Khorhog containers

Where's that thigh bone?

 Keep the German sausages coming.

 Holding hot rocks covered with mutton sauce are good for your health. 

I'll need another drink after we get this to the table.

 Ummmmmmm!

It's my turn!

 Can't wait to hit the deep spot.

Ready for the return trip.

 This is not a shaman ritual.

Let's do this again!!

Sunday, August 28

San ban oh!  This is how we say hi in Mongolia.  This is my phonetic spelling and not what you'll find in the English/Mongolian dictionaries.  Our language progress has been slow, so this week the mission is to find someone that we can meet with regularly to help us with the basics.  There is no shortage of Mongolians who want to help us in random situations.  From the manager of the gym we go to (that's one specific set of phrases) to the staff at a picnic, we can learn all sorts of words.  The problem is remembering one or two as we're bombarded with multitudes of words and phrases.  Then there is always the question of what the word really means, which can be judged by the faces of the people that we're trying to communicate with.  The learning curve is huge but not insurmountable.

The setting yesterday for our impromptu language lessons was Pam's and my first khorhog.  This was a picnic with many of the staff and their families from ISU.  We  found ourselves on a bus/van turning off the paved road bouncing and shaking our way past gers, Habitat homes, goats, cows, dogs, shaman prayer sites and, we think, Buddist prayer sites.  We finally stopped under some trees next to a wide open space dwarfed by mountains that surrounded the area.  In the open field some Mongolian staff were huddled around what looked like old aluminum milk containers.  Next to them was a grill with sausages smoking away.  When it was decided the food was ready, the milk containers were carried between two haulers to the food table.  There the lids were popped off releasing a great smell of carrots, potatoes, cabbage and mutton.  It reminded us of a boiled New England dinner with just a different kind of meat.  With a long handled ladle and hands to grab leg bones and other anatomical parts of the sheep, the food was pulled out along with hot rocks.  We were then told that holding the hot rocks was good for the health.  So a number of us played the hot potato game tossing the palm size rocks back and forth between our hands.  The food was very good and rich.  The meat was a bit tough but had great flavor.  After eating, out came the vodka which we were told helped to cleanse the system of grease.  Some of us decided that we needed a good cleaning.  The clear liquid became known as grease cutter.  The Mongolian staff got a huge laugh out of the new name for the vodka.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wading in the Tuul River and playing games like ladder golf, which I brought from the States, ultimate frisbee, singing songs from the various national backgrounds and hitting a volleyball.  We're off to the river again today to do a float trip with inner tubes that another staff member brought back from the States.  This week is the 3 day outing for the secondary program that will have us in the mountains doing team building, rock climbing, some academic work and living in gers.  I'll write about that next time.        

 I don't know what they do when winter comes.  This is on the outside of the black market under a tarp.

 The candy man is at the dentist, I think, but the buyers still come.

 How do you like these prices?

                                                            There is no need for a caption.

 I'm not sure what services this guy was offering.  I'll let your imagine run wild until I have a chance to check in with him.  

 Is that horse, beef, mutton or camel?  That will affect the price.

The view on our walk to work.  The orange/red building in the right corner is ISU.  

21/8/2011

School begins tomorrow.  We've been in lots of meetings this past week, and everyone we ask for information has been extremely helpful.  The school is a beautiful building with lots of light and looks out onto the mountains and the face of Ghinggis Khaan formed by stones on the mountain side.  After 20 years of teaching in one place, it is great seeing how another school prepares itself for the beginning of the school year but also a bit bewildering not knowing where things are, learning new software systems and understanding the IB system all within the matter of one week.  We'll survive though especially with the other faculty's support.  Most everyone is very upbeat and very much enjoy working at the school and are excited about the new administration that has arrived.  We found out that in the Mongolian culture Tuesdays are bad luck days and some of the shops don't open.  I wonder if it will have the same periodic effect on the students that we tend to blame on those full moons.  School starts at 8:20 for the students and goes to 2:50 and then there are one-hour after school activities that all teachers must participate in.  Activities range from sports to knitting to additional ESL time.

Pam and I walk to work in the morning.  School is about a 15 min. walk from our apartment.  If we're feeling lazy, the cold is unbearable or if we are suffering effects from post school refreshments, we can grab a bus the school sends to the apartments at I believe 7:00 and then again at 7:30.  At the moment the mornings are cool (60's) but the afternoons have been in the 70's and 80's.  Our walk takes us past lots of construction of buildings and sidewalks.  Workers are in full noise making mode when we pass them at 7:30 and, frequently, we see the same people at 7:30 at night.  There is a need for manual labor here because many of the Mongolians move to other countries like Korea for better paying jobs.  Many of the manual laborers are Chinese.  The infrastructure is in the process of being put into place.  Guys with shovels and pick axes hack and shovel away at the rocky terrain producing narrow troughs to lay the pipes.  We really need to constantly pay attention when walking for new troughs, open man holes, broken sidewalks and traffic that maneuvers itself to any micro opening that will gain them that additional millimeter towards their destination.

We had a great team building activity last week which was a play on the Great Race.  The staff was broken into teams of four with a new teacher, a Mongolian and then two more staff.  We were given clues that took us around the city with an inanimate object that needed to be in various pictures.  There wasn't a lot of enthusiasm at first for the activity because people were feeling stressed trying to get ready for school, but once someone said "go" the competitive juices flowed.  People ran for their cars or taxis that were quickly called.  By the time we got to a bank whose exchange rate board we were supposed to take a picture of,  we were met on the steps by 2 bouncer looking types and a woman who told us in English to go away.  The end point was the Irish Pub which one brilliant team guessed was the final destination and decided after a bit to head directly there.

I'm heading into the market shortly in search of a vacuum cleaner so I'll get some new photos and post them later.  Bayartai.

Terelj

Spent Sunday in this absolutely beautiful place about an hour out of Ulaanbaatar (UB).  As we traveled into the mountains there were a number of ger camps that folks vacation at.  Camping is a big recreational pastime here.  One can camp in most places and you do not need to follow a road.  People will see a nice area and point the car in that direction.  There are many opportunities to ride horses, camels, hike, rock climb and allow a hunting eagle to perch on your forearm.  The climate is very dry with most days being sunny since we've arrived.  The temps have been in the 80's during the day and 60's at night but just recently we've been needing to wear a fleece.  The Mongolians that we've met have been very friendly and seem to like Americans.  The number of expats has been increasing exponentially since the discovery of vast mineral deposits and the opening of new mines.  The school administration is anticipating a large increase in the student body over the next few years.  We've been in orientation for the last week and as I'm becoming more familiar with the International Baccalaureate program the focus is more on process than on product.  My understanding is that most of the students who earn an IB diploma do very well professionally.  As I learn more I'll share my observations on the difference between the U.S. system and the IB.

This is a camp in Terelj.

The owner didn't want Pam running away with his camel. 

Pam would like to add him to the other animals back home.

The big rock is know as turtle rock.  Did some bouldering here.  The white spots in the background are gers.

The Mongolians are amazing horse riders.  They stand most of the time they're riding.  This guy was trying to round up some runaways.

Terelj

Roadside stand with wild onions, pine nuts, currants, and airag, fermented mare's milk.  Definitely a taste that needs to be acquired.

Pine cones with pine nuts.

Voila!  The pine nut is the light brown seed.  The covering must be removed to find the edible part.

The stove behind the ger where horse meat was being cooked.

A ger restaurant.

Sat. August 6, 2011

Our trip to Mongolia was in three parts:  Hartford to Chicago to Bejing to Ulaanbaatar. The plane leaving Chicago was delayed for about 2 hours because of a medical issue.  A passenger was unable to travel after boarding the plane, so the airport personnel had to comb through the loaded luggage to retrieve that passenger’s before we could take off.  That lessened our 6 hour layover in Bejing.  We didn’t mind being at the Bejing airport, however. It is the most beautiful airport we have ever seen.  It’s large, ultra-modern, and elegant.  Was it built for the last Olympics?

Arrived in Ulaanbaatar about 11:30pm.  Trying to get out of the airport was like running a gauntlet.  As we cleared customs and headed to the outdoors, we entered a looong line of people with cameras and flowers.  Pam and I had 3 carts of bags that we tried to push through the happy greeters.  I’m thinking, this school we’re going to work at is amazing!  How did they get all of these people here at this time to welcome us?  Needless to say, they weren’t there for us but for a group of people who had gone on some spiritual trip.  School reps, Annie, a receptionist at the school, and Dawa, the driver, helped us to the van where we met more U.S. folk going to the school with as much luggage as we had.  We managed to cram it all in and headed to the apartment.  Nice place.  There is plenty of room for the two of us:  a large combination living room and kitchen, one and a half baths that are across the hall from each other, and two bedrooms, one of which we are using for storage right now.  We realized in the middle of the night or was it day or somewhere in between that we were right next to the railroad.  Lots of trains carrying coal that like to blow their horns LOUDly.  We think we’ve seen the Trans Siberian also go by.  Slept for about 4 hours and then got up to look at our new home in the daylight.  Certainly not a beautiful city and my eyes were greeted by a guardian, in a construction lot next to our apartment, dropping trou and taking a dump followed by a full frontal presentation of urination.  At ground level none of this would have been seen but, from the 4th floor, it reminded me of past college scenes and personal experiences in Morocco.  

My first experience with the shower reminded me of what some of the midwesterners dealt with this past spring.  Despite having a shower curtain that covered half the tub, there was probably more water on the floor than in the tub.  Today went much better.  Old dogs still can learn a few tricks.  

Pam and I headed out to explore the town.  OSHA would probably stroke out within 10 yards but, fortunately, our previous experiences with being overseas paid off.  From open manhole covers, to broken sidewalks, to rebar sticking out of the ground probably intended for light poles, we managed to return to the apartment without injury.  During the excursion we passed open air fruit and vegetable stands, candy and cigarette sellers under umbrellas and many buildings that could use some touchups.  People did not hassle us even though it was obvious we were newbies.  We eventually found ourselves in the center of town where Burberry, Armani and Louis Vuitton were showing off their goods to people dressed in traditional garb, male bare bellies, high heels, short skirts, jeans, workout clothes and suits.  We visited the Chinggis Khaan statue in Sukhbaatar Square where we also saw small children driving motorized little cars that their parents rented from the local entrepreneurs. 

Fatigue set in so we headed back to the apartment with one more challenge to take on, shopping at a grocery store.  We passed a statue of Lenin on our way, and armed with the Mongolian dictionary that challenges our pronunciation skills we entered Hypermarket 1.  About an hour later we emerged with 3 different bottles of local beer, some meat, yogurt, tp,

 and cleaning supplies.  I tried finding black pepper, but with my non-existent Mongolian language skills I resorted to showing a woman the dictionary, and she lead me to green, red and yellow peppers.  I motioned that they weren’t what I was looking for, so next we found hot peppers.  I then looked up the word for black and motioned shaking it on food.  The young helper called in the reinforcements who tried the multicolored peppers again.  I tried again to explain about black pepper.  After a conference among the help it was decided that there was none in the store.  Meanwhile, Pam managed to get some beef from the butcher.  All she wanted was 1/4 of a kilo but, unable to say that, she accepted a kilo.  Exhausted we headed back to the apartment to try the beer and make dinner.  So far, the beer with the camel on the label is the one we like the best.  I passed out mid-gulp.  Woke a few hours later, ate and we watched a movie about Chinggis Khaan that friends gave us.  It was great.  The 2:00  am (I think) train blasted its horn waking both of us from a dead sleep but had no lasting effect as it acted as only a slight blip in our sleep.

Sun. Aug. 7

Let’s talk about traffic and a new sport that brought back memories of my youth.  The sport could be called “chicken”.  First the traffic.  The most important feature of the car that one should consider if buying a car is the horn.  Without the horn this city might look more like a demolition derby and possibly a war zone.  A hearing impaired person might not survive more than a day.  Traffic lights seem to be a suggestion but eventually the traffic does stop.  Screeching tires, in an effort to stop, is pretty common.  The drivers can either be on the right or left side of the car.  The traffic moves in the same direction as in the States.  Now for the game.  The objective is to get to the other side of the street alive.  The rules:  One can cross anywhere they like.  There are probably more points awarded if the person is crossing multiple lanes with heavier traffic.  Beginners should start at traffic light with it red.  Wipe out any memory chips of being in Northampton or you won’t make it through the day.

Mon. Aug. 8

Took care of apartment inventory with school staff and then headed into town to visit the Natural History Museum.  Outside of our apartment there were two cars with balloons on them and a giant cake center piece of two people getting married attached to the hood of the car.  On our way downtown the same cars passed us, and they were at the square when we got there.  The bride and groom were in what we would consider traditional wedding attire, the bride in a long white dress and the groom in a western suit.  The guests were dressed in traditional garments with medals pinned to them, (we’ve got to find out what the medals are about), miniskirts, high heels, suit coats, and long dresses.  They congregated at Sukhbaatar Square to have their pictures taken in front of the Chinggis Khaan bronze statue.  After the pictures, they all left for their cars.  Then the next wedding party took their place in front of the statue.  We saw 3 wedding groups that morning in the Square and in front of the statue.  It’s interesting that it was a Monday morning instead of the traditional Saturday day for weddings in the U.S.

The Natural History Museum was interesting in that at times it felt that we were at a middle school science fair.  There was a geology section that had examples of many of the minerals found in Mongolia.  The plant section had pictures of the plants in the wild and then dried versions behind glass.  The insect room had bugs, butterflies, and bees pinned to hard backings.  All of these had simple descriptions of what they were.  The seashell  section made Pam and I realize that the museum was not only about the natural history of Mongolia.  The best part was the dinosaur section.  There were a number of almost completely reconstructed fossils that had been found here.  One exhibit was the world famous, according to the guide book, of fighting dinosaurs that were buried alive under a sand dune.  This was very impressive with the skeletons almost completely intact.   

So far the language progression has barely made any movement.  Listening to conversations sounds like a mix of Arabic and Russian.  I don’t know whether it’s and age thing or “Glory Days” that make me think learning Moroccan Arabic was easier.  I spend hours going over the Cyrillic alphabet pronunciation.  Letters that look like our alphabet I immediately want to pronounce the American way even though I’ve gone over the Cyrillic pronunciation.  Add in the fatigue factor and I become a mute.  There is some progress being made.  I can now remember how to say “Hi”, count to five and “Thank you” every now and then.  It is so easy to empathize with students who struggle learning something new. 

Sat., Aug. 13:  It seems like we’ve been here a month.  My last entry said I felt like I was making progress with the language, scratch that.  Pam and I are trying to figure out how to arrange our tongues and what part of the throat to use to pronounce some of these words.  When I try with the local people have a look of bewilderment at what I’m trying to say.  Most of them politely smile and shake their heads like they understand and so do we when they respond.  Reality is nobody understood what the others were trying to say most of the time.  Kind of reminds me of my class at times.  

The staff at school have been wonderful.  They’ve taken us around town in a van for shopping, out to restaurants, solving problems in apartments, arranging for cell phones (which I don’t have), and all with smiles and lots of patience.  The bus driver, Dawa,  could be considered for rookie of the year with NASCAR.  This past week we’ve had orientation for newbies.  We get picked up in the van in the morning, arrive at school, drink tea or coffee, get orientated and then fed fantastic lunches.  The staff is very upbeat, the building is only 4 years old and they’re putting in a synthetic surface for soccer and other activities before the cold arrives which usually enters most conversations by the newbies.  The weather has not been a concern so far with it in the 80’s and low humidity everyday.  

The newbies are an eclectic collection of nationalities.  There is Karen, the music teacher, and her partner and 11 (?) year-old son from Atlanta.  Holli, is a kindergarten teacher from Alabama who lived in UB (Ulaanbaatar) for a year and a half and has been helping the rest of us with language and recommendations of where to go for what.  Geoff is originally from Zimbabwe but now lives with his partner in Seattle.  He is the theater teacher that makes the Energizer Bunny look like it’s got arthritis.  His partner, Rick, is the head of the primary school, a quiet guy who is very nice.  Sheena, is the art teacher from Ireland who just finished a stint in Korea and is working on American pronunciation.  She seems to be very laid back and is a delight to talk to.  Phillipe and Grecka are the only ones not living in our apartment complex.  He is from Belgium and she is from the Phillipines.  Grecka is working with Pam in ESL and Phillipe is the French teacher.  Finally, there is Ken, who we got to know over a bottle of Chinggis Khaan vodka, last night.  He is a retired industrial arts teacher from Seattle who loves to get out and explore and drink good coffee.  We’re quite an interesting bunch and for the most part all seem to enjoy each other’s company.  We’ll see how things are by Christmas