Check baby, check baby 1, 2, 3, 4. Check baby, Check baby, 1. 2.

It was a glorious sunny Saturday at a camp ground just outside the Mother Tree in Selenge. The Peace Corps Trainees of Leslie’s bag gathered for Family Appreciation Day. We started the day by traveling in two meekers (micro-bus), a land cruiser, and one car with our Mongolian families. All vehicles were packed with food, games, and PCTs with their families. When we arrived we began by taking advantage of all the amenities the camp had to offer, such as a volleyball court, basketball court, 2 pool tables under a tent, 3 metal framed tents for relaxing or playing cards, 2 comfortable 5 wall gers with 4 beds inside, and 3 wood A-frame 1 room cabins.

The cross-cultural conversations were remarkable! My favorite was hearing the host mothers ask our friend Evan (who has several piercings) whether he had the illusive “7^th piercing.” There were many lessons that day. Lesson #1: 100mg of hot vodka, butter, and red & black pepper will take care of a sick stomach. I was told, in this case, there is no need for medicine.

It was great fun as everyone young and old alike participated in volleyball, basketball, and uno tournaments. Lesson #2: Mongolians love trash talk! I can’t count the number of times a man making a lousy serve was called an “emeigtei” (woman) or after a bad call I heard “yagshday” (liar). One of the most exciting moments came when we played the Mongolian version of Duck, Duck, Goose. In this game, rather than sitting you stand with a person behind you. To avoid being tagged you run in front of two other players and the person at the back is now given the job of running away from he who has been named “it.” Several times, simply to avoid running, a person would just stand and wait to get tagged so they could participate in a slapping fest to decide who would be “it” next. Watching my Mongolian mother do this was one of the best things I have ever seen! Lesson #3: Mongolians are competitive. My Mom won the “slap fest.”

The food was amazing and we even sang some Mongolian songs. Our dinner meal was called “horhog.” When cooking horhog, hot stones are placed in a container with meat and vegetables. After the meal is cooked you juggle the rocks in your hand in preparation for the meal. Lesson #4: Horhog rocks are REALLY VERY HOT. But, meat cooked in horhog style is very yummy. We sang the three Mongolian songs we know. The first is the Mongolian equivalent to “Rain, rain, go away.” It was lame, but our families are very forgiving. Next my teacher asked Nathan & I to sing the love song we will be presenting at our swearing in ceremony. During the chorus all the Mongolians sang along with us. It was fantastic! Lastly, we sang a Mongolian song about the homeland. We mumbled through a bit, but as I said, our families are very forgiving.

Around 7:00pm we took final pictures with everyone as the last hoorah. As we packed up we all looked up at the sky and watched as several clouds moved rapidly through the blue vast Mongolian sky. “Wow, those clouds are really moving,” I recall saying. You would have thought that would have been a hint. Lesson #5: Beware of rapidly moving clouds. Something has to make them move that fast! Quickly a storm approached like I have never experienced. Nathan ran to assist with the tents as they all began to blow around. All three metal framed tents tumbled through the air with ease as if on a road that lead directly to Nathan’s head. I managed to get out a “Nathan watch out!” as the second and third tents followed the first one he was holding. He moved away quickly enough not to take the full impact of the tents. Lesson #6: In a massive wind storm, avoid open areas. At that point Nathan stopped assisting. My mother, Nathan, and I went to one of the gers to get our bags. Just as we reached the bags at the back of the ger, a swift strong wind blew over the 2 center poles that attach to the circle ring of the roof. The ger immediately began to fall in on itself and my mother yelled “yawee, yawee, yawee” (Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go)!

Some of us ran to one of the two unlocked solidly constructed building. We sat on the floor and attempted to wait for the storm to pass. We watched as the small kitchen building next to us appeared to be slowly loosing its roof. This half an hour of strong wind (all American approximations were between 80-100mps) was followed by rain and lots of lightning! The families called us over to jump into the one remaining meeker and land cruiser. As the storm was still brewing and the meeker was packed to the roof with people. Nathan and I made the executive decision not to get into the vehicle and head back to the building. We assumed this would not be a problem, especially considering there were 5 other people after us that needed to get into the vehicles. Surely, they would be back for a second trip. Lesson #7: Don’t assume. You know what THAT always does. We sat in the building and waited for approximately forty-five minutes and watched as the owners of the camp attempted to fix some of the problems the storm had created.

As we waited in the building, we watched the rain and lightning in the distance as the sky turn blood red. Then we were accompanied by the owners of the camp in the main building. And, yes, we were the only Americans who did not get into the vehicles. After about an hour and a half Nathan turned to me and said “I guess we are staying here tonight.” Lesson #8: Mongolians believe you can be struck by lightning if you use your cell phone during a storm. Hence, we could not call my family or the Peace Corps. For the next three hours we sat and drank milk tea and vodka with the owners as we sang Mongolian karaoke. This was all very surreal! Luckily, Nathan & I know two solid Mongolian songs. As they realized we knew that one love song really well, they kept programming it into the karaoke machine, which (Lesson # 9) incidentally, is not believed to get you hit by lightning in a storm. Lesson #10: Mongolian microphone check goes a little something like this: “nik..nik….nikniknik..nik..nik” (one..one..oneoneone..one..one). Brilliant! Who needs the “two” anyway? Around 10:30pm they decided to teach us a song on the machine. We eventually picked it up pretty well. As we powered through the fifth time on the song, my mother and father arrived. “Yasan bay,” (What happened) my mother said. We thanked everyone for their kindness a quickly drove off into the darkness.

Post storm blood-red sky. Notice the water reflecting back the sky. Eeeerie!

Apparently, my mother tried to contact people to find out where we were, but as you have recently learned, no cell phones on in a storm! Luckily, my father is a driver, so he is one of the few Mongolians with a car. My teacher informed me today she was relieved to finally hear from my mother that night when she called and said “Everything is okay. The kids are sitting here singing karaoke and drinking vodka.”

As we came into town we saw fences down in everyone’s yard. All our homes are surrounded by fences called “hashaa.” These last few days have been clean up time. Today my father and his friends have been working on our fence. The good news is that it could have been worse. Our whole fence did not fall down. Yet, it has been a pain kicking the wandering cows out of my mother’s garden.

Our poor fence after the storm.

All in all, there were many lessons learned. Though it was scary at moments, it was priceless and I just can’t emphasize enough the importance of understanding a Mongolian mic check.