I got a job!

For some reason, the guy at Khonggor kept trying to kick me out. Still not knowing whether I would stay for long in this city, I moved to the Golden Gobi, another hostel that seemed more funky and relaxed.

In my dorm room I met Alex, a very cool Russian dude who is one of the few other non-tourist foreigners in Ulaanbaatar. He's writing his thesis on non-profits in civil society, and Mongolia is of interest to him because of its relatively smooth transition from a socialist to democratic state.



He went with me to interview at Lotus Orphanage, about 7km from Ulaanbaatar in a ger district. Ger districts are kind of a poor suburb of Ulaanbaatar. Nomads move to the city to find work, but can't afford a house, so they just move their ger and build a fence around it. All the land is public in Mongolia, so if nobody complains for two weeks, they can claim it.



There is no running water, so people have to buy water from the water station and carry it home.



I got the job on the spot, and they offered to provide me with food and a ger if I taught an art class, since they already had an English teacher. So I guess I will be staying in Mongolia for a while!

Ecstatic that I finally have a reason to stay here, Alex and I ran up the closest mountain.