Day 4 in Mongolia

My Tuesday began at 6am today. After some much needed coffee and toast, I was able to capture this wonderful picture that's the view from outside my room. The walls everywhere are fences around the properties. In Mongolia, having a fence is a trump card. You can have the proof you bought the land, but if someone else comes along and fences it before you, they own it. The round tent you see in the picture is a yert, here they call it a ger. Many people use them as homes, though they are only ever 10* cooler or warmer than outside-nothing but a large tent-type structure. At wealthier homes, many people have yard guards living in the gers, to keep people from breaking in and stealing. In other yards, you see multiple gers for multiple families on one property.

After breakfast, we headed out to the grocery store to get some juice boxes to take as a treat to the kids at Mitch & Baljamaa's feeding center by the dump. The grocery store really was a lot like our grocery stores back home...until you round the corner. There, staring at me, was a large collection of sheep heads and sheep hearts. Not something we through in the cart! We headed out to the 2nd feeding center that Mitch & Baljamaa run. This one was out by the city dump where the kids are unable to go to school because their parents have them work in the dump for $1-$2 a day sorting through the trash to find recyclables. The kids were older then the other center, about 10-15 and really spent little time at the center aside from lunch. Mitch had raised enough money together to do some construction at the center, making concrete walls and a sections for the kids to bathe since they're covered in so much filth. After we helped serve lunch and played with the kids-painting nails and passing out gifts, we headed over to see the conditions these kids are living in by working at the dump. This was the first time I cried. When we pulled into the dump we saw a 10 year old run and jump onto the back of a running dump truck and climb up the back. He immediately started sorting through all the trash and when the truck began to dump they didn't wait for the kid to jump off, he just tumbled out with the trash. Around the dump, kids were scattered everywhere. The smaller ones were playing in the trash while their siblings
worked.

We made a drive outside the city to the Orphanage summer house they rent for $150 a month. Out in the country, the kids are able to run around and play without running the risk of being hit by a car or being in as much filth. The kids at the orphanage were almost totally different then the city kids. Most of them had been in the orphanage since they were infants, abandoned roadside. Brought up by the 3 ladies who work there, they get more consistent parenting, balanced meals & plenty of time to run and play. The majority of the kids were little babies & toddlers, the oldest was about 9.

Most of the little ones were napping when we arrived, like little dolls. We were able to tour the house and meet the workers before playing with all the children. The balloon animals were a major success, thanks to Tim & Joey, although the kids were small enough that throughout the afternoon there was a pretty steady *pop* *pop* as they kids squeezed or bit the balloons while they played.

Face painting went a lot smoother than in the city, with drawn up templates they could point at & choose.

At one point I could no longer hold it, broke down, and used the 'outhouse'. These are basically 3 sides of metal, tied together with a deep hole beneath a squat board, lots and lots of bugs down there. N-A-S-T-Y. But, I survived. (barely) God bless hand sanitizer and baby wipes! After spending the afternoon playing with the kids, we drove back to the city for a second English lesson. After practicing quick introductions, one of the students, who was about 18, suggested we discuss our dreams, "because dreams are a good thing, right?". No one had really prepped us for what would be discussed, and we found this a bit strange, but went ahead and talked with them. When it came time to leave, it was explained to us that the concept of having a dream or life goal is very new. Until about 3 years ago, no one even understood the concept. They associate Americans with dreams & life goals, and wanted to hear about them, because it's so foreign to them to have a plan for their lives since Communism hasn't been gone for long (it's still not really gone, it's just not the official government, but the party is still often in power and the government controls like everything). With the lesson over, we headed back to the house where we were treated by Mitch making us all some gumbo, and spending time talking to the four of them about their life in Mongolia.