Here is their ger. Note TREES! We travelled through one of the valleys (the one with, SO FAR, no hotels nor tourist ger camps in it, tho that is due to change any minute...not a good thing, by my reckoning) of Terelj National Park with an organization called Ger-to-Ger. Very interesting organization. They have agreements with families to provide a place to camp, a simple meal or 2 (47 ways to prepare starch) (well, to be fair, there are also some very interesting ways to use dairy products...more on this later), and a chance to observe or , sometimes, take part in, their daily routines. The families receive payment from the organization and are thereby able to augment the income they receive from their various herding activities and the women's seamstressing work. We were told that each of the families we visited had been below the poverty line before working with G2G, but that within a few months, they had all changed that. The hope of the man who founded the organization (a native American/native Alaskan..go figure..who has made his home in Mongolia for 14 years) is that these families will also be empowered to demand their rights and to resist unfair and inappropriate land uses in their areas. They don't have to accept just any old economic opportunity that is tendered them, they can choose. Seemed righteous to me.
That is Chugar to the right of me, his drunken brother to the right and somebody else who was around for awhile, drinking vodka (lots of that) and hanging out (lots of that, too) on the metal bed inside the ger.
This is Batsetseg and her daughter with you-know-who. And if you think you can pronounce her name from the spelling of it, you are SOOO wrong!
OK OK, so enough of the pictures of me...BUT, it is a good way to get the people to pose...in fact, all of these photos were their idea and have been printed out and sent out to them thru G2G. Here I am getting instruction in milking a cow. VERY different than milking a goat, which I actually can still do fairly proficiently. Couldn't get anything but a dribble running down my hand from the cow. The daughter was pretty disgusted with that.
The kids have quite a bit of responsibility for the herding duties. This guy was a cousin, I think. And a brighter, more engaging kid you couldn't hope to meet. He was 11 years old and pretty much in charge of a mixed herd of goats and sheep numbering, hmmm, I don't know..it was big...maybe a hundred animals, what with babies and all.
The family also kept bees. So they live in the land of milk and honey!
That is Chugar to the right of me, his drunken brother to the right and somebody else who was around for awhile, drinking vodka (lots of that) and hanging out (lots of that, too) on the metal bed inside the ger.
This is Batsetseg and her daughter with you-know-who. And if you think you can pronounce her name from the spelling of it, you are SOOO wrong!
OK OK, so enough of the pictures of me...BUT, it is a good way to get the people to pose...in fact, all of these photos were their idea and have been printed out and sent out to them thru G2G. Here I am getting instruction in milking a cow. VERY different than milking a goat, which I actually can still do fairly proficiently. Couldn't get anything but a dribble running down my hand from the cow. The daughter was pretty disgusted with that.
The kids have quite a bit of responsibility for the herding duties. This guy was a cousin, I think. And a brighter, more engaging kid you couldn't hope to meet. He was 11 years old and pretty much in charge of a mixed herd of goats and sheep numbering, hmmm, I don't know..it was big...maybe a hundred animals, what with babies and all.
The family also kept bees. So they live in the land of milk and honey!
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