Khuslen II - The Work

We drive past various communities off the main street where there is no distinct road in the open areas. Simply avoiding large rocks and potholes defines where we drive. We arrive at two small gers where I see a 3 year old girl wearing a soiled red jumpsuit waddling around, followed by her brother. Later the camera guy tells me that her little white shoes are “summer shoes.” After we hop out of the vehicle about 10 kids from the Khuslen House exit out of the tiny door of the ger to greet us. The leader assembles everyone and gets together a gameplan. We go inside and meet the old lady who is watching 3 young ones, the Khuslen house kids bring in our gifts. They interview the woman after a few tears we begin to work. The girls stay inside and the guys go out and chop the wood with 2 small axes. They let me have a try but never more than a few minutes at a time as they were much more proficient with their technique. Some kids are grabbing chunks of ice to melt. One of the residents carries a bucket over to a tire and lowers it through the tire with a rope. The tire marks the outline of the local well.
Bathuyag and I go inside. I realize how cold my toes are when they begin to hurt after they warm up. Dishes are being washed, the floor is being swept, clothes are being cleaned, meat is being cut up, onions chopped, dough kneaded.
Later, when everyone is inside one of the girls gets a rag and proceeds to mop the floor on her hands and knees. Dedication.
“Hey Ryan. Piss,” a guy chuckles and points to the toddler going to the bathroom in a bottle held by the grandmother. Interesting that he could tell me that but it was difficult trying to talk to him earlier. I think he wanted to see how I would react as an American.
The girls try to teach me how to make buuz, which is the traditional Mongolian dumpling that is ubiquitous this time of year. Small clumps of dough are flattened into perfect little circles very rapidly. “Ok? You try.” I do it in slow awkward motions. They show me again. I try and 5 minutes later I have one done and they laugh, “it looks like a car!” In that time the girl opposite of me had completed several dozen.
I was really impressed with these kids. They have today, the whole week, off from school to celebrate and prepare for Tsaagan Sar celebrations. The oldest one I met was 16, and here they are organizing themselves to help others on their day off. I bet most of the other kids in the city were at home watching tv, playing computer games and just relaxing. Yet these few decided that they wanted someone else to be able to enjoy this week’s festivities that they otherwise couldn’t afford to celebrate. It wasn’t halfhearted either, they were having fun doing it and were going all out—that one girl was wiping the floor with a rag.