End of the Year Festivities--Trip to the Khuduu #2

So, the second trip to the khuduu (countryside) was with all the teachers, staff, and administration from my school. We went to the school's farm. The farm is only about 7 km outside the city. There are 2 or 3 cabins with a bunch of beds in them and a cook house out there. Three or four students take turns staying out there to take care of the crops. They grow potatoes, carrots, cabbage--all the regular mongol veggies. And it's near the river. The cabins are pretty nice. They're log cabins. Of course, there's no plumbing, so there's an outhouse. There's a family that lives in a ger not far from the farm that helps oversee the farm. We had some visitors on this trip too. A couple of petroleum engineering professors from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology and an administrator from the Da Chin Petroleum Company (a Chinese mining company for whom our school provides trained workers). Petroleum mining is one of our big and growing bigger majors. Any hoo...this is a day for all the school's employees to eat khorkhuk (barbequed mutton), drink a little vodka, swim in the river, sing a few Mongolian songs, celebrate the successful school year, and start vacation. It was a very good day!  We had a lot of fun.


Sheep skin--good eats!



While waiting for the khorkhuk to finish cooking I went down to the river (maybe a hundred yards away) with my counterparts, and when we got back the first round of khorkhuk had been eaten up. So we had to wait for the next round to finish cooking. We were pretty hungry, so while we were waiting I was given this plate of "food." It's sheep skin and the layer of fat right under the skin. I'm not sure how it was cooked--smoked, fried, roasted? It was very rubbery but it had a delicious smoky flavor to it. Slap it on a thick slice of bread, taking off some of the fat, and it tides one over for the real meat.



Waiting for khorkhuk. That's Chuluuntsetseg, my CP,
on the left in the red hat. I'm sitting betweeen Naraa (social studies teacher)
and Bayasaa (agriculture teacher), who were in my teachers' English class.



Chuluunkhuu (welding and heavy machine operation teacher
and one of my English students) belting out a Mongol tune.



Me, Ariunaa (my CP), Bayasaa, and our school's Director, Enkhjargal

From left Chuluuntsetseg, Naraa, Ariunaa, Batsurek
(petroleum mining teacher) and Enkhbayar (mining teacher,
branch manager of the mining branch, and one of my English students)
 sitting in one of the cabins.

The men are racing across the river,
having taken running jumps off the bank.

Well, tomorrow I'm headed to UB and on Tuesday I fly out to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I'm going with my sitemates, Trinh, Joel, and Bob, and my friend from training, Becky. We'll spend 2 weeks in Vietnam and 2 weeks in Cambodia. Trinh has family in Vietnam, so we're going to spend about a week with them in the Mekong Delta. Should be fun! And Trinh speaks both Vietnamese and Khmer, so that will be very handy. We'll spend a week at the beach in Vietnam--I can't wait. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I will not be eating any sheep products. Only seafood, fruit, and green vegetables--YUM!