As usual, I was the
first up this morning, heading outside to take photos of our host
family as they did their morning chores. When the others were up,
Tuul came in and cooked us some lovely bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Then, as we were packing up, the 'grandma' came in and brushed
Sarah's hair for her. She was most taken with the girls, and spent
quite a bit of time with us in the ger.
We all then headed
over to the animal pens to watch the cashmere goats being combed – a
spring ritual that brings in a pretty healthy income – before
getting everyone together for another group photo. Then it was time
to say goodbye, which was a surprisingly emotional experience, given
the fact that we had only met our hosts for the first time yesterday.
The grandma said that it was like saying goodbye to her own children
when they went away. (I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but each
of the families that we're staying with – after the first one, and
not including the last one – haven't hosted tourists before.
Panoramic Journeys has only recently arranged for them to start
hosting people, and we're essentially acting as a test run.)
It was then a pretty
short drive to our next homestay. When we arrived, the husband was
away with the sheep, so the wife settled us in to our very large ger,
which was situated some distance from their family ger. Once again,
they had provided us with a nice, freshly dug toilet.
Then, while Nyama
cooked lunch, the rest of us went for a bit of a look around, first
watching some more cashmere combing in the animal pens beside the
other ger and then walking in the hills behind. We all climbed a big
granite outcrop, and then, while the others started heading back, I
fossicked around a little bit behind the outcrop. Spotting some
movement, I froze and scanned the rocks ahead. Suddenly, a little
head popped up – a chipmunk. A very inquisitive chipmunk that stood
up on its hind legs to check me out better and let me slowly inch
closer and closer to take more and more photos. Each time I got too
close, it would skitter down into its burrow, but then its curiosity
would get the better of it and its little head would pop back up
again. Eventually, after one more disappearance, I decided that I had
(more than) enough photos and ran off to catch up with the others.
After lunch, it was
time for some domestic chores. Nyama drive Tuul, the girls and I to a
nearby spring to refresh our water supplies and then we washed some
clothes and the girls did some schoolwork. Later, Tuul cooked us a
lovely dinner of spaghetti, dried meat fried with onion, and some
potato and kidney beans. At dusk, we wandered over to the other ger,
where Kate and I chatted to the husband via Tuul (Sarah wasn't
feeling well, so had returned to our ger, and Zoe was out helping to
herd the animals into their pens). It turned out that he had never
spoken to a white person before, and was fascinated to hear about
life in Australia and England. After we had been talking for a while,
he broke out the vodka – which was something of an honour for us,
as it apparently only comes out for special guests. The spirit is a
home brew made using fermented milk and was noticably less rough than
some vodkas I've tried in the past.
After downing my
glass, I went outside to help bring the sheep back in for the night.
Sarah suddenly arrived on the back of a motorbike, breathless with
the news that Zoe had burnt her fingers on the stove. Kate went back
to assess the damage (not too bad, thankfully) while I helped to herd
the animals.
No comments:
Post a Comment