Tsagaan Sar, Take Two

Believe it or not, I'm celebrating my second Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia. I wrote about my First Tsagaan Sar over a year ago, this year it came later. Hard to believe but March begins tomorrow. 

Last year I explained that the holiday is a blend of Thanksgiving with New Year's plus a little something extra. That yet remains true. However, as we visited yesterday (three homes between 1 and 9 pm)--the day is known as "Visiting Day"--it occurred to me just how much the day is a marathon of eating and drinking (for the visitors). It's a day of work--constant cooking and cleaning--for those that host. I can't lie, I'm relieved that we don't host and only visit. That's a selfish statement, I know, but it's honest. 

As for the "marathon," I think about just the variety of things I drank yesterday, visiting three homes, and it included, milk tea at each place (you MUST begin your visit with the drinking and eating of WHITE things), then in no particular order: vodka, seabuckthorn juice, airag (fermented mare's milk), black tea, red wine, and some Chinese sake. I declined on the beer and whiskey options. As soon as you drain your cup or mug or shot glass, someone is right there to refill it. 

We celebrated this year's Tsagaan Sar differently. As Enji lives primarily with us now, we celebrated Tsagaan Sar eve just the three of us--our nuclear family--which I really enjoyed. Zorig and I had shopped the day before and he began cooking in the afternoon for our evening meal. We spent time cleaning our apartment (think spring cleaning!) and preparing for this new year--the Year of the Fire Rooster. Zorig laid out our table with some of the traditional items (aaruul, dried fruits, biscuits, vodka). When the food was ready, we all changed our clothes into something more than sweats, and sat down to dine together at the table. Zorig toasted the New Year and wished us all happiness and health and love. We ate and drank and talked. It was lovely. 

Then on Visiting Day, yesterday, we relaxed in the morning--after getting up "early" as is tradition--and having some milk tea with dumplings in it. In the afternoon we visited three family member's homes, same ones as last year. We may have one more place to visit today as we ran out of time last night, arriving home after 9 pm. Because we went later in the day, there wasn't the huge crowd that we had last year at the first place. This made for more enjoyable visiting, in my opinion, though it lacked the big family photo op. The day was sunny and pleasant, reaching nearly 30 degrees fahrenheit. While I can't say I conversed more this year (I confess that I do not have a talent for learning languages and have temporarily suspended my Mongolian language sessions for the time being), I will say that I understood a lot more of what was being talked about. As I mentioned last year, some of that is interpreted through body language and gestures, but this year I did understand many more words being said. 

Each place you go, you stay for at least 45 minutes or so, as you must wait for a fresh plate of buuz (steamed meat dumplings--see pic on last year's post) to be set on the table. I confess that while I CANNOT eat buuz like a Mongolian--I really do not know where they put them!--I do try one at each place to make comparisons. I love how diverse and different they can be. Did the maker use minced meat or ground meat? Is it mutton or beef or horse? Did they use onions? What about the fat--sheep tail or something else? Spices used? Tightly packed,or loose? I can't nearly tell you all nuances between them, but they ARE different. I can tell you that I ate more than the customary one at one place yesterday! 

This year I'm more in awe of the pace of the day. People go from one place to the next, eating and drinking at each, for hours and hours. Hosts are concerned with keeping your cups and plates full, it's rude to not eat or drink. This year I was more confident, knowing that I'd always enjoy the aaruul (I've acquired the taste for it), try one of the buuz, and sample the vinegar based salads. I was even brave enough yesterday to sample the potato salads at a couple of places. It tasted better than I expected. :) Proving once again, it's good to be brave and try something new or different. 

Enji and I still have today and tomorrow to relax before going back to school on Thursday. But then it's a very short week!. Next week is broken up with International Women's Day on Wednesday--no school then either. Before we know it, Spring Break will be upon us.

Things begin to Thaw

Sukhbaatar Square in early morning

I had opportunity this week to walk across Sukhbaatar Square as the sun was rising. I hadn't noticed before the lights draped over all the evergreen trees in front of the ice rink set up on the south side. The morning sky was fairly clear and it was nice to be out and walking first thing. It's gotten too warm for snow-pants, but I did wear long johns--which proved most necessary. 

I know it will seem strange to watch this brief video, but I have to share the joy I felt when I watched some things begin to thaw out this past weekend--even though we are yet degrees away from being above freezing. I guess with a lot of sunshine and temps in the mid 20s, things can begin to melt. In fact, outside our apartment building there is a HUGE sheet of ice to navigate around. Lord knows how long before it's warm enough for it all to evaporate. 

I snapped that video clip this past Saturday when I was out on a reconnaissance mission to find the Chinese embassy. Turns out I've been walking right past that embassy each time I've gone to the American Embassy. I just didn't know it. 

The early morning photo was taken on Wednesday when I went to the Chinese embassy to apply for a travel visa. I'm hoping to go to Shanghai soon for some training. I stood OUTSIDE for TWO HOURS! My toes were cold and my teeth were beginning to rattle. The 30 or 40 of us waiting out there in the freezing cold were tap-tap-tapping our feet, swaying back and forth, and hoping more than 5 minutes had passed since we last checked our phone. Whew. I think it WAS something like 5 degrees fahrenheit that morning.

As I'd been told by friends, if you don't get there early to get a good place in line, then you could be there all day. They are only open from 9:30 to Noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Their website says they open at 9:00. You have to know someone and/or look at the posted sign next to the SIDE entrance to the Embassy. I was third in line and out in less than 30 minutes--so I suppose the cold wait was worth it. I return next week to pick up my passport--assumedly with an approved travel visa inside. 

Yes, spring is in the air here. We'll be off the last couple days of the month to celebrate Tsagaan Sar--translates to the White Month--and otherwise known as the Mongolian Lunar New year. We'll be saying goodbye to the year of the monkey and moving into the year of the rooster. As you can see, we are in DOUBLE positive DIGITS for the next 10 days or more. This is in fahrenheit, of course. I still can't speak in Celsius. 

Tsagaan Sar, then International Women's Day, and before we know it, we'll be off on Spring Break which is the first week of April this year (too early IMHO). My summer break doesn't start until June 23, so there's plenty of work yet to do. But with the days getting only longer and warmer, you can feel it around the bend. 

Climbing out of the Darkness

January is viewed by many as being the hardest month (of winter) in Mongolia. While I understand this opinion, it is not true for me. December is the hardest month for me--so much darkness and the days are getting shorter and shorter. As I write this February 5th, I feel nothing but joy at the CLIMB out of darkness which January provided. It is nearly light when we leave for school in the morning and yet daylight when I journey home in the evening. In fact, the sun is setting after 6 pm these days. 

Chunks of snow and pollution

It's true that six months of the year is winter here. If I remember correctly, our high falls under freezing in late October and we don't climb above freezing until sometime in April. That's six months straight of freezing weather. And often significantly below freezing. Although we get lots of sunshine, the temp is never high enough for the sun to melt the snow that accumulated--LONG ago. For example, please look at this picture of snow that fell on our sidewalks and walkways. Most of it arrived in late October, if I remember correctly (we had our first snow fall in late September), after that time it became too cold to snow in any kind of accumulation (occasional dustings only). So the snow fell and packed tightly on the walkways and then workers broke up the chunks and they are stacked in piles to the sides of the sidewalks. They will remain there until April when they will FINALLY begin to melt. As you can observe, there is layers of white snow mixed with black layers of the coal pollution that settled on the snow. Thus the mix of white and black and gray. 

This past week at school we had a visit from Smart Air Mongolia to talk to our students and staff about air pollution and what a person can do to combat it. I have been wearing disposable face masks but had not yet invested in any sort of purifier for our apartment. The presentation by Smart Air was enlightening. While they are a for profit company, they are NOT looking to make a huge profit, their vision is more about providing affordable purification options to the average person. I bought one of their DIY models and have that in our bedroom. I figure SOMETHING is better than the NOTHING I had before. I hope to get another for Enji's room. I took a picture of the filter on Day 1, will keep track of it week by week to see how dark it gets and how fast. 

Piles of chunk snow wait for April to melt

I've been asked by Mongolians WHAT should be done to decrease the pollution. I'm no expert on the topic. I'm not even a science major. But based on knowledge of how vehicles are managed in the U.S. it seems a first step might be to require emissions controls on vehicles--both personally owned vehicles AND the public transport (Buses--so many of them here and they have terrible exhaust fumes--choking even in the summer months). They could have emissions inspections to ensure all vehicles meet acceptable standards. The EPA has an entire webpage with information on the topic. Not only would this help the air quality in UB (the coal smoke is a huge factor, I know) AND I see it as providing JOBS for Mongolians. 

First you'd need people qualified to run the emissions tests (differing standards for differing vehicle classes). From there, I expect a number of vehicles would require service to update and clean up their emissions output. Mongolians are excellent at mechanical resourcefulness. So why not provide some training and invest in the appropriate tools to learn how to update and improve vehicles that don't meet emissions standards? This creates valuable work for unemployed people AND improves the air quality for every citizen of UB. This seems like a fairly easy first step. The government should institute standards and then PHASE in compliance, perhaps by year of the vehicle model, etc (can't be an overnight expectation--must create testing centers, then have the parts and tools and skills to upgrade). Of course, I think they should put public transport buses at the top of the list. Most of them run on diesel and seem older. They could use some updating and improvements. Many Mongolians (and foreigners) rely on this great system to get around the city--so let's decrease their noxious emissions and make the city a better place for everyone. They can be the leading example!