More Naadam Festivities

Part of Naadam is the food...just like grilled burgers for the 4th of July, or Christmas cookies for Christmas. What kind of food for Naadam? The two biggies are hosher (fried meat pockets which are really eaten year around...but a staple during Naadam) and airag (a fermented mare's milk drink). We bought some of the airag and saved it for our meal on Sunday night with two Mongolian friends. I served vegetable beef soup, potato crust quiche, and rice pudding for dessert. They thought all of it was very different, but I think they liked it since they took seconds and thirds. But, back to the mare's milk...it was like unsweetened yogurt which would be okay, but the real kicker for me was the flavor of a barn that happened after I swallowed. Kind of a "mare-ish" flavor. I suppose those of you who have fond memories of barns might like it. Especially if you like buttermilk or yogurt. So, there you have it. We tried it and we'll offer the rest to our friends who visit during Naadam. Last night, our friend, Nyamaa, encouraged us to drink more of it because of how healthy it is for you (like yogurt is healthy...the probiotics are supposed to be awesome in it). She said, "Please, do not hesitate to drink it!"

The second photo here shows our reaction: I was thinking over whether I really liked it; Kevin was puckering up. I added orange juice to the rest in my cup and swallowed it quickly! There, I got the health benefits without the strong taste!

Nyamaa and Moogii were surprised at mixing it with o.j. Nyamaa exclaimed, "Ah, a new cocktail!" And Moogii said, "No, that's not the way to drink it!"

Both of these women are growing dear to our hearts. One is a new sister; one is thinking. We had a great conversation last night.

Then, today we went back to the stadium for more Naadam wrestling. We really enjoyed it; it was so interesting. As you can see from the photo, there's many duos of wrestling going on at the same time. Kevin and I would pick out different matches to watch and point out to each other differences we saw. We really needed a Mongolian wrestling minded person there to inform us of the rules, but speculating as to why each step was happening was fun, too. There were some matches that would be over in 20 seconds. Others would take 5-7 minutes because of the matched skill of the two competitors. After one of the men wins, he prances like a horse over to the center and does a little victory dance. The wrestling costume consists of a sleeved shoulder vest (no material on the chest, stomach, or lower back; a "speedo" type of shorts; and some pointed-toe bulky boots. Before the men competed, they gathered in the center and stretched their arms out and waved them about, tilting their bodies as if they were airplanes dancing around. Then they would slap their hands on the front and back of their thighs. All in all, it's a very showy sport and quite different from anything I've seen before.



It started to rain and many people moved to covered seating (fortunately, our tickets had us in the covered seating already), but for those who chose to stay where they were, there were many umbrellas. I thought this photo of all the colorful umbrellas was pretty!