Already been a week ... Ulaan Baatar

After a week in Ulaan Baatar with Begz family, we feel refreshed.

Thanks to couchsufring we ve just spend a wonderful week in a Ger (Yurt) 5km north of the city center in ger district with Begz, Soyombo and their 4 children - Todo, Manujia, Gaadma et Munglun. Other couchsurfers were there too (Alex and Nelly from France), also on sabbatical.
Together we particpated to the daily life of this mongolian family. They live together in a Ger of 20m2 and all sleep on the same bed, on the ground which is protected with Sheep blanket.

They have 3 cows that needs to be milked everyday and they have just started a small garden with the help of the red cross. In Ger district, it is very dry and a bit of green will help with the polution and give a bit of a color in the district.

Despite difficult conditions compare to Europe, all of them are full of joy and happiness, every occasion is good for a laugh and to share a great moment together.

We have laugh a lot with the children who love playing (card games, bone games, football etc.)
The children are great, adorable and always smilling, they share the domestic tasks with a word:
Manujia is responsible for washing the dishes, Todo walks the cows in the mountains.
They are so nice we want to stay longer with them and get more kisses from the little one.

We love it !!!

We cooked with Soyombo who is passionate about it and loves discovering new recipies and new way of cooking. She does a lot of vegetarian cooking which is good in a culture where meat is very important (beef, horse, goat, sheep etc.).
Below on the picture she is doing some butter milk which is then applied on sort of Mogolian Crepes.
Here in Mongolia, you need to eat ... everything, bowls are gigantesque but for us it is easy, we love food and food is great.;-)
Again ... this will be hard to start a Diet ...

We have discussed a lot with Begz who loves to share his culture, he is very tolerant in regards to foreigners like us and other couch surfers who don;t always do what needs to be done (eg. always holding food with right hand, wash 3 times hands before diner, leaking bowls after each meal (no need for washing ;-) etc.))

Begs woks all day at the library in Ulan Baatar has the it specialist to feed his family, wakes up very earlier in the morning to milk the cow, get water from the spring (2km away and 130L tank, Tom tested twice), remove bad herbes in the garden and then go to work, no time to be bored and nights are short.

Soyombo is responsible for domestic tasks, cooks and looks after the kids - same as Bergz, she wakes up at 6h et go tgo bed at 1h...

This experience is great lesson for us, happiness has nothing to do with owning things but how do you appreciate what you have and every moment ... this is what we will do for the next 7 months and after ...