Old Russian Base

Posted on April 14, 2012 by admin

About 3 kilometers northwest of Hanhongor is a small range of hills, of which at the base are the remains of an old Russian Army base. Built in the late 60s and intentionally destroyed by the Russians when they abandoned the site in the early 80s, it served as a listening station for Chinese communications. It was never very large, only about 30 people at any given time but it did boast housing, offices, an antenna, an underground storage depot, and a small store with Russian goods. Darkhuu remembers visiting the store with a Russian friend who worked at the school, as well as Russian soldiers coming into town in the evenings looking for alcohol. When the Russians left, they took must things and blew up the buildings, but there is enough left for some fun exploring. One does wonder though what those soldiers did wrong to be sent to an army base in the most desolate area of the most uninhabited country under Russian influence!

Brian heading out to the base on a recent walk

Santi exploring. Some of the remains are as they were after the explosion and some have been gathered up for scrap but never taken away.

Looking around you can guess where things were

as well as learn about what they ate and wore

The creepiest part of the base is the old storage depot (cave, really) that is in the base of the hills. I have never gone in but Brian and John went in once. Eak.

From the hills behind the base there are lovely views including what we call the painted hills of Hanhongor

and a nice view of Hanhongor

It is very restful on the top

Generator

Posted on February 10, 2012 by admin

As mentioned previously, the electricity in our province has been a problem since the day the power plant was built in 2000. Since Brian needs power for his business we finally broke down and bought a cute little green generator. Being the handyman that he is, Brian built an all weather box to protect it as well as to store his tools in. Check out out the fancy new setup over at Brian’s business blog.

Our New Bed

Posted on January 22, 2012 by admin

After 4 months of sleeping with just a couple of old school desk tops and sheets of felt between us and the ground, we decided to upgrade and move our old school desk tops and sheets of felt a couple of feet off the ground. Darkhuu, the industrious, found us the old front of a traditional Mongolian bed, and with some newly purchased wood and a few additional school desk tops Brian went about building us a top notch bed. First Brian added a frame to the back of the bed front, as well as a middle and back frame.

He then joined the three frames together from the top using the desk tops.

A few more strategic cuts for the ends of the bed….

and voila-a wonderful sturdy and much warmer bed.

Even Santiago thinks Brian did a great job.

Internet at last! (Well sort of, some of the time, if the wind is right)

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

Thanks to the perseverance of Brian and his giant computer like brain we now have wireless internet in our ger. It can be amazingly slow at times (try 1kb a second download speeds) and the power likes to go out at annoying times, but we have internet. We don’t have running water or indoor plumbing but we have internet. I love it!

Our wonderful router and modem.

Birthday Goodness

Posted on September 28, 2011 by admin

I had a wonderful 34th birthday complete with food, friends, and electricity. We were joined by Darkhuu, Emma (the Peace Corps volunteer), and our good friend John who was riding his motorcycle around the world and just happened to be in town for my big day. We made pizzas in Darkhuu’s tiny oven, had delicious drinks prepared by Emma, and finished with a glorious cake. I received much needed slippers and books from Brian, wonderful goodies from Sarah in England, and a totally unexpected Chinggis Khan rug from Darkhuu. It now hangs in a place of honor in our home.

The lovely cake Darkhuu ordered from Dalanzadgad.

Some delicious candy from Tsendee.

Darkhuu giving me a wonderful new Chinggis rug.

Checking the placement.

The centerpiece of our ger.

Ger improvement

Posted on September 21, 2011 by admin

Brian and I are the proud owners of our very first home, and ger. With this purchase I have learned a few interesting things about gers and people.

The first thing I learned is that when you buy a ger it doesn’t quite come with everything you would expect. For example our ger came with the lattice walls, a door, the roof poles and center poles and circle, a layer of felt, the exterior cover, the top window flap for inclement weather, and the ropes needed to hold it all together. It did not come with a floor, windows or window frames for the top of the ger, and some other necessary ropes.

We are now in the third week of ger improvement and have added interior wall curtains which go over the lattice walls, window frames (still working on the glass), a rope that hangs from the center of the ger which is tied to a heavy object to keep your ger from flying away in a sandstorm, furniture, and a stove. Future work will include finishing the window project, adding a padded blanket to the door as added insulation, and covering the base of the ger with a foot or so of dirt to keep the draft out.

Finally getting glass in our windows!

Window's drying on the fence

Owning a ger has reminded me of how wonderful all my friends are in Hanhongor. Before we got here, they poured a cement floor, drove the ger over from the factory on the other side of town and assembled it, painstakingly hung the wall curtains, and connected the ger to the electricity grid. Arriving to find our home pretty much ready for us was a magical feeling.

Walking the dog

Posted on September 20, 2011 by admin

Walking the dog in America was a pretty mundane activity-not far from what you think it would be. Put the dog on the leash, walk down a street, up another, stop to sniff things, stop to pick up dog poo, and see other people walking dogs. Sometimes you might even see a squirrel or cat to bark at. Pretty routine stuff.

As I have been in charge of walking the dog this week while Brian is in Ulaanbaatar I have found myself comparing American dog walking, see above, to Mongolian dog walking. Walking the dog here means putting the leash on the dog, walking 20 seconds until you have reached the edge of town, and then letting the dog off the leash to go absolutely crazy. We tend to play two different games while walking. The first one is called “Don’t eat that” and is usually played by Santi eating something (often produced by man if you know what I mean) and me yelling “don’t eat that” while I throw rocks at her. Variations on the game include “don’t touch that sack, I have no idea what is in it”, “stay away from the outhouse” and “camels can kill with one kick so get over here.” The other game we play, which involves Santi practicing her smelling and licking abilities, is called “Whose skull was that?” So far we have identified a horse, camel, dog, and sheep skull. The sheep head was extra glorious and came with an “option to roll in.” Walking the dog in Mongolia means lots more times yelling “put down that vertebrae” but also means never having to pick up a poo.

And when you get home in Mongolia your dog gets to chew on a camel bone the size of a small child. American dogs should be so lucky!

On the trail of a camel? A goat? Some exciting dung?

Chasing baby camels is so much fun!

A rare moment of repose.

Exciting book purchases

Posted on September 10, 2011 by admin

When I was in Ulaanbaatar I bought some exciting books in Mongolian for reading practice. Books are still relatively expensive and there are not many book stores but I was pleasantly surprised to see an ever increasing selection. Current books on my shelf include the following:

Нисдэг Гэр (The flying ger)

Харри хүү ба шидэт шохой (Harry and the purple crayon)

Өглөгч Мод (The giving tree)

Хуучин Хот (The old city)

Матилда (Matilda)

Хар Шувууны Цагаан Түүх (Heartwarming story of a dark raven)

Шерлок Холмсын тухай өгүүллэгүүд (Sherlock Holmes mysteries)

Урт Оймст Пиппи (Pippi Longstocking)

Харри Поттер ба Нууцат Өрөө (Harry Potter and the secret room. I can’t find the first one)

Update: Brian brought home the first Harry Potter book for me last week (November 7, 2011)

New Ger Party “Shin gerin nair”

Posted on August 31, 2011 by admin

Even though today was a busy day for my fellow teachers, we decided that today was the most auspicious day for our new ger party since the astrology calendar said so. Mongolians traditionally hold a party when they have a new ger and these parties can last all day long. Since we don’t have that many friends and don’t really like all day parties ours was a lovely 2.5 hours long instead.

Never pass anything between the ger poles!

Friends from school and town came to our ger and we served them milk tea, airag (fermented horse’s milk which we brought from Brian’s village), vodka, candy, chocolate chip cookies (which I made), potato salad, cucumbers, sausage, and noodle mutton soup. Between drinks people gave welcome speeches, presented gifts including a Chinggis Khan statue and a super wonderful afghan crocheted by Emma our PCV, and sang songs. As the man of the house Brian sang a song and hung a “hadag,” or prayer scarf, from the center of our ger roof. My job was to serve the tea and food, but since we don’t have a stove yet I could not make the first ceremonial fire.

Brian singing for the guests

It has been a wonderful welcome back to Hanhongor from friends new and old. Many people contributed to the construction of our ger from the flooring, the building, and the interior wall curtains for which we are so thankful. In the speech by the village governor he told a story about how when I was a Peace Corps volunteer and he was the mailman that I bought so many stamps and envelopes that our village post office got an award for being the best in the province! He welcomed us back with open arms. It is nice to be somewhere, to feel so wanted, and to know that you can make a real impact.

We are very happy new home owners

Friends from school enjoying the food.

: The spread

My Mongolian son

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin

Look at that cute face!

Yesterday, along with our furniture, we picked up Darkhuu’s great nephew Delgermuron. “Muron” is seven and going into the second grade, and he is one of the most inquisitive little kids we have ever met. He loves animals and the minute he got out of the car he had become best friends with Santiago and a very gentle admirer of Nigel.

Muron, Santi, and Nigel playing with the Ipad

For the next 48 hours Muron basically lived with us showing up in the morning while we were still in our pajamas and only leaving in the evening when we gave him the boot. Unlike many of my past English students he picked up “Come on”, “No”, and “Sit” in about a nano second and took it upon himself to be in charge of Santi’s walks and playtimes.

When Muron was not playing with the dog, he was pestering Brian with hundreds of questions such as “Do you think that crack was there a long time or did the earthquake do it?” (While passing an old building in town). Brian convinced him that we don’t know English, and when he doesn’t understand us that we are speaking “Special Mongolian” which he would not learn until he went to college. He also told Muron that he had “Super eyes” that can see everything including things going on in the next town.

Perhaps the best part of Muron’s visit was that he started going around town and, all on his own accord, started telling people that I was his mom. This caused no end of hilarity especially when people pointed out that his father must have been Mongolian and what did Brian think of it all? It was great having him around and based on his love of Santi I think we will be seeing lots of him on the weekends.

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