Our Work Place

We are thankful that there is a bus stop just below our apartment building, so we don't have far to walk to catch the bus to work.  In the Spring, it is very windy and therefore very dusty.  Our clothes get dirty so fast.  Don't every think of wearing white or light clothing because it will be filthy by the end of the day.  

We work approximately 2 miles from our apartment.  The bus takes us 15 minutes or 4 bus stops to our destination.  This is wonderful.  The bus costs either 200 or 300 Tugrits which is about 20-30 cents in US dollars!  Imagine.

Our work hours are 8:30-5:30pm each day.  By the time we get home, do the shopping and make dinner its already 8pm or 9pm.  So there isn't much time to do much before bed.  

Below is a picture of the school buildings on campus.  What do you think of the campus?  If you double click on the pictures they will enlarge.

The Main building at MIU

A better picture of the main building

The building where I work (4th floor) is where MIS (Mongolian International School) is located

Richard's building across from mine.  He works on the 2nd floor in the LEI Office.

Surrounding the campus are other buildings which look very rundown and uninhabitable!  What do you think?

They want to have a sports day out here on the grounds!  Seems rather treacherous to me.

Richard's office looks much more like an office than mine!

Richard oversees about 6 teachers all from different areas of the world.

There he is now talking with the Secretary

My office, however, is shared with 2 other teachers but it doesn't feel much like an office!

I am glad to have a real desk!

The corner is the catch all!

I haven't had much contact with the students but am mainly stuck at the computer all day.  Hopefully, that will change as time passes.

Stay tuned for more information about the churches we've attended.

Our New Home

The Lord has blessed us with a new home here in Ulaanbataar which is so centrally located to our school, shops, and churches.  We only looked at 3 apartments and when we walked into this one we knew it was where we should be.  The price was just what we wanted to spend after a little negotiating from our friends.  We are overjoyed by the Lord's provision!  The Lord gave me the verse in Exodus 23:20 before we left and we have seen His Hand bless us over and over again already.  Take a look at the pictures below.

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room #2

Breakfast Nook with View

Second Bedroom & Richard's Study

Our bedroom - kind of stark

2nd View of our bedroom

We've been blessed to have so much help all along the way.  Our Mongolian friends have stepped right up and come alongside us to show us the shops helping us to buy what we need, etc.  We could not have survived without them.  Here are a few pictures of some of the helpers we've had.

The lady in the pink shirt is the Mom of the gal in the green shirt.  They came three days to help us taking us around to shops to get our computer set up, get the things we need for the apartment, and help clean the apartment.  Dear souls.  They loved unpacking my dishes!

Here are a few photos of the views from our apartment window.

View to the right of our kitchen nook window

Same view only clearer

View from the left side of our balcony

As you can see we live on a very busy street corner.  Living in the city can be a challenge with all the noises of the cars, buses, sirens, horns, and people talking.  But we are getting used to it.  The following pictures are of our actual building.  It's actually a very nice building compared to many around.  The trouble is the electricity goes off now and again.  I'd hate to be in the elevator when that happens!  Today we had no electricity from 11am - 6pm.  One has to be flexible!

If you follow this road you will come to the center of town

Looking at our place straight on - we are on the 6th floor

Side view - Grocery store in the basement!  How convenient!

We start work beginning on Monday April 11th.  Next week I'll send pictures of the school and some of the staff where we will be working.  Right now we are so happy to be in our own place and resting up from our trip and all the ordeal of living in Mongolia.  Normal daily chores take so much longer here.

We are so glad to have friends here already in Mongolia before we arrived. We would not have survived our first days here without their kindness and care.  So we are learning our way slowly and feeling a little more "at home" as each day goes by.

Tomorrow Lloyd Maxson and his wife will take us around to the American food shop and the vegetable stalls and meat stalls they shop at.  Some of you may remember meeting Lloyd when he visited our church in California.  Again, we are so thankful for people coming alongside us and teaching us the ropes!

Thank you all again for your prayers!  We feel the weight of those prayers everyday here and are so moved by the love and care of all you dear people!  You all are so very special to us and we love you so dearly!

Stay tuned for more from Mongolia!

Love, Kathy

Safe Arrival in Mongolia

Here we are just after our arrival to Mongolia after we passed through Immigration.  It went really well with

no hiccups or problems.

Our hosts, Gansukh and Oogie picked us up with 2 vehicles because we said we had so much luggage.  We had 6 bags, 2 carry ons and a guitar and everything fit into one car except the guitar!  Here we are at the Chingas Khaan Airport, Ulaanbataar.



This is a picture of the road just leaving the airport.  As you can see it is dry and without any vegetation.  There isn't a flower or grass to be had anywhere because they've just come out of winter.  Spring is in the air now, however, no rain till June.



Here are some pictures of the area where we are staying.  We are actually staying East of the city about 15 km which is a 20 minute drive down very bumpy roads!

Today we went to MIU University to check in with our new employers.  MIU is located about 2 miles from the center of town and comprises of 3 buildings.  There are over 600 students 30% are foreign from Korea, Russia and China.  It was the happening place with students coming and going and the feeling of aliveness. 

Richard will work in one building (the nicer one) and I in the other.  I will send pictures in the next blog.  It was a bit overwhelming meeting so many people all at once and we ended up spending most of the morning and lunch looking over the campus and talking with different ones.  The word "campus" brings another picture to mind than what MIU offers.  Most of the grounds are dirt and rubble and the buildings are needing paint, however, this is the state of most of the buildings in UB. 

We also looked at 2 apartments.  Here in Mongolia they count the rooms and say it is a 3-bedroom apartment.  That means there are two bedrooms and a living room with kitchen and bathroom.  One of the bedrooms is quite small and the other is somewhat larger.  The trick to getting a good apartment is knowing someone who can help.  One has to be sure the heating is good, that the warm water works well, that the building is well made and in a good area.  If the apartment is unfurnished there is nothing in it but a kitchen sink and bathroom.  Kitchen cabinets, fridge, oven, washing machine, furniture are the responsibility of the renter.  You can imagine the job of buying all of these things being a foreigner!  A furnished apartment could mean bed, sofa, kitchen cabinets, oven, and maybe a fridge.  Please continue to pray for us for a good apartment. 

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will look at more apartments and Sunday we will join our hosts at their church.  They've asked me to play guitar for some of their songs and Richard and I will probably teach them a new song.

So, until later........we send our love to you all with grateful hearts of your love and care.

Love, Kathy