This is month 9 and I am currently in Ulaanbaatar, which is the capital city in Mongolia! This country is breath taking and nothing like I have seen in Asia so far. Along with nothing I have ever seen I haven’t experienced such cold weather on the race this far either! I mean this month was the first month I got to experience snow!! Going from 35 degree weather to below zero on some days was definitely a change. But a really good one I might add! To tell you the truth every since we were in Vietnam I was praying for snow. Let me tell you He answered my prayers! Mongolia is hard to put into words so this blog I am going to tell you about what I am experiencing here and what the culture is like. As I am going to try to pull you into this country as much as it has pulled me in!
As said above Ulaanbaatar is the capital city of Mongolia. There are approximately 3 million people who live in Mongolia and 1 million of those people live in the city. The rest of the Mongolians live out in the countryside. The main living accommodation is called a Ger (which is the Mongolian word for yurt), which is a round hut that has a hole in the center for ventilation. We got to experience the Ger on our off day we had a meal in a home. A Ger is made out of wood lattice with wool felt around it. This is a portable home, which keeps you warm in the winter as there is a fire pit in the center of the house and it keeps you cool in the summer.
Mongolia is influenced by Mongol nomadic way of life, which means they may travel from place to place as a way of getting food, finding pasture for livestock or otherwise making a living. There other influences are from Tibet and China. Recently though Russia and the European cultures have had some effect on them.
The Mongolian culture is very interesting and something that would be very good I believe for the western cultures to learn from, as they are very hospitable. Every time you have someone over there needs to be tea or coffee along with a snack for your company. Some rules we have to live by at the church we are living at for the months are so we don’t offend those who happen to come into the church throughout the week are:
- You cannot leave any books on the ground! Books are considered highly valued here and so show respect for the book you should keep it on the highest shelf you have at your house.
- You shouldn’t have anything lying on the ground. For example since we need to sleep on the ground this month we need to have a carpet and sleeping mattress on top of the carpet to sleep on. You should try to put purses or backpacks on chairs when you go into a home and not directly on the ground.
- A hat should never be worn by others, you should not touch other peoples hats especially mens. Along with your feet are seen as dirty and should never be pointed towards someone or an alter.
- To greet someone older then you, you should hold their elbows and pretend to kiss them on both sides of their cheeks. You then need to allow the person older then you to smell you. Being clean is key!
- Mongolians enjoy physical touch. So to greet those who aren’t older then you, you should hug them or greet them by a hand shake.
- When you go to someone’s house for a meal you must finish everything that is given to you! If you leave food on your plate it is considered very rude.
- This rule is used almost all over Asia but you should always accept something from someone or hand something to someone with your right hand. Along with eating with your right hand as the left hand is the hand that is normally used for the bathroom and is considered dirty.
Some of these rules may seem crazy to us and maybe a bit obscure but I must admit I really did enjoy learning these cultural norms!
Mongolia is beautiful and as you reach out into the countryside all you see are mountains upon mountains. Its very dry and desert looking as the Gobi dessert is in Mongolia but not close to where we are staying. On our day off we got to go out and experience the countryside as we got to ride camels, go horseback riding and hold vultures. I don’t know how to explain Mongolia, as it is so different then what I have ever experienced on the race so far. But I must say I love it and maybe someday God will bring me back! Who knows! 🙂
Sincerely,
Heidi
This vulture weighed 33lbs after holding him for a couple seconds my hand started shaking haha
Our team got told that we only could ride this one camel as the rest of the camels were in the Gobi dessert haha. So this tough guy took all 17 girls for a walk one at a time!
These beautiful ladies are who I get to spend this month with. Laughing, learning and bringing the Kingdom to Mongolia!
Photo creds to: Julie Sliwinski
