Merry Ukrainian Christmas everyone!! We just watched the fireworks over the Оросийн, Russian Church. January 7th is Christmas & January 14th is Ukrainian New Years. Би маргааш пияски, хэлөпчэ, пэрөг бас өөр хүнс хийн. Translated, I tomorrow potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, pirogies and other food will make.
I would like to thank everyone for their generous support during the month of December. It will enable us to get some things that we need. All four of us need new clothes. Kiel & Esme have out grown most of the clothes we brought with us. They also have holes in most of their knees, toes & heels. With out a vehicle & walking on average 4-10km per day, our clothes are wearing that much faster. However, the weight we all have lost & more energy we have has been worth it. We all have started school again & Teresa will start looking for a schooling program for the kids that will better suit their different learning styles.
Please pray for Teresa's visa. She needs to have all of her visa paperwork filled out, processed & sent to the Mongolian Embassy in Bangkok Thailand before she flies there on January 24th. We are waiting for our language schools administration to fill out all the paperwork, send it into the Mongolian government have it approved & sent to Thailand in 2 weeks. This needs to happen. Also pray that Teresa will have sometime to rest while in Thailand waiting for here new visa.
With the temperatures dropping as low as they are (-30 to -50 degrees Celsius with wind chill) many people are cold & having heating problems. Our apartment is 18 degrees but, one of our instructors apartments is only 14 degrees Celsius & their are many other apartments in other cities that are much colder. Also Western Mongolia has gotten a lot of snow, close to 1 meter & herders have lost approximately 5,000 animals due to the snow & lack of food. Eight people had frozen body parts & taken to hospital because of the very strong winds that followed the snow. Many lost feet or fingers.
This is a very difficult time of year for many Mongolians. Please keep them in your prayers.