soupy says

Thanks to All Mongolian Recipes, I bring you “Mongolian Food that I have Eaten in the Past Year.” To find out more about the food (and how to make it!) click on the link. I have ordered these items from tastiest to least tastiest. Well, in my opinion, of course.

* Khorkhog - real Mongolian BBQ
* Tarag- Mongolian yogurt
* Tsuvian- homemade noodle dish
* Suutei tsai- milk tea
* Gambir- fry bread
* Budaatai Khuurga- rice dish
* Khailmag- caramelized clotted cream
* Khuushuur- fried meat filled pockets
* Chansan Makh-boiled meat and innards (Note: I enjoy the meat much more than the innards.)
* Boortsog- fried bread snack
* Guriltai shul- noodle soup
* Buuz- steamed meat filled pockets
* Bansh- small boiled meat filled pockets
* Aruul- dried curds
* Byaslag- Mongolian cheese
* Mongol Arkhi- milk liquor
* Ayrag- fermented mare’s milk
* Urum- clotted cream
* Banshtai tsai- milk tea with bansh
* Bantan- flour meat soup
* Uuz- mutton back (with lots o’ fat)
* Ul boov- hard holiday sweet bread
* Arkhi- vodka

So, there ya go. Just a taste of my Mongolian culinary experience, but trust me, in order to really experience this stuff, you have to eat it yourself.

A few mornings this week, on my way to work, I have noticed that a large shallow pool of water has floating pieces of ice.

It warms up some during the day, but since Sunday, there has been a lingering chill in the air all day.

Winter wasn’t that bad, but, well, I have discovered that these nice fall days are making me slightly anxious for the months ahead. Perhaps I’m just not dressing warm enough.

I am counting down the days (about 2 weeks) until the heat and hot water switch on. My apartment isn’t chilly until the evening; The past few days, after dark, I’ve been hunkering under a blanket with my book.

Hovd Soum, the Kazakh soum in Khovd Aimag, plays baseball.

Baseball is not a sport that is played in Mongolia. Volleyball, basketball and soccer are very common. All games can be played with A Ball* and equipment that, once installed, lasts** Thus, they are pretty cheap and accessible games to play. Baseball, the other hand, needs more equipment. Like the other sports, only one ball is needed for a group. However, every fielder needs a mitt, and there needs to be a least one bat involved; you also have to play baseball outside. And well, it’s cold in Mongolia for 8 months of the year. Plus, I’m sure Russians introduced those games to Mongolians, and I don’t think baseball is very popular there.

However, Jordon, the M14 volunteer that lived in Hovd Soum, liked to play baseball. I discovered this a few months ago from a Hovd Soum resident and secondary school student, Eljis. I sat next to him during an English Sports Idiom presentation at the library. A picture of an American baseball stadium appeared on the screen; Eljis gasped and whispered to me, “We play baseball in my soum. Jordon taught us, but we use rocks for bases.” He laughed. Not only did Jordon teach them how to play baseball, but Jordon’s dad sent the soum softballs, gloves and bats.

Recently, Andy and Eljis chatted about all the PCVs in Hovd Aimag going to Hovd Soum to play baseball with the local kids. Eljis decided that this needed to happen and called us and told us to come on Saturday. Six PCVs piled into a hired jeep and drove to the soum to meet with Eljis and Hovd Soum’s new PCV, Amber. When we pulled up to the wrestling field (our baseball field), we were greeted with a huge group of eager kids.

We let the kids throw around the ball for a bit, and Brody led a batting practice. Then we kicked the little kids off the field; Eljis found suitable bases by the creek, and we played a bigger kid softball game. We divided the Americans evenly across the teams. However, this was really unneeded because several kids put us to shame playing “America’s game.” We probably played 6 or so innings. We played until one team got to 10. I fell right into my standby role of “annoying fan,” and I definitely entertained kids by cheering my face off.

I don’t really like baseball all that much. I don’t follow the MLB, and I stopped playing softball during middle school. However, I do have fond memories of going to friends’ softball adult league games in Parker and being one of two fans in the stands. There is something about baseball/softball that triggers a cheesy, small-town feel-good emotion. (See the movie: The Sandlot).

I felt a little bit of that on Saturday standing on the wrestling field in the shadow of the Altai mountains listening to children laughing with each other in Kazakh and listening to the clang of a softball on a aluminum bat.

*A Ball is many times used for all three sports.

**Outdoors sports equipment sticks around unless it is stolen for scrap metal. Basketball hoops often fall prey to this fate.

Here it is. Year 2.

Some things haven’t changed:

• dealing with daily language frustrations
• dealing with daily cultural confusions
• creating work in an (almost) unstructured environment

Some things have:

• having a year’s  worth of experience of dealing of the above mentioned items
• having a few great projects waiting in the starting gate
• feeding off the energy of new PCVs
• feeling like a know something when I’m around the new ones
• realizing that I’m going to be unemployed in a year
• being more confident (most days)

Of course, there are more on both sides. I’m in a good place right now. I haven’t been this motivated to study Mongolian since first arriving to site. The population of PCVs in the aimag has exploded; Peace Corps is trying to build up a base out west. I’m sure it’s going to feel a bit crowded at times, but right now we are feeding off of each other’s energy and projects.

This year is supposed to be a good one. I’ll find out.