Khorkhog From Start to Finish in Pictures

Warning: if you have a strong stomach, you may want to read the post below which includes the actual death sentence and butchering of the sheep.  If blood and death of an animal bothers you, please don't read through and look at the pictures!  I was squeamish as I watched the whole process, but made myself watch this Mongolian tradition, knowing I might not ever get to see it again.  Even looking at the pictures makes me feel a little "whoozy"!  So, be forewarned...and read on if you're just extremely curious!

To begin with....our organization's team went out to a nice ger camp.  If you don't know what a ger is, look it up online.  If you've been reading my blog all along, you know.  "Ger" is the Mongolian word for our Americanized word "Yurt".  "Ger" rhymes with "hair".  This camp will hopefully be the location for our August orientation/training, as well.



In August, we will have the choice of staying in these gers, or
a rustic hotel on the grounds.




The ger camp from the top of the hill.  Take notice of the distant hills.
What a refreshing change from the high buildings in the city with all the honking horns and spitting pedestrians!







Here we are, refreshed after a day in the countryside!  We couldn't resist posing
in front of one of these neat little ger homes.  Many people in the countryside live in homes
such as these year around.  There are even gers in the city, and some of our friends and
students live in gers.



To ease into this process...I'll show you the cute picture of the sheep.  Of course, this only makes the
process more difficult, because you get attached to a dear little face.  This is the "start" of the
khorkhog process...a fattened sheep.



This is the master of our khorkhog butchering.  He untied the sheep, marched him over to this tarp on the ground,
and had him laid out on his back all within about 10 seconds (too fast for me to capture a picture!).  The lamb was truly
a picture of a quiet lamb, being led to slaughter.  I was amazed that there wasn't a noise from the sheep.  He
willingly let the master slice his stomach open.  Here, as he lies on his back, still alive, the master takes a very sharp knife, makes a slit down the middle of the stomach, reaches in to snap off an artery, and the sheep slowly bleeds to death, bleeding into his inner cavity.  You will see a picture later where the blood is scooped out of the cavity.  The sheep was dead in about a minute, with some reflexes of his legs for a few minutes after that.



Minutes after the artery has been snapped, the sheep lies still.  I believe the butcher is waiting for the blood to drain into the cavity during this time.



Cutting off the legs.



Beginning the skinning process.  The sheep in sheep's clothing!



And the skinning continues.



One side of the hide or pelt has been taken off.



The legs which were taken off a few photos back.



Now it's time to take the organs, stomach, and intestines out.  This was one of the "yukkiest" parts for me!



Scooping blood from the body cavity.  This whole process kept the blood inside the body cavity and inside cups and kettles.  No blood was spilled on the tarp or the ground.  This is all an important part of the process for them.



The stomach full of grass which the sheep had consumed is in the front left part of the photo.



As the sheep meat (mutton), carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbage all stewed together with the hot rocks,
we all took walks and visited together.  Kevin and I took a hike up this hill and came upon this ovoo, a spiritual tribute
which can be found all over Mongolia.  It is tied to spiritism, superstitions, and worship which isn't connected to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 



Here's Kevin with his portion of mutton and vegetables.  We are inside a traditional ger.  Gers are ALWAYS
orange inside.  I asked our Mongolian friend (who also has helped us learn some language), if anyone ever decides
to paint the inside of their ger a different color.  She hesitated, thought, and then laughed.  That would be strange...almost against all the rules!

 From this day, which was three days after Easter, I thought of the Lamb of God...who willingly gave His life for me.  I enjoyed my teammates in the great outdoors.  I was rejuvenated in my love for my husband as we had some time hiking in the hills.  What a great day!

Shooooooooopping!

We went on a shopping trip today. Anyone who knows Kevin, knows that he only likes to shop if there's something to specifically "bag"...and it needs to happen quickly. He likes to "shop" (say with a staccato voice). He does NOT like to shoooooooooooooooop.

In less than a week we go to the U.S., and we still have a few things we need to purchase. So, we went to Narantuul Market today, because they have good buys on everything. One of our Mongolian language teachers said, "If it's at Narantuul, it will be the cheapest price in town." It's the Walmart of Ulaanbaatar. The difference is, Narantuul is an open-air market with tents and cubby holes all over a cemented slab and there are pick pocketers and hundreds of sellers and hundreds more buyers. One buys their individual items from each idividual seller. You can bargain a price, somewhat (more on that later). There are men roaming through the booths selling cokes in cups (like at a ball game), and dirty children with wide eyes looking up at you with a big question mark on their face (who's that white face?). There are drunks passed out on the outer edges of Narantuul. As we walk in or walk out, we do so quickly (ahhh, just the pace Kevin likes!) and we hold our bags and wallets close to our sides. We look confident. I don't feel totally confident.

Today was our fourth time to this market. Each time it has gotten easier. Today was our first time to go just us two! Before, we've gone with Mongolians or other Americans who are more seasoned than us. Today, we could ask prices in Mongolian, understand the answers, ask for larger sizes, smaller sizes, different colors, say yes, no and thank you. Kevin was interested in a Mongolian jacket. After his purchase, the lady said "Thank you" in Russian! We walked away laughing, realizing that she thought we were from Russia rather than America! We knew the Russian word since Kevin had spent a few weeks in Russia in 1998 for a teaching experience. The more we're here, the more we find out that Americans are few here; many of the caucasians are from Russia or Australia.

Then, just for fun, we looked at some "Western style" suit jackets. I took a picture of Kevin receiving "full service" from three or four different vendors who kind of swamped him with their wares. "This tom jacket"... ("tom" means large); "Yamar onkte vey?"... (what color?); "Horden toven myunk"...25,000 Tugricks (price)... and, to me, "Mush Goi?" asking "Very nice looking?!"... and of course I answered, "Team....sacken!" (Yes, handsome!)...and on and on. He had all of these people hovering around him offering him different jackets to try on. In the end, he didn't find one that fit right and we left with a fun memory. I'm sure the vendors were disappointed.



We went on to purchase a few more items. We were getting low on money, and we knew we needed to take the bus home. We had walked and it took about 40 minutes without our newly purchased load. Now, the bus only takes 600 Tugricks for the two of us...a mere 40-ish cents total, but we were truly getting low on money! The final purchase was to cost 32,000 Tugricks; we had 31,900 T, but needed 600 for the bus. I pulled out the 600 Tugricks we needed for the bus and asked the lady if we could purchase it for 31,200. She looked at us like we were cheapies...what was the small amount more, anyway? I fanned the 600 T in front of us and said, "Avtobus". Her face broke into friendly warmth. She understood. Sure, she'd take the little less. I must say this happens often...with living on cash! I'm always spending up to the last tugrick when needing to get many things. But there's certainly a lot of flexibility among the salespeople...not quite like Walmart where the price is THE PRICE!

We were home 2 1/2 hours later (this includes that 40 min. walk and the 15 min "avtobus" (city bus) ride. Kevin had weathered a shoooooooopping trip and I was able to "shop" (spoken in staccato, mind you).

Anniversary Celebration

June 11 marked our 27th Anniversary. I am very much in love with my husband. But, there have been times when I didn't really like him. I loved him enough to stay with him and sacrifice with him and for him, but I didn't like him. That's what 27 years is all about...staying with the one you have committed to love even when you don't like him. I think of a specific time when he worked for an organization that took him out of the country a lot and away from home some weeks for 3-4 days a week while I stayed home with four young kids. He'd bring home the dirty laundry and we had to adjust to who was in charge of the household again every time he walked back in. It was all part of that season of our lives, but it wasn't enjoyable at times. I specifically remember thinking as I sorted the dirty laundry from his most recent trip, "If he'd just stay away, my life would be so much easier." At that moment I felt horrified and shocked that I had even thought it. I realized the danger that thought put our marriage in, and decided right then and there that I needed to get that way of thinking corrected. It just wasn't acceptable in the sight of the One who had brought us together! That was a turning point in our relationship, along with many other turning points throughout the years which both of us had, to allow our relationship to go deeper and become more unified with one another.

So, I think of the verse that says, "Rejoice in the wife of your youth"...and with artistic license, I can say, "Husband of my youth," (Proverbs 5:18). Then, there's also Ecclesiastes 9:9 with my artistic license: "Enjoy life with the man (woman) whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun, for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you labored under the sun." Verse 10 is great, too, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."

So, marriage isn't to be a "drag", yet it has been sometimes. We must work thoughtfully and creatively to make it a blessing. Yet, not we, but Him, who works mightily within us! I am happy to say that I'm madly in love with this guy that I get to spend life with!


So, how did we celebrate this past anniversary? Well, we started off with our usual three-hour language class which threatens to zap my energy. We always have a 10 minute break in the middle of our lesson. Kevin walked over to a bakery nearby and brought back a cake which said "Happiness" on it and the whole office stopped for a celebration! A little sugar perks one up in the middle of language lessons!
After lessons, we had a two hour training class. After that, we were energized by the absolutely gorgeous weather, and we decided to take a LONG walk! It ended up being a walk which took over two hours, an estimated six miles with several stops to gawk at different things. We found a Korean park memorializing a famous Korean man. This building structure was in the park and I have a close-up picture of some of the painted edges.










We also visited a Russian monument which we've been to before. Many students were there in their finest clothing. It's the Mongolian tradition to have your picture taken upon graduation at the Russian monument as well as Suhkbattar Square (about 4-6 blocks from our apartment) in your dressy clothing. We sat there and watched some of the students for awhile.

On our walk back home, we peeked into a French lingerie store, just to see what it was like. Interesting. For a mere $150, I could've bought French underwear. That's U.S. dollars! Crazy! I'm sticking with my Hanes!

Once we got back into the heart of town where we live, we decided, impromptu, to go to an Indian restaurant that's not far from our home. We had a delicious meal which seemed extra nourishing after our long hike. Were the flavors actually so wonderful, or were we just extremely hungry? In any case, it was really good stuff! Here's a picture with Kevin sitting at our table adorned with the good food and a background of the Taj Mahal on the window by our table making us feel like we just might be at a restaurant a few blocks away from the grand location!


It was a satisfying day. It was a satisfying year. Thank you, Apple Tree! Love, Lily (Song of Sol. 2:2-3)

My dear sweetie brought me "April Fool's Flowers" yesterday! He said, "I've done some foolish things in my life, but marrying you was NOT one of them." Having lived in UB now for a full month (we arrived March 1), we certainly don't have a collection of vases. BUT....we DO have a jar which held German hotdogs which were given to us by our teammates! So, I wrapped a tea towel around the jar, tied it on with the ribbon from the roses, and arranged my three roses in a HOT DOG JAR! Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing". It looks rustic and romantic. And nobody can see that it's a hot dog jar!