The day after I returned from the US to Mongolia, I gave my body no time to rest as I embarked on a spontaneous 12 hour train ride to the Gobi desert. Back in the city, I've joined a choir and started working part-time at a charity foundation.
A Wild, Bizarre Trip to Sainshand
So, about 24 hours before Friday evening, a couple co-fellows and I decided to embark on a spontaneous 12-hour overnight train trip to Sainshand, a town of 25,000 people in the eastern Gobi desert. It was one of the most bizarre weekends of my life.
The train was built in the Soviet era, and I loved everything about it. We had to strap ourselves to a seatbelt to prevent ourselves from falling off our bunk beds – not that we’d be getting a lot of sleep on the rock-hard beds anyways. Our train car also randomly happened to have a bunch of students traveling to Sainshand for a Rubik’s cube competition. No one could explain to me why such a competition was being held in the desert and not in the capital. But we befriended a fourth-grader, supported him at the competition, and he ended up winning a gold and a bronze medal.
Our next stop was one of Sainshand’s cultural landmarks which is two mounds of rocks that are supposed to represent fertility – no commentary needed. After that, we decided to increase our luck by visiting this historic bell that gives you luck if you strike it. We also played with shagai, a fortune-telling game that involves throwing sheep anklebones, at a temple. I just kept throwing them (not knowing what I was doing), and the local next to me said my throws indicate that I will be very lucky. Go figure.
However, I think we cancelled all our luck because we broke so many cultural rules (unknowingly). When we were at the monastery, I stepped inside a structure only to get attacked by locals telling me to get out of the room. It had an open entrance with no door and no sign, so I’m sorry that I didn’t get the memo that I wasn’t supposed to step in. Then, in the middle of climbing up Sainshand’s sacred mountain, a couple of locals told my friend to go back down because apparently the mountains’ spirits do not like women. I thought if it’s true, then we were probably in too deep anyways, so we might as well just make it to the summit. I started to think that maybe the locals were right because once we were up there, the winds started to go so crazy that I was holding onto the rails for dear life.
We also randomly met this goat at the monastery that just kept following us around like a dog for a solid hour. I was convinced that she was some reincarnated guardian of the monastery.
More Immersion
I've also been making more inroads into the local community. A couple weeks ago, I joined my church's choir, and we're preparing for our Christmas music concert. People love singing in Ulaanbaatar (there's literally a karaoke bar on every corner), but I think that a lot of them don't get the opportunity to learn an instrument or receive technical training. With the choir director's permission, I've been helping my section out with reading notes and figuring out harmonies. One of the songs we're singing is Joy to the World, and there's a part where the lower voices do a call and response thing with the upper voices on the lyrics, "and saints and angels sing." The whole call and response concept was so mind-boggling to so many of our members, so it's taken a couple of practices to get it down.
I've also started a part-time job at a charity foundation where I teach an English speaking class. The foundation works with about 15 high schoolers from limited backgrounds with the goal of teaching and counseling them throughout all of high school to obtain full-ride scholarships to universities abroad. Teaching 9th graders is a whole different experience than teaching college students in my full-time job. So far, I've been arranging our lessons around playing games and watching movies - things that they don't do in their schools.
And that's been my summary of the last two weeks! Even though I was living in a place where Thanksgiving is not celebrated, I naturally pondered the things I am grateful for in my life. I am so thankful for family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and more. I can only strive to be as bright as they are as the lights in my life.
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