Mongol Camping

So the last four days have been super fun on this half of the world. Jesse came back to Khutul for Naadam on Saturday. Naadam was kind of a dissappointment. It is kind of like the county fair that no one really likes but you go because there is nothing else to do. Naadam was like that. My town has 10,000 people and I think less than 500 showed up.

However, here are the highlights:
1) wrestling: the highlight here are definately the outfits. Speedos, fat man in a little coat and big big boots (with upturned toes). The fat man in a little coat came about some time ago when a woman (who are not allowed to wrestle) ended up winning the National title. All the men were ashamed so they changed the uniform to include an open chested coat so no women could hide.
2) archery: we were only there long enough to see the children's archery but it is a long way with a very small target. 'nuff said.
3) horse races: This was pretty crazy, there were about 100 people on horses waiting for their turn to race at the finish line. The races start 15 Km from where we were and we caught the end of one. The jockey was about 8 years old and wore a cape. Once he crossed the finish line he was mobbed by the aforementioned people on horseback who all wanted to touch the sweat of the winning horse. It is supposed to bring good luck.
4) I tried the femented mares milk in the VIP section of Naadam (were it is shady and all the old people sit). It is very very bad. I had one sip and it curdled my stomache for hours. Jesse drank two glasses. I don't think he has tastebuds. Poor jesse.
5) Two peace corps people M15's (we are the M16 class) wrestled. They both lasted about 15 seconds and the crowds laughed the whole time. I liked it.

After Naadam the real festivities began...We went camping with about 30 people. Under 3 feet people outnumbered adults 3 to 1. We camped in the shadow of an 1800 year old monastary. The monastary was so beautiful and colorful. One of the things we did there was a re-birthing process. There is a upsidedown urn thing placed on four rock blocks. You are supposed to enter (on your stomache) and turn clockwise three times then come out this tiny hole at the other end. Jesse and I are not Mongol sized (more mongol super size). It is very claustraphobic inside and everyone is standing around laughing at you.

At the campsite we did normal camping things till the dads came back with a live sheep! They finished killing it then started taking all the insides out. The inside of an animal stinks! The women cleaned the intestines and the men pulled out a blowtorch. They tied the sheep to the tree and then used the blowtorch for about an hour and a half to get all the hair and whatnot off. Then they chopped it up, put it in a large metal container with hot rocks and water and potatoes and rolled it around for about an hour. Then we all sat down and ate piles of meat. It was actually really good and I got picutes.

We also had a huge bonfire (Mongolians aren't hip to the "leave no trace" camping philosophy). They passed around the vodka (about the 5th bottle) and sang songs and danced (sort of). Then J and I had to sing. We were very bad but no one knew. : )

The weekend was pretty fun overall but Jesse got a little sick. I think it was the forest berries he ate (Mike didn't you teach him better?). He thought it was ok because everyone else was eating them, although he didn't bother to check if I was eating them. He threw up in the car! Everyone thought he was hungover even though he only had one bowl of beer. Ha! I nursed him back to health and he is much better today.

That is all we have for now. Cheers!