First Week

This past week has been full of new experiences as we have been acclimating to life in Mongolia. A lot of our time has been spent with the country director learning about the culture and what we will be doing in it. There are many new cultural things that we are going to have to get used to, such as handing things with either the right hand only or both hands as well as recieving things the same way. We have had to get used to crossing streets with a lot of traffic. Here in Mongolia pedestrians don't really have the right-of-way, so you just have to look for a hole and run. Actually, it is not too bad. We just get behind some of the locals and go when they go. There is the great concept of size. If the group of people is bigger than the vehicle coming then the car will stop. It is, however, dangerous for any size group to cross in front of an oncoming bus. We are being challenged to walk in faith.
We have seen a lot of the city, and have learned how to get practically anywhere from our apartment. We have not yet tried out public transportation, so most of our travel has been by foot.
The weather has been great since we got here. It has rained several days, something that is unusual for Mongolia. The rain has cooled the air. In the mornings it is cold enough to see your breath, but the days have been in the 70s or so with no humidity. It is a far cry from the current weather in middle TN or north AL I am sure. When it is not raining, the sky has a brilliant blue color.
We have also had to get used to going up stairs. That may sound like a simple thing to do, but we are over five thousand feet above sea-level. At that altitude the oxygen is a little thinner than we were used to.
This week we also went to a Mongolian culture show. Traditional dances were performed, local instruments were played, and native songs were sung. They played the horse-head fiddle and performed throat singing. It was a wonderful display of the rich cultural heritage that Mongolia has, but it also highlighted their need for the Father. We are excited to be here! Next week we have a few days of training with the rest of our team. We begin our formal language training a week from this Monday.
I would add more pictures, but we only have a very slow connection speed and a limited amount of time. I will post lots of pictures after we get hooked up to faster and more abundant internet.