A Trip to the Hoodoo and Naadam

What a day! The trip started off by the family assembling a fleet of cars/taxis/ NGO trucks (which were both Mercedes) to take us out to the hoodoo. First stop of course was the delgor to pick up some vodka and then we were off. On the way we made the required stop at a Buddhist shrine (o-vOH) which in this case happened to be a giant tree(The mother tree or eej mod), we circled it three times as it is customary, left candy, threw rice and then threw some vodka on it. Trees love vodka, not a lot of people know that. Then we were off to the hoodoo. The hoodoo is like a Mongolian resort where Mongolians go to rest and visit with family. In this case my family owns a house out there with a volleyball court, basketball hoop and they have some animals as well. It is very nice and close to the river (gol) which is great for swimming. This house was very simple - 1 room with 3 beds and a cast iron stove where 5 people live. We went during Naadam so the experience is a little atypical but only a little. When we arrived we played some cards (khozor) with the family for about an hour and Mike’s team won. It was like Campbell Thanksgiving in July but of course we don’t understand the jokes and are probably the butt of them. Then we watched wrestling for about four hours and drank some vodka. Yes there was a T.V. in the middle of the countryside where they use solar electricity. However since Naadam is a long event they rigged a car battery to power the T.V. very resourceful. We then ate lunch. There is nothing like eating a hot bowl of meat soup with a steaming cup of milk tea (sUH-tei tsai) in 95 degree weather without air-conditioning. Mike wrestled a Mongolian for the first time, he was waiting till he found the tallest Mongolian in the city to wrestle, and one can only imagine what happened. There is video footage to follow. After that we all went down to the river and went swimming, the river is very clean by US standards and the water was very refreshing. We played a little volleyball (gar bom-bog) after swimming; Mongolian’s are excellent at volleyball. What else would follow but the slaughtering of a goat (ya-mAH) for dinner. After the goat was cooked we each received a red hot stone that was used to cook the goat from the inside to toss in our hands which we were informed is “good for the body.” The meal is called bOH-dog (a whole carcass of goat roasted with hot stones from the inside with entrails and bones first removed through the throat). We then had some intestine soup which was surprisingly good and some meat on the bone. Allie did eat both of those things by the way. Then the driver of our car (ma-shin) started passing some vodka around and we helped him finish the bottle before it really started raining and he had to drive us home. Once you open a bottle in Mongolia you have to finish it and we thought it best to help him do that. After an exciting ride home in a massive lightning storm my host father bought us all ice cream at Allie’s brother Bogy’s delgor and the day was done.
Naadam
sai-khan nAH-daj bain uh? Are you enjoying Naadam? This is the most common phrase heard during this entire week.
Mongolia’s celebration of the 3 manly sports; wrestling [bokh], horse racing and archery. This is interesting because women and young girls compete in everything except wrestling. While Mike was at labor camp I was able to enjoy the 2 days of festivities. I can only hope that my description does it justice. To get anywhere quickly in Mongolia one has to utilize the Mongolian transportation system. You basically start walking until you see any car which then becomes a taxi or meeker (mini van). The taxi then will pick up as many people as it can on the way. Closeness has developed a whole new meaning. I pick any seat except for the passengers seat which is known as the mother in law seat because of drivers penchant for swerving towards the passenger side in the event of an unavoidable accident. Arriving at Naadam I felt like a little kid in a candy store I wanted to see everything. The stadium where the wrestling takes place looks like a soccer stadium but much smaller. I was very excited to find out that you don’t have to pay to watch any of the events, especially on my Peace Corps budget. I spent most of the day trying to figure out what was going on and attempting to talk to my family through the dictionary. The wrestling matches go on for 2 days. The winners go onto Naadam in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia’s capital). After sitting through hours of wrestling I went out to watch archery. The archery grounds- a buildings backyard. On one side was the person shooting the arrow and on the other a group of men standing in front of the targets (little black and red canisters on the ground). Off to the horse races which only involves children aged 3-7. Distances vary according to the age of the horse – I witnessed horses that were 2 and 3 years old. The shortest distance is 15 km and the longest over 30km, simply amazing. The children ride bareback. After the horses take off everyone enjoys food ( mainly xUH-shUHr- elongated fried dumplings that are amazing) and drinking (soda and vodka). There are vendors that sell food and drinks like in America however there were several major differences. 1- the food was being prepared by the locals so I ran into many of my friends parents. 2- each vendor had a tent with a table and benches for you to sit down and enjoy your food which could last for several hours. At the end of a long day I went to my first Mongolian rock concert. I really wished I could understand Mongolian fluently but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and beats. Then I woke up and did it all again.