Last Day in Mongolia

Sunday:

First things first... Happy one year anniversary to Tim and me! We celebrated our anniversary in Mongolia - just about the coolest and most memorable place to spend it. We didn't do anything "anniversary-ish," but just being there, together, was enough.

We got to sleep in finally (and I actually did... til about 8 - ha!). We went to Mitch's church, which didn't start until 1pm, which was great. It was really neat to attend a Mongolian Christian church - even though we didn't understand anything they said! They sang a lot of recognizable contemporary Christian songs, just in Mongolian - it was kinda neat and kinda weird at the same time. Weird may not be the right word... it just made me wish that they had more of their own Christian songs to sing - just to make it their own, with their own style, something Christian but still Mongolian. I can see how it would be really hard to do that though - seeing as they really don't have any experience to pull from. I definitely wouldn't know where to start either. It was neat as an American though, to go somewhere so foreign and to be able to recognize so many songs... humming along the English words in my head as they sang in Mongolian. They also sang a welcome song to our group - which was really sweet, but terribly awkward too - it was really long and they were staring at us the whole time! The sweet outweighed the awkward though.

We had lunch at a Chinese food restaurant and it was sooooo good!! The menu, however, was hilarious!! Every one of the entrees had an English name underneath, but none of them made any sense whatsoever! I know that is common - errors in translating, and things/meanings get lost in the process, but this was really over the top! One of my favorites: "The Older Brother of the Pig Kick Ball" - awesome huh?? :) One of the guys took a picture of every single dish, because they were all so funny.

I also experienced the nicest bathroom I've seen in Mongolia at this restaurant! It was CLEAN, there was toilet paper (unbelievably amazing), soap, warm water, and there was incense burning in the stalls! It was fantastic. This brings me to something I have failed to mention somehow - there is never any toilet paper in the bathrooms in Mongolia!! We took our own everywhere we went, they were always really dirty, and some of them didn't even have a "real" toilet... I have never been so happy to pee in my own bathroom as I was last night!! I don't think I'll be complaining as much about public restrooms here anymore... and as a true testament to the extravagance and overabundance we are so used to here - the first bathroom I used back in the States (as everyone over there calls it - has a nice ring to it I think, hehe) had TWO different toilet seat cover dispensers and FOUR full rolls of toilet paper! Now I'm all for toilet seat covers and toilet paper, don't get me wrong, but it just reminded me of how spoiled and ridiculous we can be here.

We went to another Buddhist temple in UB for a little bit, but I wasn't really in the mood. My stomach was hurting (first and only time all trip - amazing!!), there were pigeons everywhere (everyone else loved it, but I am terrified of huge flocks of pigeons... especially ones that constantly get way too close!!), and I was in a bad mood because of a little shopping snafu. I had spent at least 30 minutes in this neat little wool shop (everything was handmade, authentic Mongolian products, and it was owned by a Lutheran ministry, so we felt like it was going to a good place) picking out awesome, well priced Christmas presents for all my family and friends, and then my credit card AND my debit card wouldn't work - so I had to put them ALL back!!! I was soooo upset - and I feel like I'm allowed, because I wasn't just pouting because I didn't get stuff for me - it was ALL gifts for other people!! And I had painstakingly picked out the perfect gifts for each person!!! UGH!!! Okay seriously, I'm still upset writing about it now, and it was over two days ago! Moving on...

We spent the rest of the evening packing up and hanging out with the Ballingers. Okay - let me take some time to talk about Chris and Stephanie Ballinger and their two adorable kids, Abby and CJ. So, part of the reason (or maybe most of the reason) we went to Mongolia, was not only to love on kids, but to hang out with the missionaries that live there full time. The idea, is that there's not a whole lot you can do in a week, but if you can build up the people that live there all the time, they can make even more of an impact on peoples' lives. Enter in, the Ballingers. This family is amazing. They are about our age, have two little kiddos (I think that Abby is 5 and CJ is 2... or somewhere close to that), and they have been living in Mongolia for 2 years now. They just picked up and moved out there when CJ was only ten months old. INCREDIBLE! They started out doing a youth center, had to shut it down because of government nonsense, and now they are running a feeding center for children in UB. They are learning to speak Mongolian - they probably wouldn't agree, but they might as well be fluent if you ask me! They are able to communicate pretty much anything they need to - can understand and speak it both, and it is a VERY difficult language! They are so sweet and kind-hearted, definitely two of the nicest, most impressive people I have ever met. Stephanie went out to the Gobi with us, and I am so glad she did - I feel like we got to know her a lot better than we would have, and it was so great to have her around. I would love to go back to visit one day and spend more time with her.

We spent some time during our last evening to talk about how the trip impacted our lives and what we enjoyed/would take away most from our time in Mongolia. Lets just say there was crying. It was a good time. I will miss Mongolia, the beautiful children we met, and the amazing missionary families that serve there full time. It was an incredible journey.

Blogger is having photo uploading issues right now, but I will upload all my pics as soon as I can, or post a link for your viewing pleasure. :D