Ger livin' is the life for me!

10 o'clock departure:

Cullen and I woke at about 9am on Monday, groggy and unprepared for the trip. I quickly shuffled things around in our luggage to make room in our backpacks for anything we could expect to need on our outing into the true Mongolia. I packed all of our long-johns, loads of socks and jeans. I also packed things like toilet paper, hand wipes, and some snacks that would travel well. Emma, Cullen, and I took a quick trip to the State Department Store's grocery store to pick up some few odds and ends which include some beer, some band-aids, some cranberry juice, loads of orange juice, and mouth wash. By the time we made it back, it was already after 10am, and we were still needing to shuffle luggage and get our spare suit case packed into a storage area. We didn't actually leave the guest house until about 10:45 or so. Fortunately none of us were up-tight about the time schedule. We just loaded into the van with our guide and our driver. After meeting Una (who's Mongolian name I can't say, much less spell) and our driver Muggie (once again a name I cannot say or spell) we were on the road out into the no-man's-land of Mongolia. We managed to make it out of town and to a restaurant for lunch by about 2pm or so. The lunch was wonderful. Cullen had some goulash and I tried some chopped meat with rice and potatoes. Emma had some traditional noodles, Terri and Cullen both also ordered the steak with egg, Muggie had some goulash as well and Una had the same thing I had. There was far too much food. I think we were expecting separate dishes like China, but instead it was plates of food as we usually have in the states. This was quite refreshing, but a little too late to realize after we ordered. We just ate all we could and then let the rest go. I'm sure the strays appreciated us that afternoon.

Back in the van, we were off again. This time, we veered onto a "dirt road." By dirt road, I mean only recognizable by Mongolian drivers as a road. This road was like a dirt road in the country that a farmer would use to go and feed his cattle. There are NO street signs in Mongolia inside or outside the major cities (or rather major city). The roads are made, I suspect, by the nomadic people trying to get from one town to another, or from one spot to another in their rugged Russian ATVs.

Once we made it to another paved road that was under construction, we had to veer off a couple of times to avoid fresh paving going on, and large piles of dirt built up to add to the road, we finally made it to Lune village, a marker of sorts on our journey. We veered again to find the same familiar type road that we had previously been on. Bumping about in the back seat, we watched as a few ger homes passed in the distance. When we reached the site, it was empty and we were told by their neighbor that they had moved for the season. The typical nomad will move 3 to 4 times a year. It was about time for the winter move, and we were directed where to go by the neighbor. Setting out again, we ran into another guide car from Khongor Expeditions who took the lead and guided us to the proper location.

The spot consisted of three ger. One was off by itself, and two were clustered together. We had parked near the cluster of two. The smaller of the two was the kitchen ger, the larger was lived in by one man who's wife was in town with their two daughters. The larger ger, and the one off to itself both had a solar panel and a satellite sitting on the west facing side of the ger. The solar array was positioned so that it would be able to catch both the morning and the evening rays by just turning it. The larger ger also already had guests in it. Two guest were staying there, and another van full was on it's way. Our guide, Una, had a plan for us. She had us follow her over to the smaller ger that was a bit of a walk away, off by itself. This ger, we were told, was the home of the parents of the man living in the ger next to the kitchen ger.

Not until after we had left did we find out that Una told the old couple that we were going to stay with them. She didn't ask, she just told them that we were staying with them. The silly part was that after sitting for a bit Teri asked Una to be sure and ask them if it was alright if we stayed there with them. They laughed a bit and Una said that they told us, "If we don't mind, they don't mind." A lot of what they said back and forth was totally lost on us. We only wish we could have actually understood them. I suspect that either Una was expecting us to be horrible, or that she just wanted us to really experience the way people live in the ger, because she left us to wander about on our own a lot that first day. We watched the old woman start supper, then went over to watch the milking of the horse for the making of airag.The horse is said to be milked every 2 hours.

definition of airag:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumys

After watching the horse being milked, Teri wanted to be sure there would be an opportunity to milk something. Una asked the old couple and they said that Teri could milk the cows in the evening. We watched the old lady cook, and she said something to us that we couldn't understand. She wandered off to find Una, which we found out later that she was going to tell Una that she needed to feed us because we were getting hungry. Una came over to the ger and started cooking some food.

It was time to milk the cows, and the old lady washed her hands and grabbed a bucket for the milking. She pulled out a calf and let it get to it's mother and drink some milk to start the cow, then pulled him off and tied him to the enclosure gate. She began milking the mother cow and Teri came over to try and have a go at it.

They repeated the procedure with the next cow, and the old lady let Teri have the bucket and chair. Teri proceeded to try and put the bucket on the ground, which caused the old lady to scramble over and rescue the bucket from the dust and dirt that the cow was kicking up, and make some disapproving noises at Teri. Teri was persistent, and pushed her way in to try again, as the old lady had the milk bucket on her lap and was milking at the cow. Teri didn't produce any milk at her go, but Emma had a turn, and was doing a decent job. Teri insisted that she try again, and managed to get a bit of milk out of the cow. The old lady was just laughing a bit at her as she grimaced after trying.

While Una finished up the cooking, we conversed and the old couple came in. The food was a lovely pasta salad with some meat in it. I suspect the meat was a canned beef similar to the beef she used the next night. Una translated for Teri while she asked quite a few questions, including a request for the couple's love story.

From all the questions that Teri asked, I pieced together this story about the old couple who were now in their 70s:

The woman was an accountant for the school, and the man either taught there or was part of the administration, I forget which. During her career there, he found her to be a very kind and beautiful woman, so he decided to marry her. Their marriage was a traditional ger marriage. They lived in Lune village while they worked, and had 9 children (or was it 7? I don't really recall exactly. It was quite a few) We were told by Una that 12 is a more common number for nomadic families. The couple decided that they wanted to return to the old ways of nomadic living when they retired. The old man's family had taken care of his animals while he was working in the city, and when they decided to make a go at it, they took their animals and began living their lives the nomadic way.

They are such beautiful people. It was such a pleasure to live with them for that one night. Teri taught them to say "G'day Mate," which they managed very well, and Teri recorded with her camera. We learned to say thank you in Mongolian. I can't begin to try to spell it, but it sounds something like Bi-at-lah (the t and l make a sort of tongue sound). We pulled out the beer and shared with the old couple. The second beer the handed to the man, he made sure to only drink half of, corking the bottle with a piece of breading. They had a very nice time having us over. They told Una that while we were there, the time seemed to pass very quickly, and it made them happy to have young energy in their ger.

We all bundled up in sleeping bags and stacked ourselves like little tootsie rolls on the floor with our heads most opposite the door and our feet facing the door. The fire in the ger was piled up with loads of manure to last most of the night. As we bundled up, the old coupled made quite a fuss about Teri's feet hanging out of her sleeping bag. She insisted that she was fine time and time again, but they weren't content until she finally pulled the sleeping bag over her feet and tucked it under. He made sure to show us where the extra coats were so we could bundle up more if we got cold. As soon as he turned out the single light in the ger, Teri pushed out her feet, and we all tried to sleep.