Monday, July 7, 2008

Free at Last! Free at Last!


We have been liberated!  That's right, at midnight on July 5th Marshal Law was lifted.  We were no longer under curfew (meaning I could go on my 6:30AM walk) and we didn't have to carry ID (meaning I could once again look at police without patting my pockets).  I was even able to go back to work today.  Things will be slowly going back to normal . . . for a family living in Outer Mongolia.  Last week was filled with so many uncertainties that it was probably my least productive since returning.  But I sure caught up on prayer time.
For those just getting here, Sunday June 29th was the Mongolian mid-term elections.  According to reports the Socialist Party won by a landslide.  On Tuesday, July 1st, as the initial reports of the election results were coming in Democratic party supporters made a protest before the Socialist party building.  Things went from tense to explosive, a riot ensued, and the mob burned the historic Socialist Party HQ and looted the state cultural museum.  The next morning the president announced we were in a "state of emergency" and imposed marshal law.
There's a lot to say on what it was like to live under old socialism for a few days.  Granted it had it's limitations (like only one Mongolian TV channel and the papers were not published), but we had a lot more freedom than the old school communists would have allowed (the internet and cable television including CNN and BBC still worked).  Overall though, it was a phase you just prayed would pass.  And it appears to have done so.
If you would like to read more about the whole thing, the International Herald Tribune has several good articles on their website.  Try this one for a start:

 http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/02/asia/OUKWD-UK-MONGOLIA.php

You can also type "Mongolia" in their search engine for more stories.  

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