This year (us being 'old' veterans and all, now) we were invited to many homes to share in their celebration. Traditional Mongolian food is served such as rice, a large variety of dairy products which most of you would find . . . interesting, and buuz (pronounced more like boadz).
This first picture is with the Grandpa and Grandma from Naliakh Branch. They are the best! We were in their sons home, which used to be a small restaurant, at one time.
The second picture is of the Nalaikh missionaries at the same home. The first day of Tsagaan Sar, we visited homes with our missionaries. It was fun!
The third picture is in a more traditional ger. This is the home (ger) of what we call a "mini-missionary" who served in Nalaikh for a short time. That time included Tsagaan Sar. Mini-missionaries are members who are close to mission age, and are asked to 'fill in' temporarily as missionaries when there are not enough companions temporarily. Then we get a group of missionaries back from the MTC and the mini-missionary returns home.As for the beginning of spring -- yah, right! Sort of hard to believe when the day before Tsagaan Sar, it was 34 F below zero! But this is our second winter here and we now believe them. Well, sort of. The day after Tsagaan Sar, the temperature did, in fact, start going up! And it has continued a very slow but steady improvement almost everyday since! Recently, we hit a balmy 20 degrees and the snow on darker colored surfaces actually has been melting! What a wonderfully warm day!
It will likely take a while for it to even reach the freezing mark, but it has been very tantalizing on some days.
And it is very needy. Livestock losses have hit the 2.3 million mark and are still rising. It will take Mongolia a few years to fully recover from this one.
5 comments:
Sweet pictures! Where'd your last post go?
It looked like you were having a marvelous time. The Germans have a celebration of Spring, as well, only they wait until March for theirs. I'm so sorry to hear about the great loss to the farmers there. My companion and I have been studying prophecies of the last days and this certainly fits in the realm.
Looks fun. Not sure about the meat slab though. : )
Love Dads hat in the first picture. Please tell me that was not a big giant tongue being served in the middle of the table(that is exactly what it looks like), and if that is in fact what it was then please tell me that you did not eat any of it...?
I like the hat too! We saw a little blip on the news tonight about the situation in Mongolia with all the loss of livestock. They said they are a bit concerned about the thaw because of all the dead animals that will no longer be frozen!
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