First Day in Ulaanbaatar

Okay, so first, I did not expect this level of poverty.  I was picturing a city more like Athens than Dakar, but maybe it's even worse.  Granted, I only saw the streets at 3 in the morning, so I could be completely wrong.

I am staying with Gany's friend Anya and her mother, only Anya is out of UB until Saturday.  Gany explained a few things to me last night, then set off for her own bed.  I have my own room in their apartment, with a nice bed and the hodge podge of furniture I got used to in Fatick.  There's running water and warm showers if you wait long enough.  No flushing toilet paper, near as I can tell.  And no Internet, which sucks, but which will force me into a kind of monastic focus.  And that can only be good.  I just hope to find an Internet cafe so I can keep up with USians on a semi-regular basis.

My huge suitcase of clothes and gadgets is making me super self-conscious.

This morning Anya's mom (I'll learn her name as soon as I see it written down) made me milk tea, which is...hot water and milk.  Seems like something fairly important is missing, but whatever, it's liquid that won't give me parasites.  I'm newly afraid of drinking the water here.

It's nice to have some travel experience so I know how to sort of communicate (Anya's mom speaks Mongolian as she does things, then I do the same thing or nod and make up an answer in English).  I tried to get her to write her name down, but she gestured at my Bible, and when I nodded, she wrote "I love you, Lord God" in Cyrillic instead.  Not what I wanted, but cool nonetheless.  A bit later she came in with her own notebook (Senegalese graph style) and asked me to write down my name.  We're making slow but steady progress, I think!

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Gany came over at 1:30 and we walked to the orphanage. From what I've experienced so far, I think I'll be doing random things each day, at the orphanage or not. Good thing I didn't have any expectations!

UB is nicer by daylight, but it still reminds me of Dakar in a lot of ways. Uncompleted buildings, trash on the sidewalks. But there isn't sand, and the sky is actually blue with puffy clouds, so big plus there.

It was a twenty minute walk to the orphanage, and I hope Gany doesn't expect me to make the journey by myself anytime soon, because I got lost almost as soon as we left the apartment building. The orphanage is incredibly nice. It's right next to where her church meets, so I met a lot of her youth group (which is mostly 20- year-olds) and a lot of workers from the orphanage. There is a team of neurologists there this week, running tests on kids brought in from the countryside.

I talked to Rita, the Kentuckian who started the orphanage. She has a very cool story. Apparently the government is not allowing orphans to be sent to private orphanages anymore, which seems awful because The Light Orphanage is really nice. They are down to only 17 kids, and one was adopted just this week, so they are all sad/happy to see her go.

I met most of the kids and tried out my awful Mongolian on them. Gany says I do well, but she's also a nice person. Mostly I feel like I'm clearing my throat around some vowels...seriously, my mouth was not made to make these sounds. The kids are really cute though. I kicked a ball around with an adorable little boy, and I reached out to hold hands with a girl in a crib who has a brain disorder. That was a mistake, because she thought I was going to lift her out. I had to pull away, and she cried, but if she's out of the crib without supervision she hits her head on the floor. There are two girls there with disorders, but the rest seemed healthy.

Gany and I are eating a late lunch at a really swanky Internet cafe. I don't know how often I'll get to come here, but I'll try to update as often as possible. We plan to get me some money, then go grocery shopping. Tomorrow we don't have plans until night, when she feeds street kids with her youth group.

I am feeling overwhelmed by meeting everyone all at once, but I think this will be a good trip. Already I'm relearning some things about materialism and flexibility and patience. And regardless, it's good to see Gany! Even though the second thing she said to me after i arrived was, "You smell like Peoria!" Um, thanks? :)