Year of the Dog

...or maybe it is year of the Dawg?

Well this will be my official report on Tsagaan Tsar. It had a lot of build up and was not as bad as i thought it might be. We decided not to host any parties at our house and that decreased the pressure but we were invited out a lot. We ended up going to eight houses and two work parties.

Tsagaan sar officially began on a Monday but there is a big family dinner that happens the tsagaan sar eve. Our site mate was alone durring this time so we invited her up for a tsagaan tsar eve eve dinner that was fun. On the true tsagaan tsar eve we were invited to our hashaa families house to share in the meal, or so we thought. We got there and we were the only ones eating. But she made all veggie food for me (I have a strict no meat in other people's houses policy now) which was very nice. I brought over pizza pockets and a cake, they ate those in record time. After we left they went to the in-laws for their dinner. The next morning at sunrise Jesse and our hashaa dad went to the sacred mountain and walked around the ovoo and threw "white food" (anything not containing meat, i think they threw candy and milk). The senior male of each family is supposed to make the pilgramage to bring their family luck for the coming year. Jesse and Saikhanaa were among the first on the mountain so we should be very lucky this year. They are also supposed to wear new clothes. Jesse recieved a new deel shirt from the family that he wore (very handsome) and his deel.

The first day of tsagaan sar is family day. You limit your visits to only family. We didn't have much to do this day but we were invited to our hashaa family's house to meet the extended family. The husband wife teams wore matching deels so it was easy to tell who belonged together.

The second day is for friends and the third day is for work. We went to three houses on Tuesday. The ritual is pretty much the same at every house. You enter, take off coat, do formal greeting (say amar sain yy and depending on who is older extend your arms and place them under the older person. The older person then "kisses" both cheeks, but "kisses" are actually sniffs), then you sit down, and eat white food first. Depending on the family what it is could be different. Some houses serve milk, or airag, or milk tea. Then they pass you the candy bowl. You recieve with two hands, as a sign of respect, and pass it along the line. Then you recieve milk tea. At some point in this process someone might bring out their sniff bottle and pass it to you. There is ritual involved in this too. You accept with your right hand, lift the cap and smell in both sides of your nose, then pass it back with your right hand making sure the top is loose. Sniff bottles are a very friendly form of greeting. Then comes the salads (mongolias make two kinds of salads and both are made with vinegar, smart since it is the same salad for a week, but at two houses we were served a fruit salad that we taught at one of our trainings on healthy eating, how cool is that? they didn't even know we were coming). Then comes lots of drinks. It varies on the house but usually people open new bottles for each group of guests. So they open new vodka, new wine, new soda, and give you mongol made beer (it is made with fruit, primarially rasions and reminds me of maasai honey beer). Buuz are put on to steam when you come in the door and usually arrive on the table 20-25 minutes after arriving. Then you are commanded to eat, eat, eat and drink drink drink. The command form of the word is considered polite. You are not asked if you want something it is provided for you. Usually a man takes up the position of drink pourer. For vodka for example he will pass you a shot, you can take it or you can put it to your lips and pass it back. Then he adds more to the glass, regarless of which course you choose, and pass it to the next person. The same goes for wine in most cases. Tea you are given your own bowl. After you eat your fill and drink your fill you indicate that it is time to go. They tell you to sit and eat some more and then they give you a small gift. We got candy at every place we went and then we also got scarves, sweaters, shampoo, necklace... Then you must eat a white food again before you leave. When all this is over you move to the next house and do the same thing all over again.

You will be proud to know that jesse ate 125 buuz over the course of the week. Based on the informal poll taken of the western region, he is one of the highest buuz eaters.

It was pretty fun actually, tiring and filling, but fun. We were invited out every day that week. The official holiday is monday, tuesday, wednesday but then for 15 days after people may visit eachother. This is usually the time when people go to the hoodoo to see their countryside relatives.

Jesse and I both hit the ground running this week getting ready for numerous presentations. I am doing a capacity training today (i found out wednesday, not enough time for my translator, i think we won't have all the materials we need but we are giving it to officials from out of town so it is crummy), and jesse is finishing up a poster and two flyers he put together for world vision, then on wednesday we have the kindergartener training, friday i have a meeting with my TAN boss from UB, and a scout training that day, the next day (sat) I am supposed to help with a TAN event all day and then on the 20th (mon) I have an all day life skills training. Whew! Peace corps is crazy busy followed by bouts of sheer bordem. The next week however we go to UB (again) for our PDM training. That is a week long. No one has talked about March yet but hopefully we can spread things out a bit more.

The weather here has been wierd. One day it was record cold at night, and our little ger everything froze, and then the next week it is nice (not above freezing but not -45 either). Today it is nice.

We have been entertaining a lot at our house which is fun but a little tiring. Last night we had my boss and her son over for dinner. It went ok. I made a stir fry and fried tofu. I only added salt and black pepper to the stir fry becuase i didn't want to make it too spiced for them but the son had trouble eating it because he thought it was too spicy. I can't win. Then I had made a cake (from scratch, so impressed with myself) and jesse was in charge of steaming it but it kept blowing our fuse every 15 seconds so he put it on the wood stove to steam and something happened in that process because when i served it last night it was pretty much all dough. Very sad, but it looked pretty. AND my boss has a phobia of cats because she started singing a song and yelling everytime byambaa got withing 3 feet of her. So it was an interesting night, not horrible but not super.

Next week or when we get back from pdm we have requests for cooking lessons. Our mongolian friend wants to learn how to make pizza and mexican. So we shall see how that goes.

Ok that is all from me for now. Take care.