When Faith Rose Wambui took a job as a spa therapist in Mongolia, she expected to spend the next two years perfecting her craft and earning more in a country she knew little about.
Less than a year into her contract, the 32-year-old Kenyan is, however, already thinking about her next career move.
Faith now hopes to teach English in Mongolia, where foreign English teachers are in demand and the opportunity could open another door for her.
The career shift is the latest step in a journey that began with a three-month course in makeup and massage in 2023 and has since taken her from a Kenyan spa to a clinic thousands of kilometres from home.
“I want to eventually shift into teaching English in Mongolia, since foreign English teachers are in high demand here, and it is a path I believe could open new doors,” she says.
Never one to think twice about making big moves, when the opportunity for her current job came, she jumped at it.
Lucky break
A friend, she says, told her about an opening for a spa therapist in Mongolia. She knew little about the country, one of the world’s most sparsely populated, but was interested in the prospect of earning more.
A recruiter later visited the Kenyan spa where she worked and spent time observing her. She watched her technique, how she handled clients, kept her room organised and maintained cleanliness and presentation.
“She was taking videos of how I was doing my work; she compared me with other candidates and I stood out,” Faith says.
Two weeks later, she took an online interview with a team already working in Mongolia. “They told me they wanted someone efficient, who can do a good job,” she says.
Within a month and a half, Faith was leaving Kenya on her first-ever flight.
“My employer sponsored my flight, visa, health insurance, accommodation, and food, easing the weight of a move that could have otherwise felt impossible,” she says.
She flew from Nairobi to Istanbul before connecting to Ulaanbaatar, arriving at Chinggis Khan Airport at around 3am on September 10, 2025, just as autumn was setting in.
The move, she says, meant leaving her two children behind, which she describes as the hardest part of the journey.
Learning a new market
Faith says the job has since exposed her to a different approach to the profession she trained for in Kenya.
Instead of working in a conventional spa, she works at a clinic where a dermatologist handles facial injections while she focuses on facial and body massages.
She has also noticed that her Mongolian clients seek facial treatments more frequently than the customers she served in Kenya.
“In Kenya, most people do facial treatments like once a month,” she says. “But here, the Asians really, really love it. They can have a facial once or even twice a week.”
But the transition was not straightforward. Worried that techniques she had learnt in Kenya would not be accepted at the clinic because they differed from those used by her new colleagues, Faith had to undergo additional training to adapt to the workplace.
“I’m happy now that they really appreciate my services,” she says.
Her experience has given her exposure to a different market and new ways of working, while prompting her to consider what she could do next.
Earnings and hurdles
Faith works from 10am to 7pm and earns a fixed monthly salary of about Sh77,600, paid in the local currency, the Mongolian tugrik.
While the salary is an important part of why she took the job, she says living costs are higher than in Kenya.
“I spend between Sh13,000 and Sh20,000 a month on food. Clothes take up a big part of my budget too, since shops here rarely have my size. I have to ship some clothes,” she says.
It has helped that her employer provides her accommodation. She lives in a three-bedroom house with her boss and has her own room, about a 10-minute walk from the clinic.
“My accommodation is very nice. It is just a 10-minute walk to where I am working,” she says. “Everything was just way above my expectations.”
Language remains one of her biggest daily challenges. Her boss speaks English, making it easier to communicate when clients require detailed explanations, but communicating in everyday situations has been harder.
“It’s difficult. I have really tried,” she says.
It doesn't also help that there are few Kenyans around her. Since arriving, Faith says she has met only one other Kenyan — a priest at a Catholic church.
She has instead found companionship in a small African community comprising Nigerians, Moroccans, Egyptians and others living in Ulaanbaatar. On Fridays, they gather to listen to African music, with Nigerian DJs playing songs that remind her of home.
“When I walk on the streets and see somebody with my skin colour, it doesn’t matter if they are not from Kenya,” she says. “By the fact that they are Africans, I feel like I’m not alone.”
Being away from her children for nearly a year now has not become easier. Faith keeps in touch with them through video calls, although poor network connections sometimes cut conversations short.
“Some nights the calls are short because the network is weak, and some nights we do long calls because neither of us wants to hang up first,” Faith says.
Life in Mongolia
Away from work, she has gradually become more comfortable with her new surroundings. She has embraced aspects of Mongolian culture, particularly during the warmer months when the city becomes livelier.
She recently experienced the Naadam festival, Mongolia’s major cultural celebration featuring wrestling, horse racing and archery. “The culture is really amazing,” she says. “Very different from how we do things in Kenya.”
Food has been another part of the adjustment. She particularly likes khuushuur, a flatbread filled with meat, although she has not developed a taste for a snack she hasn't quite mastered it's local name made from fermented milk.
For now, Faith’s two-year contract continues. But her ambitions are already moving beyond the spa.
Her first overseas job has given her an opportunity to work in a new environment, adapt to different professional expectations and experience life in another country. Now she wants to use that experience as a springboard into another career.
From a three-month makeup and massage course in 2023 to working as a spa therapist in Mongolia, Faith’s career has already taken an unexpected turn. Her next one could take her from the treatment room to the classroom.
