Week 3 in Mongolia...

Well, the cool weather we had a couple of weeks ago gave way for some hot weather here in UB this week. The people of Mongolia are typically used to cooler temperatures, so when it got up around 80 this week, everyone was complaining about the heat. I (Jim) must admit, that I am not a big fan of the heat either, especially when there is no convenient place to go cool off. 

On Tuesday, I made the walk over to UBean to meet up with my friends Bernie and Zoloo to go guitar shopping. It was the hottest day this week, and by the time I made the two mile trek to UBean, I looked like I was melting. 

After a big glass of water, a nice iced coffee from UBean Coffee House, and a bit of cooling/drying off, we hopped in Bernie's car to head for the local Yamaha music shop to look for an acoustic guitar for me to use while I'm here in Mongolia. 

When you have to carry everything you need for a year on the plane, it's hard to lobby for bringing more than one guitar with you. We looked into shipping one over, but the shipping costs were more than a new guitar. So I packed along my Gibson electric and resolved to just pickup an acoustic when I got here.


After checking out a few guitars in the store, I went with this black Yamaha acoustic/electric guitar. It's got a pretty good sound. I guess I'll need to start wearing more blues jeans and black shirts to complete the Johnny Cash vibe along with the new guitar.

I think Denise has started settling into her daily routine at UBean. She's been working with the baker to create various confectionary delights, and starting this week, they are now offering pizza. Later on, the plan is start offering panini sandwiches too.

Denise has been learning a ton about coffee, and I must admit that I'm enjoying my fresh roasted UBean coffee each morning. When I stop into UBean, I love to get a cappuccino and the latest cupcake or dessert from the kitchen.

We've also been to a couple of open mic nights at UBean now. It's informal, anybody can jump up and take a turn at the mic. We've already heard some great music from a number of different people; both Mongolians and people from other countries. 

Last week, we got to hear from some of the members of a team visiting from Hawaii and a number of local Mongolians. I jumped in and played a couple of blues songs: one by Eric Clapton, and the other a tune Ellie and I wrote this past year.

This week we jumped in again, Ellie played violin along with me as we played "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham. Here she is playing "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. It was great to hear her play; she's very talented on the violin, and we love the sound of her violin that she got last year.


Today, Ellie and I played together as I led worship at Cornerstone Church of All Nations. I love getting to be a part of the services there. There are people from all over the world at the services, so it's just cool to be a part of that. It was even better to get to do that together with my daughter!

Tomorrow, it's back to work for me to start working on compiling all of the financial data for June. The person I'm replacing is leaving later this week, so I'm hoping to get as much info out of her as possible before she goes, without infringing too much on her time to pack!

Ellie is heading with Denise to UBean tomorrow, and then meeting up with some new friends to hang out for the day. Later this week, on Thursday, we all get the day off as elections will be happening here in Mongolia, so all businesses and offices are required to be closed. I think maybe we'lll just have to take advantage of that and sleep in a little bit!

We made it to Mongolia!

We arrived safely in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia last Monday night, and after another day or so, so did the rest of our luggage! The bags got a little roughed up as usual on these long trips, but everything seems to be relatively intact. We are slowly figuring out daily life: shopping, taxis, new foods, etc. We have been staying in a friend's apartment temporarily until one of the families we came to replace heads home this Thursday. 

Denise has been learning the ropes at UBean; roasting coffee, and the ins and outs of barista-ing. She has been working long hours to learn as much as she can before the current director heads home to the States for a year. We are totally getting spoiled with some amazing fresh roasted coffee each day! 

This past Sunday, we got to enjoy a picnic in the countryside with some new friends from the Grain of Wheat Center (which UBean is located in). It was a bit chilly, and pretty windy, but the location was beautiful, and we had a good time with our friends.

Jim started work in the office this week, to begin the transition as the bookkeeper for CAMA in Mongolia, while staying in contact with his company in the States to help out with financial matters and marketing of the business. Ellie has been making new friends, hanging out at the coffee shop, reading, and blogging on Tumblr a lot. We hope to keep this blog updated as we get more settled into daily life here in Mongolia.