Apologies if this post isn't terribly coherent - I have had a lot of vodka, Airag (femented mares milk)and Buuz so feeling a little sick!
Yesterday Tsaagan Tsar started. Tsaagan Tsar is The Mongolian new year which falls at a similar time to the Chinese new year. For the two weeks before hand families make thousands of Buuz (meat dumplings)to feed all the visitors. The protocol is on the first day (Sunday) you visit your family members from oldest to youngest. On the second day you visit friends and relatives. So yesterday was a quiet day for me as everything was closed. But today I was invited to 2 colleagues houses, so I donned my Deel and headed out this morning. When you arrive at the house the oldest person sits at the head of the table and you greet them first saying Amar Bainuu and hand them some money. They great you by sniffing each side of your face (kind of like the European air kisses). Then you sit down at the table which has a mound of biscuits and either the back of a sheep or the chest of a cow on a slab on the table. As a guest it is your job to eat all the food that comes across the table - Salad, buuz, sweets and chocolate. It is a massive amount of food.
The first house I went to was my counter part Burnee, and her family. One of my other colleagues had agreed to meet me and take me around the houses to show me what to do. Burnee has two young daughters who entertained us with dancing while we were waiting to eat. THey were very aware that I was a foreigner and had made me Buuz without extra oil and didn't press too much SuudeTsai on me. But I was expected to eat a lot! They also had the fermented mares milk which I hadn't had before - definitely not one of my favourite Mongolian dishes!
THe second house I went to was my organisations directors house. She had a much larger house and a larger family. Unfortunately here they had extra oil in all the Buuz and a lot of vodka! She has a lovely family with older children, in their late 20's so it was great to meet them as well, and to have a lot of English conversation.
This week in work has been an interesting one as I have managed to get VSO and MEA to agree to let me go part time at work. Hopefully this should mean I feel more fulfilled and achieve more in the 3 days i am at MEA. The plan is that I work the other 2 days at another VSO partner organisation so we shall see what comes up.
Aside from that is was a quiet week as everyone was preparing for Tsaagan Tsar this weekend. This also meant we got a half day on Friday - which I hadn't been told about - surprise surprise!
Anyway Friday night was a pizza party as usual and on Saturday Sarah had some people round for lunch which was great and they ended up staying half the night!!
You probably wont here from me for the next 2 weeks as I have a lot going on. This week I am skiing tomorrow, having a pancake party in the evening, going to an eagle festival on Wednesday, doing a fundraising strategy on Thursday and then leaving for the Khuvsgul ice festival on Friday evening. I can't wait - it is going to be a great two weeks!
Monday, 15 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Birthday excitement and Tsaagan Tsar lessons
I had a fantastic birthday weekend starting with a lovely quiet Saturday spent reading the paper at the Bakeri Cafe, one of my favourite coffee shops in UB. On Saturday evening we headed out to a lovely restaurant nearby called Silk Road which does fantastic steak and pretty decent creme caramel. It was a real treat. We headed out for drinks to a local house party afterwards.
On Sunday I decided it was time for some cultural learning. Next weekend is Tsaagan Tsar which translates as white moon, and is the Mongolian new year celebration. What it involves is visiting lots of relatives and eating a lot of food. THe traditional food is Buuz, a mongolian mutton dumpling. Having requested Tsaagan Tsar lessons so I don't monumentally embarass myself. The lessons started on Sunday with Buuz making lessons. I was taken to my counterparts house along with another colleague who was charged with teaching me the variety of shapes you can make Buuz in. Before we could start I had to eat sweets, biscuits and a slice of cake before we could start cooking.
Once the first round of eating was done we progressed to the cooking stage. Buuz are made by rolling out a circle of dough (water and flour), placing the meat mixture in the middle (mutton, onions, salt, pepper) and creating a dumpling. The difficult stage is the closing of the dumpling which involves pinching it closed. Although we stuck to the easy shapes (sheep, moon, flower and rose) I was absolutely rubbish at it. This of course provided much entertainment for the entire family from the young kids aged 3 and 5 who were better than me, to the grandparents who were very patient but couldn't hold in their laughter at my dreaful attempts. I was told I had made many a mouse - the term for when you mess up a design. Once we finally made it through all the ingredients I had made a little progress and they weren't quite so dreadful. But in my excitement to learn how to make Buuz I had forgotten they would then have to be eaten. I had hoped that the family would freeze them and add them to the massive amount they make for Tsaagan Tsar (Some families make over 1000 dumplings) but obviously mine were so bad we were eating them. I was then informed that since they had been made on my behalf it was up to me to eat them! 20 dumplings later and I was about to explode!! But it was a great fun afternoon and I now have a little experience in making Mongolian food.
After recovering from Mutton overload I was back in work to celebrate my birthday. This of course involved more food! Luckily some of the girls joined me for lunch at the Grand Khaan, our local Irish pub, where we could avoid mutton. I really enjoyed my enormous burger! Then in the afternoon we had a work party involving a huge Mongolian cake with about 2 inches of foamy icing on top and Seabuckthorn champagne (definitely not something you should try!). They cut me the most enormous slice of cake - approximately a quarter of the cake! It took me all afternoon to finish it!
Then I headed home where Sarah had made me a normal chocolate birthday cake with regular icing which was fantastic, as well as potato wedges and we spent the evening watching a movie - Seven pounds. It was not the happy romatic movie I thought it was - a real weepy one! It was a really nice birthday.
It was a bit of a quiet week in work but we did manage to re-record the Voice Box TV show that we shot a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately due to issues not related to my organisation or the content of the show we had to re-record, but for me that meant another day out of the office playing with the kids!
Aside from that I did very little last week, and due to that and some other work issues, there may be some changes in the next few weeks - finger crossed!
We also had another leaving dinner on Friday. There are a few people leaving in February as it is an intake month for VSO's and AYAD's. It does mean that we have a new batch of VSO's arriving in a few weeks and more AYAD's a few weeks later. Unfortunately the new VSO's arrive on the 19th, and most of the UB volunteers (including me!) are heading to Khuvsgul lake, about 17 hours north, for the ice festival. So the newbies will have to fend for themselves in freezing UB for their first week.
As I mentioned a group of us are heading up north in just over a week to spend about 5 days freezing on one of the largest lakes in Mongolia. It should be great fun and we are looking forward to it. So the plans for this are in full swing.
Hopefully I shall survive next weekend without either exploding or committing some unpardonable cultural faux pas!
On Sunday I decided it was time for some cultural learning. Next weekend is Tsaagan Tsar which translates as white moon, and is the Mongolian new year celebration. What it involves is visiting lots of relatives and eating a lot of food. THe traditional food is Buuz, a mongolian mutton dumpling. Having requested Tsaagan Tsar lessons so I don't monumentally embarass myself. The lessons started on Sunday with Buuz making lessons. I was taken to my counterparts house along with another colleague who was charged with teaching me the variety of shapes you can make Buuz in. Before we could start I had to eat sweets, biscuits and a slice of cake before we could start cooking.
Once the first round of eating was done we progressed to the cooking stage. Buuz are made by rolling out a circle of dough (water and flour), placing the meat mixture in the middle (mutton, onions, salt, pepper) and creating a dumpling. The difficult stage is the closing of the dumpling which involves pinching it closed. Although we stuck to the easy shapes (sheep, moon, flower and rose) I was absolutely rubbish at it. This of course provided much entertainment for the entire family from the young kids aged 3 and 5 who were better than me, to the grandparents who were very patient but couldn't hold in their laughter at my dreaful attempts. I was told I had made many a mouse - the term for when you mess up a design. Once we finally made it through all the ingredients I had made a little progress and they weren't quite so dreadful. But in my excitement to learn how to make Buuz I had forgotten they would then have to be eaten. I had hoped that the family would freeze them and add them to the massive amount they make for Tsaagan Tsar (Some families make over 1000 dumplings) but obviously mine were so bad we were eating them. I was then informed that since they had been made on my behalf it was up to me to eat them! 20 dumplings later and I was about to explode!! But it was a great fun afternoon and I now have a little experience in making Mongolian food.
After recovering from Mutton overload I was back in work to celebrate my birthday. This of course involved more food! Luckily some of the girls joined me for lunch at the Grand Khaan, our local Irish pub, where we could avoid mutton. I really enjoyed my enormous burger! Then in the afternoon we had a work party involving a huge Mongolian cake with about 2 inches of foamy icing on top and Seabuckthorn champagne (definitely not something you should try!). They cut me the most enormous slice of cake - approximately a quarter of the cake! It took me all afternoon to finish it!
Then I headed home where Sarah had made me a normal chocolate birthday cake with regular icing which was fantastic, as well as potato wedges and we spent the evening watching a movie - Seven pounds. It was not the happy romatic movie I thought it was - a real weepy one! It was a really nice birthday.
It was a bit of a quiet week in work but we did manage to re-record the Voice Box TV show that we shot a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately due to issues not related to my organisation or the content of the show we had to re-record, but for me that meant another day out of the office playing with the kids!
Aside from that I did very little last week, and due to that and some other work issues, there may be some changes in the next few weeks - finger crossed!
We also had another leaving dinner on Friday. There are a few people leaving in February as it is an intake month for VSO's and AYAD's. It does mean that we have a new batch of VSO's arriving in a few weeks and more AYAD's a few weeks later. Unfortunately the new VSO's arrive on the 19th, and most of the UB volunteers (including me!) are heading to Khuvsgul lake, about 17 hours north, for the ice festival. So the newbies will have to fend for themselves in freezing UB for their first week.
As I mentioned a group of us are heading up north in just over a week to spend about 5 days freezing on one of the largest lakes in Mongolia. It should be great fun and we are looking forward to it. So the plans for this are in full swing.
Hopefully I shall survive next weekend without either exploding or committing some unpardonable cultural faux pas!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Italian themed weekend and Horse riding in Terelj
The last two weeks have been a little bit more eventful than anticipated! With 3 proposals due in and training on Fundraising to give to VSO volunteers I got a nasty bout of food poisoning. For the first time ever I actually had no choice but to work through it as everything was on my work computer. It wasnt a fun week but all the proposals got done and everyone was happy. Fingers crossed we will find out soon!
Last weekend was busy with the usual social events including pasta night and pizza night! It was an Italian themed weekend! I think we now have a winner for the best pizza recipe as Belinda cooked up a storm followed by a great chocolate cake!
Last week was just as busy, although I managed to avoid the food poisoning thank goodness. Myself and 2 other VSO fundraisers had agreed to do two half day trainings for the other volunteers on fundraising as most volunteers end up getting asked to do fundraising. By the time Thursday morning rolled round I was sick to my back teeth of reading and re-reading my powerpoints, but the process had allowed me to learn how much I have learned in the last 3.5 months and how much I still have to learn!
However once the nerves settled down, and I got some cake into me (provided by my colleagues) the training went very well. Everyone seemed very happy with the training, from the other volunteers to the VSO staff everyone learnt something.
As I was shattered from the previous 2 weeks of working nearly non-stop, I had planned a quiet weekend. It just didnt happen!
On Saturday I had agreed to grab some coffee with some friends. We went to a great Buddist cafe called Stupa Cafe that did amazing apple cake! The girls invited me to join them at the Opera, and as I hadnt been before and I was assured that smart dress was not required I joined them to see Tosca. It was my first ever Opera and I was pretty impressed. One of the male singers wasnt terribly strong, but the female and the other male singer were fantastic. Unfortunately as we were in the cheap seats, there were about 20 school children in with us and they were very loud and boisterous, and there were no Ushers to keep them quiet! Of course once the Opera (which starts at 5pm here for some reason) was over we had to go for dinner! It was a great evening and I was really glad to have gotten out of the house and to have caught up with some other volunteers.
Sunday dawned far to early for my liking! Sarah had organised a horse riding trip in Terelj for the day and two American guys joined us. It was a little chilly (around -30 in the morning, raising to -20 in the afternoon) so of course we had about 7 layers on each half of our bodies and we could barely move! We had a few quick stops for gas, at Turtle rock and at an Ovoo before we reached our base for the day. It was decided we would do 3 short rides with periods to warm up in between at different camps. Our first trip took us out to a shaman religious tree which was very interesting, but the scenery we were seeing was also fabulous. After a quick warm up we headed to our guides sisters house where we had a traditional Mongolian Barbeque - Khorhog. This is mutton, carrots and potatoes cooked with hot stones inside it and it was really tasty and tender. Over lunch I received a great compliment - I was told I was a very strong rider! Although I would hope so after the number of years I have ridden, in Mongolia horse riding is a very big deal and this was a big compliment from a Mongolian herder! After lunch we played with the families baby who was very cute, and Sarah and I played with their lambs! It was something we would never do at home, but these were Mongolian lambs and calves (0ne of whom was wearing a very cute blanket)and so we had our picture taken with them.
From here we headed to visit the sled dogs who are kept near by. When we arrived there some of our friends who had been out dog sledding for the past 2 days which was apparently fantastic (but at $250 a little out of our budget!). It was nice to see them and their sleds and dogs.
On our way back to our base camp we got a few longer spaces for a canter and had a nervewraking experience where we allowed our horses to drink from holes in the ice. This is terrifying when you can hear the ice cracking underneath you! In fact it is one of the scariest parts of riding on the frozen rivers. But the cars drive on these rivers, we saw yaks pulling carts of logs and when we saw the holes being cut in the ice to get water, it is incredibly think. The chances of us falling through the ice were minimal.
It was a day of contrasts from the open spaces, hills, woods and river riding we did it was fantastic. Although two days later all my muscles are still protesting!
Last weekend was busy with the usual social events including pasta night and pizza night! It was an Italian themed weekend! I think we now have a winner for the best pizza recipe as Belinda cooked up a storm followed by a great chocolate cake!
Last week was just as busy, although I managed to avoid the food poisoning thank goodness. Myself and 2 other VSO fundraisers had agreed to do two half day trainings for the other volunteers on fundraising as most volunteers end up getting asked to do fundraising. By the time Thursday morning rolled round I was sick to my back teeth of reading and re-reading my powerpoints, but the process had allowed me to learn how much I have learned in the last 3.5 months and how much I still have to learn!
However once the nerves settled down, and I got some cake into me (provided by my colleagues) the training went very well. Everyone seemed very happy with the training, from the other volunteers to the VSO staff everyone learnt something.
As I was shattered from the previous 2 weeks of working nearly non-stop, I had planned a quiet weekend. It just didnt happen!
On Saturday I had agreed to grab some coffee with some friends. We went to a great Buddist cafe called Stupa Cafe that did amazing apple cake! The girls invited me to join them at the Opera, and as I hadnt been before and I was assured that smart dress was not required I joined them to see Tosca. It was my first ever Opera and I was pretty impressed. One of the male singers wasnt terribly strong, but the female and the other male singer were fantastic. Unfortunately as we were in the cheap seats, there were about 20 school children in with us and they were very loud and boisterous, and there were no Ushers to keep them quiet! Of course once the Opera (which starts at 5pm here for some reason) was over we had to go for dinner! It was a great evening and I was really glad to have gotten out of the house and to have caught up with some other volunteers.
Sunday dawned far to early for my liking! Sarah had organised a horse riding trip in Terelj for the day and two American guys joined us. It was a little chilly (around -30 in the morning, raising to -20 in the afternoon) so of course we had about 7 layers on each half of our bodies and we could barely move! We had a few quick stops for gas, at Turtle rock and at an Ovoo before we reached our base for the day. It was decided we would do 3 short rides with periods to warm up in between at different camps. Our first trip took us out to a shaman religious tree which was very interesting, but the scenery we were seeing was also fabulous. After a quick warm up we headed to our guides sisters house where we had a traditional Mongolian Barbeque - Khorhog. This is mutton, carrots and potatoes cooked with hot stones inside it and it was really tasty and tender. Over lunch I received a great compliment - I was told I was a very strong rider! Although I would hope so after the number of years I have ridden, in Mongolia horse riding is a very big deal and this was a big compliment from a Mongolian herder! After lunch we played with the families baby who was very cute, and Sarah and I played with their lambs! It was something we would never do at home, but these were Mongolian lambs and calves (0ne of whom was wearing a very cute blanket)and so we had our picture taken with them.
From here we headed to visit the sled dogs who are kept near by. When we arrived there some of our friends who had been out dog sledding for the past 2 days which was apparently fantastic (but at $250 a little out of our budget!). It was nice to see them and their sleds and dogs.
On our way back to our base camp we got a few longer spaces for a canter and had a nervewraking experience where we allowed our horses to drink from holes in the ice. This is terrifying when you can hear the ice cracking underneath you! In fact it is one of the scariest parts of riding on the frozen rivers. But the cars drive on these rivers, we saw yaks pulling carts of logs and when we saw the holes being cut in the ice to get water, it is incredibly think. The chances of us falling through the ice were minimal.
It was a day of contrasts from the open spaces, hills, woods and river riding we did it was fantastic. Although two days later all my muscles are still protesting!
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