Monthly Archives: August 2011

New Ger Party “Shin gerin nair”

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Even though today was a busy day for my fellow teachers, we decided that today was the most auspicious day for our new ger party since the astrology calendar said so.  Mongolians traditionally hold a party when they have a new ger and these parties can last all day long.  Since we don’t have that many friends and don’t really like all day parties ours was a lovely 2.5 hours long instead.

Never pass anything between the ger poles!

Friends from school and town came to our ger and we served them milk tea, airag (fermented horse’s milk which we brought from Brian’s village), vodka, candy, chocolate chip cookies (which I made), potato salad, cucumbers, sausage, and noodle mutton soup.  Between drinks people gave welcome speeches, presented gifts including a Chinggis Khan statue and a super wonderful afghan crocheted by Emma our PCV, and sang songs.  As the man of the house Brian sang a song and hung a “hadag,” or prayer scarf, from the center of our ger roof.  My job was to serve the tea and food, but since we don’t have a stove yet I could not make the first ceremonial fire.

Brian singing for the guests

It has been a wonderful welcome back to Hanhongor from friends new and old.  Many people contributed to the construction of our ger from the flooring, the building, and the interior wall curtains for which we are so thankful.  In the speech by the village governor he told a story about how when I was a Peace Corps volunteer and he was the mailman that I bought so many stamps and envelopes that our village post office got an award for being the best in the province!  He  welcomed us back with open arms.  It is nice to be somewhere, to feel so wanted, and to know that you can make a real impact.

We are very happy new home owners

Friends from school enjoying the food.

The spread

My Mongolian son

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Look at that cute face!

Yesterday, along with our furniture, we picked up Darkhuu’s great nephew Delgermuron. “Muron” is seven and going into the second grade, and he is one of the most inquisitive little kids we have ever met.  He loves animals and the minute he got out of the car he had become best friends with Santiago and a very gentle admirer of Nigel.

Muron, Santi, and Nigel playing with the Ipad

For the next 48 hours Muron basically lived with us showing up in the morning while we were still in our pajamas and only leaving in the evening when we gave him the boot.  Unlike many of my past English students he picked up “Come on”, “No”, and “Sit” in about a nano second and took it upon himself to be in charge of Santi’s walks and playtimes.

When Muron was not playing with the dog, he was pestering Brian with hundreds of questions such as “Do you think that crack was there a long time or did the earthquake do it?” (While passing an old building in town).   Brian convinced him that we don’t know English, and when he doesn’t understand us that we are speaking “Special Mongolian” which he would not learn until he went to college. He also told Muron that he had “Super eyes” that can see everything including things going on in the next town.

Perhaps the best part of Muron’s visit was that he started going around town and, all on his own accord, started telling people that I was his mom.  This caused no end of hilarity especially when people pointed out that his father must have been Mongolian and what did Brian think of it all?  It was great having him around and based on his love of Santi I think we will be seeing lots of him on the weekends.

Mongolian shopping

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Two days ago while we were in the aimag center we picked out some furniture, haggled out a price with the seller, and requested a few repairs and changes before we came back on Monday to pick everything up.  As it often is, though, things in Mongolia are not as straight forward as you would hope.  Upon arriving in the store we found that none of the repairs had been made and a very surly saleswomen who insisted that we said we would come back on Tuesday.  Now keep in mind that we spent over $500 in her store, so it seemed very strange that she was so rude to us.  She even argued with us over changing our mind to buy two chests ($130) instead of the one ($100) one that we had originally picked out.

In the end we got a lovely new table, four stools, a kitchen storage unit, and 2 storage chests in and onto our jeep, made nice with the saleswomen, and even got her to smile.  Shopping here is certainly not like shopping at Ikea.

Our kitchen cupboard i.e. our entire kitchen!

Detail of one of the chests

Our new chests

Bucket bathing

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For people who have never done it, bucket bathing may sound like a fairly straightforward activity involving a bucket or two, some soap, and you.  In fact it is quite a messy activity that involves the strategic practice of “regional body washing” and a large area of flooring without carpeting since no matter how good you are some of the water escapes your bucket.  Brian and I took our first buckets bathes in a long time last night, and while we both took a different approach to where to start (head, feet, “triangle of smell” etc) we both managed to make a small lake in the middle of our ger.  Hopefully we will improve with practice.

Earthquake

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Around 6 PM yesterday I was folding and putting clothes into our dresser and Brian was napping when the ground started shaking.  My first thought was that a big truck was driving through town but then I realized that I couldn’t hear a motor.  Instinctually I grabbed the back of my chair and the dresser door and watched out the ger door as everything around me shock back and forth.  Brian sat up and starred at me as we both realized that we had just experienced our first Mongolian earthquake.  The quake lasted about 10 seconds and while we didn’t suffer any damage it was enough to get the adrenaline pumping.  Going outside we found Darkhuu and quickly called her daughter Tsend Ayoush in Ulaanbaatar to make sure that they were okay but it quickly became apparent that it was very local earthquake.

For the rest of the evening the earthquake was pretty much all anyone talked about and many people, especially in Dalanzadgad, decided to spend the night in the gers of friends and family instead of apartments. Even if a ger collapses on you you won’t get hurt very much! The rumor was that there would be an aftershock around 9 PM so everyone in town sat outside but nothing happened until 2 AM and then we only knew about it since Santiago woke us up barking.

This morning Brian checked on the internet and learned that the earthquake was centered about 30 kilometers north of here and registered in at 5.7 on the Richter scale.  Not the strongest quake but it certainly made for a memorable first day in town.

Update In total we had three earthquakes within a 48 hour span.  Fun stuff.

Hanhongor reception

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Yesterday after a few hours of rest we caught a ride into Dalanzadgad, the nearest town of any size, which is about 30 kilometers south east of Hanhongor.  The city has changed in many ways since 2009 and in amazing ways since I first went there in 2002.  All of the main roads and many of the roads going to the ger districts are now paved and have street lights.  There are new fancy playgrounds all over town, there is a large Sukhbaatar like square near the Naadam stadium, and fancy statues sprinkled here and there.  There are at least 6 cranes working there now and several buildings 4-6 stories high have sprung up, including a hotel with rooms costing upwards of $600 a night.  The number of stores has increased dramatically and the selection is almost as good as Ulaanbaatar.  Living in the Gobi will be much easier than before in many ways.

My first trip to the aimag yesterday brought back memories of my absolutely first trip there in 2002.  I was met at the airport by my school director who put me in a van with my luggage, water filter, and Nigel.  I am sure that they told me that I should go buy food and household goods and that we would be in town until the late afternoon, but I didn’t understand them.  Instead, I sat in the van for hours wondering when we were leaving and if I would ever eat again.  That was definitely a stressful time.

Compare that time to yesterday.  Not only did I know what I wanted to buy, but I had friends to give me a ride to town and to show me where all the new stores were.  We bought food, ordered furniture for our ger, checked our bank balance, inquired about wireless internet services, and got a comfortable ride home in a friend’s land cruiser.  Totally stress free and highly productive.  I wish the 2002 Sadie could see the 2011 one.  I think she would be jealous of how easy things have gotten-and happy to see how many friends she has.

Moving to the Gobi

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Our new address.

After 2 weeks of on time arrivals and departures, thanks to a very professional travel company which served the conference, we were rudely reminded of how things actually work in Mongolia.

Planned departure time from Ulaanbaatar-Friday morning at 9 AM.

Actual pickup time-3 PM.

Actual time of departure from the city-5 PM.

The ride itself was uneventful aside from one flat tire and lots of mud, but a bit squeezed with 5 adults, 1 cat, 1 dog and a house load of goods. A few stretches of the 550 kilometers have been paved or graded, but the vast majority is still dirt tracks carved out of the desert.  We arrived in Hanhongor around 9 AM on Saturday to see our beautiful ger for the first time.  The paint work is even more lovely that I had expected, and once we get flooring and furniture it will be a lovely place to live.

Welcome home.

Interior detail