Friday, July 16, 2010

One Step at a Time

Beware! This post could be a little graphic. The past couple of days have been extra rainy. It's not too fun living in a ger when it rains, but that is another post all in itself. Well, when it's 2am and your bladder is full you usually get out of your warm bed, walk the few steps to your royal porcelain throne and relieve yourself. Well, here in Mongolia it is a little bit different. Your bed is not comfortable, nor is it always warm and there is no such thing as walking 'a few' steps to the flushable toilet. Here we walk several feet/yards outside to a hole in the ground (in the dark, let me remind you).

Okay, so on with the story. The past couple of nights have been really stormy. I did not want to go outside & use the bathroom and get soaked, just to come back into bed and shiver all night. So, I did what normal Mongolians/people here do when going outside is not an option...I found a bucket in my ger and sqautted over that. Not a big deal. Well, last night it was finally not storming and, yes, I had a wake up call. I put my kitty-cat house shoes on, opened my ger door (and had a cow staring me in the face...also not a weird thing here), walked around the cow and felt a freezing, mushy, sensation cover my foot all the way to the ankle. What did I step in? I didn't even have to ask my self, I knew-- cow crap. So for the next half hour (at 2 am) I stayed up washing my slippers, my feet & my hands. After it was all finished, I crawled back into my fluffy sleeping bag and turned off the light when a pungent odor lifted my eyelids to a max. I quickely turned the light back on to realize I had crap on my shirt that now spread all over my sleeping bag. I couldn't believe this was happening!

So, I took down a mental note. Watch your every step & take one step at a time. One wrong step could cause you a lot of crap.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Sex and the City...in Mongolia

So last night I hosted a 'girl's night' in my ger. It was amazing and helped all of us girls feel more at home. We did our nails, talked about what girls talk about and watched Sex and the City (doesn't sound like we're in Mongolia--does it?). We were all taken away into the fictional fairy-tale living of the movie and forgetting we were in some strange thrid world country for just a second...until someone says 'look how many bugs are flying around the computer screen!' We used my computer to watch the movie and had turned off the lights, so yes it was moth city...and it was storming pretty badly and my ger leaks and we all had swatted several spiders off of us without much thought. It is crazy how laid back we are with bugs in our hair, spiders normally crawling on us--not really Sex and the City style at all--*sigh*. But thank you Hollywood for the second we were taken to a lovely fairy-tale place! Every second counts!

Today Nadaam begins. Horses races, Deels, celebrations....We're loving it!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

From Justin

So, I haven't posted anything yet (I being Justin) so I thought I would write a little. I don't really have a lot to say that Ashlie hasn't already written. Life is comfortable but fairly busy. I've pretty much acclimated to the food and hygenic situations (sheep intestine aside) and now I'm just trying to focus on my Mongolian and finish training. I am pretty excited about getting out on our own. I really enjoy my family, but when you live on your own for 7 years you kind of get used to it. I'm having some writers' blockage at the moment, so maybe I'll have more to say in a few days.