More new friends

September 23, 2008 at 10:19 am Leave a comment

While the weather is still pleasant here (chilly mornings in the 40s but warms up during the day), I walk as much as I can in addition to going to the office and back (about 1 kilometer to the office). So one afternoon this past week, I took a late afternoon walk. Lots of school children were out—they all like to say hi and I respond “Hello, how are you?” Sometimes they answer, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they can say “My name is ….” if you ask them.

As I was walking along, a group of girls came running across the street to say hello to me. I started asking them their names and how old they were (around 12) and a group gathered—12 of them, with a couple of boys. I asked if they knew how old I was and then told them I was 65. Mongolians often ask about your age and don’t consider it a personal question. And, in my case, they wonder because of my white hair and then they are surprised because I look so much younger than people they know who are my age. I kidded with them about my age and then I told them both my names: Judy and Jargalmaa. Then I took their photo and they all crowded round to see it on the camera. I remembered I had some stickers in my bag and got them out to give to them. They are taught to hold out both hands—one covering the other to receive anything. They were all excited about the stickers. As I walked on, a couple of the girls walked along with on either side and and took my hand. Mongolian children often hold hands or walk arm in arm together, even the boys may walk with their arms around each other. That kind of casual affection hasn’t been lost over here and I’m glad. As we walked, one girl turned to me and said, “I love you.” Of course, I responded that I loved them too. I told the kids they should say, “Hello, Judy” or “Hello, Jargalmaa” when they see me. (Later note: It’s working.)

Jeff, one of my fellow PCV who teaches English in the primary school, had told me that on Saturday morning, there would be a “sports day” for the teachers and it was to start at 9 a.m. Knowing nothing starts on time, I took my time—got up around 7, made a fire, made coffee and oatmeal, and went over to the nearby school around 9:30. Only a few people were there. But more began to show up and then I saw Jeff. The teachers were all dressed in Army camouflage outfits, complete with cap. As it turns out, sports day is more of an army exercise. Each group of teachers was like a platoon. They all lined up and each groups went through a marching exercise. I’m glad I didn’t have to respond to those orders to “To the left, march; About face, march; Halt”, etc. Most of the marching is natural with the knees bent, but sometimes they goosestep like the WWII Nazi soldiers. I must admit that kind of marching makes me very uncomfortable. I suspect it is left over from the Russian domination of Mongolia for the 50 years leading up to 1990.

Following the marching, they were to go out to the countryside and have timed competitions—including different types of crawling, a 1 ½ kilometer race, a 300-minute timed fix lunch, eat and clean up, a rifle taking apart and putting back together exercise, and others. Some of the women were wearing high=heeled boots—I wonder how they managed for the run! Jeff pointed out a goat that was tied up nearby—and about to meet its maker as food for the lunch they were to make. I watched the marching awhile and left around 11 and they still hadn’t gone. They were supposed to be back around 4 and then each group was to give some sort of performance. I planned to come back for it—but tonight around 8 I got a message from Jeff saying they’d just gotten back. Who was surprised??

I took a photo the other day which gave me an idea. If you read the New Yorker, you know they have a cartoon captioning contest each week. From time to time, I’m going to post a photo—and suggest you write a caption for it, if you want. Might be fun to see what turns up. This week the photo is of a little cart I saw in the zaak with one wheel that had been taped many times. Don’t know if there had ever been a tire on it or not. A good example of making do with what you have—again and again and again.

Most of these photos, except for schoolgirls in blue, will appear a little small I think. And I think if you click on them, you can see them larger. Hope I’m right.