Sundy Mornins

Since many of my friends and family have asked me what my daily life is like here, I'm going to do my best to show you. I'm starting with Sunday mornings - basically the beginning of my week looks like this:

Sleep in (or just be lazy in my pj's for a while) until about 8:30am.

Eat breakfast (usually eggs or Special K cereal - anything requiring much more effort than this will not work for this non-morning person). Usual morning routine things, washing face, brushing teeth, blah, blah, blah.

Start putting on all the layers of clothes needed to prevent hypothermia. (Although, now that it's Spring, the layers are getting less and less - YAY!!!!)

Meet with a few of my team members in the parking lot and start walking a mile to where our group meets every Sunday morning.

This group of about 100+ people meet in a small building and are very welcoming. Once you walk in, there are four older ladies with the biggest smiles on their faces, greeting you with handshakes and hugs while wearing pink Dels (see picture below for an example of what a Del looks like). This group is mainly made up of Mongolians of course (of every age) but I've seen people from England, Australia, Germany, etc. also.

Not much in UB begins on time so even though the meeting begins at 10am, it really doesn't get started until 10:15ish. We begin by singing songs for about 45 minutes and even though the words are in Mongolian, many of the songs are familiar. For example, today, we sang "I Will Follow Him" (like in the movie Sister Act)! I'm pretty sure the words were changed but the melody and the meaning were the same. 

Then our leader gets up and talks for about 30 minutes or so. This can be challenging as it's all in Mongolian and we newbies don't know enough to keep up yet. We usually have someone trying to interpret for us, however, it's easy to let your mind wander - which is when watching little kids play around becomes slightly entertaining.

Afterwords, there is time for everyone together to mourn with those who have lost loved ones, celebrate with those who have over come challenges, etc. We even got to watch one Sunday as a young couple got engaged, promising in front of everyone to stay pure and in love during their time of engagement.

Then we invite first timers up to the front to introduce themselves and sing a song of welcome and love to them. If there are no new people, we sing this song to each other - lots of smiles, hugs and love in this room!! This is usually followed by announcements and reminders, another song and then we're dismissed. These meetings usually last two hours (three if it's a special occasion).

We then go try to find a place to eat lunch together. This is not difficult as this place is FILLED with restaurants!! Mongolian, Indian, Korean, Chinese, American - you name it, it's here somewhere!!

 These are "bodes", pretty common Mongolian food - they are basically dumplings filled with mutton and cost about 20-30 cents per bode.

The rest of my Sunday is usually about catching laundry up, dishes, studying Mongolian, hanging out with a few friends, etc. Sundays are usually pretty quiet around here - not as much traffic (which means the constant horn honking subsides), no garbage pick up (which means no garbage trucks playing their "Come bring out your trash" music that sounds just like the ice cream truck man at home), and not too many kids playing on the playgrounds below my window. 

All in all, always a good day!!