The closeness of strangers

It's coming down to the wire and I'm almost outta here. What?! Two years has ended up going by so fast. Lately, everything about Mongolia has become super romantic and idealized in my eyes. The rain sprinkling on my ger roof, the cafe owner who knows exactly what I want to eat the minute I walk in, my dog Jake eating a beloved piece of fruit of mine....all wonderful. Mongolia has slapped me around a bit, but mostly it has given me so much more than I feel I could have ever given it.

One thing I will miss about Mongolia is the closeness. This closeness can be delineated through my traveling experiences. A month ago I set out to the big city by bus. I ended up sitting next to a young woman with a baby. Throughout the 6-hour bus trip the woman would hand me her baby as she searched in her purse for the baby's bottle and various other necessities. When we made a pit stop I held the baby while she went to the outhouse. We chatted off and on throughout the trip and when we got to Ub I explained to her how much I hated taking taxis because they usually try to rip me off. She then offered to have her sister take me to my guesthouse. She said she would be there "soon". Soon doesn't always mean soon in Mongolia so I ended up wandering down the UB streets helping carry this woman's heavy bag while we waited for our ride. I ended up getting a ride from this perfect stranger/friend and arrived at my guesthouse safe and sound with a extra tugriks left in my pocket.

When I'm in the city, I definitely "feel" country. The busy streets that I have to cross bring me a bit of anxiety. The last time I was in UB I was procrastinating crossing the street...shuffling my feet a bit, waiting for an empty street that would never arrive when an "emee" or grandmother-age woman came up to the side of me, grabbed my wrist and walked me across the street. When we reached the other side she said, "Yav" or "Go" as though she was releasing me back into the world. haha. It was so precious and I was quite taken aback by the fact that this happened in UB since it can be a more sterile, "cold" place.

The taxi ride back to the bus station carried a similar tone. When I got in I confirmed the price in Mongolian, "500 tugriks per kilometer, RIGHT?!" He harshly responded with "500!!!" in English and from that moment I was ready to be RIPPED OFF. The tone and the English! This sounded like the path to being swindled! ha. After a few moments, we started conversing in Mongolian. I learned about his family. He had 2 daughters my age and one of them was living in Germany. We bonded over missing our families and at a stop light he pulled out pictures of his family from his dashboard to show me. When I arrived at the bus station, he asked for the accurate amount of money and scolded me about needing to put on my sweater or I'd get sick.

Strangers and closeness don't really seem to go together but in Mongolia they somehow do. For brief moments, there is a sort of intimacy and knowing you feel with strangers that is harder to come by in America I think. I will miss this. In America, there seems to be a thick bubble. If someone is "too" nice or tries to share too much we are taken aback. We automatically kind of think something is wrong with this person.

This closeness of course transcends to friendships also. Mongolians don't really hug much but while talking to my counterparts and friends there is hardly an interaction that lacks a twirl of my hair or someone playing with my pocket or hand. At first, this was a bit uncomfortable for me- this lack of personal space but now I admire it. I feel as though it has changed me a bit. I don't crave personal space as much as I used to. I enjoy a ger crammed with friends. I enjoy sharing more than I ever had. I somehow have it in my mind that if I share, it'll come back around so I shouldn't worry.

Oh I'm going to miss Mongolia so much.