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).

Our Fall Family Outing

One of our favorite things about our new apartment is the fact that we are so close to one of our favorite getaways in UB, the river! There is a large island that reminds us of MN, especially in the fall, with lots of trees changing colors and the beautiful river. Well, it's an island when the water is up, but more of a peninsula when it hasn't rained in a while. We took several trips down there this summer, most of them having to take off our shoes and cross a little stream. There is a little bend in the river where we like to set up camp. Here are a few photos of our favorite spot...

We had a little family picnic recently to enjoy the fall weather and colors. We set up the tripod and got this great shot of our family!

There is a little road that goes along the other side of the river. Can you find the jeep?

Matt got a nice fire going, but it was hard to find enough wood to keep it going. The wood was so dry that it burned up rather quickly.

We found just enough wood to get some sausage cooked. It was...interesting. In the package it looked like a ring sausage, but it was more like summer sausage with huge chunks of fat that melted and got all sizzley. That would have been great, except that it also tasted like mutton. :)

Ezra had a great time, one of his favorite places, too! He loves being outside, exploring His creation.

Oh, and we had just enough fire for some s'mores (thanks to Deb and Jill for bringing us some graham crackers and marshmallows!). 

Mmmmmm.......tasty!

We had a beautiful sunset to end our great time together down at the river.

What's new?

A lot, actually...we've started a new school year, moved to a new apartment, got a new mode of transportation, and Ezra is learning new things everyday! He is clapping, waving bye, walking along the furniture, and showing more of his adorable personality everyday.

Here are a few photos and video clips of what's new with us! Enjoy!

We had our first ear of sweet corn of the summer (and first we've had in Mongolia)! Grown in Mongolia, and it was some of the yummiest sweet corn we've had. Mmmm.

This was Matt's first day of school at New Era. Mom, Dad and Ezra got in on the group photo, too. These are most of his new co-workers. He really likes his new job!

This is our new home! We love it. It's so peaceful near the river and mountains. Even though it's a little further from a bus stop (and the road to get here is a little treacherous), it's worth the peace and quiet. And there are so many families in this area too, including our German friends! And it's only a 7 min walk from Matt's new school.


This is our new mode of transportation! Some dear friends of ours gave us money to go towards an early Christmas present. Matt has already taken in downtown a few times and I used it to haul some groceries home from the store. Just for future reference, in case you ever need to know, it's a nearly impossible to ride a bike with 70lbs of groceries on your back. I ended up strapping the bag to my bike in front of the seat and walked it home. :) I got a LOT of stares. :) Oh, well. It makes for good stories.


Today we woke up to our first snow fall of the season. It always reminds me of harvest time in MN. I seem to remember several first snows coming down while we were unloading grain trucks. :)


And last, but not least, our sweet lil' Ezra boy, eating big boy food and showing off his new skills.

Lil' Ezra just turned 9 months old a couple weeks ago! Hard to believe how fast the time goes. He's getting so big. You'll have to check out his blog for more 9 month photos from mommy's photoshoot. :)

Bye for now! Love and miss you!

Matt, Jess and Ezra

Terelj - Take 3

While Mom and Dad were here for a visit, we got to enjoy 4 days in the countryside in Terelj, a national park about 2 hours outside of UB. Our whole team went out there for our Fall Training and kicked-off the new school year. The day we arrived was a little dreary and raining, but the clouds were amazing among the mountains! This was our third visit to Terelj. For more photos from our previous visits you'll want to check out "Easter Celebrations" and "Тэрэлч руу явсан, Ямар гоё!".

On the way there, Ezra got his "select comfort" back! I think this might have been one of Grandma's highlights. :)

Here's our ger camp! The 5 of us got to stay in a Ger for 4 nights. It was a good experience, but we didn't get much sleep. It's hard for people to realize that these are like tent walls...you can hear everything! It was a little noisy with other guests staying up late.

Ezra had to check out the new living quarters. "What's this water doing in the wood bucket?"

And of course, Grandma and Ezra had a great time together in the ger!

 He's getting so big!

What a sweet boy!

We had meetings in a larger ger that was really nice with a tiled floor and nice lighting around the room. Here are the guys having a good discussion during training.

We also had a great time singing together on Sunday morning! This dear sweet man on the left is the father of one of our Mongolian office ladies. He has one of the most amazing smiles and loves our Father very much!

We also had a time of lifting up and sending out for our dear teammates who were moving out to Western Mongolia.

We had a couple birthdays to celebrate together, too! This is the largest ger any of us had seen. It was where we ate all our meals...which were actually pretty good (beef or chicken instead of mutton!). Mom and Dad were pretty happy about the food, too. They thought they were going to have a hard time finding something to eat. We didn't even need to tap into "the reserves" we brought along!

They even had a highchair for Ezra!

  

Here's the 2011-2012 Team Mongolia! We're hoping to have a few more join us in February!

(This is the large ger where we ate our meals.)

And here is our smaller team for 2011-2012! Josh and Jennifer, Matthew, and us!

Of course, it wasn't all work. We had some free time to explore the beauty around us....

Several of us went on a 2 hour horseback ride, including Dad, Matt and I. (Grandma got to stay with Ezra!)

 

Here's Dad and I with our cute lil' Mongolian horses and our new Mongolian cowboy hats!

I told everyone it was the only time they could call me "Jesse". :)

On our return ride we saw a camel! My horse got spooked by him and decided to walk waaaayy around him in the wrong direction (I didn't get this close, Matt took this one!). Then he stopped and wouldn't move! I had to get the whip out. Then we finally went for a good gallup! :) We had a great time.

Matt and Matthew also hiked to the top of one of the nearby mountains. The little white specks above Matt's head is our ger camp!

Dad and I went on a walk to a nearby forest, found a log to sit on and read parts of "After America" together. Very interesting and sobering outlook on America's future.

 Three Generations! It was so great to be together again.

We loved having Mom and Dad here with us for a couple weeks! It went by too quickly, though.

What a great time together in the countryside! More of our city adventures to come soon!