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.

Naadam-mike

Naadam is the mongolian national holiday that celebrates the three manly sports, wrestling, archery, and horseback riding. It is held from july 11-14 and everything in Mongolia stops for this holiday, everything. There is much drinking, that much is for sure. Families get together for the week since nobody works and it is generally just a weeklong party. Alli got to experience the naadam in our town which she will write about but i spent naadam at summer labor camp for CYD volunteers. Labor camp was actually a real good time. The seven of us and about 30 kids from at risk homes out in the hoodoo-(country side). We were there for four days and we stayed in gers which was very cool. I drank airag(fermented horse milk) for the first time and I also had regular horse milk, literally straight out of the horse. They were suprisingly good. Alli and I are going to write a long post this weekend which we hope to be able to post with some pictures. It is difficult because of the slow connection and rampant viruses on the computers here. Only three more weeks of training until we get our site placement whoo hoo.

Lost in Translation-Mike

Well Alli and I were supposedto see each other this weekend but i just found out this morning that we have a survival test on saturday on our cooking skills so it looks like we wont see each other until our mid center days on the 4th. I do have a funny story though. "Sain Bain oo" means how are you in mongolian. Just yesterday our teacher was saying that we have to watch our pronunciation of "bain" because if you draw out the "a" it changes the meaning of the question slightly. So instead of asking how someone is doing your asking them, and i am not making this up, how are they pooping today. I swear to god. No wonder people look at me like im a lunatic. I told our teacher that would have been a good lesson on the first day of training not 4 weeks in. Sorry this one is so short but i gotta go.
Matt and Alli-congratulations happy to hear all is well.
Mom- good news about jazz

Throwing me to the fishes

What a week. After writing last week Mike, a friend of ours and me went to that cafe to get a gamburger(mongolian word for hamburger). Mike looked like a little kid going to Disney world. So we walked into the cafe and sat down to wait, (pretty common thing in Mongolia as customer service is not a concept)and wait because Mike didn't want to leave in case they actually did have them. Well long story short no one ever came- no hamburgers for us. We ended up at another cafe and ran into 3 other Americans that are here with a mission group. We ate sharaven ( noodles, meat and veggies). One of my favorite meals.
On Sunday we climbed a mountain it was about a 4 hour hike. amazing view!! there was an ovoo on top of the smaller mountain which is a pile of rocks and offerings. While traveling a lot of Mongolians stop at these travel around it 3 times clock wise and then leave an offering. I can give more detail the more I learn. It will also make more sense when we get the pictures up.
This week was my first week teaching Mongolian children English. We had a class of 16 kids varying in age from 5-19 years old. Quite an experience to say the least. I taught them farm animals- names and noises, how to sing Old MacDonald and how to play a game. It was great. They are so excited to learn English. Students are much different here than in the states. Overall great success- don't worry we took pictures.
The run down of our schedule for the upcoming weeks. Next week Tuesday we have our mid- training language test. We all have alot of studying between now and then. Then on Wednesday all of the trainees are meeting up in a city for some more training and a 4th of July bbq. We, Mike and I, get to stay in a hotel for 2 nights- I am very excited because it has been almost 3 weeks since I have showered. Then we all split up again but we get another 3 day break from school in July sometime for Nadaam. A Mongolian national holiday with wrestling, horseback riding, archery and vodka. I can't wait some of the trainees are entering the wrestling competition. We have heard that everything closes down for almost a week for these festivities. We have training until the beginning of Aug. when we will get our site assignments. Then Mike and I get to live together assuming we pass training and actually become volunteers. A lot to look forward to- especially the shower.
Matt and Alli- Congrats- we can't wait to see pictures
Mel and Bri- about Jazz- what a relief. I am so glad the sunflowers are going to make it.
dad- hopefully all is better, we would love an update.
b- love the pictures of the ocean, absolutely beautiful. Glad to hear you can't be taken out by a wave.
Virginia- sorry Mike's phone conversation got cut off. Mike looked like he had been hit by a train. we will call again as soon as we can get to where we can buy phone cards.
Aunt cathy- so glad your wrist is better. we were sorry we missed you to.
Mike is coming to my som(neighborhood) tomorrow, he is bring the computer so we can write a longer blog about Mongolians and their culture without being rushed. Next week we will be able to get pictures on. Thanks for being patient.
father- aav husband- nohoor not to be confused with dog- nohoo
mother- aaj
older brother- akh

we love and miss you all- Alli and Mike

Cheeseburger in paradise

Alli and I are at the Internet cafe right now together and in a couple of minutes we are going to check out this cafe that is supposed to have cheeseburgers. I dont want to get to excited because cafes tend to run out of stuff on a regular basis, or dont have what they say they have in the first place. Example- We went to a cafe two weeks ago that had a big picture of a pizza on the front of it and we walked in and tried to order a pizza and they were like "we dont have pizza you must be crazy". Just one example. So if this place actually has cheeseburgers ill freak. Then Im going to eat seven.
Things are definatley busy here we have tons of work to do but it helps the time go by. Alli is staying with me this weekend and we are going to learn how to make buzz tonight(mongolian pierogies). We recieved two packages so and made coffe for the first time in three weeks this morning. It was fantastic. Tommorrow we are going to make my host family mac and cheese, should be interesting.
-Brandon your last post was great I laughed all night.
-Grandma I am going to try to call you tonight, wait for me to finish speaking before you start because of the delay.
-Dad glad to hear that you are still married and didnt forget nancy's birthday.
-Mom send us some pictures on our email of the sunflowers.
-All parents, calling is tough and expensive. We are only going to be able to make a few phone calls until august 9th when we finish training. When we get sworn in as volunteers we will get a cell phone and you can call us whenever you want but for the next month and a half I will most likely only call grandma and alli will try to call lavonne. We love everyone and think of you often.

Week 2

Sain Bain uu? This is the blog that Alli and I wrote together over the weekend. We will also be able to see each other this weekend. She covered some of this in her blog so if I repeat her, forget about it ohhh.
As a reward for making it through the first week with our host famillies Mike and I were able to see each other and had a sleep over. We feel like were 16 with our families. Mike came over to my Hasha and met my family, and we ate.. alot. everyday here is like being at grandmas, we are forced to eat until we are full and then presured to eat more. Its funny that the mongolian word for eat is "ead" so all we hear at the dinner table is ead ead oo ooo. ooo is drink. Alli's host family has cows so her mother goes out and gets fresh milk for every meal. As far as the booze goes neither of our host families drink, which is good.
Before we get to farahead of ourselves we just wanted to thank everyone who has been writing and sending care packages. They really make our day when we get something. We are sorry that our posts havent been that frequent but we are both over an hour walk away from the internet, and the other day I walked all the way here and it was down. And that sucked.
So what is life like here? Will the exact opposit of what our lives were like in the states work? Probably not huh? Our schedueles are pretty similar so this is for both of us. The roosters start crowing at 530 but that doesnt matter because the sun comes up at 430. We lay in bed and try to sleep but its like god is sitting outside your window. We get up and then go poop in a hole, then spend about an hour writing, doing homework, trying not to go crazy. We eat breakfast around 800 and leave for school around 820 because we both have a 30 min walk to school. Language from 900 til 100 walk 30 min home eat lunch walk 30 min back to school for our technical training. TEFL for Alli and CYD for Mike. School is done for the day around 530 then a 30 min walk home. We try to spend as much time as we can with our host families but our brains are usually mush by this time and we have tons of reading and studying to do. Dinner is usually at about 800 we hang with the fam until about 900 and then back to our rooms until we fall asleep at around 1000. Of course the sun doesnt set till 1100.
Its hard being split up but the days have been going fast and we can see each other on the weekends.
Oh yea on my way to Alli's last weekend I was on a reality tv show. It was like an "amazing race" show. Agroup of people were hitchhiking from moscow to beijing and just happend to be on the same road that i was walking down. One of the contestants saw me and asked if I spoke english and then started talking to me on camera. He was trying to hitch a ride with me to alli's neighbor hood and i told him that i havent seen my wife in a week and i wasnt going to get kicked out of my cab for letting him in. Then i told him to mind the dogs and was on my way.
Have to go now. Love Mike and Alli

We Found Each Other

Happy Belated Father's Day- dad, Don and Brian! We love you and wish we could have been there to celebrate. Happy 50th Birthday fancy (disguised in case you don't want anyone to know)We wish we could have been there to celebrate and eat American food with you.
Sorry it has been a couple of days. Mikes aab(father) delivered him to my house on Saturday!!! I was outside sweating bullets hand washing my clothes and bamb in walks Mike and his aab. We had a great weekend. My family loved Mike and Mike loved my hch (mom) food. He was able to stay until Sunday night. We are both dropping weight quickly. I guess thats what no preservatives and walking everywhere does for you. I am however loving the food. Dairy products all day long.
Days are long but the weeks are moving fast. Today we didn't have afternoon class so my friends and I walked the 1 1/2 walk to use the Internet and I will be meeting up with Mike here in a little while. Next weekend we are going to climb one of the mountains near by, as long as my fear of heights dosen't get in the way.
I will try my best to give a description of what I see daily. In my som there are only dirt roads where animals and cars have the right away. There are quite a few Delgerrs (family stores) that have icecream and such. I walk to school with herds of cows- it is absolutely amazing. The sky seems endless and the sunlight is abundant. There are mountains in every direction. I/all the Americans are quite a sight for the Mongolians although the longer I am here the less they stop and stare at me. Also the more I am able to communicate with them the happier they get. The Mongolian children in my area are simply adorable and love to say hi and hello as I walk down the street.It is also not uncommon to see kids popin a squat anywhere, anytime. Time does not really exist here that I have noticed. It is morning, afternoon or evening. It is alot like the south- patience is a virture. Waiting for the cows and horses to pass takes up a good portion of my day. Yesterday I was able to see my mom and brother shave the sheep by hand. I was getting tired watching them. Dogs in Mongolia serve a purpose and are not to pet so learning down dog is an important phrase. I will try to prepare more for next time we write- we wrote a long blog but I gave it to Mike and have noticed that it hasn't made it online yet! If there is anything you would like to know about let us know... next time Mongolian culture. We miss everyone and love to hear from you- keep'm coming! Love Alli