10th Grade Moments

It would take much more than a single blog post to describe what is summed up with these few pictures and the year that they cap off, but you need to get a taste, for my cup runneth over!!! 

For the entire school year we have been studying the Cambridge IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) Business Studies course, a general overview of all the major functions of business.  We were the first ever Business Studies class in Mongolian public school history and yours truly got to be the first teacher, which was quite an honor for being only my first full year of teaching.

The event pictured above was the beginning of some of the best days of my life.  It was a time of intense focus when I had dropped all my English classes and was focused only on Business for the last month or so.  There were really only a few main goals:  Take the 11 that were giving the big exam in May and get them as ready as possible, help the next teacher prepare for the advanced Business Studies course next year, and take as many of the rest of the class that were interested and help them prepare for the test in October.  Some of us met 5-6 days per week and even spent 2 nights at our house before Paper 2 of the exam and reviewed the whole book.  How amazing to have learned this book in such a short time, but they did it with the help of their floundering teacher and the immeasurable grace of our great God.  They really learned to take initiative on their own and in groups and they eventually learned how to organize these things by themselves.  Oh, and yes, it was junk food night.  On the floor next to me is my little brother!  He's the only Christian student in all of 9th or 10th grade.

This is MB, or my own personal name for him "Market Boy - Business class superhero!"  He added that last part.  Actually, I think he made the first part as well by accident and it stuck!  :)  A handful of students came over to help me pack and clean since the cleaner-packer-organizer-in-chief was already in the States and she's got 90% of our combined skills in this area.  What a blessing to have so much help...

...help finishing off the cakes that is!  :)  I can so relate to this picture!

Most of you have seen pictures of our German friends Shinee and Pascal and this is their new little baby Ariguun.  He's SO CUTE!!!

She really liked Jess' cowgirl hat so I told her to take it.  I think the students swiped my camera for this shot.  The next shots all feature my students holding the wee baby!

The girls went crazy with this one.  Something about a handsome young man holding and kissing a sweet little baby.

Ok then.  Last day of school.........Pause to overcome emotional swell........  Ok, several of my 10th graders and a few rogue nines came down to the river near our house.  Same river as in all the other posts.  We all walked home together and they played outside with the neighborhood kids while I did a few things inside.  Aren't they cute!

Ok, off to the river...

We all put our stuff down and then scattered to collect wood.  By the time I hauled my branches back they had found enough wood and started a fire.  Nice job, guys!

Jess actually made this fire ring a couple months ago and other folks have been using it too.  Still looks good!

A few folks had some meat they cooked, the rest just enjoyed the beauty...and the heat.  This was initially intended to be a 10th grade event but the few 9th graders that came were sensitive to that and did a great job tending the fire the whole time.  Two of the three you may recognize from the skiing post.

They took turns being on fire for the pictures.  Duuluu!  You on fi-yah, man!

Anyone know what a random goat with a tubular headdress on is doing here?  Well, the scarves are a Mongolian spiritual tradition used for a variety of occasions.  Here, they are saying, "Don't kill me, I belong to somebody."  Something like that.  A bit like branding a cow.

Mанай дүү.  (My little brother)

Ok, he should have been in the picture but I had no idea he could jump so high. Mongolians can really jump!  We all spent a good while just hanging out, talking, playing games.  It was great.

 

Below, everyone is playing a game called "Cops and Killers".  At least, those are the primary functions of the game.  You randomly draw a card and you're either a cop, a killer, or a citizen.  The cops lay down their card immediately and try to find the killers.  The killers kill by discretely winking at you and as soon as you have been offed you must immediately say, "I'm dead." to give the cops clues. Pretty fun.

If you're the cop and you guess the killers wrong, you get a penalty.  Here, one of the ladies had to carry the other cop around the tree and he carried her back.  Too funny!!!

We all had a great time!

After a while I kept hearing, "Ямар гоё!" which means, "How beautiful/nice/wonderful/etc."  I looked and saw these two looking up at the sky and they invited me to take a look.  So I did.  :)

I thought I would take a picture and then another student jumped in.

Pretty soon we had a viewfinder full and my arms could not get any longer!!!  How beautiful they are!  There are a hundred memories for each one.  How precious!

All I was told was, "Can you bring your notebook (laptop)?"  "Ok, sure."  At the end of our time, they all gathered and made a place for me to rest and showed me a video presentation of my teaching with a bunch of really nice thoughts.  Students had snuck photos with their phones during class!  Naughty students!!!  :)   ~sniff~  ~breathe~  ~sigh~  I was in unbelief at the moment.  Such kindness our Father lavished upon me through these relationships and these final moments together.  I do not deserve any of these but it was a remarkable end to a great year.  Well, almost the end...

They gave gifts for me, Jess, Ezra, and even Baby-Baby.  Thank you guys so much, and especially for thinking of my family!  The love was deep and tangible and it still overwhelms me to think about it.  The moment was one thing, but it was really the culmination of the whole year including all the students that couldn't make it that added to this conclusion.  Even that was still not the end as a group almost this size surprised me at the airport to send me off with more gifts, more hugs..........more tears, and more memories that I will NEVER forget.  The only thing that wasn't perfect was my family was not able to share these first hand but I know that all was in God's hands and good plan and that Jess and Ezra were where they needed to be.

To the students of my first full year of teaching:

You have done so much and have given me more than you know.  Your hearts have been knit into mine and I'm so happy that finally at the end of the year we could know such a sweetness together.  You are more than my students.  We have adventured and conquered together; we have taught each other and learned how to learn; we have had good times and bad, but mostly all good; we have laughed and we have cried; we have lived and we have loved, and Lord willing, we will see each other again.

I LOVE YOU!

Your teacher and friend,

Mr. Gens

P.S.  SEND PICTURES!!!  :)

My 9th Graders

 The posts about our students have been few and far between but the last week was too filled to not share any of this.  Here I am with my co-teacher Tuul and our 9a Class.  Mr. Kennedy (a.k.a. Matthew) had 9b.  We had quite the year and the kids went from an unruly bunch of paired up kids from different schools to a very sweet, tight little group by the end of the year.  Wow, what a blessing to only have a class of 40, divided into two 20's.  My high school class had around 800 so this was a total treat for me.  By the way, to see this many Mongolians smiling in a picture is nothing short of amazing but I was so happy to have captured it!

The week or so before I left, both the 9th and 10th graders kept asking me what my plans were and wanted to take advantage of the time.  They decided to take me to the Children's Park in UB which I had only barely experienced in the past so this was a total hoot!

 I was so happy to see our kids so readily stop and help this dad whose bag had busted open out the bottom. 

 Here's Mr. Kennedy with a bunch of the guys.  We had about 12 people from the two classes join us which made for a really nice group size.

 This was a human powered monorail thingy with eyes.

 Waiting for a ride.

 This is Ariundalai.  I think she and Orgilmaa organized the event and they made sure we were taken care of the whole time.  It was so sweet...they even bought us ice cream!

 Here are some boys from Mr. Kennedy's class.  We each had most of the other's class for Business (me) and Computers (him), and of course English, so we each got to know all 40 fairly well.

 Here they are on the big wheel!

 Field trip organizers on the ends and Enkhsaruul in the middle.  Total sweeties!  Great view of the city, too!

 It feels a little like Epcot with the castle and water.  The orange and tan building just to the right of the clock tower in the distance is where we lived for the first 6 months of our recent stint.  7th floor, far right side.  We could see the Children's Park from the window!

 Matthew taking it in!

 Of course the swings are always enjoyable!

 Sain uu, Ariuka!!!

This is Tsevigmid, class jokester.  Apparently he learned English watching cartoons as a young man, but today his credentials earned him the role of bag-boy while we rode the electric bobsled car thingies.

 You can see Buddha shouting and Tsevka telling us to stomp our feet on the electric gas pedal.  

 We had a blast!

 Aaaahhhh!

Thanks girls for organizing a great day, and to our 9th grade classes...we love you and are so happy to have watched you grow this year!  It was truly a joy to have been your teachers!!!  And remember:  If your currency appreciates against another country's, is it and advantage or disadvantage for exporters?

SEND ME PICTURES OF THIS YEAR!!!
Much love, Mr. Gens

April Celebrations!

Well, the big 30 has come. The twenties were a great decade - went to photography school, met a cute painter, got married, had Ezra and have another sweet baby on the way! I'm looking forward to what is in store for the next 10 years. It's interesting to think that my mom was the same age as I am now when she was pregnant with me. I don't feel mature enough yet to be 30 and a mom. :) I asked one of my teammates here when she started to feel like a real adult. She said around 40. So, I guess I have a few more years. :)

For my birthday this year, Matt and I went out to eat at our new favorite Indian Restaurant in town. The owner is Indian and a very nice man. (I really wanted to ask him to say "Camping Cabin" for me, but I didn't!) :) Little family joke there. 

Anyhow...we also had a little party with some friends with pizza, ice cream and Wii. We had a table tennis tournament. I didn't win, but it was a lot of fun!

And uncle Matthew even held Ezra for the first time! They are good buddies, but Matthew's not a big kid person. Ezra likes to sit next to him and watch him play his iPad and try to find the one button that will do the most damage. :) Matthew also taught Ezra how to greet him with a fist bump. :) It's super cute.

I also had to have some fun in the kitchen for my birthday. I attempted making zweiback for the first time and they actually turned out! Except my first pan most of the balls fell off the top and they looked more like turtles. But they still tasted good!

I also tried to make some cinnamon rolls. (Which I have made successfully before, but this was a different recipe.) I didn't read the part about the amount being divided between 2 pans. So I had 2x's the amount in a single pan! They are a little crowded, but look decent here (this is before baking). But after I baked them the middles were all doughy and it didn't turn out very good. I ended up dumping them out onto a cookie sheet and tried baking them longer. They tasted ok, but it was a mess. :) Oh well. One of these days I'll get cinnamon rolls right.

We also took a trip down to the river since it's finally warming up here. It was the first time this year, and the first time Ezra had been down there since he started walking. So that was a lot of fun. We saw the most amazing ice formations we'd ever seen. It's called candle ice and it forms in the spring from the thawing and refreezing of the water. You could pick up a chunk and drop it and it would shatter like glass shards all over. Very cool.

The birthday celebrations continued as our entire team went to Terelj to celebrate Easter again, like we did last year (check out the post from last Easter). Orna, Jennifer and I all have birthdays in the same week, so we celebrated together during our Easter party as well.

And our new teammate Sandi brought her stash of Jelly Belly's to share! Mmmm. It was fun remembering all the different flavors. I picked all the pears out. :) 

Ruth made our birthday cake. She's becoming quite the professional! It was tasty, too!

We saw some camels on the way there that you could pay to ride. Fascinating creatures. But it was like a sandstorm blizzard outside so we stayed in the bus. I still haven't ridden a camel! But I've eaten a few. :)

We brought the sun oven along and I made up some sugar cookies ahead of time to try it out. It was a super windy so we tried to keep it from tipping over, but it still did a couple times.

It worked great! They were a little crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. Just took about a half hour per batch, but hey, it's free energy!

Last year for Easter, a little sheep gave his life for our meal. The sheep was butchered and then the meat, veggies and hot rocks were put inside a pressure cooker. That was called Hor Hok. This year we had Bauduk which is made with a goat. They kill the goat and then burn all the hair off and clean out the insides and put the meat back inside the goat along with some hot rocks and veggies. Then they sew the goat shut and let it cook, like a crock pot or pressure cooker. The goat was much tastier than the sheep. :) 

Here they are burning the hair off. It made the whole camp stink!

Here is a brief video of the finished goat! Very strange, but it was pretty good.

Hope you all had a very Happy Easter! He is risen indeed!

9th Graders and Skiing

 Ahhhh, the 9th grade, when responsibilities are low and life, when not is school, is just about fun!  I remember my own childhood and the frequent outings to the slopes.  There was little more I ever wanted to do than to go skiing.  To my Dad, Brian, Justin, Larry and the rest...here's one for ol' times!  In fact, I realized on this trip that I haven't been skiing since I met Jessica!  What an odd thing since we both love skiing so much, but we've each been once now in Mongolia, not together, but none the less, skiing has happened!

   Here I am with Dulguunnaran.  He's in both my Business Studies and English classes and an all around nice kid...quite handsome too!  :-)

 In yonder chair is Mr. Kennedy (Matthew) and Zolbayar who I see less often but is a part of the same cohort of boys, half of whom could not join us today.

Here's Duuluu taking his first jump ever...of course it was monkey-see-monkey-do!  Where'd that big monkey come from anyway?!  Well, we spotted the big monkey again, this time going down the hill with a video camera!  It's it two parts...

 

My run was too long to email from my iTouch so you get the first bit and the last bit.  :)

 If you look below, the run right above my head is the last little bit I went down.  It's a black diamond, but a fairly tame one at that.  40 degree slope but totally groomed...no problem, even with a video camera!  :)  WOW, I miss those Colorado slopes of old!

It was a great day with some new friends with lots of good time getting to know each other on the chair.  What a blast to "be young again" and have the body hold up fairly well.