Last Sunday we went along to some Mongolian ballet. It was a performance of Swan Lake. Very impressive. They had an alternate happy ending, which apparently is more common in Russia/China/Mongolia? That particular day I was quite sick, which is a shame because I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't. Anyway, that Sunday was the worst of it, but I have had a long tail of a cold all week, which means I have not been doing a great deal of study. I did read three novels, and that was greatly enjoyable.
Yesterday was Children's Day, a public holiday here in Mongolia. We went outside the city with some friends, both from our team, and from some church friends of our team friends. We went to this holiday spot east of the city, along a river, and half of our group were going to stay the night in some gers there. We headed out about 10am, and it took a good two hours to get there. Quite a bit of traffic getting out of the city.
Gers can be pretty warm when you have a stove going on inside of them. Part of the day's plan involved horse-riding. So after lunch (I'm pretty sure I don't like Korean food much more than Mongolian. I don't know why anybody eats meat except out of necessity), most of us went up to this place to get some horses. When we got there the horses were not there, and so it was going to be a 30min wait while they went off and rounded up some horses for us. This is just how things are. So there were a few horses there and they gave the kids some rides while we waited. Then they brought a troupe of horses over the hill and we all mounted up and rode off.
Things about Mongolian horses: much smaller than 'western' horses; you hold the reins in one hand, not two; the ones they give to tourists tend not to listen to you, only to the Mongolian guides; saddles are also not western - ours were padded, but traditional Mongolian saddles are just wooden; nobody has heard of helmets.
So my horse was pretty obedient in terms of which way to go, not so obedient to me in terms of speed. That's okay, having not ridden except for maybe once in childhood, I was pretty content to take it easy. It would get up to a trot, and I was comfortable with that. For a brief spurt it galloped, and that was something I wasn't yet comfortable with, but I could learn to cope with more horse-riding in my life.
It was pretty nice to be out of the city, we crossed a river and rode through some light woods and across some fields, in the shadow of some mountains, and that was a lovely taste of real Mongolian countryside. After about an hour or hour and half we turned back a bit and stopped at one of the guides' gers. We enjoyed some milk-tea and snacks, and then rode back. They offered me a faster horse but I think for a first time out I was content with the one I had; it also had a mane to match my hair.
The afternoon saw some napping and some dinner and singing and praying, and an operatic performance (one of the Korean ladies is an Italian trained opera singer), and then we were back in a minibus heading back to UB; we got home around 10:30, 11pm. pretty tired, and of course our hot water is off for the next month.
Today has been a rainy day too. We had plans to go out and buy a couple of things, but the rain just damped our mood. Our Area Leader is in town though and we went out and had a tasty lunch with him, and that made a cheery diversion for the day.
Okay, I will add a few horse-riding pictures in a day or two when I get hold of them.
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