Sun Child Orphanage Performance

Yesterday we went to meet with our Sponsor that signed the papers to allow us to get into Mongolia. She runs the orphanage where we will teach English the next two years.  We met briefly with her a couple of weeks ago but she and 20 of the 40 children in the orphanage were leaving the next day for Japan.  This is the 13th year they have taken a group there performing Mongolian songs, dances, music and contortions.  We called on Monday to set an appointment to discuss when we will begin teaching. We will start August 1st teaching four classes of ten children.



When we got there she had the kids perform the one and a half hour program for us. It was wonderful. She then announced that the Japanese Agency that  invites them each year to perform in 13 cities over two weeks has invited them to come twice a year. 








We took a lot of pictures are including so you get an idea of the variety of performances and costumes. They all take dancing lessons, art, music, sewing, cooking, gardening and on and on. They designed and sewed their own costumes. They are amazing!! We can't wait to teach them.

Sun Child Performance (Continued)

 

Ten of them will graduate this year. All ten received college scholarships.  Many of the former students continue to return to help younger ones coming into Sun Child. By the way, they are called students, not orphans.

 

 
 

These students are watching on and looking forward to their chance to be in the touring group.

Meeting the New Mission President and Family

Last Saturday, July 13th, we met the new Mission President, Joseph Benson, Sister Benson and their four children. This is a picture of all the missionaries serving in the Darkhan District most are three hours away from here.  We had lunch and then President Benson introduced himself and his family.  He speaks fluent Mongolian and his wife speaks it fairly well.  They both served their mission here, but not during the same time period.  He will be a great asset to the mission with his experience and language.  They were totally surprised by their mission call. An Area President recommended them and a call was issued. He is a lawyer for a firm in San Diego who was working in Beijing and most recently in Singapore. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese as well.
This couple are the first Senior Couple to serve a mission from Mongolia.  They were called to serve in the Selenge Branch near the Russian border. We set him apart as Branch President a couple of weeks ago. They have been members about 10 years and had their first temple experience in March at the Hong Kong Temple.

Naddam Festival Day 3

Day Three at Naadam

 

There are hundreds of gers set up at Naadam, most are selling food, drinks, and toys for the kids.  Some are big and beautiful like this one. One of the country's political parties is the host here. Each time you step in you move to the left to be seated. Once seated the host or hostess offers you a bowl of milk that you take with both hands. You are required by custom to take at least one sip.  It was our first taste of fermented horse milk called "Airag". You cannot imagine how bad it tastes. I am with our translator and her brother.


Whatever you don't drink they pour back into the large vat.  Then they offer you goat yogurt candy, goat cheese with raisins and some kind of meat. If they offer you food on a plate, tradition is to touch the bottom edge of the plate first before taking the food. You are by custom to take some.  They were reasonably tolerable except for the candy.  The brown basket looking object is braided bread with the cheese and candy filled to the brim
We made the mistake of visiting another ger so we could see the inside, but again, we had to go through the ritual.  (Dan failed to tell you that as our translator was explaining and coaching us as to the traditions, he was doing them all wrong and the native Mongolians inside the ger thought it was quite comical. LOL! But they all seemed to be good sports about it.)

A poor mans ger may cost $2,000 or $3,000. This one is in the $8,000  to
$10,000 range.

 

Well, we broke down and decided to give camel riding a try. We heard some crazy stories from Dan and Mary when they were in Africa and did this for two days into the desert, sleeping on the ground in wind and sand and then back to civilization.  The ride wasn't so bad. If you look a little closer there was no saddle or reins. Just hold onto the hump especially when the camel gets on his knees for you to get off!  We had to try it at only 1500 tugs ($1.10) each.  I think it was more expensive in Africa.


 This is the entire Darkhan Zone of Missionaries and our translator. They are a great bunch of missionaries! Most speak a little English!  We had a lot of fun, sun, food, wrestling, and meeting lots of new people.  We look forward to Naadam next year to see the horse racing and archery contests.

More Nadaam Festival

Nadaam Festival Day Two

 

Day 2 of Naadam. Here is a picture of the first camels we've seen since coming to Mongolia. They are endangered 2-humped Bactrian camels. We were told that when we drive through the countryside that we are likely to see a camel or two just running loose, but we never did. They had these camels at the festival to charge for pictures and/or rides so we jumped at the opportunity. They are actually beautiful animals, not as gross as I remember them at the zoo back in the states.

You probably know the two humps store fat that can be turned into water and energy when water is scarce. They can go several weeks without water if needed, especially in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. They can drink 30 gallons of water in 13 minutes when they do find water! There was neither saddle, nor reins to hold onto. I'm glad I watched someone ride it before us so that I knew to hang onto the front hump when the camel drops to it's knees in order for the rider to get off. So remember that the first time you ride a camel otherwise you might be flipped head over heels! 

They had hundreds of vendors of Hosherr at the festival. It is the golden-fried item on the left. Dan is addicted already. They usually contain mutton, but they can be other meats. We were told that each time you try one, they taste a little different. I guess it totally depends on the meat. They also will do a mixture of different meats. A lot of times the meat is full of gristle. As we walked among the gers, we noticed bowls full of raw ground meat just sitting on the floors of the gers, without refrigeration,  ready to be fried in the dough. (And the weather is hot here! The summers here are not cold, like we thought!)

Most of the vendors had a ger at the festival where they fry the hosherr, then the customer sits under an awning to enjoy the meal. And of course sold with warm pop or juice. I would sure like to know how many hosherr are sold throughout the country during Naadam. As part of the introductions in our English class, the students were to tell us their favorite food. Most everyone in the class said, "Hosherr", some said, "Bowz" (Pictured on the right.) and one said, "Pizza". :)



In the opening exercises the military was dressed in full uniform and marched around the stadium. There was the Air Force, Army and Police. 









They then introduced all the wrestlers. There are no weight classes. The skinny ones have to take on the heavy weights. It doesn't seem quite fair. The skinny ones should at least start out by wrestling some of those who are closer to their weight. When the heavy weight wins he throws his hands in the air, they place a traditional, pointed hat on them and they run up and take a bow. It doesn't seem all that great to us when a 250 pounder pummels a 140 pounder. :)

The brother of our translator (Nyam-Od) won his first wrestling match of the Nadaam Festival. His name is Sugar (Suegar) and is wearing the red shirt. He will wrestle again tomorrow.

We were, of course, the hit of the Naadam event.  They crowned me King and Debbie Queen.  I tried to knight a few people but when I tried to draw my sword they ran away.  I don't understand why!  It was too heavy for me to pull out anyway. 

Debbie was a good sport to put all of that on, even though it crushed her hair.  I was in pain actually. The helmet weighed about 20 pounds I think and had a big leather strap that was pressing into my forehead. But it was fun to dress up for Naadam. 

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Naadam Festival

Today was the kick-off of the National Festival Naadam (pronounced Nodum). There are three main events; Horse Racing, Wrestling and Archery.  Today we attended the Opening Concert with singing and native dancing. It was beautiful with vibrant colors, amazing dancing and singing. 

There are three main tribes or cultures here; the Mongols, Kazak and Buriad. The concert theme included song, dance and costumes of all three cultures and how they are all now one Mongolia, all in harmony.  The colors and costumes were brilliant.

The music was all played on traditional Mongolian instruments. The Morin Khuur is the long necked guitar like string instrument, the Youchin a dulcimer like string instrument hit with a hammer, and Bishgurr a wind instrument like a trumpet and a number of others.









Of course a lot of the event includes honoring the National Hero, Ghenggis Khan (pronounced "Jengis Han"). The finale included the Army of Ghenggis Khan marching down the aisle to the stage while the audience stood and clapped and cheered. He is greatly revered here in Mongolia.









After the concert we met with wonderful old couple in traditional dress that a lot of people wear during Naadam.  He is 78 and she is 73.  We had great conversation and they wanted to know why we were in Mongolia.  They invited us to call them after the Festival is over which ends Sunday. They said they have a big house and all the kids are gone and wanted us to come and live with them. They were so sweet.  Their names are Namsrai and Badam. A note of interest: You don't see many people their age as the life expectancy in Mongolia is 64!

The large building behind us is the theater where the performance was held. It is about two blocks from our apartment.

We met about a half-dozen strangers today who just came up to us and were curious about why we are in Mongolia. We tell them our Church has assigned us as volunteers and we are here to teach English. Many of them are interested and want to come attend our classes. We'll see if they come! It is fun to meet and learn about the many people we meet. Our translator was amazed and had fun also.

Dinner at the Purevdorj's

 

We spent a wonderful evening with our translator's family. They served us dinner--horse meat, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. We thought the horse meat tasted a lot like beef. I don't believe I could tell the difference! Actually it was probably the most tender and tasty meat that we have had since our arrival!!! It was very lean, and no fat or gristle. We were told that horse meat is healthier than any other meat.  It's a tradition to serve hot water with a little milk added. We've had it in other members homes. I prefer just the hot water without the milk. This family uses no seasoning whatsoever. Everything is cooked and eaten without salt, pepper or herbs and spices.

Their home is located in the ger district, where most families have a very small house and a ger as well. The family has beautiful singing voices and favored us with a beautiful song. They aren't without trials, but they have such great faith. The two oldest children have served missions, including Nyam-Od, our translator. One of their sons had his hand burnt very badly a few years ago. It's a horrible story how it happened, but I won't go into that. He had to have surgery, which caused the family to have to sell everything that they owned in order to pay for the surgery. They were going to have to amputate it, but the mother said "no", then asked that he have a Priesthood Blessing. The next day, the doctor looked at his hand and asked what they had done to make it heal so quickly. They told the doctor about the Church and a short time later he and his family were baptized. Well yesterday, the son injured his bad hand and was in such pain, the Mom asked that he be given a blessing in the middle of the night. Right after the blessing, the pain subsided and he was able to fall asleep. As they told us about their son, it made me think of the time that the doctors wanted to amputate Joseph Smith's leg, but the mom said, "No."

It was Fast and Testimony Sunday today. Soon after the Branch President sat down, about 10 youth jumped up wanting to bear their testimonies. They all spoke about the wonderful youth conference that took place this past week. They walked over 35 miles in two days with handcarts! One youth talked about a large, steep mountain they had to climb and everyone had to push or pull to get the carts up the mountain and said it was a miracle that they made it to the top. They all felt that angels were helping them.  They learned a lot about strength in numbers and teamwork.  There were about 400 youth from around Mongolia than attended the conference.

Our First English Class

Today we taught our first class of Mongolian students at the Church building.    There were 15 students and they were mostly members.  We worked very hard on the lesson material not knowing how much English they already knew.  The entire class is at the beginner level.  Our lesson plan worked out really well.

 

Most everyone was able to say their name, age, tell about their family, favorite food and why they want to learn English. An interesting note about the Mongolian people: The literacy rate here in Mongolia is one of the highest in the world at 91%!! I understand it stems from when they were under Russian rule. The Russians built lots of schools and pushed education. Now education and reading is a tradition! It's very impressive!  It's funny but everyone in Mongolia asks everyone's age--men and women alike. That was one of the first questions we were asked when we invited the class to ask questions about us. :) Dan tried to explain to them that the question would not be appropriate to ask if they were in the States.

 

We were happy that we invited our translator to be there for the kick off.  We would not have made as much progress as we did today. The group's enthusiasm to learn English is contagious! There was great participation and each of them tried really hard to speak English. They wanted to make the class two hours each, but we will stick with one hour. :) 

 

So, we look forward to our next class, now with our confidence a little higher.  The person with Debbie and I is Nyam-Od our translator. She served her mission in Oakland, CA and speaks English fairly well. The other picture is our English class. We expect more will come next week.

 

Just before our class we attended the Mongolian Sign Language Class and learned a lot.  Some of their signs are similar to ASL but some will take some effort and practice to get our fingers to contort like theirs. The letter "B" was particularly hard.

 

We hope that each of you had a great 4th of July, and that all is well with you and your families! May God Bless!