The Year That Keeps On Newing

Lunch Guests for "Tsagaan Sar" (Lunar New Year)

Happy New Year, Everyone! ... Again... 😆 I say this because we're just recently wrapped up a big holiday season in Mongolia, the Lunar New Year. This entailed a two week break from school and one week off of work... but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

During the Christmas break I was able to try the nation's one and only skiing place (so far?I heard rumor that there is or will be a new one). It was tiny but nearby and cheap (rental + ticket = about $12 for 3 hours) and was fun to get on a board again for the first time in a while. Unfortunately I had to go solo, as Yaejin's condition is not advisable for learning to ski or board for the first time!  Given the size and temperature of the place, the three hour timespan was enough for me, but I think it would be a good place to teach people how to do it! I hope i'll get a chance to try that some time. 

On January 3 I started on as a consultant/trainer for the local branch of the English curriculum we used to teach in Japan. I enjoy getting out a little bit and having a bus ride + walk for a change of scenery and feeling of independence (since I still haven't been able to get my driver's license until my green card is returned to me from its updates) -- though starting in the dead of winter was a little extreme, perhaps! This company has ties with the ministry, and will prove helpful in streamlining my green card renewals and presumably help Yaejin's case for getting into the U.S. each time we return now that I have an official salaried job. 
My expectation was that I would only be on part-time and thus well able to handle it along with my current teaching and language classes, but on my first day they hit me with "And we have two teacher training seminars at the end of this month, we'd like for you to be part of the training for that." So that meant I had to jump in pretty fully in order to be up to speed on presenting/co-teaching those events just 3 weeks later.  The first was a teachers' "Refresher Training" and the second, a two-day "Foundation Training." The presentations were divided between me and the two other trainers who have been working here.  Ultimately they turned out fairly well and I enjoyed being a part of it -- meeting new people, doing stage presentation, answering questions, feeling well-enough equipped due to the strong training we enjoyed at the kindergarten in Japan, etc. The Mongolian branch of the company hasn't had any native speakers on staff, so that itself can strengthen the perception of the curriculum among potential clients.  Anyway, it was a fun, tiring time. 

Teachers doing a group practice activity
during our second, 2-day training seminar.

After these events I shifted focus to going through the company's official training path, and have also been providing advice/feedback for video recordings of client teachers' classes. I had planned to do an in-person visit as well, which will be a good chance to see more sides of Mongolian life, but that plan was met with a delay, as I'll get to shortly. 

Young adults helping make dumplings. We ended up with about 400 I think.

From the beginning of February began Tsagaan Sar! Yaejin organized a dumpling stuffing party at our house (getting some of the "youth" / young adults to help cut, stuff, fold, and freeze the dumplings to be steamed for each visit we were to receive as part of the holiday celebrations. On the first day we went to three homes and had two couples come to ours (total 4 "meal/teatime" visits).  It was nice to get to know our fellow church members like that -- we've been invited here and there, and had some of them over once or twice, but since our regular church gathering is still not taking place my interactions with them tend to be pretty limited. I teach their kids. However, it naturally was also quite exhausting to spend the entire day doing visits at tables filled with food and snacks! In order to go to each home, and have each of them come to ours, it turned out to be a pretty full week, although not quite as packed as that first day. I enjoyed getting to connect with each family, but by the end of the week I felt like I needed an empty day, and I was ready to eat something other than dumplings and pasta- / potato- / fruit- salads! In that regard I benefitted from Yaejin's multi-cultural heritage, however, as she made more Chinese/Korean style dumplings rather than the Mongolian version that we had everywhere else.  It's been long enough now that I wouldn't mind having all of those things again, come to think of it.....

The Mongolian families always had this stack of  curd cakes present
 -- which I happily ignored.

A big, varied meal at our neighbors'!

The next week I continued most of my curriculum work online, and school was on break, so I was able to recover with half-days of work. However, this leads to the newest little hurdle for us. On Thursday the entire church went out together to go sledding on a long, gently sloping hill. Fun was had by all, but after about an hour I was pretty much done with it. A few of the younger teenagers (13-15) were trying to stand on the sleds, so I tried amusing myself with that as well. After several times doing so with varying success it went wrong. When i felt myself starting to lose control I would just step off of the sled and slide on the snow, not wanting to fall over. For some reason, this particular time doing so resulted not in my foot sliding on the snow as before, but sticking fast into it while the rest of me kept sliding on the sled. I twisted awkwardly and fell, with severe pain in my ankle. I also thought I had heard a sound, but couldn't be sure if that had been my body, or just the sled colliding with my boot, or something else entirely -- even my imagination?  Anyway, the pain lasted for longer than I've experienced with sprains in the past, and I was seriously concerned, but the guys with me asked if I could wiggle my toes without pain, and I could. So they all started opining that it was probably a really bad sprain, and those swell up too and can take a long time to heal, but probably no damage to the bone. Believing this, I hobbled about on crutches, resumed teaching, and even had started standing on it some before deciding that a week without the swelling fully going down probably warranted a doctor's input and went to the hospital, hoping to get a brace or some advice. 

When the doctor bent my foot up and down and side to side, everything felt fine. But when he applied pressure to the sides the "bump" of my ankle really hurt. So he had me get an x-ray and the next thing I know they were wrapping my leg up in green casting, as there was a fracture after all. So that's been frustrating. I can't take out the trash, go to stores, carry much at once, and it takes me longer to get things around the house -- all while Yaejin is 4-months pregnant! I later caught a stomach bug and was truly pathetic for about 30 hours. A fine pair we make now, but at least I didn't cause damage by trying to walk on it, and the cast will come off in a few weeks and I'll be able to help out more as she gets bigger! 

Other than that, things are going along as well as ever. We continue to feel good about our connection with the young "youth" adults and my 11-14 year-old students. This week the parents are invited to watch our classes, so that is a new and exciting thing for everyone.  

Of course, the Ukraine news has rocked the world and troubled us all. Many Mongolians take the position that Putin is justified and Ukraine was asking for trouble by flirting with NATO when they know Russia can't allow that, etc.  Mongolians are generally very positive toward Russia. I was surprised, therefore, to hear that a Russian person living over here was assaulted by some locals in some misplaced attempt to enact punishment on "you Russians think you can just have your way with other countries."  The police contacted our school's Russian teacher to warn her to be careful in public with such sentiments flying about.. so it seems that the Mongolians are quite divided on the topic.

The news also has given me a strange awareness of my own national identity, which I also experienced some after the Afghan withdrawal. Generally I hadn't considered my nationality as a huge factor in my day to day life, fancying myself a good unique individual. This experience of questioning the moral intentions of America's actions, however, has given me a strange sense of guilt or frustration. Almost like a chip off of some confidence I hadn't realized i possessed. That isn't to say I know for certain how we should have responded, but feeling like "terrible things are happening to people and my country is not attempting to stop it" was a kind of overwhelming consternation for those instances. It's a new insight into the whole realm of how one's nationality (unchosen) can affect the psyche. I would love to learn more about that, since it's so unfamiliar to me, rejecting the notion of monolithic national traits. But that is a conversation for another time.  Yet another reminder that our primary citizenship is not meant to be the earthly kingdom on our passports, but the Kingdom of Christ to come. In that Kingdom I am copatriot and brother to many Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Afghani, Americans, and on and on. 

Holidays and an Announcement for Summer!

    

Inside the State Department Store, Celebrating its 100th year.

    Merry Christmas, everyone! This update comes later than I would have preferred, but I trust that everyone's holiday festivities keep that fact from being conspicuous. As long as I don't draw attention to my tardiness I doubt anyone will notice.

    We have felt busy in the recent months (until our Christmas break now). In addition to my Korean lessons 4 evenings per week I have settled in to a good pattern of daily Mongolian lessons just before noon, which has yielded tangible results. I continue to teach and enjoy my daily English class of 11-14 year-olds, and have generated more (albeit enjoyable) work for myself in incorporating a geography phase of each class for which i make slides featuring the nations' flag, border outline, and location on the globe (with these three they can guess what the country will be), capital and largest city, population and global rank, head of state's title (President, King, etc.), currency, official languages,  major religions, and pictures of as

The "Key Facts" slide from my geography lessons.

many of the main things the country is known for as I can think of/find. 

It's a topic I and the kids both have a lot of fun learning, but has ended up cutting into most of my free time -- specifically that last part, where I have to determine what aspects to include, then find suitable pictures to represent these things and make slides of it. I'm hoping to cut down on these more trivial slides in order to lessen the burden each of these countries has become to prepare, but sometimes it's necessary to give them a sense of what the countries look like today and what most people know about them. 

    Besides these daily tasks I now lead a 30-minute school Bible class every Monday evening, we are continuing our Wednesday night youth group (for the most part going well, we feel. we recently got them all to write down some topics for us to cover in the group and submit them anonymously, which has been helpful to see where their attentions are focused), and every other Sunday morning I share a devotional message/ sermonette. I am supposed to start a job with the English curriculum next week, and need to see how that will interplay with the other activities in which I am involved.

    For her part, Yaejin has started teaching piano to the women here on MWF mornings, after which she teaches English to two of the younger guys. Her official work hours for the NGO cashier are 4 hours on MWT, though she ends up having to do extra bits here and there as different expenses come up and whenever the standard Mongolian pay days fall (15th and 30th or the weekend before). She co-leads a women's small group on Tuesday and Friday nights, helps me with the youth group, and continues to do some online language teaching a few times per week. 

Christmas time at the Zaisan Mall.

    In all of these things, I think we have increased our awareness of our roles here as more internal support than external outreach. That works perfectly for me as my linguistic ability and cultural knowledge and interest suit me for it, but Yaejin feels passion for evangelism as well, and is wondering how and if that will come back as a major focus of her ministry here. That possibility has been further hindered by our next significant life development -- pregnancy! 

   For those who haven't heard, we are expecting a little Sigler this July. This has created great excitement among the family and church, as the youngest church member is four now and the Yaejin is the only married member of her family and friend group so there aren't any of this next generation yet. All of her siblings feel a novel strangeness at the prospect of being someone's Uncle or Aunt and their parents being "Grandma&Grandpa." The youngest siblings (11 and 12) are especially excited about being able to teach the baby their games and help out with him or her, no longer being the youngest around. So far everything seems to be coming along quite smoothly and healthily, and I'm sure Yaejin could expound upon that for those interested. That's the biggest announcement for us, and I'm hiding it away here in the middle of my update! True readers will see it 😁

    Other than that, we have had a good time with the holiday season! Yaejin did a wonderful job of planning out a nice Thanksgiving meal so that I wouldn't feel absent from that worthy celebration, and it was good fun for the whole family, as she planned out different dishes for each of them to be responsible for. My job was to help the youngest three accomplish their assignments: fruit salad and pasta salad. 

The crew starting their tasks.                                Meanwhile, I led Team Grocery-Store Run after they finished their jobs.

    We held the meal at her family's house, and her parents were very impressed with everyone's work and were interested in the American dishes. Her father kept saying "I can really feel like this is the authentic American taste of Thanksgiving." 

That evening we had our second Thanksgiving meal, as the English teacher prepared one at the school for all of the students to try. This was followed by a time of sharing for each student, from the youngest to the smallest, which was a nice time. A couple of the kids actually shared touching things beyond the typical responses, one of whom broke into sobs when saying that if her parents hadn't chosen to come live with this team she wouldn't have learned foreign languages and might not have come to know Jesus.
    And one of the youngest boys was very cute in loudly sharing his English phrases "Thank you for the house I live in. Thank you for the Parents I have." and looked very proud of himself when everyone clapped for this answer. 

              

 

    

School Thanksgiving

    Our Yuletide season was marvelous as well. We had a nice time getting into the spirit of the season with Christmas Hymns, theming for our small groups, snacks, movies, and so forth. I've always loved Christmas (as should, I believe, all Christians), but I think that depth of meaning is possibly even heightened for me when I'm in places that don't give it as much fanfare. As if the onus of not letting the season pass by without sufficient appreciation is more on my own actions. Or it may just be a factor of getting older and ever growing in appreciation for miracle of Christ's coming. In any event I think Yaejin and I have made a concentrated effort to experience the season to the full in light of its meaning. Many of my Christmas thoughts are covered in the podcast I recorded with my two brothers, which I invite everyone to try. Other than that I would just say that it is a miraculous time of year in which the presence and goodness of God is more easily felt by many people throughout the world, and that God choosing to become a man is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Accordingly, I wish hope and pray that all of yours were merry and full of His presence. 

Outing with the younger siblings

          

Christmas Cookies

My youngest brother-in-law got a little

carried away with the little fish cookies!

Christmas Cookie Party

Sports, Surprises, and Sickness

 

I'm 16 days later on this update than I expected to be! Let me see if I can fill in the details.

    My classes (three learning, one teaching) were going well, and in addition to my continued visits to the pool, the kids here suddenly developed a great enthusiasm for soccer, which was another fun physical activity I hadn't been able to enjoy for a long while. Some of the older guys from the church would play as well, so there was a good mix of ages involved and I really was exhausting my decreased stamina each time we played. After both of the first games I played I developed and thick, troubling cough, which I assumed was because of the sudden exertion and breathing in hard the chill air. Looking back now, I wonder if that was my first symptom showing, because one of my students reported the same result from those soccer games.

    On Tuesday, October 5th, my students started off class full of excitement for their idea to make some surprise for the other English teacher's birthday. She is planning to leave Mongolia sometime in the near future, so they correctly pointed out that it was likely to be her last birthday in the country.  I considered it worthwhile to entertain this notion, and for the first half of class we only talked about what we could do for the teacher in the short notice -- her birthday was the next day! Better late than never, but it would have been easier to plan with a little more forewarning. We plotted some ideas for decoration and deserts, and during the break i smuggled some colored paper to our apartment and enlisted Yaejin's help in the scheme. We planned to have my class spend their homework time after class at our house. The English teacher has traditionally overseen this homework hour, but I just told her my class would have a snack during homework time so we'd bring them to our house, and that didn't seem to arouse excess suspicion.  

    Together with the kids we made bunting-styled banners, we had them all write letters to her, and one girl wrote a poem to put on the board, and Yaejin helped direct the crafting and a simple cake decoration. It all was coming together well, and we were able to enlist the Chinese teacher to unlock the school for us after 9:30 in order to decorate secretly. When the kids gathered for this school raid decoration time, the coughing boy wasn't with them. His parents made him stay home because he had a fever. Hm....
    Regardless, the surprise turned out beautifully and the kids were very pleased with it. Later one girl wrote us a nice little get well note thanking us for the direction, which was very considerate of her.  We were told that the teacher was completely surprised when she got in to class the next morning, and loved all of the decorations and treats. Great success all around.

    However, as I've been alluding to, all was not well in the Sigler household. That very evening I woke up with some discomfort, and in the morning felt positively unwell. Yaejin took my temperature, and I had a fever. Knowing there was at least one lady here with Covid-19, and remembering the student who had been in our home until his parents made him go to bed the previous evening, I thought it best to take caution and not go to any classes that morning. I ended up sleeping until about 11:30 and generally feeling bad, coming in and out of fever. Yaejin also had cold-like symptoms, but finally in the afternoon we got out to get tested at a center. Hers came back negative, but mine was positive, and thus our self-imposed isolation was restarted anew. 

For the first few days, we  kept coming in and out of fever, feeling hot and cold, and my cough continued. I also had general muscle soreness so that I didn't like to sit in one position for too long. Concerned about respiratory issues, I went out onto our rooftop and jogged in a little circle or did soccer-practice-style cross-stepping back and forth to get some fresh air and exercise. The area being pretty small, i did feel a little like a caged tiger pacing around and back and forth. Later, my taste and smell faded, followed by Yaejin in the same way. That has been an irritating symptom but much better than the pain! Our meals were mostly constructed on the basis of nutrition and texture. Hot soups with beans, vegetables, and meat were the most enjoyable to us.

Cooking with gas by candlelight during a power outage one evening

    For me the worst symptom was probably lower body pain when I tried to go to sleep. It seemed that every night was a struggle to position myself in a way that wouldn't feel like my groin and hamstrings were being overstretched! I'm still not sure why that was happening, but it climaxed on perhaps night #9 when i ended up getting out of bed and walking around, standing with my hips pushing forward and seeking relief on the couch. Since then it subsided , and my taste is about half-way back now too.  
    Yaejin is a few days behind me, and although she didn't have the legs sensation I had, the fevers and soreness has been tough on her. For a while it seemed that she suffered in the morning and got better as the day went on, whereas I started out feeling good and would deteriorate in the evening and then suffer most at night. 

Getting an accidental nap in the early evening.

    

    At the time of writing this, I am merely waiting for my cough to clear up and my taste to keep coming back. In my case it was never 100% gone, but I could only taste the basics of "sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, sour" so that anything that did have a flavor ended up just being the flavor of salt or sugar. Coffee was just bitterness without any of the roasted flavor I like. This morning too, i suddenly woke up with through pain, which hasn't been a symptom of my sickness, so I'm not sure what to think about that.
    For Yaejin's part, she still has a cough and no taste, and seems to have a litlte more body pain remaining.  We're still planning to isolate until Monday, but overall we are both thankful to have seemingly gotten through this without any complications. The back of the mind "what if" anxiety makes all of it harder to get through.

    Other than feeling bad, I think it was a blessing for us to be put into another quarantine together! We have both been so busy, and it was nice to spend time reading, talking, watching movies, and suffering together. Especially when the pain wasn't happening it's been nice to just enjoy eachothers' company.

    This is now our fourth mandatory quarantine, and it has been the hardest by virtue of actually being sick. But I'm glad to have a partner to go through it with. I'm sure it would be harder to do it alone for such long periods of time, and our sympathies go out to anyone who's had to undergo that true isolation.

    We thank everyone for your continued prayers and for anyone who reaches out! It's always nice to hear from our friends across the world, even if the time difference sometimes makes us slow to respond.

We're on the mend. Enjoy this picture of us with our cacti!

Ulaanbaatar x Kabul

Absolutely scrumptious Afghan-style meal and tea made for us by △.

    

    

 

   Hello everyone. I wanted to share something a little different today before starting on my regularly scheduled update (which is actually behind schedule due to our contraction of and ongoing recovery from Covid-19). 

    Last month we had the privilege of dining with a Mongolian missionary -- already quite a rare category, but this person's calling was all the more intriguing in light of recent world history. This missionary -- I'll call him/her △ -- had been ministering to the Hazara people in Kabul for ten years before coming back to Mongolia to raise support. △ was aiming to return to Kabul when the Pandemic started and Mongolia locked down its borders. Still they planned to go back again when possible, but the current crisis began before there was a chance, endangering many of his/her friends. △ cooked a delicious Afghan-style meal for us and one other couple from our church, accompanied by saffron-green tea, which was exquisite as billed. As delicious as the meal was, the real treat was hearing △ tell us about the church in Afghanistan and their way of reaching out to the Hazara people.

    First of all, I was fascinated to meet a missionary from a developing nation -- I assumed that makes it hard to raise support, but on the other hand probably helps △ keep a lower profile in other low-income nations in ways that would not be possible for people from first world nations (or who "look like" they would be) and possibly helps with some cultural expectations as well. Secondly, we were amazed to hear how well God has equipped △ to minister to this specific people group, the Hazara. The "Hazara" are believed to be named for the Persian word for "thousand," and to descend from the Mongol squadron of 1000 troops the Khans left to manage the area after they conquered it. For this reason, the Hazara not only bear physical resemblance to Mongolians, but apparently their language and culture both have many commonalities with Mongolia as well. △ said that he/she doesn't stick out in the region unless he/she starts talking and reveals the foreign accent.  I asked whether △ has to keep their faith a secret, but they told me "there's no avoiding it once they know you're foreign. 'What do you believe?' will be the very first question they ask you. In many places that would be 'what do you do?' or 'Where are you from?' -- in China they always ask 'How much do you make?,' but in Afghanistan the very first question is 'What do you believe?'" △ said that they struggled with how to answer that question at first, because if you say "Christian" they just roll their eyes and say "Oh, the Hollywood religion. You say you believe in God but smoke and drink and sleep around and do all of the sinful things." They equate the word with hypocritical hedonism.  So eventually △ started describing him/herself instead as "a disciple of Jesus." That always gets their attention, as they'll say "Oh, is there a religion like that? Jesus is a good prophet." And they often will be curious to know more about it.

    △ told us that he/she appeals to Mongolian origins as the basis for sharing their testimony, saying "I was born in a land caught between Buddhism and Communism, so I was never able to know the True God."  That always stirs their sympathy, because the Muslims consider themselves as knowing the True God. △ then goes on to share about meeting Christ and being changed by Him. He/She said that any time the Muslims start to get upset at △ about God becoming a man or Jesus being the same person as God, he/she just uses the Muslim mantra "God is Great; I am nothing." △ takes on a hurt expression and says "What can I say about it? I'm not saying this, my God says it. God is great; I am nothing! How can I say anything different if God tells me He has a son and became man?" △ said that line of  humble "don't shoot the meek messenger" usually calms them down and they'll say "Alright alright, fine, it isn't you saying this." 

    While △'s own faith is quickly placed front and center, he/she said that the local people who do come to faith must only do so under extreme secrecy, because you can't know if your neighbor will turn you in to the Muslims and they'll burn your house down or make you disappear. △ told us that everything is done on a 1:1 basis -- just mentor to mentee and onward. △ told us that they did organize a mass meeting of the members of this mentoring network, and described how beautiful it was to see neighbors recognizing eachother and saying "You too?! Hallelujah!" and realizing they'll be able to silently encourage and pray for oneanother. △ went on about this need for secrecy: "Here in Mongolia, we ask people to believe in Jesus because He will help repair their families and solve their alcohol problems. In Afghanistan, we're saying to people 'Please believe in Jesus. You'll likely be killed for it, but please follow Him just the same and it'll be worth it.'"  -- and that's before this new takeover by the Taliban. △ said from what the converts are saying, they don't have questions of "how to survive." They expect that they'll be martyred eventually, unless the Lord chooses to spare them for His work. So they are joyful.

    As for △, they say they intend to work more with the Hazara people. Now that Afghanistan is off limits, △ intends to visit the border countries available for visits from Mongolians to reach out to the many Hazara who are fleeing Afghanistan, and also to work on trying to get out those who can be helped.
    If you're like me, right now you're probably thinking "Let's get △ hooked up with American funding and make a big difference!" But throughout our conversation I learned that △ has a passion for being a Mongolian-supported missionary. They were saying that the Mongolian church needs to learn consistency; to step up and keep supporting instead of giving a one-time gift and then forgetting about it. △ was saying that the Mongolian church doesn't get enough teaching about generosity, faithful prayer and giving, and trusting God with money; and that "even though what they can give is just [a few cents] per person -- almost nothing -- just like the widow's mite, God can use it if they just faithfully give, and it's an important lesson and blessing for the Mongolian Christians to take part in God's global Church" etc. So I determined that △ would not be interested in foreign aid. But I wanted to share with my friends around the world about the awesome work God is and will continue to be doing in Afghanistan and the surrounding nations.  I know that many of us Americans have been praying for them lately out of a national guilt for the predicament in which our government has placed the Afghan Christians, but our time with △ showed me that: 

    1) It has always been dangerous for our brothers and sisters in Muslim-controlled regions.

    2) The Lord will protect His people or otherwise use them for His glory in whatever they have to 
         face next.

Either way, I invite all of you to be praying for the Hazara, the believers in and fleeing Afghanistan, and for a thousand other Church enclaves like this that we haven't heard about yet.

For my next entry I have much to update about our own lives.

Pool and Pizza

  

Homemade Pizza at our house with the younger five siblings
I blurred faces just because I'm not getting permission to upload these!

Getting a little rooftop time on a pretty day

  My health remains unremarkable as we head into September. I have started getting more exercise -- and one of my favorite kinds, in fact -- by going down to the a local pool a few times per week. I have fond memories of my brother and I riding our bikes down to the Westgate pool for swimming lessons on summer mornings for several years in a row, and this new ritual-forming habit revitalizes that feeling. That was one of the first instances of independence I can remember having -- that we had an appointment at a public building and were responsible to get there on time with all the things we needed without any parental assistance at a pretty young age (I think I was going by bike from about age 7-11?). Well... realistically I wouldn't be surprised if mom had to orchestrate much of the preparations to get us out the door on time, but from my perspective it was a great leap in personal independence to have my own scheduled appointments. 

    My brother-in-law was the one who initiated going to the pool and drove us there (I'm still waiting on my green card before I can transfer my U.S. driver's license to a Mongolian license) because his afternoons have cleared up and he is interested in learning to swim. But the pool is really close to our building so I have since ventured a few times by bus or by foot, which has further sparked that old nostalgia for summers past. 

    So we initially went to help Jakin learn to swim. As far as I can make out, not knowing how to swim is quite common in Mongolia, and being able to swim anything beyond a basic dog-paddle is fairly unusual.  I suppose that being a dry, landlocked country most represented by mountains and grasslands drops swimming down the priority list, although there are some lakes and it is a very common pastime to wade in rivers during summer. So far at least half of the other patrons I've seen at the pool have been assisted by pool noodles, kick boards, floatation belts, or any combination of the three. 

My neighborhood pool, with one lady using a noodle to.... learn(?) swimming.

    When we first got into the pool, the staff guy (kind of like a lifeguard i guess? But just wearing regular clothes, patrolling the room and making sure people are safe and get out when their hour is up) swabbed our backs to evaluate whether we'd showered thoroughly enough! That was not exactly a welcoming start, but he didn't give us any trouble after that; just told us that beginners are supposed to use the nearer lane. So I started explaining to Jakin how to do the moves of the breast stroke, demonstrating the coordination of leg and arm motions, breathing, etc. I also showed him one or two other strokes in case he thought those looked more comfortable for him to learn. Well somewhere along this process Swab Guy pulled out his phone and started filming! First from afar, then gradually closer until he was walking the length of the pool alongside me to film me!  That was a very funny and flattering surprise. He also asked Jakin to ask me "whether I'm breathing in through my nose or mouth more." I thought "if he's part of the staff who are responsible for teaching beginners, it's no wonder most Mongolians don't get past the dog-paddle!"  I think there are some others who are above his level though.. surely.  In subsequent visits I have not been singled out as anything more interesting than a novel foreigner, so maybe that situation came about simply to build my confidence for using that pool as I like, even if I don't understand much of the language.  

    The second staff guy I met was very friendly as well, insisting on asking me questions even though I was alone and could barely understand anything he was saying. The third guy was a bit of a jerk, giving my brother-in-law and me a lot of grief about not arriving 15 minutes before swim time (they have specific windows of time for cycling swimmers in and out, but I figured being a little late just means that we'll get less over all swim time, so it doesn't really hurt anyone else. He was directing more of his unfriendliness toward my brother-in-law than me, since he could actually understand him. Anyway it turned out ok and when I've seen him since he has pretty much ignored me, but it lead to an interesting cultural remark from one of our NGO teammates. She posited that such hostility is a trademark feature of middle-management in Mongolia, because "the low-ranking people don't have any weight to throw around, and the actual top-ranking people (the owners, etc.) are usually pretty amiable and generous. It's those ones in the middle who are trying to assert their authority and prove something."  I hadn't considered it before, but I would not be surprised if there's a fair amount of the same situation going on in American companies and institutions.

     It's been a long time since i've swum "laps," and the range of the human body's capacity to get in better and worse shape is astounding! I remember those last 2-3 years of childhood swimming lessons kicking off with continuous laps of all six of the strokes we learned (some doubled, so I think it would have been 8 laps straight) and feeling fine, but now i'm panting pretty hard after just 2-3 laps. I'm re-learning to pace myself and also building up my endurance. 

 

Online class time

  In other news, I've completed over a week of teaching my own English class for our school's "Class 2" (a group of 11-14 year-olds working at a 3rd/4th grade level of English). So far I've only been conducting the classes online, but as of Sept. 1 we are resuming regular in-person classes. I certainly didn't see myself teaching English again after I left the Japanese kindergarten, but I think it's going pretty well. We start each class with some Bible reading and that often gives us things to talk about. They have to read it the day before and look up any words they don't know, but the definition they find might not always match the context of the passage. My two youngest sibling-in-laws are in the class, so that's kind of funny to have them as students. It looks like the main English Teacher will be able to stay around for a while, so for the time being I'll just teach the one class and focus my other time on learning languages and software.  I expect to have a better handle on the rhythm of school life by my next update!

Thanks for your interest and prayers, everyone.

Homework help (hopefully a rare necessity)

Brilliant rainbows from a prism hanging in our window!

Another of Yaedam's birthday masterpieces, and the cheesecakes Yaejin made for Master Baker Yaedam's Birthday

Back to School

The usual traffic congestion on a pretty day

The kids' summer break finished, the high schoolers have finally started their next set of courses, and the Mongolian church families who were out in the back country have returned to us. Along with my language studies, I was also joining in on the high school accounting class (which is actually much more interesting than I would have guessed) along with my other usual things, but suddenly the trajectory of my own work has changed.

The woman who has been teaching the kids here English for the past decade has decided to leave Mongolia to be closer to her family and teach in another country. She was not in any particular hurry to leave but unbeknownst to her, our organization was already having trouble renewing her Mongolian visa this time and there was some serious concern that she would not be able to stay on after it expires in September. So when she told the principle about her decision expecting for the change to take effect at the end of the school year or even once her successor could be established, it was deemed possibly an answer to that dilemma if she were to go ahead and leave next month. She initially recommended me as a potential replacement as a native English speaker who already knows all of the kids, and when the timing of her departure began to accelerate I thought there probably wasn't much room to consider alternatives and this way I can give back a little more for the various lessons I'm receiving now. So I started observing the English classes to see how things are being done -- what they're learning, where their ability is, what materials are in use, etc. Thankfully, however, it's started to look as though her visa renewal will be accepted after all, so now the timing isn't quite so pressed and I hope to start taking over classes gradually. I didn't see myself going back to teaching, but most of the kids seem excited to try using English so that will make it much easier! I'm optimistic that the small class sizes and prior relationships with the kids will make it an enjoyable "day-job." 

As for other responsibilities, I've started sharing messages on every third Sunday morning, and Yaejin re-initiated the youth small group she was leading two years ago. It's a smaller group now but we feel pretty good about it. I'm also still overseeing the high school siblings' studies, but I called in Yaejin to crack the whip on them because I felt like I didn't have a good handle on how much work they are actually getting done and what I should be expecting of them.

She was able to interrogate them firmly and measure how much work they can get done per hour, so now we have a much clearer plan moving forward. Thank you, Dear! 

At the end of July I had an odd and frightening physiological experience, similar to a stroke. It started with my vision getting blurry while trying to read, as though I had stared into a light beforehand. I went outside for a little fresh air and sunlight and my right hand grew numb and tingling. This feeling migrated from the right hand to my mouth, and I noticed that I was randomly inserting wrong words when trying to speak -- a little girl had asked me a question and when I wanted to say "many languages" i said "many red... no, I mean many languages" (this was in English).  I went inside and sat down, trying to get a hold of myself. Yaejin was teaching a class, and I was debating whether to interrupt it to go to the hospital.  

I felt a little vertigo, like I was spinning, and I tried listing off family members' names, game titles, the meaning of various familiar acronyms, etc. with mixed success. It felt like I was partially dreaming or falling asleep and had to keep snapping my brain back in focus. I went to the high school room to see if they noticed anything (i had rehearsed their names earlier, and struggled to pair their English and Korean names but eventually got those). I realized I couldn't remember any of the Mongolian church members' names except for the guy who teaches me. The high school kids were able to give me the Mongolian neighbors' names and I could retain them then, but over all they were characteristically non-responsive so I quickly left them before making things too awkward -- if fearing for the future health of my mind can be rightly called "awkward."

I called my parents, and while talking with them things seemed almost normal except for the onset of a headache and general feeling of fatigue. I laid down in bed until Yaejin came to check on me a few minutes later. I told her what was going on and she was like "you know my name, right?"  "Of course!" I said. But then i couldn't come up with it! I started smirking at the absurdity of it, how ridiculous it was that I couldn't even come up with her name... Finally i pushed out "Jae... Yae... jung? ... Yae...jin! Yaejin. I know it, i do! It's just something really weird."

Just like with the Mongolian church members' names, once I got it, it stuck with me and I didn't have to keep struggling to remember. Yaejin called her parents over and they called a few doctors, all of whom said that in the late evening (it was nearly 11pm) none of the local hospitals would be able to help anyone who wasn't dying, so we arranged to go to the hospital the next day.

The next morning, and ever since, I've been back to normal. Eventually I was able to get an MRI with MRA, and when we met the the neurologist she assured us that there's nothing wrong or damaged in her field. She suggested it could be a form of migraine "with auras" or a mild form of epilepsy, or possibly a heart-related issue. For the time being I've started taking vitamins and an occasional aspirin and just trying to stay healthy -- nutrition, exercise, hydrated. I'm very thankful that my brain is ok, but it is a little frustrating to have no clear answer to what happened.  

Other than the above, the most exciting things going on for me is going to a local pool for exercise and the birth of my second nephew.

We really appreciate everyone's interest and prayers. Things are steady at present. Not a whole lot of ministry happening (mostly internal) but Yaejin and I are still relishing our stable living situation for now.

At the War Memorial (commemorating cooperation between Mongolia and Russia/USSR
against China and Japan) in the Zaisan area of U.B.

Summer Break

 

Our delicious "Sea & Shore Fruit Cake" 
by sister-in-law Yaedam

I last posted very soon after my birthday, which turned out to be premature on that topic.  Yaejin's family is in the habit of observing birthdays on the following weekend, and with 14 family members that means it isn't unheard of for two people to share a birthday. So this Saturday I shared with Ju-il ("Andrew"). Their family tradition is to bring out the cake before dinner, sing the song and blow out the candles (in this case we each blew out our half -- mine being the sand and his the water) and then set it aside before dinner. Then Yaejin's dad says "Ok, presents!" and everyone scatters off to go retrieve the presents they had stashed away for the occasion. These get brought back and piled up in front of the recipient in a somewhat chaotic but festive manner. We were given a fair amount of chocolate and other snacks I'm known to appreciate, and at the end her dad was like "and for our Andrew... money!" So i wondered whether they'd also give me money, which isn't quite the same for me as for a 15-year old! But instead he went, "and for our Daniel..." and pulled out a new phone! That was a huge shock and I really didn't know what to say. They told me since it is my first birthday here they wanted to do something extra, and extra it was. It was very nice of them and I think they all enjoyed keeping the secret from me, haha.

The following week (7/11 - 7/18) was a national holiday in Mongolia, known as Naadam. Normally this period would mark a time of nationwide feats of local horse racing, archery, and wrestling tournaments but this year the government decided to prohibit such festivities for Covid safety -- which was protested by the horse farmers (who apparently need the races to offset their costs) at the capital and counter-protested by health-conscious university students; neither with any discernable effect. Even without the events, however, most businesses took the week off and even more of the city-dwellers set out for their country-side homes, in addition to those who already went for summer break. Our own building was feeling kind of empty as most of the larger families also went out to remote areas so that the only kids left were those of our family. The kids at our church school had the month of July for summer break, which filled many more of our days with their activities and entertainment than under normal circumstances. Usually the church would all go on a camping trip together at some time during the summer, but again, all the usual plans are on hold. Personally I would have been happy to see some more remote areas, but I was quite glad not to be stuck away from our home, bed, and shower!  We did manage to get the kids on a few day trips, which they seem to have loved. 

I went on two of these outings with Yaejin's family + the Russian and Chinese Teachers. Both were beautiful days with fun activities in the crisp fresh air. Here are pictures from the first trip:

We eventually had about six of us up here. 
No one was hurt, although the Russian teacher gave us a scare when she
tried to join us and the branch she was grabbing broke. She said she was ok.

Youngest brother-in-law and I sitting in some tower we found with my oldest brother-in-law.

I thought I had posted this weeks ago. I don't want to make these entries too cumbersome and I want it out there, so I'll wrap this up for now.
There has been a lot going on this month, including an odd health scare for me and an impending job change, so please stay tuned for another update soon!