Miscellaneous Khovd Pics!

This was our anniversary meal, if I remember correctly.  It was pretty good, too!

LaNice and our translator, Selenge.  These little Disney characters were painted on the side of 

a building at a school.  Disney is known world-wide. It was fun to be able to 

identify something on the buildings around here!

Sister Lamsurun and Aryunjargal.

The sisters all dressed in their deels for Naadam!

The sisters all dressed in their deels for Naadam!

Our first Khovd watermelon brought to us by Nomio.  It was really good!

LaNice finally got permission from immigration to teach piano lessons at the church on Saturday.  It only happened a few weeks before we had to leave, but it was a good experience.  This is Bayleg from our English class who is not a church member.  She also brought her aunt to take lessons.  Unfortunately, she only had one lesson before we so unexpectedly left Khovd to return to the US for a few months.

Alan loved this side car and motorcycle owned by a part-member family we visited several times.

Mongolian are pretty creative in their mode of transporting things!

Khovd was really big on beautification projects.  They are improving a parking strip area here.  We didn't see many pieces of equipment of this size anywhere else.

A load of bricks that were unloaded from the truck by hand.  We think they were

building a new hospital. 

This is the 22-wheeler that carried the bricks. 

Teaching English at Progress School

We had a huge teaching load, teaching five days a week--Tuesday through Saturday--for three hours a day.  We had four classes of students divided into levels of English ability, and a class of teachers.  The D Class was the advanced class and they were good enough at English that we didn't need an interpreter to teach.  It was a very fun class to teach.

 This a get-to-know you, introduction activity.  They had the chance to introduce and tell about themselves to about 15 people.  It was fun!

 We played a get to know you game where they said things they had done that they didn't think anyone else had done.  They got candy from each person who had never done that thing.  The English was pretty hard for many of them, but they still had a good time. The kids really enjoyed it.  It was sort of hard for the teachers

Boggi and Nomin

Aye and Baska.

Urna and Tuvshin

Degii, she was the representative of our sponsor and really 

helped us get the classes organized and going. 

D Class wanted to have a party and we agreed.  We went down to the river and had a little picnic.  

I made No-Bake cookies.  Others brought buuz, sushi, chips, cookies, nuts and a rice dish.  The weather was really rainy, but we still ate and then played a game with two teams and we had to grab a flag from the person who stood equally between the two teams.  Then the one who didn't get it had to try to tag the one who got it.  It was fun.  It was sort of cold and rainy and we stayed as long as we could. It started to pour and we decided it was time to go home!  All the classes were invited, but only one person came from a class other than D Class.  And most of the D Class members didn't come.  Guess they thought we wouldn't go because of the weather.  We almost didn't go, but all the kids agreed to go ahead and have it.  I'm glad we did because we really had a good time and got to know the kids much better.

Khar Us (Black Lake) June 17

President Gankhuyag and Ganzorig volunteered to drive us out of town to visit Khar Us (Black Lake).  It was a fun day.  We went with Sisters Arynjargal, Lkampsuren, and our interpreter, Selenge. We stopped on the way there and did a little rock climbing.  It was really pretty country.
The animals enjoyed it too!

    

For lunch we had fish from a can, bread sticks and water.  They are very creative.  No one brought eating utensils, so they opened the cans with a knife and then bent the lid of the can and used it as a scoop to get the fish out of the can. The sand gnats were really bad--I guess it was just a little more protein added to our fish!

Ganzorig and Gankhuyag.  These guys are amazing.  They were known as the Khovd Hellians before

joining the church. They were drinking buddies! Ganzorig joined first and then introduced the gospel to Gankhuyag and he was baptized.  Now he serves as the Branch President and Ganzorig is his first counselor.

They are both so grateful for the changes the gospel made in their lives that they will do just

about anything to help the missionaries.  They are amazing men. 

Beautiful country.  Still a little snow on the mountains!

The sisters were having a great time playing in the shallow water.  It was a little slimey for me 

to venture in very far (or at all)!

There was a fire lookout next to the lake and we climbed up and enjoyed the the

surrounding scenery. 

On the way home we stopped by this herder's ger.  He had 300 cows and 300 sheep that he grazed by the lake year round.  He said they move them to the island in the winter, but it's still amazing that they can winter out in the countryside. The dry cow pies will be used to in the stove to cook and keep them warm.

It's a family business and everyone helps feed, or milk the animals or make cheese, yogurt and other dairy products.

. The men were mending the ropes and halters for the animals. 

It

Not everything is hard work though.  These boys were practicing their lassoing skills

on each other and were having great fun!

Even though they live in the ger, they have some of the modern coveniences, i.e., satellite dish 

and solar panel.  They have to have their TV and their power!  Smart people!

Even though they did not know us. In traditional Mongolian culture vistosr are warmly welcomed in and serve homemade yogurt made in the white bucket in the picture.  It's a little tart for my tastes, 

but Alan really likes it.

These little birds had made a nest on the top opening of the ger and we enjoying watching our visit. 

 

We stopped at this well out in the middle of nowhere!  I guess this is where

animals can be watered on the way to the lake.

This is the monument that marks the entrance to Khovd.  It was such

a beautiful, blue-sky Mongolian day.  We had a great trip. 

Khovd in the distance as we were returning to town. 

Khovd Province Museum

One day President Ganhuyag invited us to go for a ride to see a Kazakh house. I thought it would be a ways out of town, but it was right in the middle of town. And it turned out to be a museum  with about 8 gers set up inside showing the different cultures and dress of the various ethnic tribes in Mongolia and a nice park with scuptures.  It was very interesting.

This sculpture of a two-humped (bactrians)Mongolian camel is made of cement.  In reality, Mongolia has about 90% of the world's population of these types of camels which have shorter legs and heavier bodies than dromedaries.  They can go 2 weeks in the summer and 8 weeks in the winter without water.  When they get to water, they can drink 26 gallons of water in just a few minutes. They have about 100 pounds of fat stored in their hump and can carry up to 600 pounds of cargo.  They are called "ships of the desert" because of their packing ability and the sway of the their walk.  If they don't like you, they may spit on you.  Well, that's probably more than you really wanted to know about camels, but we find them very interesting. 

This little family didn't have            Amarsanaa, a Zuungarian King who led the last battle

 a dad, so President Ganhuyag       against the Manchus before the fall of western Mongolia   

provided priesthood leadership!        

           

Many of the gers were built after the Kazakh design with no posts in the middle.  Mongolian gers have at least one post in the center, and most have two. This one on wheels is the first RV!

This one was very nicely decorated and had wonderful wood carved doors and interior.

This was definitely Kazakh because of the colorful design.

The interiors of the Kasakh gers were decorated with very colorful  wall rugs.

Each of the gers had a display of the deels worn by that tribe to try on.

President Ganhoyag, and Sisters Onan and Arunjargal and Sister Groesbeck.

This wheel is how they ground flour.  The wheat was placed between the two stones. A dowel was inserted in the holes on the edge to turn the stone and grind the flour. 

This basket is worn to gather dried dung to fuel the fires.  A pitchfork like scoop

is used to pick up the dung and throw it in the basket.

Arig, or fermented mare's milk, was made in this pouch made of animal hide

as shown by Sister Arynjargal.

 Most gers have a cooking and heating stove in the center.  These gers use an open fire under the pot to cook as shown here with Sister Onon. 

Since we were not able to see these things at the 13th Century Park, we were glad to have this opportunity to learn more about the lifestyle of Kazakhs and nomadic Mongols.