The first of these is what I do the cooking and hospitality with, and the second does the laundry! Welcome to my new home in Mongolia, a Russian-built flat in central Ulaanbaatar. It’s somewhere near the middle of the picture below.

Ulaanbaatar is in some ways typical of many post-Soviet cities, with its fairly equal combination of glitter and litter! That said, it is the only city of size in a country three times the size of France, yet boasting a national population just a third that of London. Mongolia has taken its hit from the world economic crisis, with the government here bailing out a couple of banks, rising unemployment (including thousands of returnees who have lost jobs in the United States), and inflation nudging 36%.

A daily wrestle of my first week here was managing the huge amounts of currency needed for every transaction. Such as lashing out 40,000 Tougrug for a table lamp! On another day it was 25,000 for a toaster. Given the exchange rate of around 2,000 Tougrug to the UK Pound, you really can be a millionaire out here and have almost nothing to your name! In fact, three weeks after arrival, I have now passed the magic million Tougrugs expenditure!

I have learned a number of things in years of travel among the people-groups of northern Eurasia. One of these is standing me in good stead right now: Always remember to switch off the mindset that says when and how things should happen. The alternative is permanent frustration. As a rule, things ‘come to pass’ here, but not usually in the time desired or most convenient.

Another ‘first week’ adjustment: ‘What’s recycling?’ a co-worker asked me the other day. For someone like me, used to the UK drill of segregating items of waste for different categories of recycling or rubbish, this is quite novel: here, whether it is paper, cardboard, plastic, tins or food waste, it is all bagged up and (on my estate), thrown onto the street and scavenged before collection.

A couple of weeks ago, I met one of the leaders of the ‘Ger Church Movement,’ a movement with a similar modus operandi to the young churches of the Gobi, which have seen strong growth in recent years. On network development stuff, I have just established contact with a Ukrainian-led church in the mountains north of here, with a ministry among others, to vulnerable children. I hope to bring more news of this church, and possibilities for connecting with its work, before too long.

This is early days in this venture, with most of the time spent praying, walking, meeting new folks, getting to know older ones better, and kitting out my home and office for the longer haul... More soon!