Fourth of July in Mongolia

Happy 4th of July to all! Unfortunately, it's not a holiday here, so we put in a full day of work. I am proud to report that I am becoming a master roofer. I spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon putting a roof on one of the houses we're building any my supervisor, Naraa, was very pleased with my facility with the hammer. So, too, were my teammates. Frankly, I was rather surprised at how well I was able to pound these 6" nails in -- mostly because they're made of such a soft material that they're constantly bending.

Later in the afternoon, I switched to the flooring division and helped lay a sub-floor in another house. The levels, plumb lines, carpenter's pencils and metric tape measures I brought are being used constantly.

We're working on a big plain atop one of the low-lying hills that surround Erdenet. It just rolls forever and the sky is so blue and the clouds so white and beautiful.

Food continues to beg description. Breakfast every morning consists of two slices of white bread with a small dollop of horse pate and a cup of weak tea. It's not enough to send us out to a full day of work, so we are commandeering the kitchen as of tomorrow morning, buying groceries and making our own breakfasts.

Had a very interesting luch today at the site (Usually one of our transport vans goes into town and gets takeout for us, enabling us to work on site.). Today, it was yak schnitzel with rice and an odd sort of cole slaw. Very chewy and with a very game-y taste. I gave mine to one of the guys.

We find we need things we hadn't brought, such as knee pads for kneeling while hammering and sawing. A quick visit to the store across the street provided us with cotton balls. These we combined with duct tape and twine to make very servieable -- and somewhat less stylish -- knee pads. Worked great.

The money that was supposed to have been wired to us here from Habitat in the States still has not arrived. Hopefully, tomorrow.

The Mongolians are very lovely to work with and we are learning a bit more Mongolian every day. Who knows? Maybe we'll be fluent by the time we return!!

Would kill for some Jack Tarr ribs or a good hamburger! Met two Irishmen from County Galway this morning, who spend most of their time traveling in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the like examining the local methods of butchering meats. All of these countries want to be able to sell their meat (well, okay, not the yak, camel, horse or marmot meat!) to EU countries, but their butchery methods aren't quite up to EU standards yet. Although most meat sold in the three main cities is supposed to be okay, everywhere else it is apparently riddled with parasites and all sorts of other things that can make you very sick. Hopefully, we're getting the good stuff.

Saw a church spire rising out of Erdenet the other day and was told it was a Mormon church! Imagine -- in the land of Shamans. Go figure!

That's it for now. More later.

Margo