Hello, readers. I hope you are all staying warm in your neck of the world. It is still very cold here in Mongolia, but I am dreading the spring--in Mongolia, there are frequent windstorms/dust storms in the springtime. While I haven't experienced this full-on yet, there have been a few windy days in the past month that have been pretty uncomfortable--I arrived at work on one particular day with no feeling left in my numb legs and probably about a pound of sand on my face and in my hair. And it was only the day after I bathed, too! I had to schedule an emergency washing that week!
The last few weeks have been pretty eventful in my action -(un)packed life, starting with the Mongolian holiday, Tsagaan Sar. Tsagaan Sar means White Moon or White Month, and it is the Mongolian holiday for the lunar new year. It is sort of like a combination of Christmas (sans Jesus) and a bar crawl. The holiday lasts for three days or longer, starting on the night of the new moon. Mongolians celebrate the coming new year by visiting family and friends, sharing small gifts, and eating lots and lots of buuz (pronounced 'boats'), which are steamed meat dumplings. I ate about 15 buuz on the day I spent visiting my coworkers with Zoloo, along with different salads, boiled meat, wine, vodka, and milk tea; some other volunteers reported that they ate over 100 buuz! I don't think this is possible unless you also have some sort of liquid diarrhea problem at the same time, but perhaps I am mistaken...
So, the first day of the holiday, biduun--the eve of the new moon, is a time for spring cleaning and preparation for many visitors. The next day is the first visiting day, when most people will visit their extended family, starting with the elders of their family. The second day of visiting is for friends and coworkers. I spent the first day of visiting relaxing at home and visited my supervisor for a little while. The second day of visiting, I went to several of my coworker's homes.
Each visit follows a similar pattern. When you enter someone's home, you first give the traditional greeting and accompanying hand movements--greeting each person of the host household from oldest to youngest. Then you will be asked to sit, and salads, aaruul (dried fermented milk product), boiled meat, and milk tea is served while the buuz are steamed. Most families prepared over a thousand buuz before Tsagaan Sar, freezing them in the few weeks before. It is customary to give each guest around 5 buuz, but I think this varies by family and region. After eating and catching up with the family, each guest is presented with a small gift. Since it is unlucky to give 1 gift (I'm not sure if the number 1 is unlucky or if it is for some other reason), usually every guest will recieve 2 or 3 gifts together. For example, at one house I was given a pair of leggings and a box of cookies, then another time I received felt slippers and a box of candies. I have heard that guests can also give presents, but I didn't see this happen myself. Many Mongolians spend large amounts of money on the preparations for Tsagaan Sar, from buying the ingredients for all of the buuz and other foods to buying nice presents for their guests. Just like for Christmas, many of the gifts are well thought out and planned in advance, even if this adds more expense. After receiving gifts and finishing eating, it is time to thank the host family, say goodbye, and move on to the next visit.
This is an Idee (pronounced "ee-day"), which is made out of layers of a particular type of boov("bow"), or biscuit, then topped with white foods--aaruul, sugar, candies, etc. The number of layers of the boov are related to the age of the elder of the family and other considerations. There are always an odd number of layers, usually 3 or 5 layers. Apparently the president of Mongolia has the most layers--his Idee is supposed to have 9 layers! When I was visiting homes, I thought that the Idee was just for show, a cool way of displaying white foods for their guests to try if they wanted. After Tsagaan Sar, however, many of my coworkers brought pieces of the Idee boov to work to share, so the whole structure is broken down and eaten after the holiday. The boov are actually pretty good!
Next to the Idee, there is a large piece of boiled meat. I think it is the back of a sheep, but I am not completely sure. Regardless, the meat was pretty tasty! A host (in this case, my coworker's husband) cuts off a piece or two for each guest. The taste is similar to beef jerky, since the meat is boiled and is pretty dry. Even the fat, which I don't normally like to eat at all, was not bad when prepared this way. This might be a sign that I have developed a taste for foods I wouldn't have considered before Mongolia though, so you will have to try yourself rather than take my word for it.
Another picture of the foods served during this visit. Below the tray with different salads (there was an awesome one at this house that had onions and garlic shoots), you can see a few buuz, the steamed dumplings that are the traditional food of Tsagaan Sar.
Me, my coworkers, and my coworker's husband. The couple on the right are our hosts. They have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, since Baigalmaa's
husband is pretty high up in the Mongolian military. She also has two
sisters that live in Chicago, so we talked about their trip they took there a
few years ago. They had a picture from the top of Willis (you will always
be Sears to me!) Tower and they were shocked when I told them that I have never
been to the top. Then Baigalmaa told me all about how her sisters'
children don't speak Mongolian well, and how much of a shame it is. They
were great hosts, and they gave me some dish detergent gel, which i am still
trying to figure out how to use!
This picture was taken at my friend Zoloo's house (she isn't pictured
because she is taking the picture). Her mom is sitting next to me, and
was very sweet. The baby in the front stole the show though--a few
minutes before this picture was taken, they took the baby's pants off and held
it out so that it could pee on the plastic mat on the floor. Why?
This is just one of the many Mongolian ways of life that I don't completely
understand yet.
On the Monday after the holiday, I came to work as usual, not knowing that I
was supposed to wear my deel. We all did the Tsagaan Sar greeting with our
director, then had a massive photo shoot. I only stick out a little more than
usual without my deel on! First we took this picture in the director's
office....
Then we moved outside for a quick picture before we got too cold.
Well, many people were wearing traditional winter deels, which are either
quilted or lined with sheep fur, so a few of us were cold and others were quite
comfortable. My coworkers continued to take different shots for the next
several hours, but I was mostly excused because of my lack of deel. Later
on, one of the ladies pulled an extra deel out of her desk and had me put it on
for a group picture! I'm still working on my 'Mongol steel' pose--you can't
smile, but somehow you still look happy in the photo. So far, I just look
confused or a little sad if I try!
The next week, I took a trip to the largest Eastern city in
Mongolia--Choilbasan, in Dornod province.
I live in Ondorkhaan, in Khentii Province, and Choilbasan is
Northeast, in Dornod Province.
The trip from Ondorkhaan to Choilbasan is about 6 or 7 hours on an unpaved road,
which means that we followed tire-worn paths next to the paved road that is
being built. My site mate Hannah and I were planning on taking the bus to
Choilbasan, but when we got to the bus stop, a meekr (a type of van that
supposedly seats 13 people, but actually seats closer to 18 or more) driver
came up to us and told us that the bus wasn't coming today, in a mixture of
Mongolian and Russian. Especially when travelling, all white people are
assumed to be Russian, even after you try to explain that you are American and
speak Mongolian. So after being offered a fair price for the trip (20,000
tugriks, or about $12 US), we decided to take the meekr option. The ride
was not too bad, and it was actually quite warm inside. I did get motion sick,
but not bad enough to throw up, which I am sure Hannah was thankful for!
The snowy foothills close to Ondorkhaan in Khentii province.
Ondorkhaan is on the edge of the Mongolian steppe, the wide expansive flat
prairie lands similar to the Great Plains in the US. Since Ondorkhaan is
also close to the mountain range that cuts through Central and Western Mongolia,
we have more rolling hills than flat lands.
In the distance you can see a mixed herd of sheep and goats. This is a
common site across Mongolia, and so the animals rarely surprise drivers along
the 'road.' We did have a close call with a horse running in front of the
meekr at one point, but the driver managed to avoid hitting it without much
problem.
As we drove closer to Dornod province, the land became flatter. I
hoped to see some gazelle on our trip, but I didn't have a chance to. I
have heard that there are also gazelle farther south in my province, so if I
take a trip there, I hope they will be around!
At one point, the driver stopped and tried to help this group of people
loading an SUV onto a truck after some sort of accident. It took several
men, but they actually managed to pick up the back end of the the SUV to get it
on to the truck! It is very common for Mongolians to help each other, no
questions asked. In the middle of nowhere on dirt paths in subzero
temperatures, there is no guarantee that any other help will come along.
The reason why I traveled to Choilbasan was to help facilitate a seminar
that a fellow Peace Corps volunteer had planned for English teachers in Dornod
province. There were several volunteers that came to lead sessions and help
lead small group discussions over the two day seminar. Hannah, Jerome and I
taught a session about positive youth development, experiential learning, and
teaching life skills.
Here we are, teaching our session. There were about 45 teachers at the
seminar, both from the city of Choilbasan and from small towns in the province.
We led small group discussions or activities, giving us more opportunities
to talk with the teachers and help them as native speakers. It was very
beneficial for the teachers, and I gained lots of new ideas for my own English
classes!
I photo-bombed Hannah's picture. This might be one of the only
pictures of us where we both look mostly normal! We enjoyed the trip,
since we got to eat real pizza and go to an actual coffee shop, both of which
are not available in our small provincial center. Choilbasan is a city of
about 50,000 people, and Ondorkhaan has maybe 14,000 or 15,000 people, so there
are many things in Choilbasan that we can't experience on a regular basis.
Here is the group of volunteers and trainers! There were Peace Corps volunteers
from 5 provinces: Dornod, Khentii, Sukhbaatar, Tov, and Gobi-Altai.
After attempting again to find a bus for the trip (one of the two buses was
broken, the other filled up right before we got to the front of the line to buy
our tickets), we ended up taking a meekr again for the return trip to
Ondorkhaan. I managed again to not throw up--mostly by sheer force of
will--and came back to Ondorkhaan with all the necessary additions for an
awesome Taco Night! Then, it was time to return to my normal work
schedule. Not too much has been going on for me over the last few weeks,
although I did get to help Zoloo and some of the family clinic doctors do house
visits to deliver vitamins to small children. This was quite fun and I
got to see many different Mongolian gers and houses, which was interesting, as
well as lots of cute babies!
Preparing goody-bags of vitamins for young children in town.
This weekend, my site mates and I are planning a cultural trip to UB.
We are going to go to several different museums and hopefully get tickets to
the opera. And, of course we are going to see the Lego Movie in theaters
also! I will try to post an update about our trip next week!
