Archive for April, 2007
Last week one of the students at our church said to me “Bernie, I want to eat Pizza!”. So Renee’ (who hands down makes the best pizza in Ulaanbaatar) graciously obliged and we had a housefull of UB College students. After snarfing down Pizza and cokes (and a fantastically tasty fruit pizza), we broke out Jonathan’s play station and introduced them to DDR. It was a hit! We had a great night laughing, DDRing, and enjoying good American Pizza.
April 28th, 2007
Okay so it’s really Saturday here. But it will still be Friday for our US readers. It’s good that we’re 13 hours ahead of you guys, it gives us extra time to pay bills, file taxes and post a weekly photo blog on Friday. This is a new feature that begins this week. Every Friday (-ish) we are going to share a photo that more or less captures the flavor of the week here in the “Land of Blue Sky”. You will be able to access all Friday Photos by clicking on the catagory found to your immediate right. You may access all of our Photos by clicking here.
I am going to introduce this feature by saying that this has been a week of sleepovers! As I type this entry (again it’s Saturday morning here) there are 5 (I think 5) girls asleep in the living room. The photo below was actually taken last weekend. Jonthan had 5 (maybe 6?) buds over for the night. The difference between the two ’sleepovers’ is that the girls eventually slept. The boys didn’t. I think it was a combination of the PlayStation games (that’s what they’re doing here) mixed with a lot of Coke and brownies. The girls had Coke and brownies (albeit not NEAR as much!), but they watched “The Bridge to Teribethia” instead of instead of scoring soccer goals, shooting things and generally blowing stuff up (on the PlayStation, mind you). In any case, here’s the photo - and welcome to the latest feature of Remembermongolia.org.
April 21st, 2007
1. English is not the standard from which all other languages are derived. In other words, the rest of the world didn’t just translate the English language into their own language.
2. This means that not everything has a literal translation. Just because we say “Good-byeâ€? doesn’t mean that Mongolians are saying “Good-byeâ€? in Mongolian when they depart from one another (They are literally saying “With Party” or “With Happy”).
3. Therefore, just because I want to translate everything literally, word for word, doesn’t mean I can.
4. This also means that just because I can translate every word in a sentence from Mongolian to English or vice verse, doesn’t mean they are the same thing and that the result will make sense.
5. This language they are speaking is really how they communicate. They didn’t just learn a new language before I did and are now speaking it better. They aren’t English speakers at heart.
Well, these revelations haven’t really made me feel any better about anything. I haven’t necessarily progressed in my Mongolian because of them. But hey, call me enlightened, for what it is worth.
April 17th, 2007
(Editor’s note: This article by Renee’ can be found in the latest edition of the “Anderson Family Newsletter”. You may download April 2007, as well as all previous editions here. If you would like to receive an e-copy and be added to our mail list, be sure to go to the contact page and we will add you right away!)
In the drudgery of language study, last week I found a high point. In the absence of Baldo, Bernie and I have been working together with Undra. Undra is our new house helper and my language helper. We have started studying a supplemental language book called “The Sunday Book.� This book is designed to help us learn common church vocabulary, including the books of the Bible and simple praise songs.
This past week we were learning the words for “chapter� and “verse.� As we recently learned in class how to ask “What is your favorite…?� we began to ask Undra these questions. She brought out her very well used Bible (especially for a three year old Christian). Bernie told her his favorite verse. She turned quickly to Isaiah 43:1-4 and it was already highlighted in her Bible and is also one of her favorites. When she turned to my favorite, Philippians 3:10 it was highlighted as well. She and Bernie share the favorite chapters of Romans 6-8. It is their favorite book as well. Her second favorite book is Hebrews, which is also my favorite.
I was able to tell her that Hebrews 11:9-10 was the verses God spoke to me as I prepared to leave Tennessee for Mongolia. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Undra immediately lit up and was able to tell us that God gave her the same verse when she moved from her home town of Darhan to Ulaanbataar.
Times like this are very much streams in the desert for us. Our family had already grown to love Undra. She is so sweet. She cleans house just like I do (not always a good thing). Our eye for beauty is much the same. Yesterday we made a fruit pizza together. I had her arrange the fruit and “make it pretty� and it looked exactly like I wanted it. But on a deeper level, we are truly appreciating her genuine love for God as she manifests it through her love for His Word and commitment to His Work.
We were pleased to know she feels like part of the family. She especially loves Cori and likes to take her shopping and wants to take her to the movies. She told Bernie that Cori was our young daughter and she is our old daughter. While we are definitely not old enough to have a 23 year old daughter, we are more than thrilled to have her adopted into the Anderson household.
April 16th, 2007
Here is the video that we produced for our language practicum. We visited two different orphanages and the “Save the Children” offices. The first is a Catholic Orphanage for Children 4-22 years old. The second is an Orphanage run by a coalition of Churches and is specifically for young children (0-4). These kids have either come from an abusive background, were abandonded at birth, or have had one or both of their parents pass away. It was really quite interesting to interview the Orphanage staff in both places (in the limited way that we could).
The video is nothing fancy. Just a montage of photos put to some Mongolian Music. The song at the beginning is kids from the first Orphange. True to Mongolian culture, they were quick to share a song with us! Click on the picture below and enjoy!
April 7th, 2007
