Darkness in the alley

Since I started blogin a few weeks ago, I have realized some bloggers tend to blog daily and there sites seem to fill up with interesting stuff and photos and such quickly.  I had intended to try to post weekly just thoughts and perspectives now and then. How much is too much and how little is too little.  If communicating is worth doing It should be done well but how well can a farm boy be expected to communicate.  I can make the sounds of dogs, cats,  cows, and pigs well enough but the arrogance to think I have something to write in a public forum that is something again. 

 I know I have written many Emails over the years since Diana Anthony Joshua and I first moved from our homeland into the unknown.  Some reported events were more interesting than others.  

One that comes to mind was the first t

ime my trash can was stolen from in front of my house.  It was a rusted-out 55 gal. barrel which had served to ship fuel to some remote place in the heart of the unknown and over time had rusted through.  It could no longer hold liquids but it was fine for trash.  In those capitalist run days in that nation the city still did a very nice job of picking up the trash weekly and the refuse workers were friendly and we thanked them with a bag of Mangos or some cookies from time to time.  All seemed right in the unknown.  

Until that fateful day when I put out the trash in the morning and by noon my trash and rusted out barrel were gone.  No big problem as I knew there were a supply of it's twin waiting to be converted from perforated, leaking, damaged, dented, cast aside barrels to wonderfully fresh orange trash cans.  It was a simple conversion requiring only turning the barrel over and cutting out the bottom.  They always leak on the bottom first.  Equipped with my new trash can I returned home and unloaded it by the handy little gate where the can slept.  By the time I entered the house through the 2 doors, 3 or 4 locks, and returned to the spot it had joined it's predecessor in the Bermuda triangle or similar land of vanquished, lost, and  wandering trash cans.  At the time it was kind of strange that people would steel a used barrel that had been used to ship AvGas which was rusted and had holes in it, from in front of my house in broad daylight no less.  Water from that barrel would be dangerous to drink it would always smell of 100LL avgas and it would leak so using it as a water reservoir for someone's home seemed unlikely, and who but a foreigner would bother with a barrel for trash.  Asi la vida I guess, such is life.  Our next trash can the "third brother Darrel" was attached to the wall with some aircraft control cable and thus saved from wandering the hinder-lands aimlessly for eternity with Darrel 1 and Darrel 2.  (names shamelessly pirated from The Newhart show long ago and far away)

Here we just carry the bags of trash to the spot by the building where the trash is left.  There are a number of recycling engineers there who promptly rip open the bags and sift though the refuse for any valued item we foolishly discarded.  They leave the rest for the trash truck guys to shovel into the truck.  Sometimes they burn part to keep warm at night.

Life can be hard and staying alive is tough, every bit of glass, plastic, metal, or bit with value is collected and carried off to be sold or traded to meet some need.  Men without an anchor wandering aimlessly without hope without a plan without a home.  One reacts with sadness and a helpless feeling.  Who am I to see people in this condition and not be able to help, to make a difference.  How dare I witness this without being able to feed, clothe, and heal.  Too many people out here in the unknown will never feel the global recession.  If it is cold tonight some will not make it through the night.  We read stories of our countrymen being reduced to living in their car.  Most out here in the unknown have never dared dream of ever being rich enough to own a car.  What do I have to offer, but this ache in my heart, this tear in my eye, this lump in my throat.  How do I share Hope with those who don't even realize that there is Hope and they too can know it.  

Second post

Out our office window you can see the Blue Sky office building is being built.  No connection with Blue Sky Aviation but the local papers seem to have made a connection and reported that the profits from Blue Sky Aviation humanitarian flights have funded the project.  It is a pretty building and it kind of resembles the Blue Sky Aviation logo.

One would think having something of note to share from somewhere as different as UlaanBaatar Mongolia would be a simple thing.  It would only require one to pay attention and remember the interesting parts.  

It snowed a little last week but it is mostly gone without a trace now.  Sorry no pictures.  We walk from the Flat to the office and each day is remarkably similar.  One day a man in a wheel chair was asking for help.  One day a young lady was selling pens trying to fund her education.  Most days the kids at the secondary school are playing on the sidewalk.  For the last 3 weeks we have watched the replacement of some heat pipes in a side street we walk past.  The day It  snowed I watched a rather expensive looking car spinning it's tires trying to go up a rather slight incline.  Too many young unemployed men standing around smoking, buying soda and liquor, spitting on the sidewalks.   Normal sights now, after only 4 weeks we are no longer noticing what makes life normal here.  

Just for emphasis the three major events this last week were: 

1. meeting a young man from the US who was here doing some training with a contingent of Mongolian peace keepers prior to there deployment.  We enjoyed visiting with him and spending the evening. 

2. We went to the home of one of our coworkers and had Dinner with them.  They are a mongolian family who have been working in and with the expat community for several years.  We had a nice meal of that old Mongolian favorite.  Tacos Coke-A-Cola and Brownies.  

3. Paul and Edith Brooks fish, who are living in the aquarium where we are staying, were starting to swim upside down.  (technically, some had stopped swimming and were just floating.)  Not being aquarium experts we were puzzled by their lethargic demeanor and following some contemplation deduced that there was a problem.  The decision was made that the water was probably causing this curious behavior.  Four (4) hours later with fresh water in the tank the fish seem happier and are easier to see as well.  Oddly enough the old water had gotten quite green over time.  This morning all fish were swimming in the normal way.  (Actually the floaters are resting on the counter top and we will report on there progress as they return to service.)

So enough for this installment of the roller-coster ride of interesting and fascinating events from our time in Mongolia.  I hope you can stand the suspense.  We will try to tame the wilder parts so our blog is fit to read without frightening small children and dogs.

Tom from Mongolia

The first log.

Hello,  "San-ban-oh."  The standard Greeting in Mongolian.  Hence the blog name, our friend John Luke (4) tells us that both the guards names here at the flat are, Sam Ben O.  Now you know.

Saturday with nothing to do.  We got the internet to work from the house this week so what else would one do but start a Blog.  After a year living in Siberia we are settling into life here in Mongolia.  Helping out in the Office during the day and enjoying the flat of some friends in the evenings.  Mongolia seems to be a friendly place and most people we encounter welcoming to strangers.  

Without sounding like a travel log I will say that we are exploring the local restaurants as our budget allows.  Travel out of the city is limited so we may not be able to include many photos of the landscape. Fall has arrived here and we have survived our first snow and the days are getting cooler.  Diana misses the Dogs which are often seen in Siberia.  In Ulaanbaatar we see few dogs and few are as big and woolly as those we had living in the forest behind our flat there.

No we are not living in the pictured Yurt.  The photo was take north of Ulaanbaatar at a tourist camp in the national park.  The landscape reminds me of the Utah side of the Rockies.  Blue Sky is often used as a business name here and you can see why.

Hoping all is well with you

Tom