The Build!

Sain baina uu! (Hello)

I just finished up my first experience building houses. The experience has been so many things. Eye opening, back breaking, gratifying and frustrating. Mongolia has also been a place that has been surprising in so many ways. The city of Ulaanbatar is fairly ugly. It has heavy Soviet influence in its architecture. However, it is amazing how Western and specifically American the culture is. The people are extremely friendly and gracious. It is amazing how kind they are. The two families we built houses for would give us small tokens of their gratitude. My favorite experience was how although we couldn't speak the same language (we had an interpreter but often you found yourself with the carpenter or a family member working) and how a mix of sign language and their wonderfully expressive eyes we could communicate.

The first week we did much more grueling labor. Shoveling sand to get it ready to mix in mortar, building floors and walls and getting them up. It was a crazy experience. The weather here is unreal - temperatures will vary between thirty degrees in a given day. The sun will be out and it will be blazing hot. Then clouds roll in and a monsoon type of rain and rumbling thunder immediately begins. I learned how to nail, level, dig. how to set up a frame to a house and to lay out and nail in floor boards. Our first family was in the ger-district. It would be a shanty town in any other country but since they have gers here (which we often call yurts) they actually just have those semi-permanent houses in the squalid outskirts. The second home we worked on was more in the countryside and was in a beautiful setting. To see photos of the first week please click here - here

Over the past weekend I took the opportunity to head south to the Gobi desert with a small group of people. It was unreal and amazing. We took off early saturday morning, landed, hoped in a suv and began plowing straight through the desert. There were tons of wild horses, the special two humped bacturne camels that roam through the Gobi (i even rode one!) and lots of billy goats. It really looked like the bottom of the ocean that it once was (you even can find sea shells!) To see photos of my quick trip to the Gobi click here

Finally, this past week we had the pleasure of returning to the first home we began. We worked on installing a roof, dry walling the walls (i had become an expert on this from the first week), caulking and even laying bricks. You wouldn't imagine the amount of insulation we put in given that it gets to -60 here! We did not finish building the entire home but made significant progress. The family, who puts in significant sweat equity, will finish the completion of the house. It was a very unique experience to build a home for someone and very meaningful as well as gratifying. As being in any developing country there were many many bumps in the road, stalls, delays, and frustrations. However, it was an experience I feel fortunate to have had. to see photos from this past week including a fully built habitat for humanity home please click here

Now, a bit more touring around through UB - monestaries and museums. Then Luca arrives on Sunday and we head out to the Western steppes to travel by horseback for ten days. From there we will return to UB for a day and then take the Trans Siberian to Beijing. It should be quite an adventure! I hope you are all well. Stay in touch and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

xoxo,
Siobhan

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Part of trip: Siobhan's Summer Travels

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