It's been a while since I've been able to post anything here. Part of the reason is that working for Samsung, people tend to disappear off the face of the planet for years at a time. But that is especially true if you work in a country that has no dependable electricity and internet. Roughly once a week, rarely with any advance notice, the lights in the office just suddenly go out. No internet, no printing, you can't even make phone calls because the office phones all require power to work. It is a bit inconvenient, to say the least.For roughly one month, I stayed at a hotel, unable to unpack because I never knew when I would have to leave. When I eventually did get to move out, it was to a brand new apartment with a large bedroom and sufficient living room/kitchen. I have no roommates, which allows some needed freedom. However, I also have no cable, no internet, no heating, no hot water. That's right, in a country that has already seen its first snowfall, I have no hot water or heating. Turns out that the apartment is so new that they still haven't installed hot water.
You see, Mongolians have a very special pace. Its not your pace, and its not my pace. And if we try to force it into our pace, we will only succeed in gaining a lot of stress. You just have to accept it.Despite all of the inconveniences that one can encounter in Mongolia, there are some unique qualities that can barely be put into words as well. It is a total liberation from restrictions. I visited a national park and stayed in a ger for a night (Americans call it a yurt). There is nothing around you. Just you, the neighborhood cows, the rushing of the water overflowing the banks of the nearby stream, and a long valley between two mountains. There are no roads, no routes, and no schedules to follow. Those books I used to read as a child come to mind. the ones that talked about the prairie life of pioneers when America was barely a speck on the world map. Or maybe even before that, with the Indians and their teepees and wigwams.
It's an odd feeling, this feeling of total liberty.
In the city, this feeling can still be found, but in different manifestations. The random tire along the side of the road, the unkempt city hot water pipe, installed 20 feet in the air because it was faster at the time to do that than to put it in the ground, the random willy nilly roads that apparently were carved around pre-existing housing, housing with utterly no concept of urban planning or forethought. It is indeed a strange country. A strange country, but filled (not literally) with kind, warm hearted, and open minded people.
