Walking the Wall

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephews have been moving this week–Mongolian style. They’ve moved out of their apartment and into a 6 sided ger (the one to the right of their van). Their property doesn’t look like much at the time–just a great deal of sand and more sand. But the view behind them looks gorgeous. We talked over the webcam two days ago and he was able to pan the webcam around the ger so I could get a good look at it–which was very cool. Elliot wasn’t interested in talking and ran out the door while William giggled in him mom’s arms. I was able to “meet” my sister-in-law’s father who probably thought my attempt at the Mongolian hello “sain baina uu” sounded ridiculous but he just politely grinned. It’s the power of the internet! I was surprised at how big the ger was, all around the edges were water barrels, refrigerator, computer station, “closet” furniture, and etc.

The plan is to first make a walled fence around the property and then build a house out of sandbags! Sand they have plenty of–trees, not so much. I’m not entirely clear about how it will work out, but it should be intereresting to watch the progress. I remember my older nephew wearing this gorgeous traditional Mongolian outfit and now William fits into it, love the lovely blue sky in the background as well. It looked to me like the hardest job was getting the electricity from the power area out to the ger, which was a very long, winding path that they needed to dig a channel in the ground to lay it in and then Craig needed to wire it all up. Still, this shot of him wiring it shows how beautiful the inner parts of the gers are!

Anyway, no particular reason for the post, I was just interested in the photos my brother put up and thought I’d share a couple. I saw a video of Craig and his in-laws all building a ger piece by piece and it was really facinating to watch. It only has a smallish door, so all the furniture is layed out before you start putting the whole thing together. This link (wikipedia) shows photos of the process.

I really am thankful that despite them all being a world away, we can stay connected through photos, videos, internet phones, and web cams!