The food markets are interesting. You buy your eggs by the each. Good luck getting them home unscathed. Actually we found an egg box that holds eight like you might buy and put in your camping supplies. It is plastic and has 8 spaces for eggs. When we want to buy eggs, we bring it along with us, buy the eggs and put them in the container. We usually walk to the store mid week. On the weekends we sometimes get a ride in one of Jerry's vans as a group of people shop. The stores are small and there is usually and aisle with some canned goods. About the only canned beans you can buy are red kidneys which go well in rice and make a nice red beans and rice dish for the Cajun appetite. Dad had found ramien noodles akin to the kind he used to enjoy in Korea when he was in the army. You can make fried rice. There is canned fish and chopped liver paste. We have not tried those yet. There are noodles....spaghetti, spiral noodles and macaroni style. There are different kinds of bread. We have not tried them all. There is a twisted pastry that we are fond of that is sweet. They make a raisin bread, and a white bread.

Dad says the guys are served bread for breakfast and they spread it with butter and put a layer of raisins on it and then sprinkle sugar on top. They probably eat that with raisin tea. Yes, raisin tea. It is made by soaking raisins in water. You strain out the raisins and serve it in a cup. Today he said lunch was rice with raisins in it and he thinks it had butter in it.

There is always an aisle in the store serving alcohol. I haven't bothered to look at it, but I think they also have cans of beer. You can also find juice and sodas and bottled water. There is usually a cookie and candy aisle and perhaps soaps and personal items. In some cases there are sales booths with clothes, or cosmetics, a state store has souvenirs. In the Noman market up the street, something like Mongolian Walmart, you can purchase appliances and carpets and lightbulbs and toys. The Noman market has moved into the old tractor factory. They have a "Fast Food" restaurant. Dad and I went the other night and thought we had asked for cheese beefsteak and instead got a plate of "schpagetti". It cost about $1.20 American money and $1200 tugruts Mongolian. If there was any tomato sauce in there it was news to me. The cheese on top was something like Edam cheese melted on top. It definitely looked like there was ground beef in the sauce; and the spaghetti noodles were like home. Because we thought were getting a hamburger, were ordered coke. So we had spaghetti after a fashion and Coca Cola. That is what you get for going out without your translator.

Our apartment is nice and clean and pleasant to be in. However when you step out the door you are in a different world. We remain grateful to Jerry and Susan for this provision. It has three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a toilet room and a room with a shower and tub and sink. One must make a High step to get into the tub which is deeper than we are used to and a decided step down and out.

The kitchen has a refrigerator, a stove, one cabinet and a washing machine. It has two tubs, one for washing and one for extracting water. You fill the one with water, add soap run for as many minutes as you set the timer for, drain out the water, fill with rinse water, run for as many minutes as you like, drain the water out. Then you move clothes to the other tub, make sure the load is level and spin the water out; hang up to dry.

Our living room furniture comes from China, is surprisingly comfortable and is covered in Naugahyde I think. We have windows that afford us a view out the front and out the back. We live on the second floor. I think there are five floors. There are several entrances each with their own stairwell; so that in our building on the right side of us (next stairwell over) Jerry and Susan live on the third floor. And to our left on the first floor are the babies. You come out your stairwell and go outside to the sidewalk and go in the next doorway etc.

The stairwell look and smells like stepping into a ghetto. People litter on the side walk and in the street. You see paper and broken glass and animal bones occasionally. There is a lady who cleans the sidewalk, our stairwell and picks up our trash at the door. I don't know if people drop their trash because they want to give the lady work, but I have noticed that they keep their homes neat and their vehicles are kept neat.

In the evenings and on the weekends you will see fathers and grandfathers out walking their children. I have noticed that they are very tender toward their children. Babies are all wrapped up like papooses. I don't see them squirming or crying to move around. The children who are orphans are very affectionate. They love to be close and like to sit on your lap or be hugged.

I am going to send this along now in the hopes I will not loose the work by jostling the wire =)
Love Mom

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