A Long Week

Hi Everyone. This week thus far has been great. Sunday night an ASU teacher asked me if we could offer 4 hour tours of the ger district for student as an opportunity for them to learn what it's like for 70% of Mongolians living in Ulaanbaatar. It was last minute, but said they would come Tuesday to Friday with 2-3 teachers & 60 students (Mongolian, Korean, Japanese) from grade 7-12. I saw the opportunity & said yes. Monday at the centre we all came together to plan & delegate who would do what. I bought the supplies we needed & in my mind knew what the students needed to learn (be aware of) while on the tour.

I told everyone that these students are very wealthy & many of the people we are helping that are now extremely poor were extremely rich. But because of one parents death or a serious accident lost everything & now are poor. The students need to know that live is unpredictable & life can change over night & to not take what they have (their material things, their loved ones & their life) for granted. All can be lost in a blink of an eye.

 We have been encouraging them that when they see someone in need, they all have a story & that many of them have had suffered great loss. These poor are not just lazy like many people want to think as an excuse not to help (I think.)  We have been encouraging them to help in small ways to make a difference because things could change & they could be asking people to help them.

I feel these tours have been a success because ASU students have a community service component (40 hours) & currently they do not have an NGO to co-ordinate it. The teachers asked if they could use us as their NGO to co-ordinate their community service. I told them that we would like to be their NGO to work with & we could start talking about the details in the next week or two.

Also it has been exciting because Teresa & Esme has been part of our team leading & teaching the students. Kiel has been in the countryside learning about Mongolian culture & life with his Mongolian classmates & his Mongolian friends. I am very happy that Kiel now has more Mongolian friends than foreigners.

Here is a picture of one of our preschool students at our community centre in the ger district:

This weekend Kiel & I have to go on 2 river outdoor trips. Please pray that I am able to rest as I will not have a day off for a while.