Camping in a ger

Monday, August 20th Ger house, Little Gobi

I'm sitting in a ger house near the little gobi, or the end of the gobi and next to a tourist camp. But we are staying at the worker's house. I'm not sure if he gets paid or not, but he got dinner last night and he played cards with us for awhile. His wife is away in another village waiting to give birth. He was so busy with the tourist camp, we had the ger to ourselves, both a blessing and a bit of a dissapointment. It would have been fun to get to know an entire family, but you take what you can get I guess. I slept on this couch/bed that seems to be dedicated to a lama or God. That was a little strange, maybe sacreligious--not sure! But everyone else seemed to think it was ok.

I was worried there wouldn't be enough light in here because there are no windows. But when the sun camp up, he opened up the top and the morning light poured in! When we arrived yesterday afternoon, it was sunny and warm but everyone predicted a thunderstorm was coming, so we asked this guy if we could stay with him. Good thing too...it poured REALLY hard that night! Thunder, lightning and then an amzing starry sky! It was so wide and open and expansive! The milky way was brighter than even at Lake Baikal or our work site in the jungle. At one point we were playing cards and had the door open, which always faces south. The lightning bolts were striking right out in front of us--perfectly framed in the door way!