life ebbs and flows

In Mongolia there are three national sports: Wrestling, Archery and Horse Racing. There is a festival every summer, Naadam , that celebrates those three sports. But, I've uncovered a secret fourth national sport [of sorts]. Basketball. It's the only other sport that they play on a regular basis. Forget baseball, football/soccer and rugby, basketball is where it's at. Everywhere that I've been there has been a basketball court that the Mongolians I was with scoped out shortly after our arrival. In the countryside they play basketball, at my church we have a very loved basketball court and my apartment complex that rarely has an empty court. They. love. it. It's amusing to watch them play basketball but I've found that my favorite part is listening. By listening I figured out that the word for "shoot" like "shoot the ball" or "take the shot" sounds a lot like "shit." And when I say it sounds a lot like it, I really mean it s...

It's been a while but I thought I'd give a little shout out to the quirks of Mongolian life. A tribute to texting in Monglish [Mongolian+English]: All sending and receiving of texts requires a dictionary [and sometimes a translator] to decode the meaning of the Mongolian sentences written in English characters. Needless to say, I don't think the full effect of texting is found in our home due to our lack of all things Monglish. Wouldn't you like to be on the receiving end of this text: "za za, margash ulzii. saixan amraarai"?

Recently I was sharing with one of my students about the middle class. I shared with her that my family is a part of that. She understood and said, "But you are rich" and I immediately told her that was definitely not true. But then she persisted, "Your heart is rich so you are rich." The fact that she equated money's riches with the heart's riches perfectly encompasses my thoughts for this last part in the series. Originally I was going to post this after we had camp and VBS, way back at the beginning of the summer. Then, two things happened that kept me from writing--life happened and I got the feeling that the story was not finished yet. So, I waited as the summer played out. The life part of the set back was my job for the summer--being a hostess. Each summer umpteen different Korean mission teams come to provide a myriad of Vacation Bible School experiences. Those experiences require a great deal of Mongolian involvement [which I am not] so along with m...

yes, i know that i said that there would be a part 3 and it has yet to be delivered. my life is just a tad busy lately, leaving with me little time to sit and right part 3 which is going to be the best of the 3 parts [i hope]. so, as i've been doing a lot lately, here are some pictures from my life recently, to fill the word void. riding horses. three of my favorite littles ones from church. honoring this goat's life before it became our food. ulaanbaatar, my home.