My First 25 Year Old Adventure

Well, I am 25 now! The birthday went well, I think! My office shared a bottle of Jonnie Walker Whiskey (which was nice, because usually in Mongolia celebrations include vodka!) and Peter met us at the local nightclub, Queen. We had lots of fun, dancing and laughing.

The next morning, I think I was a little exhausted still, and my office offered to send me on a trip to go to Bulgan and Erdenet (a neighboring aimag and city-aimag) for cooperative development training meetings. Come to find out later-- the trip was already started, and the car was on it's way from UB (the capital city) to pick me up in less than an hour! Also confusing the matter was the length of the trip. I was told it could be anywhere from 1-3 days! Packing NIGHTMARE! So I run home, pack enough underwear to carry me through a week and the car takes me to the Darkhan city crossroads where the UB car is waiting to pick me up.

Of course, the group that invited me has a full car, and there is no seat for me in their already packed car that is waiting at the crossroads. They ask me to go on this trip, and then there is no seat!! So we cram in the CHF suv. Halfway to Erdenet, the driver realizes that there is a seat in the trunk he can pull up, so we pull over, rearrange, and we're on our way again, much more comfortably. We stop for lunch in Erdenet, and then we continue on to Bulgan, where we meet the local governor, and get settled in.

We end up staying in the nicest hotel in Bulgan. Which means when you are that removed from the city, that it's part of someone's house with three bedrooms. Of course, they have no heat yet in Bulgan, and it's beginning to snow. So luckily I packed a scarf hat and gloves-- put them on and hunkered down for the night. I have never been so cold in my life!! Lesson learned. I am bringing long underwear and wool EVERY trip from now on. I just assumed heat was turned on across the country!

The next day we go to this cooperatives meeting, where there was very little I understood-- I'm still learning so much about the way the Mongolian government develops and supports cooperatives, and how my agency assists in the process. Afterwards, we get in a russian jeep-- and someone says, "we're going to Erdenet" -- Do we go to Erdenet? Nope! We go to a soum, a small village, in the opposite direction off a dirt road 35 km to visit a cooperative. When we get there, they offer us a bucket of airag each (fermented mare's milk, um yeah-- we can talk about that later) and then eat buuz (mutton dumplings). This isn't the crazy part. After we're done eating, we end up having to pay money airag and buuz I didn't want to eat in the first place!!

And THEN we're on the way to Erdenet finally-- where I find I have no hotel room, and end up staying with Salomon, another volunteer that lives there. After that debacle in Bulgan, I was just happy to sleep in a room that had heat!

The next day, the counterparts from UB office that were on the trip said that maybe I should take a BUS back because they were too crowded in the car on the way here. I'd like to point out this is probably going to be even MORE crowded on the way home, especially since they bought 40 Liters of airag to take back to UB! I was a little surprised, but after some breaking down of communication barriers, we finally agreed I would ride in the SUV, even if it meant I carried the airag on my lap. :)

I get home later that week after continuing my trip to UB for a PC meeting, and find Peter had only eaten SANDWICHES while I was gone! I kid you not. Only sandwiches with salami we found in the market, tomatoes, and onions. We usually cook together, but maybe the idea of eating sandwiches for a week appealed to him.

Lessons I learned: Pack warm, watch out for airag, and make sure Peter has enough bread for his sandwiches before you leave!