After visiting the monastery, we hiked our way back down to our driver & started driving to another favorite monastery in Mongolia. As we drove we came across a car that was stuck on the side of the road. Our driver stopped & we all got out to help them. (Mongolians are the most generous, loving people & will help ANYONE who needs help.). We spent 20 minutes having 6 of us pushing this car up a hill trying to get it up without it sliding back down on the solid ice, but we got it after about 5 tries. The family we helped were so grateful & they absolutely LOVED Cadence. They couldn’t believe it when she started speaking Mongolian to them. It’s extremely rare for an American to know how to speak the language, so everyone is drawn to her. They exchanged facebook names with each other & we were on our way again.
As we drove to the next monastery, we came into a little town of gers (tents) & there was a large hay truck stuck in some power lines going into the town. The entire power grid was down thanks to this hay truck that “thought” he’d fit underneath their power lines (which are not very tall in Mongolia.). The hay truck was blocking the road, so everybody was literally driving off the road into a huge ditch & back up onto the road after they passed the truck. It was slightly terrifying, but we made it. The monastery was in that town so the power was out & we couldn’t see much of the monastery. We still explored a little bit inside in the dark & then around the outside. It was a beautiful yellow monastery & it had a gradeschool inside it so we got to see a lot of children while we were there. The Mongolian monks lived in this one so we got to see a lot of them as well. (They remind me of the airbenders from Avatar. They definitely took inspiration from Mongolian monks for Avatar. . . same look, same colors, everything.).
After exploring that monastery, our driver took us back to our apartment in the city & we slept for an hour (jetlag is still a thing, & we were exhausted from hiking that mountain). After our nap, we walked to Cadence’s last mission area Jargalant so she could show us her apartment & some of her favorite areas of that part of the mission. Her apartment was in a scarier part of town. It was pretty rundown & dirty, but she loved it there. She took us to see her market where she bought groceries every week (it’s TINY. . . like a moving container tiny), & then she took us to her favorite restaurant in the area for late lunch/early dinner.
The “restaurants” in Mongolia are little boxes that remind me of shipping/moving pods in the states. They are small rectangles & fit maybe 4-5 people inside. They line the streets & you just pop in for some homemade food. They are not the cleanest places you’ve ever eaten. My OCD kicked into overtime in there. The silverware sits on the table & you take what you need, eat with it, then put it back for someone else to use. Cadence had eaten at this little restaurant probably 5-6 times during her time in this area & she loved the husband & wife that owned it. She said their food was the best food in Mongolia so I was excited to try it. We ordered Hurag & Huushuur (a fried rice type dish with eggs, sheep fat & meat, & some veggies. . . . & pancakes made with sheep fat/meat inside). I loved both of them. Fat is definitely not my favorite thing in the world to eat, but I can get it down alright. I could see why Cadence loved this place. They seasoned their food very well. Mongolians don’t usually season their food so having seasoning definitely was a plus. They also offered us hot water with honey which is an extremely expensive delicacy in Mongolia. They LOVED Cadence & wanted her to have the best they had to offer. They were the cutest little couple. Half the “restaurant (pod)” had a table for 4 & the other half, the couple prepared the food. There was NO SINK & NO FRIDGE in this place (no washing food or hands or keeping meat cold. . . which is definitely something we aren’t used to in America), one stove, & a small counter for food prep & payment. Trek & I ate slowly & made sure to chew our food really really well just in case it came back up later that night. We knew Cadence’s stomach was used to all the unwashed things/unrefrigerated meats, but we weren’t so sure about our own stomachs. We asked the couple for a picture with Cadence before we left so she could remember them forever & they were SO sad that she was leaving. They refused to let us take a picture & instead made us promise that we would go visit them & their children the next day. We agreed on a time to meet the father the next day so we could go visit them.
As we left the restaurant, we ran into the sister missionaries (Cadence’s last companion). They were all SO excited to run into each other & talked excitedly with lots of hugs & smiles. After that, we hopped on a Mongolian bus (CRAZY FULL) & rode several stops to the State Department Store. I absolutely LOVED all the stares we got. Americans in Mongolia are super rare so they just sit & stare at us, usually pointing & talking about us. It was hilarious because they’d start talking about us & Cadence would pipe in in Mongolian & tell them why we were there. Then they’d totally smile & throw their hands up in the air & start talking to her in Mongolian. They LOVE that she speaks their language. The State Department Store is the largest store in Mongolia. It’s several stories tall & each level has different stores/departments in it. The top level has souvenirs so we shopped up there for some things for the family. We bought some Mongolian paintings to hang up in our house, & some other things for the kids. It was fun. We hopped back on the bus & rode to the emart by our apartment. Cadence showed us all the fun things you can get there (it’s similar to a Walmart, but IKEA style where you have to follow the full path through the store before you can check out). We bought some water, more yogurt, all the different flavors of Fanta that they had, & then stopped for some ice cream on our way out. We walked back to our apartment & went to bed. We slept like babies that night. We were exhausted. . . & the best part? None of us got sick.
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