when i first walked into the ger, the first face i saw was that of another foreigner...another white person...definitely not a face i expected to see...dr bob...a retired general surgeon who now lives in florida...
the new family greeted me the same way each of the previous families had, with milk tea and biscuits...while gramps was chatting with my new hostess, i chatted with dr bob...he was on day six of his tour, while i was on day 4...meaning he was heading back to UB in a few hours, while i'd be staying with this family for a couple nights...dr bob and i had all sorts of stuff to talk about, we compared our experiences with this ger to ger tour...after returning to UB, he was planning to start making his way to tibet...i'm jealous, i haven't been there...yet...after a little while, our hostess made lunch...noodle shells with meat, potatoes and carrots...good...if you haven't figured it out already, mongolian food isn't known for it's variety, or flavour...nearly every meal is made with the same ingredients, in various forms...i am perfectly okay with eating bland food, but believe me, mongolia takes it to a new level...
just before dr bob left, i got to start a camel ride!!! a two humped camel!! (a bactrian camel)...the ride was only 45 minutes or so, but i was still thrilled...I GOT TO RIDE A CAMEL!! YAHOO!! that was definitely a check off the bucket list...i still need to ride a one hump camel of course:)
for the first time, at this ger i got to see a snuffbox...they're used in a traditional greeting, people smell each other's snuffbox...hmmm, that didn't come out right...i don't really understand it, but oh well, i got to see a snuffbox, which i'd only heard about previously...
this ger was different in that it had an "entrance hall"...so i had to go through two doors to get into the ger...i realized that made the ger really cosy, and pretty warm...especially with the sun coming through the ceiling quite strongly at that point...to let in the cooling air from outside, both doors had to be propped open...
after returning from the camel ride, my hostess showed me photos of her family...she has a big family, she's one of 8 children!! she has 3 sisters and 4 brothers...the pictures were nifty...especially the one with her father and all the kids...just like the other families, most of the family members were in fancy traditional dress...in some ways, it's too bad that the US doesn't have a traditional dress...i don't remember what we had for dinner that night...probably something i'd had previously during this tour...there was more flavour in the cooking of this ger, she'd also obviously cooked for more than a few foreigners doing ger to ger tours...
the stove had been going all day, the ger was a bit more sheltered because of where it was situated, (the hills were to the south, so the wind didn't really go by the door, as in previous gers) and the extra door added heat...what i'm trying to say is that i was almost too hot to go to sleep that night!! once i did get to sleep, i slept like a rock...sharing the ger with us that night were two new baby goats (yes, i know we call them kids in english) and two new baby sheep (yes, i know we call them lambs in english)...so there was a lot of bleeting for a while...it was both really cute, and really heartbreaking...the little animals are soooo cute...i heard a few sneezes as well...SO CUTE!! i guess i never thought about animals sneezing:)
because the ger was a bit more protected by the hills, it also meant direct sunlight didn't hit the ger quite as early in the morning...there was still plenty of light, still just as early, but it didnt warm up aaaas quickly...
after breakfast, the first chore of the morning was to match the babies with their moms...the babies in the ger, along with all the other babies...springtime is baby time, there is a LOT of bleeting every morning and night when the moms and babies are calling to each other...it's surprisingly loud! i still haven't figured out how the people know which baby belongs to which mom...it's not as if there are only a few to remember...with several hundred goats and sheep, that takes a lot of memory! the babies and moms don't always recognize each other, sometimes people have to help out a little...after making sure the babies got plenty of milk from their mothers, they were separated again, the babies stay by the ger all day, and the moms and dads go out and graze all day...
after lunch there was no activity in particular for me, so i walked back up the hills, and sat for a while...there wasn't too much wind, and it was soooo peaceful...at one point, the wind did pick up, i realized i could hear the phone conversation my hostess was having about 500m away...the acoustics in mongolia are amazing, the space is so empty...
before dinner, we matched up the animals again...cute, as always...a few more babies had been born that day...two of them were taken inside the ger almost immediately, they were so small and needed to be warmed up...sooo cute, and so small...one was so weak he didn't have the strength to lift up his head to move around...my hostess put him under the stove for a little while...after dinner, we tried to help him stand up...again, it was heartbreaking and cute...because he couldn't stand up on his own...we'd lift him onto all four legs, and his legs would slide out from under him over and over...after a while all the birth gunk had dried, but it was still there...that night, there were six animals in the ger with us...there were "conversations" going on the entire night:)
after breakfast i went on a motorcycle ride with my host...he took me to a place of worship, somewhere sort of nearby...when we arrived, there was a family there, following the rituals...the area was great...all sorts of blue, everywhere...i ended up taking photos with the two daughters, they were friendly, and eager to talk...some of the objects left for worship were surprising to me...horse skulls, empty liquor bottles, crutches, car parts, etc...
a few hours after lunch, a jeep picked me up and took me back to the bus stop in the village where i first got off the bus...a 3 hour ride back to UB, sometimes going really slow...there was a movie showing on the tv screen, a mongolian movie...reeeeeaaaally bad acting, but funny even so...i could follow the storyline, even though i don't speak the language...
when i got back to the guesthouse, the first thing i did was to hand over my laundry...i felt bad, the clothes were dirty!!
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