Info From Our Perspective

Recently my sister asked to interview me for a paper she is writing for a college course. She had to interview someone that has lived in a foreign country. After Clayt and I answered her questions, we thought maybe all of you might also be interested in the information we gave her. I didn't include her questions, as I think they are self explanatory from the answers below.

1. I am spending time in MG to teach English. Also to work a volunteer job (teaching english also). Basically I wanted to improve my teaching skills in various settings and get overseas experience (good for the resume!), along with helping people who might otherwise not get help.

2. There are so many differences between home and MG, where do i begin???
a. greetings: people here greet each other with a "how are you", "how are your cattle doing", or "how is your summer" (etc.)
b. courtesies: there is a mentality of serve yourself here, people will cut you in line, or push you to get on the bus. However, if anyone bumps or steps on your foot, they will immediately shake you hand, even if its during a basketball game!
c. Religion and morals are mostly from Buddhism and Shamanism, also the Soviet period has influenced their opinions about many issues.
d. Family is very important here. One of the interesting things we see is family members often smell each other instead of kiss (I mean, it looks like a kiss by the cheek or ear, but they don't give a kiss, they just inhale deeply). Scent is something special to them. Also, its the most important social unit here. Most of their relationships are based on family or who someone in the family knows. Outsiders are not easily trusted.
e. Entertainment: This varies alot depending on if you are in the country or in the city. For city folks, there are bars (drinking Vodka is a real problem here), nightclubs, a movie theatre, and Karaoke. People here really love Karaoke. In the country where there is seldom even electricity, the traditional Mongolian sports are the most popular form of entertainment - Wrestling, Archery and Horseracing (but drinking is a big problem there too).
f. Dress: you see a good mix of western clothing and traditional MG clothing in both the city and country. Traditional clothing is called a Deel (but pronounced like Dell) and its a robe type garment worn with a very long sash around the middle. In the winter they are lined with sheep wool for warmth. The sash is worn to prevent motion sickness and bruising from horseback riding. The clothing they wear today is in the same style that it has been worn for the past 800 years.
g. Attitudes toward work: this one can be frustrating for westerners. Mongolia was under Soviet control for most of the 20th century, and therefore some (or lots) of people in the city do not yet have an entrepreneurial attitude. There isn't really a concept of "the customer is always right" which we enjoy at home. However in the country I would say that life and work are not separate - you work to live, to survive. People in the countryside live off of what they can produce from their livestock.

3. The climate here is first of all really arid. In the winter it can get down to minus 40, and in this past summer we had some days up in the 90s. The summers are great, low humidity which keeps it cool in the shade and hot in the sun. Winter is by far the longest season, from October to about March. Spring, Summer and Fall are crammed into the other few months. Also, Mongolia is really sunny, with well over 300 days of sunshine a year.

4. Topography: Lots and lots of mountains! Biggest mountains in the west, flat grasslands called Steppe in the east, and the Gobi in the south. Mountains in the northern part (Khenti Mountains) are some of the oldest on the planet. Only .76% of the land is arable. There are also less than 2 people per square mile (its has the lowest population density in the world).

5. Political Ideology: (i copied this from the cia factbook since i can't say much) blend of Soviet, German, and US systems that combine "continental" or "civil" code and case-precedent; constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction. Basically I know its a kind of democracy, but has a lot of corruption on many levels.

6. Live Here?: I have enjoyed my time here so far, but I would not like to move here long term. There are a few reasons for this, but mainly because it is a third world country. The health care is bad, the pollution is bad, the public services are bad. Life expectancy is low, infant mortality is high. The food is NOT good! :)

7. Other Countries Visited: I have visited Guatemala, Canada, Turkey, Thailand and China. I would say MG is the least developed country I have been to. Turkey had the best food. :) China is similar in several ways to MG, but they are definitely more developed - western chains of food and products, sky scrapers, comforts of modern life. Thailand is also really developed thanks to their tourism industry. You know about canada. :) Guatemala also had some severe poverty, but it just didn't seem as bad as in MG. At least they had the sea nearby and a tropical climate suitable for farming.

8. How Many Foreigners: I'm not sure how many other foreign visitors are here. In the summertime we see a good amount of foreigners, all tourists. Mongolia is a popular destination for folks who love nature, hiking, fly fishing and other outdoorsy activities, as long as they don't mind roughing it. The rest of the year however, there are hardly any foreigners. Those we see are other teachers or businessmen, investors (there are mining companies here), etc.

9. The mongolian home: The typical mongolian home is called a Ger (rhymes with hair), which is like a sturdy and cozy tent. It is circular with a wooden floor (only dirt in the summer), lattice wall, and 2 posts in the center for support. The outside covering is made of layers of felt, animal skins, and canvas. Beds line the inside wall along with traditional furniture (chests and shelves for holding everything), and the stove is in the middle with a pipe going up and out a hole in the top of the ger. The stove is heated with either dried animal dung, coal, or wood of any kind (bark, shrub branches, etc.). There is no indoor plumbing, and water for drinking, cooking and bathing has to be fetched either from a river or (if no river is nearby) the closest well (which is sometimes miles away). There is usually a small buddhist shrine on one of the pieces of furniture. They like to decorate the walls with many photos of family members, along with pictures of horses, famous mongolian singers, sumo wrestlers, Korean actors, etc. Their Ger is their living room, bedroom kitchen and washroom all in one. There is not the luxury of privacy, and many times people live with their extended family, grouping their Gers close to one another, like neighbors. ( think like our week up at the islands, where we all run in and out of all the cabins) Many of the Mongolian customs come from living in this type of home.

10. Wealthy or Poor?: On the UN Human Development Index, MG rates 116 out of 177 countries (thats not so good, as 1 is best). Mongolia is a very poor country. I'm probably not the best person to answer why. From what I can see (and getting clayt's opinion): the biggest reason is the harsh climate. So much of life here depends on herding and the nomadic lifestyle, yet the climate really hurts their efforts. They have a word here "ZUD" which basically means a dry summer followed by a harsh winter, resulting in the death of most of their livestock. If you experience a ZUD, then your food and income vanishes literally overnight. With no food, no money and no livestock, people are forced to move into the city to look for work. Also because of the long soviet rule, MG was a late entry to the market economy system. There is no market for or investments in industry, with China so close where everything is cheaper. There is poor infrastructure and few natural resources. The few natural resources they have are extracted by foreign companies with little money staying in MG due to greed of foreign investors and corruption in the MG government.

A Blast from the Past

Here is a short video shot on the last day of the All Good Festival, which we went to last summer with Paul and Tia. Marvel at Clayt's brute strength as he wows the crowd.

Who says a payment services professionals don't have hearts?

C&J- We recently received a package from our friends at ICBA Bancard (my former employer) containing things to help out in the kids here (as well as a few goodies for Jessica and I, which we very much appreciate). There were school supplies, toys, pain killers, vitamins, craft supplies, and other things I am probably forgetting. It took us some time to get it from the post office. The conversation went something like this:

me: "here is all the information, can you look to see if this package is here?"
lethargic mongolian postal slacker: [barely looking up] "no"
me: "can you look?"
lmps: "we don't have it"
me: "it has been three months. it should be here."
lmps: [still not moving a muscle to look through the antiquated log book] "we don't have it"
[at this point an english speaking mongolian woman intervened on our behalf]
lmps: "no"

At this point we are about to leave when, lo and behold, the package appears out of the back room. As usual, the postal slacker offered no explanation, apology, or friendly banter about our previous exchange. He just sent us over to customs.

We decided to take the items to Mongolian office of Christina Noble Children's Foundation, where Jessica volunteers. You can get more information from the website, but, in a nutshell, this is one of the most respected organizations here helping orphans, street kids, incarcerated kids, and poor families. The director already had a lot of ideas for the items all of you at ICBA donated. The organization goes out at night with a van to provide food, medical attention, and a warm place to stay to street kids - if only for a night. Apparently a lot of these kids have been complaining of headaches but the organization hasn't had any pain killers. Now they do. Also, they have kids that are awaiting surgery and will really benefit from those vitamins before and after their operations. The foundation serves about 5,000 kids here, so even with the generous number of toys sent, it isn't enough to stretch. However, in a few weeks the foundation will hold a week-long event for the kids, including recitals and singing as well as sports, art, and writing competitions. The toys sent will be used as prizes to reward the kids for their hard work and preparation.

This organization really does good work here and does everything they can to provide quality services to the kids here. Take a look at the website and see how your generosity is paying dividends half-way around the world. Again, thank you to everyone at ICBA. We'll take some pictures at the children's event and put them up here for everyone to see. Also, thank you to everyone else who has sent things for us, and for others here in Mongolia. We appreciate it, and we're lucky to have friends and family like all of you (or friends of friends, or just random readers, I guess).

Bayan Ooooooolgi...

Clayton and I should have T-shirts made. They would say, "We went to Bayan Olgi and all we got was a stomach virus." We arrived in Olgi on Saturday night. We decided to check out the town on Sunday, and then we would head out for some hiking and camping on Monday. On Sunday evening though, Clayton made the terrible mistake of taking the invitation of a group of little kids to play some basketball. Next thing you know we're inside their home drinking airag and eating homemade soup. Actually, all of it was really fun and interesting, except the Airag. Clayton had to take a time out on the way home to purge, and then couldn't stop for the next 4 hours and felt ill the whole next day. Unfortunately, that evening I got sick also and then we were in trouble. With both of us feeling not so up to speed, our plans of camping were close to impossible.

We decided to take just a day trip, so that our entire time there wasn't wasted. We knew we wouldn't get another chance to visit this place, and it had been one we had wanted to see since we came to Mongolia.

So in our short time in Olgi we saw a few interesting things. We visited 2 families that hunt with birds - eagle and falcon. We also got to check out some old turkik carved stones from the 6-10th centuries way out in the middle of nowhere. We did some sightseeing around town as well.


Out in these parts you're more likely to see hawks than pigeons. This is a gaggle of them we saw hanging around a garbage dumpster that apparently had something fresh in it.


Now I can say I've actually seen people riding things like this around. I think four out of 5 we saw had "facial flair" - crazy mustaches of some sort seem to be a prerequisite for driving this kind of automobile.


This is a view from a little island in the middle of the river just outside of town. We had to take off our shoes and walk through the FREEZING cold river to get here.


We went to the town market on the day it was closed. It was a labyrinth of metal and wood stalls boarded up, but down one aisle we saw some people sorting through their goods - lots and lots of bright yarn.


This is a man we met that is a traditional Khazakh hunter - they hunt for food with trained eagles. They take them from the nest when they are babies and begin training them when they are one year old.


This is my favorite photo from the trip, a close up of the man and the bird - both looking impressive!


Here is part of the group of kids that came out to see us as we looked at the bird. They stared a lot, smiled a little, and each one shook our hands!


Here's Clayt with one of the Turkik stones. We hired a driver who took us out to see this. Its amazing to see something so old and historic just out in the open with nothing around for miles. Actually, one little boy did ride by on his horse, but he only stuck around for a few minutes.


We stopped outside another family's home and people literally came running out to see us. They had 2 falcons, and everyone gathered around to watch us take photos of them. Its strange to feel like such a spectacle. We couldn't talk to them as we don't speak Khazakh, so all we could do is smile at them as they stared.


These two enjoyed our reaction as they perched the falcons on their bare hands, and even posed for a photo for us.


Seeing that we enjoyed his falcons, this guy went behind the wall and popped back up with a big eagle on his arm! I wonder if that made the falcons nervous...


And here is our last view of Bayan Olgi from the airplane - these snow capped mountains are some of the tallest mountains in Mongolia.

2 little random notes - It was interesting (more like a little scary) to take off from a dirt runway in a prop-jet airplane. It was also interesting (more like actually interesting) to hear the muslim call to prayers while we were in Olgi.

10 Dollars well spent? You decide.

J- After our 8 days in Khovd we wanted to visit Bayan Olgi, which we were told was a very bumpy six hour drive away. If we wanted to rent our own jeep and driver, it would have cost over 200 dollars. So, we found a jeep that was leaving on the day we wanted (actually, someone found the jeep for us, and made the arrangements) for just 10 dollars each. The price was right! We were told to be at the jeep at 2 pm. We got there at 1:30 to make sure it didn't leave without us. We sat on the sidewalk in the shade nearby until 3:30.

When we got in the jeep, it was us and one other guy besides the driver. After a few in-town stops, we were on our way at 4pm with 8 adults and 2 children in the car. This was not a van or SUV, it was a Russian, no frills, basic-as-you-can-get jeep. There were 5 of us in the back - Clayton sat in the middle seat and I sat on his lap where I could not sit up straight, but had to hunch over for the whole 6 hours to avoid smashing my head on the car ceiling every other minute.

5 of the people in the car were moving to Khazakhstan, and so had brought a good amount of belongings with them. The man sitting to the left of us had one big box on the floor between his legs, and another on his lap. In the trunk were our suitcases, sleeping bags, a few other duffle bags, and about 7 sacks of various produce, mostly potatoes, onions and mellons. To our right was an old couple. The old man was so happy to talk to us (in Mongolian, so we were clueless mostly) and chain smoke for most of the ride. The one baby in the front seat went between sleep, crying and vomiting quite a bit. There was no leg room, no elbow room, nothing! I can imagine that we actually really looked like packed sardines in there if someone saw us from the outside!

Now, on top of all that, imagine driving over the bumpiest terrain you can imagine in a crappy jeep that has no air conditioning in 90 degree weather and only 3 small windows. On top of that add the smell of exhaust and dust that chokes you and coats everything inside . We stopped every now and then thankfully and we made it to Olgi by 10pm. It was dark by the time we got there, so I took out our little book light to use as a flashlight. The old guy we were riding with was so impressed by it he pulled out (the equivalent of) 5 dollars from his wallet and wanted to buy it from us right then! I have to say, its pretty awesome as far as book lights go. We really wanted to give it to him as he would use it more than us, but it was our only light source and we would need it if we were going to go camping while we were there. I hated saying no. So, if any of you are thinking about sending things, apparently little book lights would be a big hit!

We don't recommend the jeep ride. We were supposed to take a jeep back to Khovd a few days later and then fly back to UB from there, but after the experience we decided to just fly straight back rather than abuse our bodies any more than we already had. Changing our tickets cost us only 17 dollars.

Photo of the jeep below at one of our pit-stops.

A Scenic Tour of Khovd

Well, maybe not the prettiest picture to start a scenic tour with, but at least an interesting one. This is stacked dry fuel patties that families use for heating their stove and ger. They hand make it by taking waste coal (coal crumbs and ash) and mixing it with what our translator calls "fecals." The result is something that is less harmful that pure coal, cheaper, and burns odorlessly.


One family we visited had 2 cute baby goats that were running all over the place. During the interview, one even hopped inside the ger and started to eat the tablecloth covering a small table in the corner. This one we saw outside just before we left. It hopped onto the pile of linens seen in the picture and proceeded to produce "fecals" of his own.


Like all good summertime cookouts, there has to be at least 2 people manning the grill. In this case, our grill was a metal milk crate filled with sheep meat, carrots, potatoes, water, salt and very hot rocks. "Khorkhog" - our favorite mongolian food!


One of the before mentioned "Sleepy Towns."


Here I am along the main river right outside of the Aimag center where we had the khorkhog picnic.


This is Mr. Batsukh with Clayton. Mr. Batsukh was our guide throughout Khovd, and was a real people person. Even though we couldn't communicate very well, he seemed to like us and the feeling was mutual.


At least we can end this post with a nice view. In Khovd we saw small town after small town, and one beautiful landscape after another. - the places we saw and the people we met - it was a trip where we exercised a full range of emotions, to say the least.

Airport Delay

The start of our trip out to Khovd was delayed by about 35 minutes as they shut down the entire airport about 20 minutes before we were supposed to board. The reason? The Emir of Kuwait was in Mongolia, and his flight had to leave first. So, we got to watch the excitement from inside the airport. At first there was just the airplane, with a rolled out red carpet which 2 women were repeatedly dusting off with little brushes. Then, a troupe of fancy black cars sped into view and pulled up in front of the airplane. And, here is one of the many, many, not-that-exciting photos we got of the action. We aren't sure which one is the Emir, any of you recognize him? :) All of the excitement was over in less than 10 minutes. I wonder what the Emir of Kuwait thinks of Mongolia....?

Western Mongolia: Do you hear an echo...echo...echo...

(Here is Clayt conducting one of the many interviews where we went to a Ger, only to find out the man of the house was out herding, so we went out in search of him, and somehow found him! You can just see clayt near the back of the jeep, sitting and conducting research. You can click on photos for a larger view.)

So, I am writing this blog post from the aimag center of Bayan-Olgi, a town called Olgii. Its pretty interesting here. The roads are paved (well the 4 roads they have, that is) and most of the population is Khazakh, or some mix of Khazakh/Mongolian. Its strange to us to walk around and see very few Ger homes and nobody wearing Dells. It makes communicating a little tough, as you aren't sure if you should try to speak Mongolian, English, Russian or Khazakh.

While we travelled around Khovd to different Soums (towns) we
stayed in all kinds of places. Our very first night we stayed in a small sleepy town (they were all small sleepy towns of varying size) where there was no hotel or even a Ger for us to sleep in. So, we spent the night in the Hospital bui
lding, which was under construction repairs. There were no beds, so we slept on the floor on some kind of bed pad things. I wasn't too pleased as I don't care for Mongolian hospitals in the first place... But it was fine. Clayton got sick from drinking Airag at a herder's home and I needed to get some water for him. We went to 3 different shops and not one had bottled water of any kind. Can you imagine a whole town that doesn't have drinkable water? They use the river of course, but I'm not sure if that would have hurt or helped his stomach more.

The next night we stayed in a big concrete Ger - me, clayt, the translator, our aimag guide and the driver - no privacy. Also, the ger top was completely open, and as we were close to the river, the whole place swarmed with mosquitos. We were told to make sure we wore bug spray to bed and stayed covered. In the very nice and very very warm sleeping bags we got from the marings a few chirstmases ago, it made for a sweaty and smelly night. Oh and the driver and guide? They had the worlds loudest and most confounding snore-fest that night - Clayt and I can only describe it as a mix between the sound of power tools and dying opera singers. :)

Then we got the treat of staying in a "hotel" that only had electricity controlled by a generator, so you had no control over when the lights were on or off. No indoor plumbing. They also had a disco bar downstairs that blared unnecessarily loud music until the wee hours on a Monday night.

The following night our accomodations were the town Kindergarten building, I think in a room that was used for "nap time." It had recently been painted, so in case we had trouble sleeping with the dogs barking outside, at least we could pass out from paint fumes... :)

The best place we stayed at was in the aimag center. They took us to a hotel which wanted to charge us $40 a night (which for here, is a ridiculous rip-off) for a room with 2 small twin beds, and no hot water. We said no way. So, our aimag guide found us a girl who had an apartment between renters and we stayed there for $10 a night. It was pretty sweet to have our own little place - no hot water, but we had a hot-pot/tea kettle thing and we made our own hot water. We had a little electric cooler in there too to keep our beers cold. Not bad!

Despite the various confusions, frustrations and dicomforts, there was so much that made it worthwhile. The people were so friendly, and of course the surroundings often left us speechless. The food is never that great, but on the upside we have both slimmed down a little. No complaints there!


Here is one of the pretty views from where Clayton was conducting an interview. It was fun to play photographer while he did his work.


This is the wife and sons of a family that have the best vegetable garden in all of Khovd Aimag - they are award winners! Their garden was full of delicious vegetables and pretty flowers.


2 kids that worked up the nerve to say hello to us early in the morning in a town in the southern part of Khovd. We took their picture, which they thought was really funny, and maybe a little embarassing. Everywhere we go, the little ones love to say Hello, and then either laugh or run away.


This photo Clayton took because its a hard thing to describe without a photo. This man sat across from us in a Russian van we had to take back to the aimag center after our jeep broke down - its transmission broke. Click on the photo to see more closely, but he is wearing very pinkinsh-red lipstick. This is the second time we have seen this, and it confounds us. Our translator theorized that it may be a chapstick substitute, since they don't have any chapstick out in these parts. Still, its a little unnerving when you look over and this guy is staring at you with his bright pink lips all aglow.

More fun details to come, from the comfort of our home in UB a few days from now (that is, if we survive flying out of here from an airport without a paved runway...!) :)

Don't act like you're not impressed...

C - There is a reason that the countryside is so often romanticized in casual mongolian conversation. It is almost overkill. After the hundredth stunning vista, when you've again made the obligatory comments about how no one has ever stood on that spot in history, or how those mountain ranges are incredible, or how the valley opened up for miles around you as you came over another hill. Eventually you just quit talking because the spectacular openness - always accompanied by mountains on all sides - begins again over every next mountain. The extraordinary becomes ordinary. We saw rolling green hills, rocky piles of boulders that you'd swear were dropped their by some giant hand, long red valleys that stretched for miles around like the surface of mars, fuzzy green mountains, a 500-yard series of sand dunes separating the steppe from a mountain range, calm rivers whose banks were dotted with distant gers, volcanic rocks laying where they had been spewed countless years ago - like a pot of spilled topsoil on a kakhi carpet.

On our recent leg we traveled through four aimags (like states), spending considerable time in three of them. We began in Arhangai and proceeded on to Bayanhongor and then Uverhangai. We passed through Tuv Aimag on the way home, where we stopped for a delicious lunch of some sort of hot dog/sausage in a weird gravy (add the sarcastic tone of your choice). You can see our route on the wonderful Mongolian judicial map below, included for your entertainment and education. Also, if you look to the far west of the country, you can see Hovd and Bayan-Olgii, where we'll be spending roughly the next two weeks.



So, in the frame of my internship I was conducting interviews in these Aimags. Jessica accompanied to take pictures on the trip and to see the country with me a bit. We spent a lot of time talking with people in their gers and eating dangerous amounts of homemade dairy products. We had quite a bit of airag (fermented mare's milk), aarul (a variety of dried curd products), orom (clotted cream), dried cheeses, Mongol arkhi (vodka distilled from mares milk or cows milk). An interesting variety of delicacies almost all of which I prefer to fatty meat. Below you can see the spread of dairy products one Mercy Corps client produces - note the cow stomach filled with butter in the lower left. Jessica touched it without knowing It had just been filled the day before and was therefore soft and still stomach-like.



Although we were really busy going from place to place interviewing people, we did have some time for ourselves toward the end of the trip. Usually we explored the local towns (mostly really tiny places that came into view after 2-3 hours of driving through desolate nothingness - sometimes across rivers and dried river beds. We were fording rivers like it was the game Oregon Trail. Luckily no one died of dysentery). We also climbed up the available hills/mountains, always sure to return before dark due to warnings about wolves. One of the people traveling with us told us about a man she and her father picked up on the road one day. He was camping when wolves attacked and subsequently ate his horse, then attacked him. He had fended them off and was burning a fire in a night-long vigil to keep them at bay. I guess they have earned their reputation. As you can see, it is a good idea to keep an eye on Jessie.


Because this trip was related to Mercy Corps work, we were again lucky to see mongolian life in the raw, not mediated by the tourist industry that sometimes tries a little too hard to make sure you get the right experience. The people we met were regular folks trying to make a living the a country not rich in natural resources, capital, or population (for labor or consumption). It can be a bit daunting, but these people were doing their best. Generally we would find them at work regardless of the time of day. Some didn't have any electricity but had found their own ways around the handicap.

This furniture producer has electricity, but faces another problem. He can't find a workforce. He has five employees: 2 carpenters and 3 painters (all deaf). He cannot keep up with orders without more workers. To boot, 2 of his three painters are perpetually drunk, which he has to tolerate. Another drunk employee kept interrupting our interview, once trying to sit down and accidentlally ramming into Solongo (a woman working on this project with me). He had to be physically escorted out of the room (by the scruff of the neck and the back of the pants). The guy wasn't really sanctioned in any other way by his boss. Its just part of the cost of doing business for him.


This gentleman used to be a monk, but was forced to close his monastery due to a lack of funds. He is now a rather successful herder in Bayanhongor. I have run into him twice before, so we were pleasantly surprised to see each other again (I interviewed him at a market day once, and saw him in the Bayanhongor Mercy Corps office when last I was there). He has a very interesting home (not a ger) with many buddhist images and pictures. As everywhere we went, these people offered us food and drinks, and seemed to treat the occassion as a social event as much as a business exchange.


These folks have been labeled some of the best vegetable growers in Mongolia, and are just now trying to make a commercial success of it. Around them you can see their potatoes and cabbages growing in their field. They have dug a 300 foot-long ditch to irrigate their crops from the river. They also cleared and prepared the land by hand. They made us vegetable soup (again, this is a misnomer, as vegetable soup generally contains few veggies and a lot of fatty meat) with their fresh produce which was excellent, although seeing people cooking your food over a fire fueled with animal dung takes some getting used to.


We met this man in a very small town called Jargalant, the farthest north we traveled. You could see horse tying posts across from the town hall (which, by the way, was also the only place in town with extra beds - we stayed in more than one town hall on this trip). He carves saddles by hand out of tree stumps - he also had to gather most of his raw materials by hand, which can't be easy. He, like many others, said that electricity could really improve his productivity. As with many things in Mongolia, people really invest some time and effort to produce items that they end up selling for what I would consider bargain basement prices.


This little lady stopped us in Jargalant to show us her hand-made souvenirs. I don't imagine she gets many people to come and look. We went with her and looked at an array of crochet animals, felt decorations, hats and bags, etc. When she came to the green jacket in the picture below, she carefully folded it and handed it to me. Our translator said she was giving it to me, which I tried to refuse because it seemed too much. She insisted and gave jessica a felt seat cushion. We didn't want to take these gifts that she had obviously labored over without buying something, so Jessica bought the ugliest little camel doll I have ever seen. maybe you can see him later. We are going to send a copy of this picture to the lady.


In Arhangai the Mercy Corps office treated us to horhog, a traditional mongolian meal cooked with hot stones. First you have to slaughter a sheep. Then you put the meat, potatoes, and carrots in a container along with salt and some very hot rocks. You leave it sit or bury it to cook for a while, then bon appetite! In the picture below you can see the precursor to the meal. Mongolians really try to use everything. They mix some blood with meat and onions and stuff the intestines for sausage. They eat all of the organs, the tongue, and even save the blood. The mix the blood with spices and onions, pour it in the stomach, cook it until it gets hard, then eat it. The skins are sold for various uses. For some folks I suppose this sort of thing isn't so spectacular, but I am used to buying meat in neat little cubes in the grocery store. The smoke you see is burning cow dung, which helps to keep flies off the meat.


So, on this trip I interviewed people in gers where peoples children were sleeping, on a hillside next to a herd of goats being milked, on the roadside (we were waiting for a herder who had gone into town, but had to leave before he arrived. We stopped a motorcycle on our way out of town and it was him), on a cot with no mattress outside in someone's yard, among people pounding out felt, alongside people hand-made contraptions that pounded wool into felt, in our car, and everywhere in between. We met interesting people all over. Many people really weren't looking to make a lot of money. Instead, they were trying to create wealth and jobs that stayed in their communities and contributed to the quality of life there. We played with people's fat little babies who were often skeptical until we gave them the stickers my mom sent me. People were really friendly, and liked to have a good natured laugh about the things we were interested in, like how they milked their goats for example.


As always, I haven't even scratched the surface of our adventure (other drunk people, an almost constant confusion based on everyone speaking mongolian, the incredible variety of wildlife including vultures, foxes, marmots, a host of other birds, countless yaks, sheep, horses, goats, camels, GIANT grasshoppers that plague Jessica's dreams. I guess if you want that info, you'll have to give us a call.

Here are some other interesting photos from our journey. Round 2 (Hovd, Bayan-Olgii) begins tomorrow, so you probably won't hear from us for a while.