced at church; Laura translated for us, and sang a song. A CLBI favorite - ‘God is our Shepherd.’ They seemed to appreciate the song even though only a few could understand the words!
This morning we did our first “English class.” It was lots of fun. Basically we split up into groups and talked to the staff and few other people from the city. They are eager to learn better English. Today our class entailed getting to know one another. It was as awkward as we thought. It is challenge to speak slowly, and have patience. But it is exciting to know that they really appreciate us taking time with them. Tomorrow we plan to do a Bible study because the staff want to expand their vocabulary, especially with Bible stuff.
Food! So far we have not experienced too much grease. When we were in UB we went out for “tea” and had buutz. Mutton balls and grease (oil?) with a dough shell. They were actually quite tasty. Calvin really enjoyed them and ordered a second helping! We also had raisin juice. Boiled water with different kinds of raisins, so sweet and yummy! (Kind looks like floating poop though) Today for lunch actually we had sushi! Didn’t expect that.. They eat a lot of mutton here. It’s not baaaad.. (haha, yes that was supposed to be a funny! : P)
Well, so long (or in Mongolian- bayartai! Which means good bye) Till another opportune blogging moment… from your keeping warm, trying to speak Mongolian (and getting laughed at), member of team Bayankhongor blogger,
Anika