5586/01.jpg my grandma is spinning camel hair to make yarn. She pulls the wool apart and then spins the stick on a wheel like a top.

5586/02.jpg This is an airag bowl that has been handed down as a family heirloom. Metal has been fashioned on a wooden bowl, and is now worth about 1,000 dollars!

5586/03.jpg My hashaa dog is trying to follow me to school.

5586/04.jpg We were airing out my ger, and grandma climbed on the roof to make adjustments. The picture is taken from inside my ger looking up thru the skylight.

5586/06.jpg Looking over my yard fence I can see the dusty rain cloud approaching

5586/07.jpg This is my source of life. Dung, wood, coal, stove, and a cooking bowl called a togoo.

5586/08.jpg The workers from my school are sifting sand thru a mesh bag to make dust for cement.

5586/09.jpg The dust is then mixed with water and tossed into my stove to create a wall and then it’s called a pishing.

5586/10.jpg Some random kid hanging outside the student dorm got inlisted to shovel my coal from the large delivery truck into a small shed that grandma is sitting on. She always oversees all work in her hashaa.

5586/11.jpg One of my school’s workers started playing my moirn khuur, everyone picks it up, as we waited for the fire to get roaring and dry the cement in my stove.

5586/12.jpg One of my school workers, Buyaa, looking at my photo album. The dell is her work clothing.

5586/13.jpg This is my school’s Educational Center that was set up by Soros. It has books in Russian, Mongolian, and English. The worker, Dundagma, sits at one of the computers.

5586/14.jpg This is one of my teacher’s ger warming parties. Most of my school teachers sit around filling the ger while the family serves everyone tea, soup, airag, vodka, and candy.

5586/15.jpg My singing teacher Odgerel drinking vodka from a traditional metal cup.

5586/16.jpg Some children at the housewarming party. I just thought the lil boy had beautiful eyes.

5586/17.jpg Our kholboo, communication center. I go to the counter at the left, tell them who I want to call, then sit down for an undeterminable time on the right, then rush to the booths in the middle when they tell me which one has my call.

5586/18.jpg My teacher Batbileg’s ger warming/wedding. The table is set up like Tsaagaan Sar. People visit for three days.

5586/19.jpg My school departments present girfts to the couple, such as rugs, rice makers, vodka, decorations….

5586/21.jpg Pat, site mate M11; Naragarav, English teacher; Enkhtsetseg, DJ; and Me, Jessica M11. Doing our weekly English radio program in the only FM station in the Gobi.

5586/22.jpg Batbileg with his parents-in-laws, wife, and son at their ger warming/wedding.

5586/23.jpg Batbileg with family and friends.

5586/25.jpg The grandmother whose hashaa I live in, in the front, her visiting sister, and the boy that lives with the grandma, Amgaa.