I had made it a habit of visiting the governor of each province before doing any relief distribution. Now having been asked to come and take care of the needs of four districts (soums) in the far northern part of Bayanhongor, I popped into his office to make my acquaintance and share my plans with him. His concern for the orphans, aged and the destitute in the capital city of the province touched me. I needed to make an early start for the mountains the next morning, but agreed to make a visit to his institution at 9am with the deputy governor. I had been to several of these poor houses in other provincial capitals and thought I had a clear idea of what to expect.

We drove down to the white washed single story flat roofed complex. Armed with my camera and flash, I went in to do the tour so I could make the usual promises of one day coming back to "see what I could do". I guess humanitarian workers do become steeled after awhile, but I was touched as I walked into the first room. Four little kids each had their own beds and two old men occupied the other two. While it was neat, everything had that drab institutional look. The beds were the narrow Russian steel army type cots. The bare minimum of blankets was on each bed. The heating was not working and there were no curtains to cover the cracked windowpanes. The floor was cold concrete. The walls were painted a dark green color.

I turned my attention to the kids and began to ask questions through my interpreter, Nara. (I have three kids of my own and do have a father's heart.) I was convinced that three of them were brother and sisters. Nara assured me I was wrong and that they were not related. However, I was proved correct. The eldest girl was 12 and the younger was 8, while the little boy was not more than 6 years old. There was one more little girl. I was told that there were two more children besides these and that they attended the morning session at school, while these attended the afternoon one.

We chatted with the kids for a while and in my inner being there welled up a desire to help them. Their clothes were rather well worn and what really amazed me was that there appeared to be no other change of clothes besides what they were wearing. I learned from the deputy governor that the three kids that were related did brilliantly at school. I had this desire to adopt the three and take them home to Ulaanbaatar. I knew that it would be irrational. I would do what I could for the 20 inmates of the institution.

The deputy governor and I drove down in our jeeps to the local department store where we drew up a list of what we would buy for the inmates. For the children we bought up all the exercise books and pens the little shop had to offer. They had been embarrassed at school for not having the correct number of required notebooks. We then focused our attention on the hygiene needs. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, laundry soap, toilet paper and shampoo were all put into a separate packet for each person. We cleared the shop out of every item we bought. It must have been the biggest sale the shopkeeper had made in months.

Next we drove down to the market where I bought supplementary food supplies for the next 3 months for the institution. This was mainly bread flour, rice and sugar. I also added a box of apples, the only fruit to be found.
Then we purchased warm socks for the 20 occupants of the institution. Unfortunately we could not find gloves for them.

The ADRA truck came by the market and transported the bags of food to the poor house. We rounded up everyone into one room and distributed the goods to them. Mongolian's do not show too much emotion, but the joy evidenced at suddenly owning a toothbrush and toothpaste was heart warming. The warm socks were most appreciated. Each now had their soap and shampoo. We took photos of everyone and then each came to shake our hands and say thank you. I just loved the reaction of the old folks who just could not say thank you enough times. It was the greatest thing that had taken place in their otherwise drab lives.

I promised to send some bales of clothing for distribution among the poor. The deputy governor said that he would see that these kids and older folks would also receive warm clothing. The trump card that I hold up my sleeve is the 40-foot container of 9,500 blankets I will give to poor orphans, herder's children in boarding school and other destitute children.

When I think of all the children in Mongolia who need food and care, the words of the disciple, Andrew, when he looked at the five loaves and two fishes, keep coming to mind, "How can so little feed so many"? John6:9.

Llewellyn Juby