Staring out to the other three volcanos in the distance near the top of Volcan Pacaya.
"This makes me believe in the existence of god," Pinar said.
...and I agreed.
Pacaya had just erupted a month earlier...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Volcan Pacaya and the existence of god
Staring out to the other three volcanos in the distance near the top of Volcan Pacaya.
"This makes me believe in the existence of god," Pinar said.
...and I agreed.
Pacaya had just erupted a month earlier...
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Relaxing Shabbat day off in Mongolia
It was Gab and Delphine's last day. They headed back to Irtkusk around 7:00 p.m. I don't think I'd talked to them much before today, but that instant connection while traveling thing is really bizarre. They're probably among the most relaxed people I know, and always radiating positive energy.
I woke up around 10, and it was extremely cold outside. I was contemplating whether to go to work when Alex came in and grabbed me to drink coffee with Gab and Delphine at Café Amsterdam. Having heard it to be a complete tourist rip-off, I'd never ventured inside despite walking past everyday.
Located on the main drag on Peace Avenue, the café is a pretty standard Western-style coffee shop with pastries, sandwiches and English newspapers . The prices were rather outrageous, but we had not had real coffee in a while. We sat outside for about an hour, smoking cigarettes and sipping $3300 togrog lattes as if we were somewhere in Europe, except that every once in a while a random bum would walk by and try to sell us watercolor paintings of yurts and sheep.
I left early to go to my language exchange with Ganbold. I learned that in such a meat-eating culture in a land deprived of vegetables, vegetarian food is called "tsagaan khool" - literally "white food." I left early to meet Aki to finally visit the elusive vegetarian Cafe Ananda.
I was late, and Alex came to pick me up in front of of the Ataturk statue. It was probably my best meal in Ulaanbaatar so far. What made it better was that all the earnings go directly the Lotus Orphanage. We ate in a circle in a very Buddhist style round room with orange walls and brightly colored cushions and low tables.
I ate things I had not seen for a long time - tofu, spinach, and corn. Happy and satisfied, we all lay down in the room for a long time and did not want to go back into the cold. They commented that I was very "peaceful." That's one thing I like about Europeans - they don't see not being talkative as a bad thing.
A few hours later, Alex's khuushuur addiction started acting up again. I have to say, it is one of my favorite Mongolian foods. It's basically a fried, large half-circle shaped dumpling with mutton inside. We went into a store that had a big sign saying khuushuur on the outside, but the waitress said "bakhgui" - don't have it - probably the most common phrase you will hear when you visit a restaurant in Mongolia. Expect them to actually have about half the items on the menu.
We finally did find some before Alex lost his mind.
When we got back to the Golden Gobi, it was a pleasant surprise to see that Ariel and Adi, both from Israel, were preparing Israeli food for Shabbat. I never thought I'd experience my first Shabbat in Mongolia of all places. While we waited, Bob brought out his customary farewell vodka for Gab and Delphine and we all had a few shots and hugged good-bye.
Then the Israelis brought out two pots of Shakshukah - a steamed egg and tomato-sauce dish with mushrooms and onions, one with cheese and one vegan. They recited from the Torah, and broke the loaf of bread, handing everyone a piece. Then we dug in, while the vodka kept coming around and around and around. It was a very, very good day.
I woke up around 10, and it was extremely cold outside. I was contemplating whether to go to work when Alex came in and grabbed me to drink coffee with Gab and Delphine at Café Amsterdam. Having heard it to be a complete tourist rip-off, I'd never ventured inside despite walking past everyday.
Located on the main drag on Peace Avenue, the café is a pretty standard Western-style coffee shop with pastries, sandwiches and English newspapers . The prices were rather outrageous, but we had not had real coffee in a while. We sat outside for about an hour, smoking cigarettes and sipping $3300 togrog lattes as if we were somewhere in Europe, except that every once in a while a random bum would walk by and try to sell us watercolor paintings of yurts and sheep.
I left early to go to my language exchange with Ganbold. I learned that in such a meat-eating culture in a land deprived of vegetables, vegetarian food is called "tsagaan khool" - literally "white food." I left early to meet Aki to finally visit the elusive vegetarian Cafe Ananda.
I was late, and Alex came to pick me up in front of of the Ataturk statue. It was probably my best meal in Ulaanbaatar so far. What made it better was that all the earnings go directly the Lotus Orphanage. We ate in a circle in a very Buddhist style round room with orange walls and brightly colored cushions and low tables.
I ate things I had not seen for a long time - tofu, spinach, and corn. Happy and satisfied, we all lay down in the room for a long time and did not want to go back into the cold. They commented that I was very "peaceful." That's one thing I like about Europeans - they don't see not being talkative as a bad thing.
A few hours later, Alex's khuushuur addiction started acting up again. I have to say, it is one of my favorite Mongolian foods. It's basically a fried, large half-circle shaped dumpling with mutton inside. We went into a store that had a big sign saying khuushuur on the outside, but the waitress said "bakhgui" - don't have it - probably the most common phrase you will hear when you visit a restaurant in Mongolia. Expect them to actually have about half the items on the menu.
We finally did find some before Alex lost his mind.
When we got back to the Golden Gobi, it was a pleasant surprise to see that Ariel and Adi, both from Israel, were preparing Israeli food for Shabbat. I never thought I'd experience my first Shabbat in Mongolia of all places. While we waited, Bob brought out his customary farewell vodka for Gab and Delphine and we all had a few shots and hugged good-bye.
Then the Israelis brought out two pots of Shakshukah - a steamed egg and tomato-sauce dish with mushrooms and onions, one with cheese and one vegan. They recited from the Torah, and broke the loaf of bread, handing everyone a piece. Then we dug in, while the vodka kept coming around and around and around. It was a very, very good day.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Mongolian food word-loans
When eating at Mongolian restaurants, the appetizers can be confusing to a Chinese-speaker because the food names are incorrectly borrowed.
The word buuz (Mongolian dumpling), is borrowed from Chinese baozi, which is a meat bun. The Mongolian word for baozi is makh mantuu, which is borrowed from the Chinese mantou - which is a steamed white bun with no meat in it. Then the Mongolians have the regular mantuu, which actually does correspond to the Chinese mantou. Sounds confusing? I made a chart below to explain.
This is because prior to the Song Dynasty in China, mantou was used to describe both filled and unfilled buns, and other cultures borrowed the word before that. The Mongolians probably took up the word baozi as dumpling after they conquered the Song Dynasty in the 1200s. To make matters even more complicated, in Korean, mandu is acually a dumpling.
As a non-agricultural country, most of the words for vegetables are also borrowed from Chinese - Green peppers are chinjuu in Mongolian and chinjiao in Chinese. Carrots - lovan and luobo. Onions - songon and tsong.
On a side note, (well, because Kyushu Japanese people eat horses, so it's appropriate to include this here) the Chinese word for horse is ma, and is probably borrowed from the Mongolian muur, becuase the nomads had horses first. Then the Japanese borrowed it from Chinese, and they call horses uma.
The word buuz (Mongolian dumpling), is borrowed from Chinese baozi, which is a meat bun. The Mongolian word for baozi is makh mantuu, which is borrowed from the Chinese mantou - which is a steamed white bun with no meat in it. Then the Mongolians have the regular mantuu, which actually does correspond to the Chinese mantou. Sounds confusing? I made a chart below to explain.
This is because prior to the Song Dynasty in China, mantou was used to describe both filled and unfilled buns, and other cultures borrowed the word before that. The Mongolians probably took up the word baozi as dumpling after they conquered the Song Dynasty in the 1200s. To make matters even more complicated, in Korean, mandu is acually a dumpling.
As a non-agricultural country, most of the words for vegetables are also borrowed from Chinese - Green peppers are chinjuu in Mongolian and chinjiao in Chinese. Carrots - lovan and luobo. Onions - songon and tsong.
On a side note, (well, because Kyushu Japanese people eat horses, so it's appropriate to include this here) the Chinese word for horse is ma, and is probably borrowed from the Mongolian muur, becuase the nomads had horses first. Then the Japanese borrowed it from Chinese, and they call horses uma.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Mongolian Wrestling
It was another freezing day in Ulaanbaatar. I went to the orphanage and left early, because of the big event of the week - Mongolian Wrestling!
Mongolian wrestling, called "bokh" in Mongolian, is one of the historic "three manly skills", which include Archery and Horseriding. The Wrestling Palace downtown holds wrestling matches every weekend.
The format of the competition is a bracket system, where many pairs of wrestlers square off in the large arena simultaneously, and the losers are eliminated while the winners then fight other winners.
Since I was told that these things can go on for 6 or more hours, I didn't arrive until about 3 hours into the competition. By that time, four pairs were left.
It's kind of like sumo wrestling, but the wrestlers are mostly not that immensely fat. The objective of the match is to get the opponent's upper body, knee or elbow to touch the ground. There are no weight classes, and one of the pairs we saw had a great size disparity.
When they enter or exit the stage they perform a falcon dance - running with their arms stretched out slightly backwards, like a falcon taking off.
We were the only non-Mongolian people in the crowd. It was hard to understand what was going on, since it's a very subtle sport. Often times, the crowd would erupt into loud cheering while we didn't even notice that anything had happened.
They also had a raffle - prize money would be given to a lucky ticket holder according to ticket number. While a friendly Mongolian man behind us translated for us, I found myself being able to understand most of the numbers being announced!
Two more hours passed, and we were getting bored. Joanna started a betting game, and we each chose a person to win the tournament. She won the bet, and she used her winnings to buy us beer after the match finally ended, well into the 6th hour.
Mongolian wrestling, called "bokh" in Mongolian, is one of the historic "three manly skills", which include Archery and Horseriding. The Wrestling Palace downtown holds wrestling matches every weekend.
The format of the competition is a bracket system, where many pairs of wrestlers square off in the large arena simultaneously, and the losers are eliminated while the winners then fight other winners.
Since I was told that these things can go on for 6 or more hours, I didn't arrive until about 3 hours into the competition. By that time, four pairs were left.
It's kind of like sumo wrestling, but the wrestlers are mostly not that immensely fat. The objective of the match is to get the opponent's upper body, knee or elbow to touch the ground. There are no weight classes, and one of the pairs we saw had a great size disparity.
When they enter or exit the stage they perform a falcon dance - running with their arms stretched out slightly backwards, like a falcon taking off.
We were the only non-Mongolian people in the crowd. It was hard to understand what was going on, since it's a very subtle sport. Often times, the crowd would erupt into loud cheering while we didn't even notice that anything had happened.
They also had a raffle - prize money would be given to a lucky ticket holder according to ticket number. While a friendly Mongolian man behind us translated for us, I found myself being able to understand most of the numbers being announced!
Two more hours passed, and we were getting bored. Joanna started a betting game, and we each chose a person to win the tournament. She won the bet, and she used her winnings to buy us beer after the match finally ended, well into the 6th hour.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Troubles at the orphanage
I arrived at the orphanage to discover that Umesh, an older kid who I entrusted the supply closet key to, was sent to the hospital. I tried to find a staff member to find out what happened, but for the 4th day in a row, nobody was around.
So I had no way to conduct my class again.
They say that this is how things work here, it's part of the culture, but I don't live here. I could be traveling somewhere else. It was my choice to stay and help these kids, but I'm not getting the support I need.
Then things started to get out of control. The first thing some kids did when they saw me was to drag me into a store and ask me to buy them candy. When I said no, and one of the kids pulled out a huge wad of bills from his pocket - where did he get the money from? Then they got very upset and refused to talk to me for the rest of the day.
I played basketball with some of them for a while, then I decided that at least I could have them make the eyes for the masks. That was my first mistake - thinking that I could handle them without a Mongolian speaking teacher. Then they went out of control, running all over the place, looting the supply room and eventually destroying each other's masks. At that point, I promptly ended the class and left.
I guess it was a good learning experience, and I really shouldn't be getting upset at kids – I was exactly the same when I was little – and think of the lives these kids have had. After calming down, I realized that it's not about what I want to do or what goals I want to acheive, but it's whether the kids have a good time or not. So the masks got destroyed, but at least they got to do something different and express their creativity instead of sitting in their ger watching TV or roaming the streets. I'm going to adjust my mindset and go back tomorrow with a different method and direction of doing things. One thing for sure - I will make sure a Mongolian speaking teacher is present when I have my class (if I'm able to have it at all.)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mongolian Memories of Bob Marley
Went with Joanna in the morning to language exchange with the artist Ganbold. I learned how to say one of the most important phrases for foreigners living in Mongolia: "Bi arikh dolguui - I don't like vodka." Even if you do like vodka - and I actually do - you don't want to end up in a nightly drinking contest with random neighbors and your host.
In the afternoon, I led a troupe of 5 - me, Joanna, Ariel, Morgan and Julie to the orphanage. As half-expected, no staff was there again and we had no access to the supply room. So everyone just played with the kids for a couple hours. The kids are so friendly and you can tell they need so much affection. I had to stop letting them use my camera this time when one kid discovered the delete button. Then we played soccer on this immense green field with the power plant and Ulaanbaatar's skyline far in the background. It felt like another world - every now and then a horseman would ride by with his herd of cattle.
Afterwards we went back to the Golden Gobi and beered up for the big event of the night - the "Memories of Bob Marley" party, and almost everyone from the hostel went. We were disappointed at first to hear that there wouldn't be live music, but what we saw was not short of spectacular - DJs spinning Bob Marley music, and an MC singing and rapping in Mongolian! Then the Mongolian reggae dudes made a speech in English about being all together and one love, and all of us, from a million miles away in each direction, danced to the power of Bob Marley in a strange city. After too many beers, we went back and passed out feeling like we owned the world.
In the afternoon, I led a troupe of 5 - me, Joanna, Ariel, Morgan and Julie to the orphanage. As half-expected, no staff was there again and we had no access to the supply room. So everyone just played with the kids for a couple hours. The kids are so friendly and you can tell they need so much affection. I had to stop letting them use my camera this time when one kid discovered the delete button. Then we played soccer on this immense green field with the power plant and Ulaanbaatar's skyline far in the background. It felt like another world - every now and then a horseman would ride by with his herd of cattle.
Afterwards we went back to the Golden Gobi and beered up for the big event of the night - the "Memories of Bob Marley" party, and almost everyone from the hostel went. We were disappointed at first to hear that there wouldn't be live music, but what we saw was not short of spectacular - DJs spinning Bob Marley music, and an MC singing and rapping in Mongolian! Then the Mongolian reggae dudes made a speech in English about being all together and one love, and all of us, from a million miles away in each direction, danced to the power of Bob Marley in a strange city. After too many beers, we went back and passed out feeling like we owned the world.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A great day in Mongolia
Today has been probably one of the best days in my life. After visiting the pathetic Shamanistic Center of Eternal Sophistication, we started playing basketball and soccer with the kids outside the hostel. I could finally feel my energy levels returning, and after a while I wasn't feeling tired at all!
Later on, I met with Joanna and we went to the orphanage. Sutaba wasn't there, so we had no access to the art supply storage. Joanna saved the day by suggesting that we just have the kids draw designs for their masks. We taught them how to write what color each part would be in English, and everyone came up with pretty interesting masks - mostly humanoid aliens.
We finished the class early, and headed to the basketball court. Some kids took my camera, and started taking pictures - they took a total of 280 pictures! In the end, they got pretty good, and some of the shots were pretty artistic. (I'll have an album just with kid's shots.)
Finally we wrapped up and went home, feeling better than I'd ever had. Although I was exhausted, I finally felt that I contributed to humanity - and had a blast doing it. I didn't have that unsatisfied feeling after a day at the office, feeling that I needed to do more. I truly felt that I deserved to relax, and have a couple beers. So we did.
Later on, I met with Joanna and we went to the orphanage. Sutaba wasn't there, so we had no access to the art supply storage. Joanna saved the day by suggesting that we just have the kids draw designs for their masks. We taught them how to write what color each part would be in English, and everyone came up with pretty interesting masks - mostly humanoid aliens.
We finished the class early, and headed to the basketball court. Some kids took my camera, and started taking pictures - they took a total of 280 pictures! In the end, they got pretty good, and some of the shots were pretty artistic. (I'll have an album just with kid's shots.)
Finally we wrapped up and went home, feeling better than I'd ever had. Although I was exhausted, I finally felt that I contributed to humanity - and had a blast doing it. I didn't have that unsatisfied feeling after a day at the office, feeling that I needed to do more. I truly felt that I deserved to relax, and have a couple beers. So we did.
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