Mongolia Mission Week 37 - How Green is the Gobi!

 Mongolia Mission Week 37

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our family and friends about our exciting opportunities and awesome responsibilities in Mongolia. It's an impossible task, though, because it's hard to condense everything into a few words and pictures. So ask us individually if you'd like to know more about anything! You can contact us by email (jrose219@gmail.com or krose213@gmail.com), Facebook messenger, or you can text Kathy's phone (515-537-3273). 

Temps have been hovering in the 90s these days. People carry umbrellas (not in the rain, but when it's sunny), and we've seen some creative ways of keeping motorcycle seats cool in the sun.

Flannel bling covering with cartoon characters

One motorcycle we saw was even covered in crocheted granny squares! Then there's this one with brightly colored fringes:

A ride like this just has fringe for fun.

We mentioned enough about the cold last winter to convince you all that we live in a frozen wasteland. But it's time to share some things we are learning about the Gobi (it's not called "Gobi Desert" because the word Gobi already incorporates desert into its name). You probably already know that it is the one of the largest deserts in the world - 500,000 square miles or about twice the size of Texas - but did you know it's green? During the summer? 

The Gobi seems to go on forever. And we only see
a small portion of it.

We were amazed recently when we noticed from
town how green the desert was becoming.

The Gobi where we are is not really a sand dune type desert. It's more just gritty dirt. (Fun to keep off the church floors!) When we arrived in late November it was barren and brown with very little precipitation, but in the hottest months of the year we actually get some rain, maybe once a week. And the desert weeds and grasses respond. 

When it does rain, you can see it does a decent job of
filling the low spots.

Around the apartments, we are beginning to see what emerged from the seeds people planted a few weeks ago. We have rows of grass. We also have tire planters with hardy plants like hollyhocks, cosmos, and marigolds. It's inspiring how much people work to beautify the area, even for only a few months.

We are also lacking in mosquitos here. (That's not a bad thing!) We hear tales of swarms of mosquitos of terrific size in wetter parts of Mongolia. Once again, we are grateful to be assigned to Sainshand. 

This week on our preparation day (p-day), the six of us assigned to Sainshand went for a picnic. We heard there was a lake near "the 13th windmill." Our group wants to have a cookout there (more on that in a couple of weeks!) We wanted to check out the location. But finding a way to the windmill was an off-roading adventure all on its own. First we tried one road/trail. It was pretty sketchy. We almost got stuck in the sand. And it was across the fence (there was a fence!! we don't see those often) and the railroad tracks from the windmills. We tried again. Found a road that goes past a huge solar farm along with windmills and government warning signs not to use it. But there were several other dirt car trails, so we chose one of those and went searching for windmill #13. 

We found goats and sheep along the way. They were complaining about the heat and using any shade they could find for relief.

We saw a nomadic family with their horses.
Maybe it was their goats and sheep we saw.

Finally, we found windmill number 13.
But no lake in sight!

So we set up our picnic, got baked in the sun, played Frisbee until we roasted, then packed up and drove back to the air-conditioned church to play a Chinese dominoes game until nearly 6 pm. That's when p-day ends and we get back to work. It was a great day of exploration and fun. 

The two of us won the dominos game,
which surprised the young people.

We are impressed by the amount of sustainable energy that is generated here. There is quite the solar farm just outside the city right next to the row of windmills. We don't know how far they extend. But it's nice to see that much of our energy here comes from these sources instead of burning coal. Most gers have a solar panel outside for electricity, too.

Even more fun is seeing the traditional nomad 
family gers in the view just beyond solar panels -
truly the old and the new.

We said goodbye this week to our fun Elder Bilegsaikhan. This was an unusual transfer; he's the only one who left us. He's only been here six weeks. This time the two that have been here 12 weeks both stayed. It's a reminder to us that God is in charge and has a plan not only for His work here, but for each of us. We know that He knows what is best for us. We may not always have the experiences in life we want to have, but we have the ones that will help us grow and become who we need to become. But we have to be meek enough to realize that He is in charge, and we have to follow His promptings and commandments. Otherwise, we often create self-inflicted challenges and hardships.

Goodbye dinner

And now we are welcoming Elder Colton Johnson, who has been in the country for six weeks. He's adjusting and learning the language so well. We are excited to get to serve with him and get to know him. Little does he know what hanging out with the likes of us will really be like!

Hello dinner

One of our exciting events from this week was a care package from John's niece and her husband. They sent such a variety of fun things.

One final fun fact. Rice Krispy treats are not known here, but in our quest to introduce people to all the best cuisine America has to offer, when we found some chocolate crispy rice cereal, we made Rice Krispy treats for a youth activity. We usually can't find that kind cereal at all. The other day the deacons asked for marshmallow cake for their activity. It took a while, but we figured it out. It does look like a cake before you cut it into squares.

Next week is going to be amazing here! We hope yours is too!