Adventures in the Countryside

Everything you need to know you learned in Kindergarten - pshaw!

It was nice to dust off some of my adventuring skills again this trip.
A little bit of Countryside 101.



Get the party started!
If eating were a sport, Mongolia would only deal in "ultimate mutton."


Mutton with a cute little tail!


Hot camel khoumiss ("fermented" camel milk)


Making traditional fried mutton dumplings minus the mutton (fried potato dumplings-hmmm!)


Personal hygiene a la bucket


Back in bread mode


Milking a camel

Baby Fetish

If one wanted to, hypothetically say, develop an obsession over babies - Mongolia is quite a good place to be.







Mongolian babies are so fun.

You can wrap them up in fat snow suits and scarves until they reach twice their real body weight, becoming Mongolian sausage babies (appropriate for bold babies venturing out into Mongolian winter climes).

You can tie their long deel belts from their stomachs to a bed so that they can't mistakenly toddle into the ger stove during playtime.

You can marvel at how there is nary a diaper in Mongolia.

You can goggle at how Mongolian children and teenagers obligingly and uncomplainingly look after younger siblings tottering around immediately upon parental request.

The Wild West

A ger in front of Mt. Jargalant - right outside my village

I just finished up a week long visit to my old Peace Corps village where I spent two years teaching English. I ate too much mutton and got stomach cramps. I nearly lost my clogs in the outhouse. I drank non-filtered river water which resulted in (the much feared Peace Corps phenomenon) explosive diarrhea.

It was wonderful!

Minus the cell phones which, with new extended country coverage, have sprouted riotously like wild mushrooms, and some new fruit trees planted in the dry and dusty school yard - everything was bizarrely familiar. I stepped right back into community life for a lovely week.

The final consensus on my three year absence was:
Mongolian language: Still good
My person: Very thin and lovely; so much different from before
My social life: Why, at the dessicated age of 30, am I STILL NOT MARRIED? Subsequent recommendation: Forget the husband and start having babies before it's too late

Soum sweet soum.