Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

Our wedding photo

I never thought ten years ago we would be spending our 10th wedding anniversary in Mongolia. Ben had to work so he arranged some beautiful flowers delivered to our apartment. The best present of all is that I know we will be leaving Mongolia soon and moving to Hanoi, Vietnam to start another adventure so looks like our blog will be filled with new adventures of living in another country.

Mongolian Cooking Lesson

What a better way to learn Mongolian cooking then from Undra's mum, Munkhuu.

A couple of weeks ago my friends Pam, Tracy, Michelle and myself got together at our apartment to learn how to make some traditional Mongolian food.

Munkhuu started to mix the dough as she explained about what we where going to make while Undra translated for her. I was very surprised that to make the dough all there was was flour and water, that's it. Munkhuu had prepared the meat for the dishes ahead of time making sure most of the fat was discarded as she understood that westerns don't like to eat the fat also making sure not to add too much salt. Out of the simple ingredients of flour, water, meat, onion you can make a number of dishes, the end product is how you cook it, steam or deep fried and the size of the product will determine what the product is called. We all enjoyed the cooking lesson and hope to another one in the near future.

Picture: Making the dough

Picture: Pam being shown how much meat to add

Picture: Munkhuu tasting the end product to make sure it was up to her usual standard

Mongolian (монгол) Script

Mongolia is a country that is very old with an interesting history, from its people to the traditions. One thing that has always fascinated me was the written language and the traditional script. When I see this script written on paper I wished I was able to read it. Here is some information I found on the Internet about the history of the Mongolian script and language.

Mongolian is an Altaic language spoken by approximately 5 million people in Mongolia, China, Afghanistan and Russia. There are a number of closely related varieties of Mongolian: Khalkha or Halha, the national language of Mongolia, and Oirat, Chahar and Ordos, which are spoken mainly in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China.
Other languages considered part of the Mongolian language family, but separate from Mongolian, include Buryat and Kalmyk, spoken in Russia and Moghul or Mogul, spoken in Afghanistan.
In 1208 Chinggis Khan defeated the Naiman, and captured their Uyghur scribe Tatar-Tonga, who apparently adapted the Old Uhghur alphabet to write Mongolian. The alphabet created by Tatar-Tonga is now known as the Uighur/Uyghur Script, the Classical Mongol Script, the Old Script, or Mongol Bichig in Mongolian.
Between the 13th and 15th Centuries, Mongolian was also written with Chinese characters, the Arabic alphabet and a script derived from Tibetan called Phags-pa.
As a result of pressure from the Soviet Union, Mongolia adopted the Latin alphabet in 1931 and the Cyrillic alphabet in 1937. In 1941 the Mongolian government passed a law to abolish the Classical Mongol script, but since 1994 they have been trying to bring it back. It is now taught to some extent in schools, though is mainly used for decorative purposes by artists, designers, calligraphers and poets. The average person in Mongolia knows little or nothing about the Classical Mongol script, though there is high literacy in Cyrillic. In Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China the Classical Mongol script is still used.

Here is an example of the different scripts

Cyrillic alphabet

Transliteration
Khün bür törzh mendlekhee erkh čölöötei, adilkhan ner törtei, izhil erkhtei baidag. Oyuun ukhaan nandin čanar zayaasan khün gegč öör khoorondoo akhan düügiin üzel sanaagaar khar'tsakh učirtai.

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Here is a sample in Mongolian of the traditional alphabet

Paige's 4th Birthday

On the 24th of February Paige turned 4 years old. In leading up to her birthday Paige decided that she would like to have a birthday party so going from a Princess Party to a Super Hero Party she finally decided that she wanted a Dora Party.

I had to put my thinking cap on for this request as you can not find anything to do with Dora here in Mongolia. With some creative ideas, a printer, pictures from the web the Dora birthday party was a success.

Paige had four friends over to the apartment where we played games like pass the parcel, pin the tail on Boots the Monkey, treasure hunt and a dancing game where each of the children won a prize.

After two hours it was great to have some peace and quite until the evening. Ben and friend Dave put a fire works display on for Paige. Earlier in the week Ben and I went to a shop that sells fireworks so to top Paige's birthday off it ended with a bang.

Ben and Dave where like boys with new toys as they lit each rocket and firework bomb.

I am not sure if Paige will remember her special day but I think Ben and I will being one of our better and brighter times in Mongolia.

Picture: Paige with scooter

Picture: Party table

Picture: Children looking at treasure hunt map

Picture: Paige ready to blow out candles

Picture: Paige's Dora birthday cake