The Fellowship of the Ger

After a long two weeks of teaching and an exhausting and stressful gala performance that involved me dancing to “Seasons of Love,” we were ready for a break.  Our final days in Mongolia were to be spent exploring the eastern region of Mongolia on a van tour and horse trekking.  We packed ourselves up and prepared to leave the next morning.

Our group is so large that we must divide in half so that the tour can accommodate us with their horses.  It is Thursday morning and half of our group has already gone.  Three Russian –made tour vans that look like a hybrid between a Volkswagen van and a Jeep drive up outside of our courtyard and wait for us to pile in.  Our guides get out and introduce themselves.  They will be going everywhere with us and explaining the local culture to us.  Our group will be going sightseeing first as the others have gone ahead to start their horse trek. 

Our first sightseeing stop brings us to what some call the Big Chinggis Statue.  The name pretty much describes the sight.  Others call it the Golden Whip because, you guessed it, the silver statue is holding a golden whip.  The statue truly is gigantic and it seems very out of place in the near empty countryside that surrounds it.  You can actually go into this statue and there is a museum inside.  None of us go in deciding that the 4,500 togrog (USD $3) is too expensive.  We have tightened our money belts and we are trying to hold out for whatever spending opportunities may come up on our adventure.

After detouring to the Chinggis statue, we drive back a ways to get on track toward our trekking destination.  On our way, we pull over to the side of the road to have a picnic lunch of a type of salami, bread, cheese spread, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, jam, butter and tea.  We finish off our meal with cookies that are absolutely wonderful.  After eating, we teach some of the guides and van drivers how to throw a Frisbee.  After a couple hours of this, we pack up our things and head on to our next destination.

We get to quickly explore a few more stops on the way to our final destination.  The first one is a cave that persecuted Buddhist monks hid out in for over 100 days.  Another was a place called Turtle Rock which was a large rock that was supposed to look like a turtle.  I could not see the resemblance but the connection to Concordia’s Turtle Rock area made it worth it.  Next we stopped at a Buddhist temple that we barely had any time to see.  Our guide Beck whom I had gotten to know fairly well at this point wanted to show me the temple at the top of the hill so we sprinted up the steps to go see it.  He showed me some of the artwork that exemplified the Red branch of Buddhism that he was explaining to me earlier.  On the way back down I was able to share what I believed about Christianity with him.

Our final stop was the entrance to a valley that almost looked like it was taken out of the Alps.  We stopped at an ovoo where Buddhists and other Mongolians walked around a pile of rocks and prayer flags three times adding a rock each time.  The guides seemed perplexed as to why many of us were disinterested with this unique experience, not knowing that we were Christian and that many of us had seen ovoos earlier that week on our way to the Gobi desert.  Some members did walk though offering stones in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We were in the home stretch.  With no more stops we were headed straight for our campsite.  At least that was the assumption until we came to the XXXXXXXXXX River.  There was more rainfall this year so the river was higher than normal.  Our drivers in their van-Jeeps were confident in their abilities to cross this over swelled river.  Trent and I decided to walk across it because… why not? The first van made it across just fine and Trent and I greeted them on the other side.  Then the second van started across. 

They started across just fine in the same path taken by our first van but then stalled before making it even halfway across.  They managed to back all the way out eventually, almost running over some of the team members who came out to help push!  Eventually, they found a path further down the river that the third van also followed.  We met up with the other van and finished our journey to the camp.  We had dinner and went to sleep in our ger.

The next day we woke up after getting to sleep in for a while.  After breakfast, we were given the option of doing pretty much whatever we wanted.  Some of us did chores for a while which included scooping poop, chopping fire wood, and helping cook lunch.  When we needed a break, a group of us went out into the hills to read and get away from the group for a while.  When we returned, it was time to watch the local men butcher dinner which was a sheep and a goat from the herd.  Their technique was extremely interesting and surprisingly blood free.  After an authentically prepared dinner, I gave my first SHOUT message to my peers around a campfire by the river.  With that our free day was complete.

The net day we set out for our trek.  I was given a midsized tan horse with a tangled mane that almost looked like dreadlocks.  I decided to name my horse Zion after Zion Thompson of The Green.  Zion was a good horse who did not get too worked up about anything and was content to just ride along with the pack and follow his buddies Shadowfax (ridden by Alex), Noodles (ridden by Dana), Jonah (ridden by Bagheera), or Hunter (ridden by Ben).  Our group felt very much like a band of Middle Earth inhabitants off to throw a piece of metal into some lava.  When we stopped for lunch, we taught some of our guides how to throw a frisbee and Kristine ate a living grasshopper, beginning a long trip of food challenges.  We arrived at the site where we were going to spend the night and set up our tents.  After a warm dinner and a long night of singing hymns and patriotic songs interspersed with a few pop hits such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Country Road with our guides, we retired for the night.

The next morning, we were given the opportunity to go galloping if we wanted too.  Many of us jumped at the chance and waited eagerly throughout breakfast for the time to come.  I hoped that Zion would be up for galloping since the day before he seemed content with just sauntering behind his pals in a very laidback manner.  Zion performed like a champ.  He galloped right alongside the best of gallopers for a long time until I wore him out.   Then we moseyed back to the ger camp far behind most of the group, giving me time to actually think and be away from the others for once.  Once we reached the camp, we packed up the vans and prepared for the bumpy ride back to the dorms for our last night in Mongolia (which we spent tiling tables with pliers and laminating others with Disney Christmas tarps).  What a way to end the first country on this exciting journey.