I just layered up for the snow festival this afternoon “Tango in the Snow”:
• NZ merino thermal top
• Mongolian camel hair jumper
• Chinese lambswool jumper
• Natalie’s unfashionable winter coat from last winter
• NZ merino head cosy
• Beanie (don’t know where it is from)
• Outdoor gloves that turn my hands into thick mitts unable to hold anything
• Thermal leggings, jeans, two pairs of woollen socks, boots, scarf….ready to go
This morning we visited more small businesses – a tailor, carpenter, mobile phone fixer, dumpling maker, butcher and games hall owner (billiards, table-tennis and a small vintage computer game). We spent most of our time with the games hall owner trying to fix her photocopier. Sovd and I shared photos. Sovd had an album of a recent trip to a cave and a shrine. In almost all the photos she was posed regally, no smiling, cheekbones blushed to perfection. I responded by showing photos of me and my family on the ipod. Sovd has asked Jon and Ganbold how old I am. She is two years younger than me, and her two boys are older than my girls. In the process of exchanging this information Ganbold and I discovered that we were born only one day apart in 1973. Ganbold and I both have two children. His daughter is named Michelle, but the Mongolian version – which is spelled quite differently (I neglected to write down how they spell it). They told me that in Mongolian Michelle means “smile”. Jon then explained later that it is a kind of enigmatic Mona Lisa type smile – not a face-splitting grin. I think I can do enigmatic much better than face splitter.
For lunch today we had Mongolian flour noodles steamed with mutton and potatoes. I had to pick out the mutton, which Amar the driver) gladly ate for me. The noodles were nice, but I have a heavy stomach again. I had run out of small change, so I brought some toothpaste and toilet paper at a store to get some. To give me the correct change they had to pull banknotes from the cash register, their pockets and from another customer.
The snow festival turned out to be a series of team-based challenges. The five ADRA staff (four of us and Sovd) had to form a team and we were the smallest of all the other teams. Activities included an obstacle course, tug-of-war, female wrestling, sled individual time trials and a running race. I managed to talk myself out of the wrestling competition, but I still have cold air in my lungs from the sprint up and down a snow covered hill. The wrestling was full-on, with contestants grabbing any part of clothing they could for leverage. The object was to stay inside a ring marked in the snow and force your opponent to the ground or outside the ring. There were a few kids about. The snow has begun to melt, so has enough moisture in it to clump together in snowballs. The kids eventually got game enough to throw the snowballs at us and we have fun throwing snow everywhere. It made me miss Alesia, as she would have enjoyed the games. I think I came equal second in the downhill sledding (or just equal time with Sovd, the explanation was not that clear). If you are wondering - I was warm enough...especially after the run.
Jon and I finished off the afternoon with an amble up main street (which has a charming hand painted condom promotion billboard with a condom depicted as a cheery superhero) and then a clamber up a nearby hillside to a stupa that overlooks the town. We collected three school boys as guides along the way. One of them showed us a story he had written in at school in English, which featured numerous use of the word “yesterday”. He also harboured a suspicion that I was too weak to make it up the mountain, so stayed at my elbow during the slippery bits. I made it up stumble-free and the view across the town and to the hills beyond was wonderful. No pictures, as I didn’t take my camera. The sun was going down and the dusty, frozen, wooden town was full of lovely afternoon light. A herder brought in a group of horses and they trotted through town, leaving a trail of dust. We could hear pigs, chickens, dogs and children.
After walking around the stupa clockwise three times (as you do) we settled with the three kids and watched the town life go on beneath us. I have been here long enough to recognise faces in the street (the butcher, the baker, the tailor – instead of candlestick maker). They have all been friendly and welcomed me into their homes and businesses, let me take photos of them at strange angles and hunted up vegetarian food for me when spring is the time when food is most scarce – winter stocks have almost gone and summer crops are a few months away. I have missed Chris and my girls, dreaded using the toilet, had my first encounter with snuff (will describe that another time), but overall I am glad I came. I would like to think that I may come back here one day and see some of the women again. It will have to be in summer though, as I can see Alesia flatly refusing to bare her bottom to a pit toilet in sub zero temperatures! In the picture below see if you can see the horseman...
