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