Wears you down sometimes...

So, we really don't like to complain on our blog here. But sometimes it just builds up and we feel like sharing our frustrations with you, so you can feel happy about where you are and happy that you aren't where we are...

Clayt went to get on the elevator the other day. The doors open and there is a woman and her kid standing right inside the doors. Clayt waits for them to move back or move over so he can get in, but they don't move at all. So, he had to just push through them to get in. Elevator etiquette is non-existent here in more ways than one.

This little story goes back to when we were out in Bayan-Olgii. We had lost our cell phone and needed to call our boss about our schedule and so went to the central post office/communications place. You had to go up to the teller desk and tell the lady the number you wanted to call and she would dial it on the computer and hand you the headset. Well, I went to the window and told the lady I wanted to make a phone call (with caveman speaking and gestures, but understandable). I tried to hand her the phone number, but she just looked at me and then shooed me away with a gesture and turned her back to me. Didn't say one word. (I didn't leave, and just bugged her until she gave in, but boy it was irritating to be shooed like that!) :)

2 weeks ago I saw a semi-violent fight out in a lot behind our school. It involved grown men attacking each other - one guy had blood all over his face and was barely able to stand and 2 men showed up and began to kick him and punch him. A third guy showed up with something he had grabbed out of his car and hit the guy in the face with it. Then the fight moved over to next to the car, where a man stood outside the driver's side talking to the guy inside the car. One of the men came up behind the guy with a big rock and hit him over the head with it. Then the fight moved out of my line of vision from the school window, who knows what happened next...

So the very next day on the way to school we saw a dead man lying in the road. The police were there, but hadn't moved the guy, just had a shirt over his face, lots of blood along the whole side of the torso. We got a clear view as he was still in the middle of the road and we drove right past him. My third graders (who had all seen the same sight) informed me he was hit by a bus.

We got on the bus this past Saturday night to go to dinner. The bus system is strange here - if someone doesn't pay the bus fare, it's the job of the bus fare collector to either shame them into getting off the bus or physically remove them. Unfortunately, more than a few really drunk guys like to try to ride the bus for free, and the fare collector is usually a woman. Well on this evening the woman was rather young, and small. She was trying to yank this guy out of his seat, but he wouldn't budge. Not only would he not budge, but he continued to smack at the lady's arms. So, Clayt just got out of his seat, picked the guy up by the collar of his coat, tossed him out the door, and sat back down. The men sitting around us just kept staring at Clayt with not-so-friendly looks on their faces. We were surprised that with so many men on the bus none of them would try to stop someone from hitting a woman. And even if not for moral reasons, didn't anyone care that this guy got to ride for free while they all had to pay?

After that dinner we went to see some live music at a nightclub and saw 2 fights within the few hours we were there. Surprisingly, after being removed, everyone involved in the fight was allowed to reenter. In fact, one of the girls that was in one of the fights came in the bathroom after I did - I was waiting for a stall to open and when one did she just stepped in front of me and went in. She looked right at me and said, "Sorry!"

On a lighter note, I taught at my volunteer job 5 nights last week. On the last evening, I was trying to teach the young ones fruits and veggie vocab out of my picture dictionary. It didn't go so well, since they basically didn't know what most of the items were, and have no word for them in Mongolian. Avocado? never seen. Broccoli? What's that? Blueberries? Don't know! raspberries? asparagus? eggplant? They were all mysteries to them. I know a shop where you can get some of these things, so I think we might need to have a food party one of these days and let them check some of this stuff out!

alright, enough complaining for now......(the weather is now below zero at night)......