Imagine that on one windy sunny afternoon while you are out herding your sheep and goats, a mini-bus comes over the hill, stops at your one-room house (called ger) and 20 people step off to have lunch and spend the afternoon with you. In the Mongolian countryside, there is no forewarning of a visit and people are always welcoming.
This is what we did last Saturday. I think the family has pre-approved VSO dropping in on them but I don't think they ever had a group as large as 20 before. So we sat around their house, played with the children, ate lots of food (lots of which we brought with us so as to not be a huge burden on them), discussed a few topics like where we are from and their livestock. We drank the best salty milk tea we've had so far and a nice bowl of hot milk from their cows. The homemade cheese was delicious also. The family was very nice and young, in their early thirties I think they said, with an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. The girl would go out periodically with her dad and help with the herding. They'd be off on the hill bringing the sheep and goats back closer to the home. The gers are all set up pretty much the same: stove in the middle, beds on either side, bag of fermenting milk on the left side of the door as you enter, etc. This one was no different. Aaron got to sniff a snuff bottle.
Aaron and I went out at some point to climb the nearby hills and check out what's on the other side of the hills. Anyone care to guess? More hills. The hills are pretty barren with just grass and rocks and marmot holes covering them. There was one patch of trees in the far distance.
At the end of the afternoon we thanked them, said goodbye and retreated to our mini-bus for the hour drive back.
And now you may see photos of our visit.
mc
This just in, you can now see the following short video clip as well.
-AA
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2 comments:
Trying this out to see if I can send. Enjoying reading your blog and looking at pictures. Bonnie and Bill are interested in seeing your Blog etc. so will send on. When you say you were not expected by the family but they did know VSO would be coming some time, have others visited them or were you the first?
We went with an ethnologist who knew the family and had brought other VSO groups with him to visit before. Our visit wasn't *totally* unexpected.
mc
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