Smiles from the kids at Lotus, UB

Saturday, August 14, 2010
(This journal was typed on the day the events took place.)

Today has been a long day, even though we got to sleep in until 8:30. The ger was quite comfortable and I slept well although it did cool off by morning and the guy came in at 7am to start another fire. Breakfast turned into another large meal. There were just a couple pieces of rye bread with nutella and jam on the table so I figured that was breakfast. Then they brought in some type of local dish, not very good, followed by corn soup and then fried egg on bread. I'm shocked at the quantity of food at the ger camp. Half the group was exhausted and slightly hungover from a late night with some Mongolians. Fi was miserable and Kristy had been sick all night with some type of food poisoning.

After breakfast, we all (except Fi and Kristy) had a go at archery. My attempts were pretty weak, although the last arrow did get somewhat close to the target. We left the ger camp at 11am, behind schedule, but still stopped along the way to sample fermented hare's milk (a Mongolian specialty with a somewhat sour and tart flavor, not for me) and to pose with an eagle on our arms (I passed on this). By the time we got to UB, we just had a moment to pick up the laundry and put our stuff in the rooms before going to lunch at the vegetarian Ananda cafe. Ananda cafe is associated with the Lotus center, an orphanage for homeless or poor children. We were served dumplings, a flat type of dumpling and a couple salads. All the food was excellent. Before we ate, Sony told us about Lotus center. He grew up there from six to 18 and is now living in a ger with his older brother. There are about 110 kids currently at the center. Some of them know their parents but their parents don't have the means to take care of them. I guess its better if they grow up in a loving environment and are well nurtured rather than live with parents who might abuse them.
From there we went to the Lotus summer camp for the younger kids. The camp is about 45 minutes from Ulaan Baatar and the children spend the summer holidays playing a relaxing there. Ten gers scattered an area closed in by a wood fence. We got to poke our heads into three of them and meet the children. Some were only three and four, but there was another group of children who were six and seven. In the second ger, a few of the kids sang for us. The first was absolutely adorable. She starting belting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the top of her lungs in English (she got most of the words right) before switching to Mongolian. Precious. Several of the other small ones sang Mongolian tunes. It was such a treat. We got to meet the founder of Lotus Didi but she only briefly stopped by.
All the kids started running around outside so a bunch of us joined in playing football and with lots of hand games. After 30 minutes we had to say goodbye, but at least the children all had big smiles on their faces, especially since a few in our group had brought gifts from Australia (pens, key chains, books, etc). It was a touching afternoon. We had 1.5 hours until dinner, which is when I started writing this. Will have to talk more about dinner when I get back.
The dinner place Anna recommended was closed, so we ended up at BBQ Chicken, a slightly upper scale KFC. At least they had wireless internet. Stuart went back to the hotel to pick up his laptop, I managed on my iPod. It took forever to get drinks. I sampled a Mongolian beer, Altas something. Steph and I shared chicken fingers and Kimchi rice. It was actually quite tasty, especially with the honey mustard sauce, and the rice had a nice Kimchi flavor. Everyone seemed satisfied with their chicken feast and we headed out around 9:40pm.