End of School Year Festivities--Khuduu Trip #1



One of the boys learning to race horses.
This is at the herder's ger in the middle of the steppe--
note the solar panel and satellite dish.



Sook Bin, enjoying his camel photo op.



These are porogons--rugged and uncomfortable.

A couple saddled horses. So beautiful.

Yeong Ji being hoisted onto the camel...1...



...2...



...3...



Success!



The man to the left with the cigarette in his mouth is the best horse racing coach in the aimag and my school's herder.

Hi All! My school year finally came to a close a couple weeks ago. I had 2 trips to the khuduu (the countryside) to mark the occasion. The first trip I went with a couple branch managers, the deputy director, my counterpart Ariunaa, the 2 Korean volunteers at my school (Yeong Ji and Sook Bin), the visiting educational consultant who was French Canadian (Jean Luc), and his interpreter. Much ado was made over the international make-up of the group. There were many toasts to the international cooperation for the success of the school. I have no idea how Mongolians find destinations in the vast steppe lands. We all rode in the school's porogon. A porogon is kind of like the Russian version of an all-terrain VW Bus. The engine is under the front seat, and I'm pretty sure shock absorbers are non-existent. So, we drive out of town on the paved road til we hit the gravel road which we travel on for several kilometers until we turn off on what appears to be a random dirt road across the steppe. We follow the dirt road which winds around so that it's difficult to tell what direction we're going in. Then at another seemingly random spot we turn off the dirt road and go tearing across the steppe. We're probably 20 kilometers or so outside of town but I really have no idea where we are. We come to a ger in the middle of the steppe with a herd of horses and a small herd of camel. We get out of the porogon, and go into the ger. We're served suutai tsai (milk tea) but for once it's not hot. It is a swelteringly hot, sunny day. And we also get aruul (dried milk curds) and aruun (which is this creamy butter kind of stuff that is quite good--milk is boiled and the cream rises to the top then the milk with the cream at top is set aside for a few days; then the cream is scraped off the top. Sometimes you have to pick a fly out of it but it's still tasty.) The ger belongs to my school's herder. Because my school is a vocational school with agriculture and veterinary majors, my school has a herd of animals (mostly sheep I think but a few horses too) and a farm. I found out that my school's herder is known as the best horse riding coach in the aimag. He trains boys to ride race horses. There are 3 or 4 boys at the ger too, along with the herder and his family, learning to race horses. We stay at the ger long enough to drink a cup of suutai tsai and pick up the khorkhuk (the barbequed sheep) which the herder has already prepared for us in the traditional way using hot stones. We get back in the porogon and go tearing across the steppe again to a perfect spot by the river. Khorkhuk is absolutely the best way to eat mutton. It's delicious. Everyone just grabs a big ol' bone and eats with your fingers. A knife is handed round to assist in getting the tough bits off the bone. And of course the Mongolians eat everything off the bone, fat, gristle and all. When I'm done with my bones, I give them to a Mongolian because they think there's still lots of edible meat on the bone. There are also potatoes that are cooked with the khorkhuk and are delicious, and some of the broth is passed around too. I soak bread in the broth. It's really quite tasty. Of course, vodka comes out and there are several toasts. After lunch we take a little dip in the river. A couple of the boys have brought the small herd of camel, which belong to the herder's friend but have been brought for the foreigners' delight. Yeong Ji, Sook Bin, and Jean Luc all got on a camel for photo ops, but I declined. The camel does not go down on its knees so you can get on. The Mongolians hoist you up onto the 7-8 foot tall camel. I decided that getting on and off the camel could pose a danger to my leg, so I declined to get on the camel. Also, I didn't want to be "hoisted" up. I took photos, though of the others. After the camel photo ops, we headed home, tearing off across the steppe again.



Jean Luc, looking a little uncomfortable with a moving camel
and nothing to hold on to but the hump.
Mongolia has the only 2 hump camels in the world.