The Gobi! Day 2

Thursday:

We got up and drove another 4 hours - this time reaching the actual Gobi! On our way there, we saw a bunch of vultures on the side of the "road" (the word road is a huge exaggeration). They. Were. ENORMOUS!!! Imagine a large lab sitting, and that's how big these vultures were... at least. They were so creepy - and if you know of my fear of birds anyway, you would know exactly how creepy they were!! UGH!!

When we arrived at the village Erdene Dalai, we went into the church (the only registered Christian church in the Gobi) and the kids were in there - hanging out and singing. They were singing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" in Mongolian and doing hand motions to go along with the words - it was SO neat. Then, this beautiful little girl (maybe about 7 years old) did a traditional Mongolian dance for us - she was all dressed up in gorgeous traditional garb (I will definitely post a picture of her). It was the coolest thing - she was such a little performer at the time, and then ended up being one of the most shy.

Then we did our thing... passing out gifts, painting nails, making balloon animals. This one was really exciting though, because we got to pass out the gallon sized bags we'd filled with toys, candies, toothbrushes, toothpaste, crayons, etc. It was so fun to see their excited faces - they loved it.

Even though we were completely exhausted (after very little sleep and the tiring, bumpy van ride), we got back in the van and drove another couple of hours to the next village that was even farther into the Gobi. On our way there, we saw a herd of camels (and many more after that - at first it was really exciting, and then we got to be like, ok... camels... wow. haha). We got out and took lots of pictures of them, walked right up to them, some people even touched them! Not me... I'm too much of a weenie for that. :) They were domesticated, so it was okay. It was really cool.

We got to the next village, Delger Hangai, and the kids in the feeding center sang songs for us - it was so sweet! They weren't shy either, they really belted it out! I loved it. They are so sweet and adorable. Then they all got together (along with a few from our group) and played a little game of "Sambo Says" (sound familiar?) - it was so funny, the kids loved it!

Then we went outside and played with the kids - but for some reason, this was my absolute favorite village we went to. The kids were so excited to see us, pulling us by the arm to do things, asking us to paint their nails (even the adults - it was great!). And thennnn I got out the camera - they were SO into having their pictures taken (all the kids have been, but they really loved it). Then they wanted my camera, and started taking pictures of each other, of me and them together, just over and over and over. They probably took about 40 pictures with my camera! They love to take the picture, and then turn the camera around and see themselves. One little girl who was about 13 maybe (it's hard to tell ages of the kids around here) was like my shadow - followed me everywhere and was obsessed with taking pictures with my camera - it was so cute. Then another little girl (maybe 9?) came up to me and said, "What is your name?" I told her, and she repeated it, then I asked her and she said, "My name is ____" (can't remember, it was very complicated!). I was so impressed that she knew English! She seemed excited to be able to speak to me a little - I definitely was!

We finally left, and it was even more heartbreaking to leave them, because I feel like I really connected with some of the girls there. They waited outside our van and kept waving to us, over and over and over - the little girl who spoke to me in English especially (and kept smiling at me) so I hopped back out and gave her a hug by - I love her!! She was so precious. I almost cried (again) leaving them. The drive back to the first village was sad for me... I really loved the people in Delger Hangai. Tim and I were talking about finding a way to raise money for them to get a deep water well - the closest one is a quarter of a mile away. It would be about $14,000 to get them a well... not sure how we could do that, but we're thinking about it.

That wrapped up our time with the kids in the Gobi Desert... all that bumpy driving was definitely worth it, 100%.