I think we sang songs like this together for about an hour. The tradition is that when the bowl of airag (fermented horse milk) is passed to you that you pick the song and everyone sings together. The bowl goes around the circle three times. :)  Kim and I ended up singing shakey duets of two hymns, The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”, and John Lennon’s “Stand By Me”.

I tried not to be too invasive with the camera but as I pan around you can see how the elder hosts at the house sit on one end of the room (right side of the camera); the tower of bread, dried horse milk, and candy (the height is determined by the age of the host); the buuz (goat meat dumplings, on the table); and the traditional backside of the goat.

Thousands of miles from any coastline, we taught the girls the patented Miskov shaka.

This is the 4th video in my wife’s series of videos on her students. Javzaa is definitely one of our favorites. We teach her English every Friday and Kim has had her in both of her photography classes. She is also part of the really great crew that comes over for dinner and movie nights once a month. Javzaa is ridiculously smart (she speaks Mongolian, English, and Turkish), endearingly sweet, and endlessly kind. As you watch this video though, pay attention to what she says about parents, teachers, and why she wants to be a teacher.

My beautiful wife made another video with one of her students, Zayaa, that I think is fantastic.  I hope it helps give you more of a sense of what it’s like out here.

This is a long interview between Mark Driscoll and John Piper.  I haven’t been able to watch all of it yet because our internet is pretty slow out here but what I’ve seen I’ve enjoyed.  In it John Piper talks about his childhood, parents, and marriage, among other things.  My favorite thing so far is his story about how he presented a three-page, thirteen-point paper to his wife when they were considering adopting their daughter.

The M*ngolians celebrated their first Olympic gold medals this year.  See how they celebrated.  Also, you can see Kim do her best shepherding and see a couple explosions from one of the world’s biggest copper mines.  Quite a diverse video, no?