Mmmmm... Tastes Like Mongolia

Mongolian ice cream. Gross.

After meeting with teachers I will begin training tomorrow I spent some time with a PC volunteer and one of her co-workers who also works for GertoGer, the organization I traveled with. One of the events of the day was going to the store and buying "ice cream." Nanga, the co-worker, said, "This is my favorite. It's more like yogurt." I thought, "Hey, I LOVE Fro-yo!" The PC volunteer said, with words that melted my excitement, "It tastes like Mongolia." And it did. If there is one thing I wish I could bring back for you it would be that goat-yogurt-sand-sweat on a stick. But I ate it because it's really hot.

Back to the adventure...

More Memorable Experiences

• Being told in Mongolian that, "Tand mongloor yarakh boloh" (You should speak Mongolian). Thanks buddy.
• Knowing that I'd have to drive 15km to get cell phone service or 200km to get internet. Oh, and there aren't landlines or electricity.
  
• A guy trying to flirt with me using a dictionary.
• Drinking water from a holy well and not getting sick!
  
• Eating the same food over and over again. It was always some combination of the same ingredients. I flipped out when I was given a bowl of rice for lunch because it was so different... which leads me to

Things I Learned

• Humans do not need vegetables. Mongolians live off of water, white flour and dried goat/sheep (fresh meat in the winter). Some get potatoes if they are lucky. Some get cabbage and carrots if they are REALLY lucky. And if it's time to slaughter a goat- you get REALLY REALLY lucky and eat innards, the meat is obviously sold. (Side note- I have awesome before and after pictures of the goat slaughtering process.)
  
• You do not need a varied diet to do hard labor and be in great shape.
  
• Mongolians have no sense of personal space or personal belongings. This probably comes from living in a ger where there is no place for "alone time." They will rest on you if you are available to rest on. They will hug you if they like you. They will get in really close if they want to see your pictures. They will take your stuff if you have it though you may take their stuff as well. Sharing is their way of life so there aren't many "thank yous." (If a 6 year old knows you have cookies, don't expect to have cookies the next day.)
• In the summer, you sleep a lot. I thought families were just being nice to the traveler by suggesting I rest but no, I'd go to sleep on the floor of the ger and wake up with 3 other people sleeping on the floor of the ger as well.
  
• They spend a lot of time with their families. The men do short spurts of intense manual labor and chill at home when they don't have to be herding.
  
• Women and men have obviously different places in the home. Men have a special bowl and a special seat in the ger. Men DO NOT cook or milk. Women DO NOT go and herd.
  
• Children here are much more competent. 2 year olds do serious chores- Dorma brings hot water back and forth between gers!
  
• Babies do not use diapers. Moms seem to know when their kid needs to go and take them outside or put down some paper.
  
• Children NEVER talk back or fight with parents. It's unheard of.
  
• Instead of air conditioning, you roll up the bottom felt of the ger to let the cool air in and keep the top open to let the hot air out.
• How to make traditional felt.
• How to construct a ger.
• How to do traditional embroidery (though not very well).
• That some Mongolians believe that there is only one type of Buddhism and all the scriptures are written in Tibetan. I tried to ask this woman answering questions in a monastery about why Mongolia has Tibetan Buddhism rather than any other school and how it got there and she told my 13 year old translator that I was asking nonsense questions. As far as I understand there is Mahayana, Theravada and Vajrayana. Tibetan falls under Vajrayana. And there are definitely texts in Chinese and Sanskrit. Is she ignorant, am I wrong or was something lost in translation. Guess what I think.
• You drink tea out of the cup you are served food in.
• People in the desert are the poorest in the country. I saw serious disparities in wealth. Normally a ger has 1-2 beds, 2 chests, 1 bureau and at least one other piece of furniture for bowls. The families in the greener steppe who had more tourists had somewhat similar setups. But the family by the sand dunes I stayed with had nothing but a mini cupboard for bowls and 7 people slept in the small 5 lattice ger. Come to Mongolia and visit them. They need tourists!

Tomorrow I begin training teachers and teaching English. How do you train teachers who have NO materials?