As usual, Naadam is a contest of horse racing, wrestling and archery. Our translator went to UB for that week, so we were thinking we would miss most of the events. However, one of our sweet students, Nomio, invited us to attend the activities with her wonderful family. They took us to the opening ceremony, which we thought we could walk to, but it turned out to be at the stadium way out of town and it would have been a long walk. Her family is really wonderful and we enjoyed their company. They didn't speak any English, but Nomio's English is good so we were able to communicate through her.
LaNice a Nomio at the Opening Ceremony. She is really an awesome young lady!
These are some of the dancers, wrestlers and military who presented during the ceremony.
Naadam is a family time with many pictures. We don't know
who these people are, but we liked their native clothing.
That night we invited to Nomio's home for dinner. They are very gracious people and we had
a wonderful meal and a great time. They have a Buddha in their home and were one of the
few families we met who seemed to believe in their religion. She told us this was the god she worshiped and tried to be obedient to. She's very impressive.
The next day we went to the horse races with her family. It was a really long
ways out of town and we would not have made it otherwise. There were so many people there. We actually ran into some of the students from our class. It was good to see them with their family and friends.
Her little brother was playing a game while we waited for the races to start. There were rows and rows of people with this and other games, as well as many food vendors.
It was really hot so we were glad we took our umbrellas to shade us from the sun. Nomio and I and her siblings and cousins practices as much English as they could handle. It helped the time go by while we were waiting for the races to start. It's a whole day event, leaving early in the morning to get a good parking spot I guess, for about 10 minutes of watching the end of the race. And then it's over and we headed home!
Pictures of Mongolians in traditional clothing. They really are a beautiful people.
And the horses were beautiful too. This is the 10 minutes of the race that we spent all day to watch.
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