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Monday, January 7, 2008

Meet the Family

We feel that it is about time that we introduced the people that have been keeping us alive for the past five months. Why we didn’t do this earlier we are not entirely sure, however, now we have a much greater appreciation for them and everybody else has a healthy degree of inquisitiveness on the subject. So it worked out well for everyone involved. Where to begin? Byambadorj, or Byamba- which means Saturday in Tibetan, how could you not like someone named Saturday? Byamba is 28 years old and works for an oil company at a local petrol station. His work schedule is unique; he works two days a week 24 hours a shift. He has his bachelors in Eco-tourism and management. He’s a great guy, my best friend here and makes sure that whatever we need we get. He beats me at everything we do except play chess and even that is close. Lately he has been bent on immigrating to Canada so that is what we have been doing, writing resumes and researching Canadian immigration law.
Dodoo- I am not positive what Dodoo means. Dodoo is also 28 years old and she is a Mongolian Language teacher at Alli’s school. Until recently Dodoo has been in Ulaanbaatar working on her master’s degree. Dodoo has a more normal schedule being a teacher and coupled with the child we don’t see her as much. She of course is as instrumental to us staying alive as Byamba is and has been teaching us how to cook Mongolian food and has been tutoring us in language.
Iveelmaa- or guardian angle in Mongolian is our little Mongolian child. She is three years old and we generally have no idea what she is saying at any time. This is a good thing because there is no way that we could say no to her. She has learned to communicate quite effectively with us though and knows how to get us to give her something to drink or eat, and she is not shy about telling us if what we gave her displeased her in the least bit. Apparently she has been speaking English to her parents at home but refuses to speak any English to us. Such is Mongolia.
Oh and there are a couple new pictures up. Bayertai!