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| Before Tsagaan Saar I was taken to a ger near my library tosee how they cook the meat. These are the back halves of sheep that cook slowly rigged up in a big metal trash can. Ingenious, no? |
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| My counterpart worked really hard to organize a Tsagaan Saar competition for the foreigners. The buuz in the foreground were made by the librarians. Our foreigner-made buuz were so ugly! |
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| Part of the competition was a game of horse race шагай or ankle bones. |
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| Suzanne needed a bit of help with her deel from one of the librarians. We all did though! Those things are impossible to put on by yourself. |
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| The teams. We won! :-) |
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| On the first day you should get up super early to go to the oldest, most respected people you know to wish them a happy Tsagaan Saar first. |
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| The very decked out family of Suzanne's counterpart, Nymhoo. Her daughter is also my student. |
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| Sweet Tsagaan Saar baby! |
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| Nymhoo's эмээ (grandmother) and євєє (grandfather) in their traditional ethnic getup. |
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| Talking on the cell phone. Love the anachronism! |
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| At our friend Boogi's house. Our lovely lady friend Roza steps, fetches and pours сүүтай цай (milk tea). |
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| Boogi cookin' up a storm- boiled mutton over a wood and coal burning stove. |
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| Suzanne and our collective PCV 'Mongol Mama' Tserenkhlam. |
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| Aaron contemplating his sweet mustache and obligatory shot of vodka in an awesome cowboy boot glass at Tserenkhlams apartment. |
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| Ned set out to beat the local Peace Corps Volunteer record of 137 buuz in one day. Also, you can see the vast spread at my counterpart's house. |
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| євєє and the apple of his eye at my counterparts apartment. |
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| A bit of fun on the ice between house visits. |
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| Making a new batch of сүүтай цай. Even if you're already half way out the door it's considered very rude not to drink a bowl from the fresh batch. I really like it though! |
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| Making buuz in a ger. It's so cold outside and hot inside that every time the door opens a fog sweeps in. |
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| Taking a buuz break and watching the kiddies play. |
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| Wee Mongolians! |
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| Playing with a tea set at our student's house. These girls are adorable! |
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| Sweet girls! The two twins were adopted by their cousins family when their parents passed. They are three girls the same age; all brilliant and inseparable. |
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| Ned taking a buuz break. I think he was on number 90 at this point. |
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| Making the rounds. |
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| Our гадаадын хїн (foreign person) crew. |
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| Ned sticking it to buuz number 138! |
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| At the Tsagaan Saar competition last year. Making buuz is no joke. |
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| The шагай competition as the librarians look on. Sadly my ankle bone horse was fat and lazy! |
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| The boys having fun. |
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| The spread at our friend Javkhlan's house. Can you spy: 1 plate of buuz, 4 salads, 3 сүүтай цай and large parts of sheep? Also the stack of cookies on the left is on every Tsagaan Saar table.The levels always symbolize 'happy' then 'sad' then 'happy' again. There is always an odd number of levels- unless someone in the family has died in the last year. |
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| Miss Deggi making buuz in her families ger. |
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| Davadorj, the head of the foreign language department at Hovd University. He is for sure жинхэнэ монгол (real Mongolian). |
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| Little Anka, the granddaughter of the librarians 'gardener' (pouring at right), serving vodka to the librarians. |
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| Yanja, one of my favorite people in all of Mongolia, and her adorable family. Gotta love a gun totin' baby! |
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| Jake experiencing the Tsagaan Saar syndrome, a little like the Thanksgiving tryptophan. |
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