Mongol Ponies, Girls at Boy Scout Camp, Horse Milk, and more

Oh my gosh, this was the best set of scout camp pictures ever! Jeff and Ellis joined other expat boyscouts (truly Boy Scouts of America troops) and dads and moms from around Asia for an nine day Mongolia adventure.  

The mongol ponies are small, fast, and due to the crazy wooden saddles, leave their mark on the man for weeks! Jeff and Ellis didn't fare well after a few days in the saddle.  I love this picture of Ellis, who is not a large boy, yet looks 6'5" in this picture! 

I've added the Mongol Derby 600 mile race link (the video is short and gives views of the amazing landscape of Mongolia) that's called the toughest horse race in the world. The riders get to use their own saddles, it seems, which Ellis noted straight away.

 http://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-derby/

Local co-ed scouts joined the boys for the week, which probably added a little motivation in the daily tasks, but not enough to get Ellis to a shower. Two times! He said he only showered two times in eight days. He came home and said three, but the third one was when they got to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, on the ninth day, just before flying home. I'm not sure why Jeff was even there.

So, these tent-like structures are not called Yurts in Mongolia. Gers are the Mongolian term for these structures. The boys didn't sleep in them, but they did get to construct it, and visit families living in them.

This little girl captured Jeff's attention. I love that face!

The boys said their food at camp was the best camp food ever! They ate traditional Mongolian meals all week, and then had a few extra fun snacks like horse milk and other things they opted to eat without knowing the origin - it's just better that way sometimes.

And, my favorite pictures - the wrestlers! These local guys did a little smack down for the boys. Sumo wrestling with more variety in the attire.

Ellis said this camel just showed up one day, so they tied him up to the tree. I'm guessing this was for safe-keeping until his owner arrived.

still strugging with teeth

Thankfully, this was not in the clubhouse, because, as you know, we are banned from pulling teeth in the clubhouse. Of course, technically, Ellis didn't "pull" half of his tooth off. The pull-up bar broke half the tooth while Ellis was attempting to work out in preparation for rugby tryouts. 

I know this is preparation for rugby season in more ways than one. 

Leaving his mark on the pull-up bar.

Do I have no real depth?

While I find it fun to post these absolutely silly things, I really mourn the fact that I seem to have no talent for posts that are philosophically unsettling, or, at the very least, spiritually moving.  

No, it seems I have a subconsious need to keep all of those things hidden deep in my brain.

As for today's topic of enlightenment - Forrest apologizes for the poor quality, but he was in the men's washroom and felt his photography needed to be somewhat stealthy just in case the other men felt he was being somewhat sleazy. 

Ironically, the girls and I were in a washroom today that had absolutley no sign, yet not one of the toilets flushed (HK is not a third world country - we were in a fabulously nice building with nice western toilets).  Strangely enough, Taylor knew exactly what to do.  Near the sinks was a large blue garbage bin full of water with a large, matching blue scooper floating in the water. She walked right out of her stall, scooped the water, and poured it into the toilet. She had to do the same for Claire because Claire was having nothing to do with this kind of manual labor. I shutter to think what Ellis would have done in a washroom with no flushing toilets - he notices nothing that resembles sanitary measures, yet can tell the difference between a Scarlet tananger and a Summer tanager (song birds) with a mere glance.

You can't make this stuff up

Heavens, she looks so innocent, but is nothing but.

There he is standing at my door.  One of the many guards who roam the premises, doing . . .

It's Sunday afternoon and I know the girls are indoors, surely no killer bees indoors. 

Anyway, I smile and say, "Hi."  Immediately, "One of your daughters finds you." 

"Excuse me," I said in the kindest, most understanding, and not I'm-making-fun-of-your-English-in-my-head voice that I could muster. 

I knew the girls were playing in the clubhouse, so I was sure someone was causing some disturbance.

"Your daughter finds you in the club house," he said. 

"Oh, my daughters asked you to come and get me?"  I know, I should have just followed him instead of correcting him, but I feel it's a duty if he's trying his English out on me. I shouldn't make fun, but I do.  Although, there's no way I could say in Cantonese, his daugther finds him. He's definitely flying high above me. 

I walk to the clubhouse and find Claire sitting in front of the desk with a bloody tissue in her hand and two adults with walkie talkies standing over her. I wish they would tell me where the Costco is - Lord at the number of walkie talkies in this place. I digress.

I knew instantly she had pulled her tooth because she had been working on that tooth all morning. On the way to church I told her to stop because the taxi driver would make us exit the vehicle if she succeeded without a tissue (I had none, nor did she). 

She was completely together. . . no tears.  The guard holds up the tooth in another tissue and tells me she came out of the bathroom with this tooth. He was not happy. 

"Does she need a doctor?" I'm beginning to wonder if there is one of the premises. Next time, I'm saying, yes.

"Um, no, it's a baby tooth."  A molar, but nonetheless, a baby molar.

"Oh, she did this by herself?" He is shocked.

"Can you please tell her not to pull her teeth in the clubhouse anymore?"  

"Yes." I'm pretty sure I can get her to comply.

She was thrilled with herself because this is the third tooth she has pulled without the help of a sibling or parent (long ago she lost faith in all of us because we always told her we just wanted to feel the tooth just before the final jerk. Not a lot of trust happening around here).

All in a day's work.

Jelly Side Up

I recently heard this idiom used to describe someone's life. It's an idiom that apparently derives from the unlikely probability that a half slice of bread with PB&J dropped will land "jelly side up."

Jelly side up indicates that everything turns out in favor of this person when the circumstances say it shouldn't - therefore, Jelly Side Up.

He's running late, and has no possible way of making a flight; but, he gets to the airport and the flight has been delayed, so he makes the flight.

As soon as I heard this, I statred using the same idiom to describe Jeff becasuse, honestly, it seems everything turns out in his favor.

Now, I think it's genetic.

Forrest finished his required hours for his driver's license with just one day to spare before leaving the States for another year. Yep, we were sixteenth in line at the DL office, we had many things going against us that I will not put in writing to keep the wonderful man who helped us in his rightful position, but he got that license with only one hour to spare. 

Jelly Side Up.

Forrest is off to Young Life Camp. Jeff is home working in HK.  We have a few more days in the mountains and then the rest of us head back to HK. 

We checked into the Charlotte airport heading back home to HK. The agent gave us the passports, we plopped our luggage on the scale, and found Tay's passport was gone. GONE. For once, we were really early to the airport, so we looked for one solid hour, we checked lost and found, we asked the AA agent at least five times to check around his area, and we finally had to board our flight to Chicago. 

We prayed. We sent a few texts to our praying friends. We boarded the plane to Chicago with no passport to get us back to HK. Then, we rested. I actually slept on the plane from Charlotte to Chicago. No one was upset, really. No one was in a panic. We had no idea what we were going to do once we tried to get on the next plane out of the country without a passport. 

We were sitting in front of the plane. The plane got to the gate, we stood up to get our few bags, and someone said my name. I looked up and a girl with a note said the passport was coming in from Charlotte on the next AA flight to Chicago. Wow.  We had a 2.5 hour layerover in Chicago. We arrived at gate H9, and the passport would arrive at the next gate, H10, in one hour.  We had time to grab lunch, take our melatonin in preparation for the 16 hour flight, wait for the passport to walk off the plane, get ourselves over to the international terminal, go through security (where that passport would be absolutely necessary), and get home to HK 16 hours later.

We have no idea where the passport was found. Nothing. Someone must have turned it in, and AA quickly gave it to a flight attendant on the next flight to Chicago. But, we really don't know.

Jelly Side Up

For our "Jelly Side UP" man, Jeff, I really believe it has more to do with his attitude toward life than any crazy probability.  Jeff is the eternal optimist.  He truly tries to see the good in everyone. He knows he is here on this earth for a purpose. He knows he is flawed, he knows he is loved, and he knows he wants to make a positive difference in this broken world.  He also knows everyone has a story that is often heartbreaking, so he is the most forgiving and loving person I know. Yes, it's Jelly Side Up, but I believe that's because he chooses to pick up the PB&J, once fallen, and turn it Jelly Side Up. And, he's teaching us to do the same.