Small look into school and Tsagaan Sar

Things are looking up! It's been awhile since my last post. This is the last semester of my first year as a Peace Corps volunteer. I definitely see now why our service is 2 years and not one. Barely now I am seeing what my school and community needs, what their challenges are and how to work on dealing with them. The human trafficking seminar I have been pushing to put on for about a month finally happened this semester. I have a methodology seminar and a project in the works. Anyway, life is good.

So I should feebly attempt to capture what happened during the Mongolian holiday Tsagaan Sar. Tsaagan Sar is Mongolia's biggest holiday. It was celebrated around February 25th which is the start of the new year here in Mongolia. I celebrated with Trinh in Choibalson. The secretary of his school took us along with her and we visited about 12 homes in 2 days. At each home you greet everyone, putting your arms under or over other's (depending on your age) and say "Amer bain yy?" Elders sometimes sniff your cheeks. I'm not sure why but I love this custom. I think it is quite precious. There is a table full of sheep's butt, potato salad, fruit, candy and most importantly BUUZ! Buuz are small dumplings filled with either mutton or beef. Families make hundreds of them for Tsagaan Sar. Many Mongolians have often told me that they love Tsagaan Sar but it is also exhausting. The way they talk about it reminds me of how we often talk about Christmas in America. Love it but it is exhausting! All the cooking, the gift-buying wears people out! There is also plenty of vodka being passed around too. With the vodka and food comes plenty of singing also. At parties there is always some singing. I put the two Mongolian songs I knew to good use! Tsagaan Sar was good fun and it left me with many gifts- everything from concert tickets to pencil cases to lotion. Unfortunately I didn't get a pair of grandma undies as a gift like my sitemate Dwan did! haha. I have hope for next year though.