The early evening work would usually end between 800-830pm. The very last task of the day was to “hobble” the riding horses (tying three of their legs together) so they could graze but not wander too far. This usually occurred in the dark of night.
As I mentioned in the last post, sometimes we would eat dinner before or after this point. Biyambai usually prepared the evening meal in the late afternoon. She is a skilled and talented cook, and prepared a variety of dishes. With a few exceptions, almost all food in the camp was made from scratch (natural ingredients) even the noodles!
One of my favorites was the homemade noodle, meat and vegetable dish called Tsuivan:
Every once in a while we’d have something a bit more exotic like goat’s head stew:
The evening entertainment (before the meal) might include games of Shagai. I never fully figure the games out until I read about it afterward. Basically the way the bones fall (after rolling them like dice) whether a piece is a camel sheep goat or horse. Please click the underlined link for a description. The games are played with the polished ankle bones of sheep:
The after meal entertainment would be satellite TV. Daytime TV (if you had a chance to watch) consisted of overdubbed Korean Soap Operas, while nighttime TV was broadcasts of “Mongolia’s Got Talent” (MGT) which is wildly popular in the country and especially with the nomads. On one occasion a neighboring nomad drove his whole family to our Ger to watch the program because their satellite receiver was problematic! It seems like a big deal for us foreigners to drive 30 minutes or so with no roads in the pitch black of night, but not to the nomads!
Satellite TV Receiver
Korean Soap Opera dubbed in Mongolian
Well Mongolia does have talent!!! I could only understand the acts that emulated American songs and talents. From lip syncing to singing,the acts were very good! Bruno Mars and Ariana Grande were some of the (emulated) standout acts! Many of the USA readers of this blog may have already had some exposure to MGT through a young man named Enkh-Erdene. The name won’t mean anything to you but this video might:
It’s an absolute great cover of the song which I admit I hadn’t heard before! Unfortunately, it was popular in the USA for the wrong reasons as the video comprised what some would consider an insensitive MEME :
Anyway, that would wrap up the evening for me. I would typically fall asleep between 930-1000pm. My hosts would stay up later. On occasion a neighboring nomad would come by at night to share a drink, but otherwise I’d drift of to sleep under the warm covers to escape the near freezing nights.
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