Ruthy in Mongolia
6th Feb 2008 - 8th Feb 2008Tsagaan Sar - Mongolian New Year Tsagaan Sar is translated into English as white moon and basically stands for lunar New Year. Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian New Year and runs at exactly the same time as the Chinese New Year. Are we now in the year of the mouse, or rat? Some kind of rodent anyway! Tsagaan Sar occurred across the 7th to the 9th of February and there was a huge amount of build up to it. I think two weeks before Tsagaan Sar I spoke to my boss at the Equal Step Centre and she was shopping for Tsagaan Sar. Everyone seemed a little stressed and harassed. It must be like Christmas is back in the UK. During Tsagaan Sar lots of people come to visit you and you go to visit lots of people. That is unless of course youre 80 years old and there isnt anyone older than you. This is because you have to visit all your friends and family if they are older than you, if they are younger than you then they have to come to your home. It also involves amassing huge amounts of white food to offer your guests when they visit your home. Present on the table will be: Arrul = dried, sour milk curd that can either come as solid as rock or slightly soft like fudge. Either way I have to say it is one of my least favorite Mongolian delicacies. It doesnt taste anything like anything Ive experienced before. When I had to return to the UK last year I had accidentally smuggled some arrul into the country. Whilst still in Mongolia I had been offered arrul and without wanting to cause offense took a nibble and then hid it in my pocket. There it remained until I arrived in North Yorkshire and re discovered it! If anyone doesnt believe me as to why I dont like arrul just ask my dad, my mum or my sister. They all had a bit of this illegal import and similarly agreed its not for the British palate. Some big biscuit type things that I have so far managed to avoid as my friend Sophie pre warned me that they are not all that nice. The biscuits and the arrul are stacked up in a sour curd kind of tower! A skinned, steamed sheep in all its glory but minus its head and legs! The tail, however, I am told is a bit of a delicacy. Theres a knife on the carcass and youre invited to hack of a piece of meat whenever youre spotted not eating anything. Buuz = minced mutton mixed with a bit of onion and occasionally some cabbage inside a moist kind of pastry dumpling. Theyre steamed like the sheep. When you bite into them lots of mutton juice leaks out of them. Ive been told that the more of this liquid that there is the better a buuz it is deemed to be. They are about the size of a golf ball but you can get bigger ones and these are called manton buuz. Niestler salat = As far as I can tell this was just potato salad mixed with mayo and some other vegetables. Needless to say it was one of my favorites. And on the drinks menu: Su tay tse = the Mongolian traditional tea. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security by the word tea. It isnt tea, in any way, shape or form. It is basically hot, salty milk occasionally with a nice flavoring of animal fat in there. Airag = Fermented horse milk mixed I think. Vodka = In its purest form! There is also lots of etiquette around Tsagaan Sar such as giving a gift of blue cloth or some money but this money must be given to the oldest person that you are visiting. When you greet the person youre visiting you (if youre younger) have to lay your arms out before you and allow the older person to lay the arms above them. Then they kind of sniff either side of your face. This I think is the Mongolian alternative to the French kiss! The night before Tsagaan Sar I visited the home of my MWFA boss Byatshandaa who lives in a one room building in the same hashaa (garden) as me. Here she taught me how to make buuz. Whilst making the buuz you have to pick one out to put a 200 tugrik note in it and pick another out and put piles of salt in it. Then who ever picks the buuz with the note is said to have a financially lucky year, the one who gets the salt is said to have a generally lucky year. Byatshandaa also told me that one of everything that you make has to be put aside on a plate for god. Apparently god visits everyones home the night before Tsagaan Sar and the food is an offering to them. Youre also meant to stay awake all night so youre conscious when god arrives but Byatshandaa was shattered and told me that wasnt going to happen in her home! The following day I went back to Byatshandaas. She had been receiving visitors since 7am that morning. We ate lots (maybe four buuz) and I had three shots (its traditional to do them in 3s) of vodka all before 10am. The vodka went straight to my head and so when Byatshandaa left at 11am to visit her elders I made my escape to UB to rest before the next home. At 3pm I went to meet my friend and colleague Sansara from the Equal Step Centre. We walked to her house which is in a ger district called Chingletai and much nearer to the city than the one I live in. However, Im right by a main road where as her hashaa (garden) is up numerous back streets and for that reason I think it seemed a lot more detached from UB than my ger. In her hashaa there are two gers and one small building. Her parents, sisters and sisters family and children all live on this small space of land (maybe a max of 6 sq meters). Her family was so gracious and lovely. We couldnt really communicate because my Mongolian is so poor and they had very little English but despite that I know that I like them and that they are lovely people. After ensuring I tried everything they had to offer and seven buuz. After this, when I was feeling quite proud of myself, it was time to travel to the next house. I had also arranged to visit my other colleague from the Equal Step Centre Duya. Duya sort of lives round the corner from me so from Sansaras it meant getting on a microbus (a sort of mini van). Microbuses are cramped at the best of times but during Tsagaan Sar it was intense. I started to feel queasy from all the mutton, milk and vodka. Then I started to need a wee. We were stuck in traffic and I learnt that its actually possible for your bladder to be squeezed from the sides! When we got to Duyas I was a little worse for ware. After a wee in her pit toilet I was kind of ready to face the world again. However, when the buuz, meat and milk arrived I had to fight to stop from throwing up! I ate some meat (slyly peeling off the fat and concealing it in my coat) had two buuz and nearly cried or was that died?! Again though, I just couldnt get over how accommodating and lovely Duya and her family were. Again we couldnt really communicate but I just felt their warmth and care as people. I especially like Duyas dad. He said hed seen me on the microbuses before and next time wed know each other and would be able to say hi! It dawned on me how much I stick out round here! Like a sore thumb! I wonder how many people in the Songinhairkhan District of UB see me, notice me and subsequently feel like they kind of know me. Most of them I doubt I notice. Largely I guess because they dont stick out as much as me. When Sansara and I left Duyas I was frantically trying to prepare myself for the potential horror of another microbus journey back to UB with a full stomach and bladder. It was dark and cold and I was worried about Sansara because Id dragged her up to Duyas and now she had to get to her random little bit of the ger district by her self. I noticed a lot more drunk people stumbling around than usual. We waited at what was apparently the bus stop but nothing came. Then someone pulled over in a car and asked if we wanted a ride. Hitch hiking in UB is as common a practice as getting the bus but just a tad more expensive. Every car is potentially a taxi. Except maybe 4x4s which I guess are driven by wealthy Mongolians who see no point in stopping for lowly foreign volunteers and their colleagues. I was like: Sansara, screw it! Its my treat! Were going in this car! I felt so luxurious being driven back to UB in a car as opposed to getting the big bus or the microbus! In order to make sure Sansara got home safely I gave her 10,000 tugriks which she was horrified about and I had to let her promise shed give me the change the following week. I would have happily have given it to her though because I think shes lovely and I wanted the peace of mind that she was getting home safely. It was also my decision to go in a car as opposed to the much cheaper, less luxurious micro. When I got back t my friends apartment I was scared that I was actually about to turn into a buuz! I passed out at about 10pm content that Id survived Tsagaan Sar and blissfully unaware that Tsagaan Sar lasts for more than a week and that I would eat buuz everyday for the next nine consecutive days!
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