School Square Dance/BINGO

The Adams' serving in the Baltic Mission do a great blog and shared the idea of teaching square dancing.  They taught the Young Adults at a conference and we decided we could teach our English class!  So we gave it a try.  Remember, we teach handicapped students and they did so well!  We were very proud of them!

This dance is the "Heel and Toe Polka" and, even though they didn't always want to dance with the next person in the circle, they always found a partner and danced away!

 These two did a pretty good job considering the boy, Augi, doesn't have a very long attention span. But he sure loves to be involved in whatever we are doing.  He is our "green" boy and the one who loves Alan so much!  His partner, Sala, is now going to a regular school.  We miss her, but she is doing very well there and we are happy for her!

 You will notice they are not all at the same place in the dance.  Hylan  (in the pink) is deaf and can't hear the music!  The others don't have any excuse except they are just doing their own thing....and lovin' it!

                                                                 Swing your partner!!!  Hylan and Dawa!

 We invited some of the Young Women from the branch to come one day to help us teach the "Right and Left Grand.!  We had tried it several times before and, while some of the kids sort of got it, we really couldn't get it to work like it should because all of them didn't get it!

 So these three YW came to help.  We did the "Heel and Toe Polka" first and the kids loved having helpers.

 We never did get the right-and-left-grand thing to work!  Even when half of us knew what we were doing, we just couldn't shepherd the other half to be in the right place at the right time!

 The kids at the school love Puje!  She is so good to them and loves them in return!  She is amazing and wonderful....and I can't even begin to write all the good words about her and how much we appreciate her! Her partner is Bolgormaa who is really getting into this dance!

 One of our new members, Erdene, is on the right.  She and her friend, Otgondulam, introduced the church to two of their friends who were baptized last week.  They are great little missionaries!

 The one on the right here is Namyyn, who was just baptized.  She is a wonderful girl and is always very willing to help--whether it be with this class, clean the church, whatever!

 Otgondulam is in the pink.  She is a new member and one of our great little missionaries.  These girls are so amazing to watch change as they take the gospel into their lives and live its principles!

 We really had a great time doing these dances and the kids were supposed to be learning how important it is to know their numbers and to do the dance steps by counting in English.  There was an English teaching motive behind the madness of teaching dance in an English class!  They were also supposed to learn right and left, but the-right-and-left grand wasn't too successful in teaching that concept.

One day we got permission from the school administration to teach the other class and the teachers the dances we are learning.  Unfortunately, the younger class didn't do too well--they had a good time but didn't really get the idea of the step sequence.  The teachers did fine though!  It was fun.

We also taught numbers up to 12 in English.  They know them pretty well because of their cell phones, but we created a Number Book with a page for each number which they traced and then practiced writing.  They really enjoyed doing the book.  One girl reported that she took it home and is now teaching her little brother his numbers in English!

Anyway, I created a BINGO game using only 3 squares across and numbers only to 12.  They did pretty well, but I think most of it was number recognition and some, but not all, can actually say the English numbers?  This boy, Bilgee, just got a BINGO and was pretty excited.  He's one of our more advanced students and can count backwards from 12.  He was moved to a more advanced school as well, but his vision is so poor he couldn't see the blackboard and so returned to us.  We were so glad!

 They were pretty intent on watching their cards.  And the game was so easy that I had to modify it and take the FREE space out of the middle.  Some of them were getting BINGO in just two numbers, so we had to make it a bit more challenging.  Purvee, Hylan and Ulyzi.

 Augie loves to have his picture taken.  He required quite a bit of help with his card.  Bilgee has difficulty with his hands and couldn't pick up the small pieces to cover the numbers.  So we improvised and used bottle caps.  It worked great and he loved being able to cover the numbers by himself!

               Another BINGO!  This time it was Dawa!  She's a great helper and is really quite capable.

In case you can't tell, we love our English teaching opportunity at the handicapped school.  These kids are so amazing and so anxious to learn and get so excited about the least improvement in themselves or in their classmates.  We probably have learned more from them than they have from us.

We have also been learning numbers from 1-12.  The Skip Bo cards came in really handy.  Each student could have their own set to put in order.  Bilgee can even count them backwards.

One of our 16-year-old students, Shuree, is blind and was recently asked by the school administrator to help another 10-year-old blind girl learn how to read and write in Braille.  She accepted and now comes to school an hour before her English class to teach Braille.  We looked in the classroom the first day and this is what we saw: 

It was a pretty tender scene with her arm around her and guiding her fingers along the raised bumps on the paper which she was also reading with her fingers.  These kids are truly amazing--not only their abilities but their compassion and encouragement for each other!

Happy 60th Birthday!

For my birthday, Alan took Puje and I out to lunch at this little place across the street from our apartment.  We had not eaten there before, but thought it would be fun to give it a try.  This is called goulash, but is not what I thought goulash was.  There are two scoops of rice on each side of CHICKEN!  Yes, actually we had chicken.  I probably wouldn't have it again because it wasn't all that great, but it was CHICKEN.  Then there was a pasta salad, a few pieces of cold potato, a spoonful of carrot salad and a little larger spoon full of cabbage salad.  And then there was actually some fresh cucumber and a slice of tomato.  The side dish is steamed bread called Monto (I think) and it is pretty good! Alan commented that the price of the meal was less than a hamburger, shake and fries at McDonald's!

 The cups contained hot water!  That is one of the main beverages here, even in the summer when it is hot.  I don't know if it's just tradition or if it is to make sure the water is good to drink.  I'm amazed at how much I enjoy drinking hot water now!  Especially on cold nights!

Then we went home and about 5 Puje called and said the President wanted to talk to us at the church around 6.  This was not unusual, because he asks us to come visit with him on a pretty regular basis.  So we went over to the church about 6 and this is what I saw:

With Puje's help, the branch president had planned a surprise birthday party for me and for Tuvshinbat, his son, whose birthday was the same day!  I was pretty surprised.  There were quite a few branch members there and I was very appreciative that they would consider doing such a thing!

Odontuya was the artist and designer of the white board announcing our birthday and our ages!  I'm 3 times as old as Tuvshinbat!  We kidded each other a little bit about that!  But 60 doesn't feel nearly as old as I thought it would!

 Several of the branch members gave me birthday gifts.  This one is from Bayanjargal and President Batmonkh and is a replica of a ger!  I love it!  I have seen those in stores but had not bought one.  She had made this one and it has a cute little door with a stove pipe coming out the top.  When the door is open, a stove, bed and other furniture can be seen.  It is really a great symbol of Mongolian lifestyle!

 This is Oyanpurev, the Primary President.  She gave me a calendar with a Mongolian ger that slides along the leather piece which is marked with the days of the month!  The face of Chinggis Khaan is pressed into the leather and there is an ankle bone that holds it all together.  Such a neat gift and also very Mongolian!

This is Ornchimeg, one of the first members in the branch we met when we first got here. She is a fiesty little lady and teaches the temple prep class. She crocheted a little basket with crocheted flowers in it!  She gave me a plant on that first visit and I can happily report I haven't killed it yet!

 This is Tuvshinbat.  We really enjoyed the birthday cake. He does look about 40 years younger than me!

It was sort of a pot-luck affair and different people brought different food items.  This picture shows the heram (sp) in the bowls.  Heram is hot water mixed with varying amounts of hot milk.  It is really very good! This is what Mormons drink here instead of tea or coffee.  The bowl is used as a glass and we drink right out of the bowl! I am drinking out of a mug that was gifted to us.  It is very symbolic.  Anything that opens toward the sky is considered a good luck omen.  It was also gold colored which is a wish for all good things.

 These are a couple of my favorite people!  Bayanjargal (Branch President's wife) and Oyandalai (2nd Counselor's wife).  They are both so kind to us and greet me with a hug (for Alan, it's just a handshake!)

While eating, the members put on a talent show of sorts and most either sang a traditional Mongolian song or recited poetry.  Mongolians love to sing and, though the songs sound sort of mournful, they really are mostly about home, family and mothers and are really rather joyful songs.

Then Puje had the idea to teach them the round dance we taught the YM/YW and the YSAs and will be teaching at the Halloween Party.  So we started to teach them, and one of the Elders got the speaker system out of the Branch President's office and started playing Mongolian music.  So, they decided we needed to learn a Mongolian dance.  Here I am being instructed by Oyanpurev.  She was a pretty good teacher.  One other sister really helped me learn it too.  She was a very good dance leader.  Not sure I have it totally down, but I'm sure I'll learn it better at the Halloween Party.

Then the Elder put on some more modern music and I was surprised at how well some of the members could "shake their booty!"  It got pretty crazy there for awhile!  But everyone had a great time and it was fun to spend this day with my wonder friends and fellow church members!  

I did talk to each of the kids for my birthday, and they are all doing fine.  Alison said something about looking forward to celebrating my 62 birthday together!  I have one more to go while in Mongolia.  But, if I can't be with my family and other loved ones, I'm sure glad I could spend this birthday here in this special place with these wonder people who we have grown to love!

Miscellaneous School Activities

This game was such a favorite of the grandkids to play at Grandma Waddoups' that I decided to try it for school.  We have been learning the English names of articles of clothing, so I thought this would help the kids learn 'scarf' and 'mittens'.  That didn't work really well, but they had a good time playing the game AND eating the chocolate bar afterwards.  It did bring back some really fond memories of the grandkids sitting around Mom's kitchen table and all of them, including her, playing the game.  It was a family favorite!

 We gave up on using the scarf and just settled for using the mittens.  The game was also to have helped them learn their numbers up to six by using the dice.  Again, not sure how successful it was, but they had a good time!

This is Khulan and she is deaf.  But she is a pretty good artist and brought her portfolio to school to show us.

We had a good time using the ring toss to count the number of times a person threw and how many rings they got the ring around the bottle.

 

They thought his was a pretty fun game, but it sort of got out of hand and the kids are pretty competitive.  But they are also very kind to each other and cheer each other on when someone actually got a ringger!

We learned all the numbers up to 12 and then used the Skip-Bo cards to practice. Most of them could put them in order, but the English words were a little difficult.  This young man, Bilgee, did a great job, could say the names of the numbers and could even count backwards!

 I'm not sure they are learning the concepts behind the activities, but we sure have a good time and they love our English class.  All the kids are so happy when we first get there and they try so hard!  This has truly been a rewarding part of our mission, even though they may not have learned or are able to learn what we are trying to teach.  I think they know we love them and they love the attention!

This is Shuree from Alan's advanced class!  She is blind and has learned how to read and write in Braille.  The little girl is also blind and is new to the school.  The school administrator asked Shuree if she would help this little one learn how to use Braille so she can also read and write in English. It was a pretty tender scene to watch her put her arms around her and move her fingers over the raised bumps. I hope she is successful in this attempt.  Shuree has so much poise and meets the world pretty head on!  This little girl is really shy and needs the ability to read and write to help her gain the confidence she needs.