Today is Sunday. It seems Sunday is a rest day everywhere. After morning devotions and prayer my mission was to find a coffee shop with wifi that was open. After walking down a very quiet and tranquil main st, I saw an open sign at the Amsterdam cafe. I had a large coffee with sugar and milk – no yak cream though – and toast with jelly. It was wonderful. And I had a long FaceTime with Nancy; I miss her and it was very nice to finally talk. And as a bonus I got a 3rd period update on the bruins game. Mongolians do not play ice hockey, which does not make sense because they have ice 9 months a year. Eric should come here and talk some sense into them, but they need to follow the bruins and not the maple leafs.
We went to a service at a church called the river of love, led by a very nice pastor named tsoloman, and his wife Lkhagva, who works at vet net. Although the entire service was in Mongolian, we had an interpreter help us with the sermon, which was on humility. It was really moving and encouraging to go to a worship service in a different part of the world and still be completely connected to Christian brothers and sisters as we worship the One True God. We have many differences, but at the heart level, we are all the same. We are all His children, and it was an honor to be with Him and them in Mongolia.
After service we went out to lunch with Tsoloman and Lkhagva and their daughter to a restaurant called Buffalo’s. It did not serve wings or pizza. It was a great combination of Korean/Mongolian/Chinese food, and we ate a lot of meat (surprise): chicken, lamb, salads, and bowls of soup the size of small crock pots. It was very good. I am still full 5 hours later. They did not have the one thing i was looking for; the one meat everyone says is the best, better even than the best beef. No I do not mean Yak. I mean horse. Yes that is right, I want to try horse. Now all you PETA people can just calm down, and you 4leaf people can suck on a celery stick, but I want to try horse. And when I do I will send you a picture. I hope I can find horse. If not I will have yak. I like yak.
They have a traditional Mongolian game called tsewelmaa (I did not make that up, not that you would know anyway) and it is played with sheep knuckles. It is like marbles, but you use sheep ankle bones instead. It is the talus bone from the hock, but they don’t care the name of the bone, they just like to play it. I played it once and beat Jonathan, so now I am hooked. I bought some of the ankle bones, so if you want to I will play you when I get home. And I will beat you. Badly. But I must not be to proud, so when I beat you badly, I will not rub it in. Because I learned about humility, and even though I am better than your sorry yak, I will not gloat. Not one little bit. Nay.
Until tomorrow. God Bless
Dr Mike