Rainstorm Floods Village!

We had a huge rainstorm yesterday! I’ve never seen a flash flood before, but I feel quite sure that’s what happened. After 10-15 minutes of super heavy downpour, the entire center of the village was a river. Many gers were flooded (including some of the other Peace Corps Trainees’) and tons of fences were downed. I’ve never been more happy to live on top of a hill. Apparently storms like that only happen once every five years or so. Shinezul and I tried to go meet up with the other Trainees for a party, but we were stuck on our side of the river. Here are some pictures:

It continued raining, thundering, and lightning for the whole night. My host grandma made us turn off all our lights and cell phones because she was afraid that having them on would make lightning strike us. I had to turn mine on at one point to call my language teacher and I made the unavoidable joke that I had been electrocuted via my phone: “bZZBZbzbZ!!!” They all laughed and I was glad that the joke went over well.

After that, the electricity went out and it’s been out pretty much all day. Today’s lesson: chopping and igniting wet logs. Brrrrrr!

Tomorrow I’m going to a nearby town to stock up on internet usage, fruit, school supplies, and Peace Corps friendliness (most of the friends I made at orientation live in other training sites).

The other day, a puppy snuck in through a hole in my ger. If he comes back, I will feed him and then make him mine (and then regret in a couple of weeks later when he destroys something valuable of mine).

Besides all that, I can’t believe I now live in a world without Michael Jackson. WTF?

One of the first things I did at my training site was go see the local children perform a dance to "Beat It."

May he always remain preserved in the entire world’s cultural memory.