The weather is changing & many of you will disagree, but I am happy that cooler weather has come. Sleeping at night is much more comfortable & the leaves are already changing colour. All 4 of us are in school, Teresa & I in Mongolian language, Esme home schooling & Kiel at a private school.
Teresa & I will officially finish Mongolian language classes in the Spring, however we both will continue to study possibly 1 day every 2 weeks. Esme is enjoying her new home school curriculum & Teresa is enjoying teaching her this year. Last year trying to teach both kids was much too stressful. Kiel really enjoying school with 21 of his 23 classmates being Mongolian. His teacher, Miss Bond received her B.Ed. from Acadia University & is originally from Ontario. Kiel as part of his curriculum has 2 Mongolian language classes a week & during lunchtime his classmates are allowed to speak Mongolian. We are excited & expecting his Mongolian to surpass ours in the next year or 2.
Since the summer we have been able to help many Mongolian Families. A Mongolian family of 4 living in a 1 bedroom apartment in our stairwell was broken into & had both their wooden doors smashed. I talked to 2 other families in our building & all 3 of us pooled money to buy/have put in a very nice, secure steel door for them. They were so grateful because they told me that they never could afford a more secure steel door.
Another family we have felt strongly led to help is our home helper's. Our home helper's husband has been trying to find work for the past 1.5 years & has had some work, but not steady long term work. The only income their family has been able to receive is from us as she cleans our home & helps us with our Mongolian language 2 days a week. They have started a very small beef business for foreigners, but still only have 10 steady customers. Our wooden windows needed to be repaired, sanded, painted, siliconed before the winter & asked him if he would do the work for us. He was so excited that I would offer him work & pay him knowing that I was quite able to do the work. He did a wonderful job. Many people have asked us when we bought our new windows & were shocked to find out that they were not new, but the old (original) windows. It was awesome because 2 other families asked him if he would do the same in their 3 apartments. Our home helper & her husband were so excited because it gave him 4 weeks of daily work.
Friends of ours here started an English language class & asked us to pass the word to people we knew. Teresa & I again felt led to pay for our helper's husband to take this class to become more employable. When I told him that our friends were teaching an English class soon & that we would pay for him to take/study the class he was so happy he started crying. He said that there was no way for him to take a class because of the cost, but wanted to so he could find a steady job. His is enjoying the class, finds it difficult, but is studying hard.
Please pray for us as my Mongolian language classes will be ending soon & will need to receive a work visa in the Spring. We have talked to a family we may work with & have a visa they could give to me. But, the Department of Labour here has to approve of the work I would like to do & only then can I receive a visa.