Life in Rural Mongolia

Well, its day six in the countryside and I'm sitting in a tiny internet cafe/grocery store while clayt does an interview with a herder next door. There are only 2 computers and I'm on one, and there are four little boys gthered around the other one playing a game of computer billards.

This has been an interesting trip so far, and I'll give you just a few of the highlights for now, and we'll post a nice big entry with photos when we get back to UB. We are busy all day long. We leave at around 9 each morning and don't stop until after 10pm. Our time is spent either conducting interviews, driving to another tiny town, or asking for directions or getting help finding someone.

We've eaten lots of mongolian food, and I bet we will both have lost at least 5 pounds by the time we get back to the city! Its lots of dairy products. And when I say dairy I mean unprocessed, unrefrigerated, fly-covered dairy. We ate sheep meat that was about as fresh as it can get, and have had our share of both milk tea (boiled milk, a tiny bit of black tea and salt)and airag (the fermented mare milk). Needless to say, we've both had stomach issues already.

We have bathed only once so far, and almost none of the towns have had indoor plumbing. All of the places we have spent the night (ger camp or a room in a government building since there are no hotels in these places) - not one has had indoor plumbing or running water. We are pretty greasy looking and smelly at this point!

All that aside, the Mongolian countryside is really a beautiful and amazing place! We have seen all kinds of birds, baby yaks, horses, sheep and goats, giant grasshoppers, rivers, hot springs, and lots of cute mongolian babies.

Speaking of babies, can you imagine raising a child here? No diapers, no car, no bottles, no strollers or baby carriers of any kind! When they have to leave the ger to get something, they tie a long piece of fabric around the kid's waist, tie the other end to one of the indoor ger posts, and leave them there.

Another interesting sight: countryside mongolian men rolling cigarettes out of news paper. The ink can't be good for the lungs (and the tobacco of course).

We are meeting all kinds of people here. We've met a saddle maker, herdsmen, dairy producers, shop owners, homemade ice cream makers, ger furniture carpenters, felt producers... and more to come!

Today there is a possibility of a shower, but we aren't holding our breath. We bought four big bottles of water just in case. We've got 8 more days to go before a week break back in UB. After that, we fly to Khovd for more of the same. We were thinking about going camping on our week off, but after this I think we might just be happy to be back at our apartment with a hot shower and tasty home cooked food and our own bed. We'll see.