On that same trip, we went and visited some friends who live in a ger, or yurt. The grandmother fed us homemade yogurt and a lot of candy, along with their traditional tea, which is milky and salty. It grows on you.

The Mongolian countryside in this area is a vast expanse of hills, low mountains, and scattered forests. It is primarily sparse grass in a dry and dusty soil. The openness and size of the sky makes you feel tiny.

After our walk, the boys of the neighboring gers wanted to show us the wolf cubs they had recently found. Apparently the mother had died and these cubs were only a couple of weeks old. They were very cute, but already ferocious. The boys fed them a few strips of raw meat, then the wolf pups would charge you and try to nibble your toes! I want one.

On the way home we had run in with a wrench that required a brief stop.The colors of the roofs here are striking. In the “ger district” which is the area outside of the main downtown, where people put up gers or rickety houses with no running water, the roofs are all reds, blues, greens. When you are up on a rise and can see across the land, it makes a very contrasting scene against the browns of the fences and dirt roads.

One day we went out to eat at a small little cafe downtown. My brother and wife know the owners through teaching their daughter English. They were very excited to meet other family members and kept the place open later for us so we could eat there after everyone had left! The gave us a feast. It was a treat as we had piles of amazing food. I laughed as the man energetically mimed to us and talked through Jonathan’s translation while The Eagle’s Hotel California and other classic songs played from their boombox. (Funny tangent: I was on a walk one day in the ger district when I heard the Singing In the Rain remix from the VW Golf commercial from years back being blasted inside a ger I walked past.)

And with that friends, I am about to find a taxi to take me to UB where I will explore for the evening, trying to avoid gangs that like to attack Americans for no reason (history people, did we ever screw Mongolia over?), and board an airplane to the Philippines in the morning.

With my brother and his wife living here on a permanent basis, they thought it would be good to build their own house, rather than to continue renting with rising costs. As foreigners they aren’t allowed to own land, but the government does have a program which gives people large pieces of countryside to people to steward and protect.

Because of the economy and lifestyle here many people will go to the forested regions and (illegally) cut down trees for firewood. That in itself isn’t such a bad thing, the use for the wood is a great necessity; however, without proper care and replanting, the forests are rapidly depleting. I’ve heard that just 15 years ago the forest up the hillsides on the outside of town used to stretch back down into the valley a mile or two more from where they are now.So in light of this my brother and his wife were contracted a piece of land on the condition that they would protect and nurture it. The land is a few miles outside of the city. It’s a beautiful piece of mostly forested countryside. Unfortunately, it is also far from running water and electricity, as well as being cut off from any other homesteads by a couple of ridges. In order to reduce the cost of bringing in electricity lines and water, and to not be so isolated, the house is being built on their neighbor’s land. Within his land he has a nice fenced area of, I’d estimate, seven acres where his house sits. This is also where we are building my brother’s house. With water, electricity, and a neighbor all right there.

Now that you understand the larger picture everything else should make a little more sense when I talk about building things and where I am.

Currently, the foundation has been dug out and we are preparing materials for pouring the cement. This will be done by hand, wheelbarrow full by wheelbarrow full! Friday, my dad, brother, and I spent the afternoon building forms to pour the cement into and staking out the area in the site where they will go. Now on Monday we are waiting to have the final parts of dug so we can put the gravel and cement in. This process will probably take the rest of the week at least I would think.

It is often a waiting game, so we need to have a lot of patience. It isn’t something that will be completed quickly, but there are other people coming to help once my parents and I leave. Being able to be here and help kick off the actual building process is pretty cool. I’ve never done any construction work on this scale!