Friday, January 11, 2008
by M&A
Yes, we arrived safely into Mongolia on Monday morning. Life is quite different here, but we are thankful for the many blessings and the relaxation that we are enjoying.
The train ride was uneventful. Pretty typical. The girls had a hard time sleeping through the night. The compartment was either to hot or to cold. On the mongolian side of the border the officials, which were all ladies, were fascinated at our twin girls. I think we had about 6 to 7 people look at them. Thankfully they were asleep during that whole process. We arrived at 7:30 am and were met by some folks that were extremely helpful. I can't imagine how we could have gotten off the train by ourselves. You can see in the picture how much luggage we had.
I, Mark, was able to get our documents in, except for Ayuna's. We were concerned this may happen. I handed all the paperwork for the four of us and the gentlemen was giving me a receipt for all 4 passports to be picked up in 2 days. I was so excited. That was an excellent sign that everything was going to work out, but just before he handed me the receipt for Ayuna's documents he asked to see her Green Card. Not her US Green Card, but her Mongolian one. Of course she doesn't have a Mongolian Green Card. He said sorry, but she would have to get her visa in Russia. We thought that may happen and had already checked into options to express mail her documents to be done in the US. It's a 2 week waiting process for everything, so we are enjoying this restful time. (The girls and I picked up our visas just fine this past Friday.)
Life in Mongolia is different. There is a constant haze over the city because everyone is burning coal, wood, etc... to heat there Gers (Yurt is the word you may be familiar with). I don't see any trees and it's really bitter cold here. Time to break out the long underwear again. It was -30 yesterday here. Food seems to be cheaper here as well. There is even an American Food Store that caters to the taste-buds of foreigners. I found chips, salsa, Diet Dr. Pepper (I would have preferred regular, but who is complaining.), and A&W Root Bear. Yum!
That's kind of what is going on at the moment. We will continue to update you about
You can be thinking of Ayuna's mom. She is in the hospital again with Trigeminal Neuralgia. It's very painful for her this time of year.
For more information on Gers and Trigeminal Neuralgia follow these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_neuralgia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt
