The Windy City

Well it might be possible that we will once again get internet in our ger, let me stress the possible in that statement. Things are going well here Alli and I are pretty busy because of the upcoming English Olympics (a country wide English competition for students). I am determined to see my schools students beat hers this year, something which historically never happens.
The windy season is upon us. This was made clear to us as one of our windows was ripped off the top of our Ger and then sent flying through the air. Luckily for us Bymba was around and like everything else with a Ger he was able to fix it by cutting a new piece of glass and fitting it to our window, the guy is amazing. Now everything is bungee corded in place in preparation of the real wind that should be starting any day now. We were at Elizabeth’s house the other night and we asked her Hashaa family if our Ger would blow away and they laughed and laughed, “Maybe” was the reply.
I realized that we posted pictures of the Ice festival and didn’t say anything about it. Sorry. So we went to the Ice Festival the other week! It was cool. Get it! It was COOL. That was a play on words. Seriously though, it was freaking freezing, as you can imagine. We had a real good time, there was a horse sleigh race, Ice Sumo, and speed skating. Alli and I were able to take a sleigh ride and as you can tell from the pictures Lake Hovsgul is breathtaking. We are really looking forward to heading up there this summer. Hopefully we will get internet on Friday so keep your fingers crossed. Love Alli and Mike

PDM Baby!

Sorry the posts have become infrequint but with no internet at the site now it is getting difficult to get things out. We just finished our Project Design and Managment seminar that was held in UB this past week. Now I know that we just got back from America 3 weeks ago but we have been gorging ourselves on everything that we can get our hands on. I think that my personal favorite this trip has been the ham and cheese croisant from Michelles bakery, I have eaten about 7 of them in the past three days. Asides from food things are going well, Alli and I are both begining to write grants to create new english resource rooms in our respective schools. The rooms are scheduled to be operating by the begining of next year. We are heading back to site today and hopefully we can take care of this internet thing this week. Oh yea new pictures posted!

Back in the Sadle

We made it back, it was close though, the landing at Chingiss Khan Airport was a little rough. Im still not entirely convinced that we werent shot down. Funny story though we saw Brendan our sitemate at the Seoul Airport and he was on the same flight back to Mongolia with us, small world. Things are going well and the weather has gotten a lot nicer since we left which makes life in general much much nicer. We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties with our internet right now but as soon as we get them worked out we will send out emails and post a more detailed blog about whats going on right now. Love from Mongolia.

Still Here

For all of our brothers and sisters in Mongolia we just wanted you to know that America is still beautiful and all of the food is twice as good as you remember. For everyone in America heed these words "EVERYDAY you wake up in America is a good day" I know that the news is constantly saying how awful everything is and that the world is coming to an end but fear not, you are still in America.
We only have a couple of days left before we head back to Mongolia and in preperation have been eating everything that we can get our hands on. Today we reached the concensus that there are no more cravings left to answer, we have sated every glutonus impulse our minds could concieve. Let me tell you how great that feels. Love Mike and Alli

Jim Campbell 1953-2008

Yesterday morning Alli’s Father Jim passed away. He had been sick for years now and went painlessly surrounded by his family. He will definitely be missed by all who knew him.

Yaks, Planes, and Automobiles

Hello everyone. Well as many of you know Alli and I are now in America. Unfortunatley Alli's Father Jim is very sick and we were called home. Jim is on his third liver now and has been plenty sick before so we are of course hoping for the best. He became sick while in Alabama during Christmas and remains in the hospital in Huntsville as they are unable to move him back to Chicago. So that is where we are now. The Peace Corps has been great in this emergency, Alli's family called the Office of Special Services last tuesday and we were on the next flight back to America. Muren to Ulaanbaatar to Beijing to Chicago to Nashville to Huntsville. It was a long trip 21 total hours in the plane, so just three hours short of what it would have been to take a Meeker from Muren to Ulaanbaatar. Those things really put everything in perspective. So thursday morning it was -35 in Mongolia and it was 70 when we landed in Nashville over a 100 degree swing! Oh and apparently we smelled real bad, Josh (Alli's brother) picked us up at the airport and he confirmed it, luckily not like "wow those kids smell" but more like "wow those kids smell like a fire".
Beijing you all will be interested to know is easily the most polluted place I have ever been, seen or heard about. It was a cloudless day and it looked like it was overcast, I am not exagerating one iota. However, as we were flying into Beijing we did get to see the Great Wall, it just snaked across the ridge of a mountain line underneath us. One of those moments you know that you will remember for the rest of your life. So keep Jim in your heart and we will keep you posted. Love Mike and Alli from beautiful beautiful America

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!