Notes from the Boonies

It turns out he DOES have email capability from the field. I don't know if he's technically in inner or outer Mongolia, but he's definitely in the boonies:

I finally have an internet connection briefly at the camp, but there is only one tent that has cables for this, so we will just be accessing when we have time and a cable is available. It is slow, though and difficult to type because the lag time is extreme; I can type a whole sentence before I see the words on the screen. Also this will quit in a few minutes and then I will have to restart.

Today we had our field introduction so tomorrow we may be able to start out mapping.

The “tents” here are called gers and are the cylindrical Mongolian houses with two central poles holding up the roof. They have wool(?) batting for the walls and then bright-colored fabric over that so they are fairly quiet, warm and clean. I’d guess they are about 20’ in diameters, so plenty spacious, as we only have cots and one small table for furniture.

We didn’t know it, but there are laundry facilities and women who will do laundry, so they actually place a laundry basket in each ger and these women will pick it up and do the laundry.

Food is pretty basic usually noodles with some meat in a soup base, white bread, sometimes a vegetable. I’m not usually asking what the food is, because you just get what is served, so there is no point contesting.

We have electricity, from a generator, so two light bulbs hang down from each ger’s ceiling. Can’t complain, but the cots and bedding are so short it is nearly impossible to keep my feet undercovers at night, a feeling I hate. I’m going to have to devise some system.

The weather was warm today, mostly clear but clouds seem to build in the afternoons and sometimes threaten rain. Apparently it has been raining fairly consistently over the past weeks as there is a lot of low green grass and the shepherds are running their flocks of sheep and goats all over.

I tried a bit of white brick cheese today and found it really sour; this is a Mongolian favorite, but would take a lot of getting used to for us; it is a mix of sheep, goat and camel cheese, and the odor that comes off it strikes me as smelling rather like the negative end of the camel. Come to mention it, our ger smells a bit like that as well.

Sounds like his sense of humor is intact! Hope to get another email soon and will share it with you.