"MINII GER BOL" - My Family

I have finished my first Rural Homestay. For the past 12 days, I have been living in Delgerkhaan Soum, Hentii Aimag, which is a bumpy five hour drive away from Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia is divided into 21 Aimags, or provinces, which are then divided into Soums. Since there is so much I want to share about this experience, I thought it best to break it down into topical categories, rather than try to make a chronological account of the past two weeks.


"GER" directly translated means "house or home." However, the Mongolian word "GER" does not conjure up any of the American images of a home. In fact, I was almost surprised to learn that GER translates to anything at all, rather than to constitute its own new definition. GER is the word for the traditionally nomadic structure that roughly resemble a tepee but with a rounded roof. However, GER is also the word that one uses when talking about an apartment in UB or any structure in which one lives.
To add to this discussion of definition (that resembles one from a Political Theory class), the word GER BOL means "family," not to mention the verb "to marry," which is GER-LEH. After spending only a few days in the country side, with this GER BOL, in this GER, I Understand why the word for 'family' is so connected to the word for 'home.'

For starters, the whole family lives in the one room provided by the GER. For some of my fellow students, this means 7 people. For me, there are only three other students living in the GER - my host father, mother and brother. There is a second GER that moves with mine that houses the second oldest son, his wife and thier one child. My parents have six children, which means at one point this GER was home to 8 people.
The entire contents of the GER include the following: three win-sized beds, 1 table, 1 stove, 1 cupboard for kitchen ware, 1 cupboard for blankets and DELLS, one trunk on which sits the pieces to make it an altar. There is a tin bucket holding the dried cattle dung which is the source of fuel for the stove's fire (there are no trees around), and a car battery to power the single, high-efficiency light bulb.
Reading over this incomplete list, I know it sounds quaint and attractively simple, but it's truly more than enough.

At first, it was almost a game of mine to guess from where the next object would appear. The socks came out from one of the many layers of rugs placed on the wood board of a mattress. Some books and a calender are kept there as well. The giant bowl goes under the bed. The knife from the blanket cupboard. The cutting board came from behind the bed; I still don't know where the sewing machine is kept because I am never there when it is revealed or hidden away again. This lifestyle gives new meaning to the quote, "A place for everything, everything in its place."

Everything serves multiple purposes. During meal time, the beds become counter tops. The soup bowl, after its contents have been eaten, is filled with water and becomes the washing bowl. We use only one bowl to eat, and often without a fork. After we finish the food contents, we fill it with hot tea that both hydrates us and washes the bowl. Many times it is simply placed back onto the shelf after this without further washing.

I am very aware of how much space my single backpack takes up. Every morning, I re-stuff my sleeping bag into its stuffsack and place my sleeping pad under the rug on the bed. I try to hid things under the bed and push my personal things aside so that my bed, too, serves the double purpose as a bench for visitors throughout the day.
The family is wonderful. Despite our language barrier, I communicate well with them and always seem to be the butt of a joke I don't understand. The parents are mid 50s, my host brother is the same age as me. My family has a large heard of goats and sheep. They have about ten stallions, which could mean around 50 or 60 horses (they won't give you an exact number, though there's no doubt in my mind they know, because it is considered bad luck to count your animals). There are also several yak that make an appearance every now and then.