Adventure to Erdenet

Some of our team recently took a van out to Erdenet. We struck out on our adventure at 7 a.m. on April 4.  It was a 6 1/2 hour drive there, and an 8 hour drive home (due to driving in the dark, wanting to avoid potholes and crossing cows and oncoming traffic which happens quite often here, and having a flat tire).   After arriving in town, our driver pulled over and asked a local where there was a good place to eat.  A woman directed us to...

So, Erdenet, a city of less than 100,000 in northern Mongolia, provides Korean cuisine.  It was delicious and nutritious! 

On we went to see the city.  Some of our teammates are considering teaching in this city.  I went along to get to know my teammates and Mongolia a little better.  It was nice to get a different view of Mongolia than just the busy city life we experience daily.  Yes, we've been to a ger, we've travelled out into the country, but this was a different area for me to see; also, Erdenet is the 3rd largest city in Mongolia, and I was curious what it had to offer and how it had developed since it was established in 1974 mainly because of a copper mine industry. 

For more info on the city itself, go here.

We were meandering around the city, seeing shops, a theatre, a sports complex, ATM's and banks.  These are all points of interest to someone who might move to the area.  There were two important places we were having trouble finding: schools and churches.  So, our driver stopped to ask a young boy and girl in front of a Mormon (yes, established in Erdenet) after-school activity center.  They willingly hopped into our van to lead us to a school and church within a block of one another.  Now, if these were my children, I'd be infuriated that someone invited them into their van and carted them around the city as tour guides.  But, this is Mongolia.  And this was a Mongolian driver asking Mongolian children, so I stayed out of it and watched the culture in action. 

Here's our new teammate (just arrived in late February), Barb, sitting across from me in the van.  We had seats facing one another.  Beside her was our young tour guide who led us right to where we needed to go.  We shared some candy with him, and I gave him a small bag of cheese I hadn't eaten for breakfast.  He willingly accepted both.  After taking us across town, our director gave him 500 tugricks (worth a little less than 50 cents) and he and his sister had to walk back across town to get back to their starting point...about a 10-15 minute walk. 

Young girls all over the world love to hang in groups.  Acceptance is such a need in our human heart, isn't it?  These girls cheerfully sang out, "hello" in English.  When we tried to strike up a conversation in English, though, they just smiled.  However, I asked them how old they were in Mongolian...9 and 10 years old.

On the edge of town is a new Buddha statue.  There are MANY steps to the top, and the statue itself sits atop a building which hasn't opened yet.  The idol is HUGE.

Here, a ger and van can be seen off to the left, as well as people in the front. 
This gives a view as to the size of this statue idol.

Perhaps some day our team members will have an encouraging influence on the children pictured earlier.  May each of them come to know the Father.

Our Diverse Study

I love my weekly study of the Word with women.  There is something amazing about the Mongolian culture.  There is an open attitude to diverse ages meeting together for just about anything.  I have to share this awesome picture which shows women ranging in age from 19 to 62. 

One woman I met when we had a party for English speakers in our building.  We posted an announcement on the first floor last fall, inviting anyone in our building to our party for English speakers.  "If you can read this, you may come!" was part of the invitation.  Now, we've enjoyed stopping in at each others apartments for quick visits and she comes to study almost every week. 

Another woman in this photo sat down next to me one Sunday at church and we struck up a conversation.  She is a dear friend, now.  We see each other almost every Sunday and sit together.  Her husband died several years ago when her four children were ages 5-12.  She has experienced the faithfulness of her heavenly Father. 

The youngest woman and I met at a friend's birthday party.  We have only been meeting together for about a month and she just recently became a sister.  She is hungry to grow and learn more.

Lastly, the only American in this photo is a new teammate with our organization.  We are so happy she and her husband have joined the team. 

This day two weeks ago was a blessing as we talked about the details of the upcoming Easter holiday and what those details mean to us. 

Today, only two of these women could come, and one came at 12 noon and the other came at 3:30.  Today, two different studies, two different women, two different stories, one Savior who loves us all.

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

Sometimes there's something blog-worthy, but no photo to go along with it.  Such is the case today.  Last night, Kevin, two other teachers and I went to the Jur Ur Bakery for an after-teaching supper.  The weather was so nice that the bakery had propped their door open.  In walked a cat. 

When I went to sit down at the only empty table, the cat was under the bench where I'd be seated soon.  One of the young men who works at the bakery was trying, and failing, at getting the cat to come out.  Just for fun, I said, "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty," in my best cat talk voice.  I wiggled my fingers as if I had something to feed the unsuspecting cat.  I really had no vision of what would happen next.  The cat came out obediently and started to follow me.  I kept doing the same "cat call" and finger wiggling, sure that any moment the cat was going to get a clue, disattach from me, and run across the restaurant.  Amazingly, the cat walked right out the door with me, as I kept saying in a cooing, high-pitched voice, "Here Kitty, Kitty...."  I felt like most of the people in that bakery were watching the crazy "Cat Whisperer from America" usher the cat out, but I think I was a hero in the eyes of the young man who had tried to kick the cat out.  He said, "Thank You!" and shut the door to keep the cat out. 

Cats are not well loved by all Mongolians, so I'm sure it wasn't good business to let the cat stay as a guest.

A little side note: This is the bakery that has sometimes closed its doors to us right as we walk in at 8:30, even though the closing time is posted as 9 p.m.  Maybe they'll keep their doors open to us in the future?  Not sure!

Back Pulver

Okay, so my mom asked, "What's a 6 pack of baking powder?"  Here's some photos.  The name for baking powder is "back pulver"...I think it's German.

Front view of the 6-pack of baking powder envelopes

Six little envelopes which hold 3 1/2 tsp. each, packaged together in cellophane.

Enough baking powder for 6 recipes of pancakes.

My husband just said, "You're blogging about THAT?"  Yes, I'm crazy.

A Study in Contrasts

Tsagaan Sar was the story that seemed to never end!  Even though it started on Wednesday last week and finished (supposedly!) on Friday, we were called on Saturday morning to "Please come to our home" on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  These last two visits were just as delightful as the others, yet in different ways.

Saturday, we were invited to Tuul's home.  She is a business woman I have met, and I tutor her in English once or twice a week.  We have been using a children's storybook about The Word.  This has been building her vocabulary and sentence structure capabilities in a meaningful way.  The last time we met, she said about the crucifixion story, "Oh, I saw this on TV."  Seeds being planted.  One by one.

Here, Tuul and her husband perform a little duet:

And, here's Tuul's daughter, posing in front of a plant in their home:

 

Tuul's husband presented his snuff bottle to us.  This is a Tsagaan Sar tradition.  The snuff bottle is also passed during other ceremonies and holidays.  It is filled with a mixture of tobacco and usually a sweet smelling mixture which reminds me of aftershave.  When it's passed to you, you reach your hand out and cover the bottle with your right hand, and bring it to yourself, cradled with both hands.  Then, open the lid and sniff it, comment on it (hopefully good comments!), and then pass it back to the owner with your right hand in a cradled position. 

 

As a centerpiece at the coffee table where we ate were these delicious fruits.  When we were the only ones at the table at one point, I said to Kevin, "Are those REAL grapes?!"  Kevin said, "No! They're plastic."  I just couldn't resist,  I checked.  They were real, and I ate a couple.  If they're on the table, they're to be eaten!  They were wonderful!

 

This was our 4th or 5th course at the meal!  We had already had salads, meat and pickles, buuz (of course!), and now we had this delicious plate of rice, potatoes, and white fish with a lemon wedge.  When we were served THIS plate of food, Tuul clarified, "This is NOT traditional Tsagaan Sar food.  This is special 'Kevin and Pam' meal."  We felt honored.  She was saying, "Thank you for tutoring me," in a special way.

We have plans to meet again soon at a mutually favorite restaurant.  Oh, and a nice bonus is that her husband speaks English very well!

Then, Sunday came.  We met our friend, Eegii, at our Sunday morning meeting place.  After being there together for about an hour and a half, we went by taxi, out to her home in the ger district.  She is a single mom and has been to Rochester, MN, twice, for her son to have two different surgeries.  It was there that she heard the Good News, and has been learning more since then.  

Here is Eegii's "hasha" which means "fence", but also "fenced-in yard".  Within her hasha are two gers.  To enter the hasha, we went through the tin door which is turquoise with Mongolian art motifs stamped on it.  The ger at the bottom of the hill belongs to her parents and also houses a sister.  The ger at the top of the hill is home to her and her son.  There is a wooden structure butted up next to the ger at the entrance.  This allows for storage space and a little more weather protection at the doorway.

Here are Eegii and I in front of her hasha.

 

Eegii's ger is one of the neatest, tidiest, cutest gers we've ever seen!  Lovely!  Note her son's bed behind Kevin with the shelf full of stuffed animals above it.  I'm guessing these came from America during his two surgeries.  To the left is the little white washing machine and the sink.  Although there's not running water, there's a sink with a drain hole to catch water for handwashing (pour the water over one's hands) or hairwashing.  The white/silver pole to the left of this picture is the smoke stack connected to the stove which keeps the ger warm and aids in cooking at times.

 

Here is Eegii's bed, directly across the room from her son's bed.  To the right is a cupboard for dishes.

Here's the "hobbit hole" front door. Not only does Kevin have to "duck", but so do I! Here, you can see the stove a little better. This is from the front of the stove. All gers are set up somewhat the same: kitchen items to the left and right of the door, stove in the middle, beds on the outer perimeters, table across from the stove. Men walk in to the left and sit on the left side of the room (where the son's bed is) and women sit on the right side of the room (where Eegii's bed is).

 

Eegii's son smiles as he draws a cross in the book we just gave him as a gift.  This Mongolian book is about the crucifixion.  He heard the Good News in America during his surgeries.  Our language barrier is difficult, but we've heard he is a brother!

 

Playing "Old Maid" together!

 

Even though there's no running water, there's electricity.  Here is an electric steamer, cooking our buuz
 (steamed meat pocket dumplings). 

Kevin tries out his Lego's building abilities which have been in hibernation for a few years!

While Kevin and Toogii built with Lego's, Eegii and I sat on her bed and read Psalm 1.  We talked in our limited English and Mongolian, about how important The Word is to our growth, just as the water for a tree is very important.

 

Kevin and Eegii strike a pose in front of her ger entrance.

 

Note details in this neighborhood: Many hashas with little houses and gers.  The hill to her parents' ger is steep, as you can see here.  We stopped in to say 'hi' to them before leaving.  They are sweet people.  Keep remembering Eegii, that she will grow in the grace and knowledge of her Lord.

I've Been Sniffed!

So, in yesterday's post, I mentioned that we were celebrating Tsagaan Sar.  This is a Mongolian national holiday and it's the first time we've participated in the holiday.  In 2010, we arrived a couple weeks after the holiday.  In 2011, we were in Thailand for our organization's conference.  But this year, we have been a part of the festivities. 

Our cultural experience started on Tuesday this week when we visited the vendor market close by.  Tsagaan Sar was to start on Wednesday, and last three days (Wed-Fri).  So, Tuesday at the market was similar to our Christmas Eve at Walmart.  Just think chaos times 10.  Just think Walmart aisles shrunk by half or maybe less.  Throw in some extra people standing in the aisles trying to sell a few things...people who usually aren't there.  Then, scatter some broken cardboard boxes on the floor which you must step over or trip over, cellophane which has been torn off of packages for one reason or another, and a woman who has just bought a yogurt in a carton and is guzzling her lunch in between shopping. 

I embrace the culture and maneuver my way in between people to ask for "nigk back pulver packet" to purchase a 6-pack of baking powder for a new teammate who has just arrived in UB one week earlier.  He mutters under his breath to me, "This is overwhelming."  I promise him that this is not an ordinary day, in fact, I'm shocked by it, but so glad that I came this day to see a sight I might not see again.  This is truly a cultural experience!  I purchase a few apples, hoping to hand one to a man who was begging outside, sitting in his wheelchair with both legs amputated. 

After we left the indoor market, Kevin took our teammate, Pam, with him, to show her where to buy cheese in another building.  I took our newest teammate with me into the open air to get away from some of the crowd.  As we waited for Kevin, I saw a man exchanging money on the street.  Now, this is also a Tsagaan Sar thing.  When visiting families during this holiday, it is important to present new bills of money to them to signify the new year.  It dawns on me that it's afternoon, and Tsagaan Sar is officially beginning the next morning, and I don't know if we'll get to the bank later this day.  So, I approach the man and ask, "Taven myunk bilth, Yamar onte vey?" (Five 1000 Tugrik bills, how much cost?).  It was going to cost me about 40 cents to get 5 fresh 1000 T bills.  Deal made.  Done.  He didn't have anything bigger (1000 T is a little less than a dollar).  The man in the wheelchair was being pushed toward me by a friend.  I smiled and passed him an apple.  "Oh, Lord, bless this man," I prayed. 

On our way home, I also stopped at a money exchange building to get four more larger bills, and was quite happy that I was able to strike a deal, halving what they asked for up front.  I wasn't even sure if this was okay to suggest (Mongolia is not like China or Thailand...there's not a lot of dealing for a different price at most places), but I tried and it worked.

So, Tsagaan Sar is a holiday which is very important and big.  It's a time for people to get new clothes, visit family, eat buuz (steamed meat pockets), eat carrot and beet salads along with a few other mayo-based salads, and give gifts.  Usually the gifts are simple, small gifts.  We visited three families these past three days and received a set of four jelly spoons and several kinds of candy (in fact, I joked on the way home today that I felt like my stash in my purse was like a trick-or-treat bag!). 

Our first day of Tsagaan Sar was spent with a few teammates.  The guy on the far right had been in Mongolia for 10 days. 

The first day of Tsagaan Sar is reserved primarily to visit the oldest person in your family. Most families that we have asked, say that they make 600-3,000 buuz for all the visitors who will come to their home over the 3-day period! The second and third days are for visiting other family members and friends.

So, our first day, we had our teammates over. We ate a very non-traditional meal of naan (Indian bread made by our new teammate, Todd), chili soup, refried beans, rice, pumpkin scones, and a pudding dessert. The city was a ghost town with every business closed, the streets quiet except for a few cars travelling to their relatives' homes, and a few people walking to homes. We took a walk in the afternoon, down to Sukhbattar Square. It is the main square by parliament and is a busy "happening" kind of place usually. Wednesday, we counted 5 people walking across the square. It was a strange, eerie feeling!

The second and third day, we visited three homes of friends.  Upon arrival, you speak a greeting and lay your hands on the oldest person's arms.  You lean over to receive what seems like a kiss, but in actuality, the greeting person sniffs deeply from each of your cheeks.  I hope mine smelled sweet!  It's at this time I presented our crisp, new bill to them.  In my previous post, you can see the heaving boov. Here are a few other photos which tell our Tsagaan Sar story:

This lady is 73.  In the past, life has been very hard for the Mongolians, therefore, she looks older than her age.  This is Sunjid's grandmother, one of the homes we visited.  Sunjid is our friend who comes over almost every week. 

Here's the front side of the "hunny oats".  "Hun" is sheep.  This is the sheep back meat with a layer of fat on top.  It is very traditional for Mongolians to eat the fat of the meat.  In the past, when food was scarce, and work was always hard, (only 15 years ago and later), they ate the fat for extra calories.  We've heard, "You must eat fat to keep warm."  Hence, the extra calories are explained!  On top of this fat layer are some bones and a knife.  This is a very traditional item at the Mongolian Tsagaan Sar table...much like our turkey at Thanksgiving.

And, here's the back side of the same slab of meat.  The curled-down piece of fat is the tail of the sheep.  You can also see the meat on the left of this hunk better in this photo.

Here we are with Jargal (in blue) and her mother.

After visiting Grandma's house, Sunjid walked us to the bus stop.  We were in an unfamiliar area, so she escorted us.  Across from the bus stop were several small stores.  I just had to take this picture so you could see the small stores (every one of these stores probably carries about the same items: potatoes, onions, wet wipes, soda, crackers...you get the idea).  This was in the ger district where nobody has running water.  In fact, the only running water you get is when you run to the water house and fill your jug and run back home.  Notice the man in the blue deel (traditional clothing which about 40% of people on the buses and streets were wearing) with the red scarf/belt.  The small store buildings felt like an old western town on the movies.

One of These Things Doesn't Belong

Remember the old Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other..." And the viewer was supposed to identify what the difference was in the items presented?  Well, here's the same idea.

Below are three different Tsagaan Sar heaving boovs.  I will write more about Tsagaan Sar in another post.  The layers of bread are the heaving boov.  There are also Mongolian and Russian candies as well as dried curdled milk products nestled within the tower of bread.

Our teammates, Pam and Susan, present the heaving boov which Kevin created on the eve of Tsagaan Sar this week
(Tuesday evening).

Today, we visited the home of one of our teachers who takes our teachers' workshop (Jargal in the blue shirt).  Her college-aged daughter (far left) comes to our home almost weekly to practice English and study the Word with us.  Their heaving boov tower is 5 layers high with many goodies interspersed within.

Next, we visited Jargal's mother's home (less than a U.S. city block away).  She had the "Queen" of towers with 7 layers and a bakery cake displayed on top.  The foil-wrapped chocolate candies were pretty tasty with our Soo Te Tsay (Milk Tea which is milk, tea, a little bit of salt, and sometimes some fat from the mutton or some butter). 

So, you decide: Which one DOESN'T belong!?!