Tsagaan Sar - 2012

"Hey Ezra, whatcha doin'?  Nice hat, buddy!  Who's your friend?"

  "That's my buddy Huslen.  Yeah, this is a traditional Mongolian hat, usually worn during the national holidays and wrestling competitions.  Today is the first day of Mongolia's biggest national holiday, Tsagaan Sar.  It means 'White Moon' or 'White Month', Dad."  

"Thanks, little wrestler!"

 Here we are at our dear friend, Urna's house.  You might recognize her from our other posts.  That's Huslen, Urna's son, on the bottom, along with her parents, aunt, and friend.  During Tsagaan Sar, you begin with your oldest relatives and meet and greet (and EAT) your way on down through your family and friends over the next three days.  We were very honored to be invited on this first day.

On the right is our dear friend Aleta.  She's been with our org in Mongolia for 15 years!  The gal on the left is our new friend Sandy and she's in the app process to join us!  In the foreground are the infamous sheep and tower of bread-like cakes and curd products, staples for any Tsagaan Sar celebration.

Here's me and little buddy with Urna's parents and aunt Oyunaa, who's best friends with Aleta.

 And now for the food line up!  Other than the sheep and tower-o-breadcake-and-dairy products, salads are seen at every gathering.  Pickles and ham are among the favorites.

 Along with potato salad, which is always good!

 And sheep's tail fat and guts!  Both delicacies.

And last, but by no means least, Buuz.  If you only ate one thing during Tsagaan Sar, this would be it.  If you've been following our blog for a couple years you may have seen us making buuz with our beloved Gerlee.  It is simply meat (usually mutton), onions, and maybe cabbage or carrots.  The seasoning is up to the cook but it's never usually more than S &/or P.  This mixture is made into little balls and placed inside a small flour tortilla-like circle, closed with various techniques.  Legend goes that a real man eats 20 and it takes 10 to attain real womanhood.  Two years ago I put down 17 at one stop but this year, having just come off a stomach flu-like bug, I stuck to 7 at the first visit and 11 two days later.  Unfortunately, during the holidays it's cultural to always have a full table and a full plate, no matter how much you've eaten and saying "no" in various ways becomes an uncomfortable necessity to avoid a much worse discomfort!

 And it is quite an odd thing if you don't see and get offered vodka...repeatedly.  This is not so good for us because we've agreed not to consume any alcohol for our organization and the men push it on you worse than the women push seconds at a local-Lutheran potluck!!!  That angry lookin' dude on the bottle is Gengis Kaan, or "Chinggis Khan" as it's actually pronounced.  Thankfully at this house they know we don't drink so I was only asked a few times, and that was I after I ceremonially touched it to my lips to receive his hospitality...an essential.  This can be extremely difficult and awkward and a whole family can be dishonored if you decline in an unsatisfactory way.

Here's a better shot of the cakes and curds...and more vodka!  "Болор" means crystal...hence the bottle shape.

 Even little Ez-man had the opportunity to take a sip but there was no pressure involved and it really was quite funny.  And no...I did not give him any.  :)  At first Ezra didn't warm up to this guy but after a while they were having the best time.  He would take Ezra's sock off and stick it in his pocket and gobble his little piggies.  He just went crazy over that!!!  Apparently Mongolian babies like that, too!  It was so great.

 Hey, I just realized Mommy's not in any of these!  She must have been behind the camera tonight.  Anyway, here we are receiving gifts from the host...a very common tradition.

"Mr. Buttons, I presume?"

 On the third day we were invited to our pastor's house celebrate.  It was really nice as it was just their family and our team for the majority of the time we were there.

 Here's the rowdy bunch waiting for our little brother to come pick us up at the bus stop.  Most of you would know Joshua and Jennifer in the middle.  Matthew on the left, and my two incognito sweetems on the right.

 Mr. Matthew Kennedy...teammate, coworker, sidekick, neighbor, frequent table guest and otherwise good friend and brother.  Love 'm.

 

Here's a good one of life in the ger districts.  Loads of little shops along the roads and sometimes literally right on the edge of the street.  "Эмийн Сан" is a pharmacy, "Гоо Сайхан" is cosmetics, and Baby Shop would say "Хүүхдийн Дэлгүүр."  The woman next to the store is drinking milk tea and selling bags of wood and chatting with the store clerk.  The man on the street is selling bags of raw coal for about $2/bag.  In the distance are the beautiful mountains and the sprawling ger districts of the north.  The big cooling tower is from a coal plant making hot water for central heating or electricity...not sure.

 This is our pastor Urnaa and her husband Sukhbaatar.  The church here is predominately women and while we rejoice that we have so many sisters, the prayer of nearly every believer here is that He would bring more men into the flock.

 Here's Ezra eating his first piece of Mongolian ham.  That's his "not quite sure what I think about this" face.  :)

 

As at every home, salads and meat.  Since I was the oldest guest, I got to carve everybody a piece of meat.  That's one thing I really enjoy doing but my uncle Jerry is much better at it than I am.  :)

 

 Not sure if this is normal for toddlers or not, but Ezra loves to share!  He also likes to find people's belly buttons, just forewarning all of you.  Needless to say, Pastor's daughter was a little surprised by this.  We'll try to get him interested in other things.

Here's the gang!

Thanks Joshua for taking the picture and thanks to everyone for a great holiday!

For you photo buffs: In case you were wondering how the front folks could be in focus and the next row not, we just got a new 50mm 1.8 lens.  For you non photo buffs, this means that if you're standing close to someone, you can focus on someone's nose and their eyes will be totally blurry.  It's actually a little difficult to get used to but it allows you to shoot in very low light without a flash.  They say it adds between 4 and 10 stops.  All I know is that I'm not used to having the foreground be out of focus (go back a couple picture to the salads).