Are you interested to see what a house in Mongolia is like? Well, stealing a page from our friends' book, we decided to put a little video together to show you our house. Please watch and enjoy. Also, we made the movie using our digital camera, so it may be a little grainy and the audio doesn't sound so hot, but you'll get the idea!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Laundry Day (Scott)
Hmm, so Ashlee did laundry yesterday. She followed the same process as always: wash in soapy water, rinse in fresh water, wring by hand, and then hang outside to dry. The only difference was that the weather this weekend was a little colder than it has been. Do you know what happens when you hang wet clothes out to dry when it's 20 degrees outside? They freeze!
PS - Although it may sound like it, I was not just sitting around watching Ashlee wash clothes. I had my own chores to do.
PS - Although it may sound like it, I was not just sitting around watching Ashlee wash clothes. I had my own chores to do.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Change of Plans (Scott)
Apparently the whole H1N1 craze has reached Mongolia and it has the government all in a tizzy. The powers that be have decided to order all schools to take their term breaks one week early. So starting next week, no classes. I'm not sure if this is just for a week or if it's indefinite. I'm also not sure what this means for our planned Halloween party -- apparently kids are not allowed to gather in large groups. We'll see what happens.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Long Post (Scott)
Since I haven't made an update in over a week, this post will be long and a little scattered. Please bear with me. I'll try to help a little bit by including subtitles.
SNOW!
Last week we had our second snow of the season, and it came as a bit of surprise. As the year is rapidly slipping away and we are already at the tail-end of Fall, the days are getting shorter. Short enough, in fact, that the sun doesn't rise until about 8am. So last Tuesday when Ashlee woke up at 6:30am and fumbled outside in the darkness, she was greeted by 4 inches of gorgeous white powder on the ground. She immediately let out a yelp of glee, ran into the bedroom to wake me up, grabbed the camera, and headed outside to take some pictures. She took the picture above around 7am.
As it worked out, I only had one class to teach that day and Ashlee decided to work from home, so we got to spend most of the morning snuggled up across from a crackling fire watching a movie. Here's a few more pictures from later that day.
This is a picture of our outhouse. Can you imagine doing your morning duty here? Also, the snow was built up against it so the door wouldn't close. Jealous?
This is a picture from a walk we took down by the river. Our friend Laura told us about a herd of camels that were grazing on the other side, but unfortunately we couldn't get close enough to take a good picture of them. All in all it was a really nice day!
PEN PALS!
The Peace Corps has a program where it matches currently serving volunteers with classrooms back in America. The point of the program is for the American students to learn about life in another country by corresponding with the volunteer. I have been matched with a first-grade classroom at an elementary school in a small town in New Mexico. I've been emailing back and forth with the teacher of the class for the past couple of weeks and I'm very excited about the program. The teacher is incredibly kind and she seems to share my enthusiasm. We have decided to match her group of kids with one of my classes. Our hope is for the kids to directly communicate with each other by sending letters and pictures through the mail.
Here's a picture of my class. It's a group of 7th graders. The picture is a little outdated because since I have taken it, the class has doubled in size. The woman in the picture is my main counterpart. We have a great working relationship and everyday she is coming up with new ideas of things for us to do.
From what I can tell, my students are really excited about the opportunity to exchange letters with an American classroom. We actually got out first set of letters from New Mexico yesterday. While the American students are a few years younger than my students, their English level is about the same. The letters the American students sent were very cute. They all introduced themselves and drew pictures of their favorite activities. My students were so thrilled with the mail that my counterpart and I had a difficult time getting them to focus on writing their own letters back.It was a really great class and it was just the high I needed to really put things in perspective. As you can imagine, being here is a bit of a rollercoaster, and lately there have been a few more dips that I would like. But honestly, yesterday I felt like I had the best job in the world. I was so touched by the care my students were putting into their letters. A few of them pulled out fancy cardstock from their bags (I didn't know they had that!) and they were all sharing one pack of color pencils to draw pictures for their new American friends. After I collected their letters, one girl came up to me and asked for hers back so she could decorate it with stickers. It was awesome.
HALLOWEEN!
Well, the holiday season is upon us. As some of you may know, it is incredibly difficult to enjoy the holidays when you are away from home...especially when you are outside of the country. Just the other day I was imagining what it would be like to be back in California. Places would be all decorated and every single coffee house would be pushing their pumpkin spice lattes. I don't even want to think what Disneyland must be like. The other day I tried to explain to my students what a pumpkin is. They kept asking me if it's like a cabbage.
Anyways, we're trying to make the best of the situation. This year, the four Americans in town will be bringing Halloween to Olgii! We will be having a little celebration at the town rec hall. We've asked all the kids to dress in costumes and we'll plan different games and crafts for them to participate in. Laura said she'll even bake tons of cookies for them to decorate. While it won't be the same, I'm sure it will be fun.
WORLD VISION!
There is an NGO in town called World Vision that has asked the four of us to help with an upcoming project: they have 5,000 winter jackets that they would like to give to the underprivileged children of Bayan-Olgii and they would like us to organize and handle the distribution. It will be quite a challenge, but I think we can do it. Luckily we have a school break coming up in a week when we can focus our attention on the job. We will be giving the coats out here in Olgii and also in several small towns around the province. It looks like we'll get to see the countryside!
AND LASTLY!
I just got word from home that my dad is having a little medical scare at the moment. If you can, please send some positive thoughts in his direction. Thanks!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Good Weekend! (Scott)
It's Sunday morning here in Olgii and I'm sitting across from a crackling fire while Ashlee is bustling about preparing a breakfast of home-made biscuits topped with honey and pan-fried cinnamon-coated apples. It has been a good weekend.
This past Thursday I was given the privilege of flying into the big city of UB for a Peace Corps meeting. During our last days of training I was one of three members in our group to be voted onto the Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC). Basically VAC is a group of PCV representatives that meets two or three times a year to bring any volunteer issues to the attention of the Peace Corps Mongolia administration. We had a couple of long (and hopefully productive) meetings on Thursday night and Friday morning, and it was all worth it due to the fact that I got a free trip into UB to stock up on some supplies, eat some good food, and meet with some friends from training.
I came into UB loaded with a large shopping list -- and not just from Ashlee either as my sitemates jumped right in with their requests. I was happy to oblige them all since I would have done the same thing in their places. I spent pretty much all of Friday afternoon scouring UB's American-styles stores for supplies. For Ashlee and myself I got pinto beans, corn meal, tabasco sauce, powdered sugar, maple syrup, garlic salt/pepper, toothbrushes, peanut butter, taco seasoning, popcorn, a plastic spatula, and even a few large Reese's peanut butter cups! For Laura I picked up a bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, bread crumbs, and some brocoli -- she will be using these items to make such delicious meals as orange chicken, chicken parmesan, and brocoli and beef. I helped Matt by visiting his UB travel agent to purchase his ticket to Thailand in December -- I also picked him up some peanut butter and Korean hot pepper paste. Yep, when I flew into UB my backpack weighed only 8 kilos and when I left it weighed 18!
Also during my stay in UB I treated myself to some fine dining. Some good Mongolian friends of mine picked me up from the airport and we ate lunch at Altai BBQ. It's this really touristy place that offers American-style Mongolian bbq where you pack your own bowl of meat and vegetables, top it with your own combination of sauces, and then have it cooked right before your very eyes. It's an all-you-can-eat joint and I completely gorged myself -- they had chicken and fresh brocoli!
After lunch, I met up with a fellow M20 VAC member -- he and his wife live in the northern metropolis of Darkhan -- and together we continued the food marathon. We started at a German bakery where, since neither of us had our wives along to be the voices of reason, we spent almost 20,000 tugriks on jumbo cappuccinos and two desserts each -- even though I was still full from lunch.
Friday morning we had breakfast at a French bakery (ham and cheese croissants!) and then at the VAC meeting someone brought some fresh-baked goodies: banana bread and berry muffins. Naturally, I couldn't restrain myself. For lunch I joined some PCV friends at a local Irish pub for a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a nice large Gem draft. Hmm, some of you must think I'm a jerk for living up the UB life while Ashlee was back home in Olgii, but I think I made it up to her. On top of the supplies I picked up, I also happened to acquire something that she has been waiting to see since early July. Without getting into the details since I don't want the FBI to come knocking on our door, let's just say that she really enjoyed it and, in Ashlee's words, "God speed, Dumbledore."
So yeah, it was a great trip, but I'm happy to be back home. When I flew back into Olgii yesterday, I was greeted not only by my loving wife, but by two care packages sent from our family in California! Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll let you see the appreciation on our faces. Thanks Mom & Dad Riggins, Grandma & Jon, and the Hawleys!
YESSSS!
This past Thursday I was given the privilege of flying into the big city of UB for a Peace Corps meeting. During our last days of training I was one of three members in our group to be voted onto the Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC). Basically VAC is a group of PCV representatives that meets two or three times a year to bring any volunteer issues to the attention of the Peace Corps Mongolia administration. We had a couple of long (and hopefully productive) meetings on Thursday night and Friday morning, and it was all worth it due to the fact that I got a free trip into UB to stock up on some supplies, eat some good food, and meet with some friends from training.
I came into UB loaded with a large shopping list -- and not just from Ashlee either as my sitemates jumped right in with their requests. I was happy to oblige them all since I would have done the same thing in their places. I spent pretty much all of Friday afternoon scouring UB's American-styles stores for supplies. For Ashlee and myself I got pinto beans, corn meal, tabasco sauce, powdered sugar, maple syrup, garlic salt/pepper, toothbrushes, peanut butter, taco seasoning, popcorn, a plastic spatula, and even a few large Reese's peanut butter cups! For Laura I picked up a bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, bread crumbs, and some brocoli -- she will be using these items to make such delicious meals as orange chicken, chicken parmesan, and brocoli and beef. I helped Matt by visiting his UB travel agent to purchase his ticket to Thailand in December -- I also picked him up some peanut butter and Korean hot pepper paste. Yep, when I flew into UB my backpack weighed only 8 kilos and when I left it weighed 18!
Also during my stay in UB I treated myself to some fine dining. Some good Mongolian friends of mine picked me up from the airport and we ate lunch at Altai BBQ. It's this really touristy place that offers American-style Mongolian bbq where you pack your own bowl of meat and vegetables, top it with your own combination of sauces, and then have it cooked right before your very eyes. It's an all-you-can-eat joint and I completely gorged myself -- they had chicken and fresh brocoli!
After lunch, I met up with a fellow M20 VAC member -- he and his wife live in the northern metropolis of Darkhan -- and together we continued the food marathon. We started at a German bakery where, since neither of us had our wives along to be the voices of reason, we spent almost 20,000 tugriks on jumbo cappuccinos and two desserts each -- even though I was still full from lunch.
Friday morning we had breakfast at a French bakery (ham and cheese croissants!) and then at the VAC meeting someone brought some fresh-baked goodies: banana bread and berry muffins. Naturally, I couldn't restrain myself. For lunch I joined some PCV friends at a local Irish pub for a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a nice large Gem draft. Hmm, some of you must think I'm a jerk for living up the UB life while Ashlee was back home in Olgii, but I think I made it up to her. On top of the supplies I picked up, I also happened to acquire something that she has been waiting to see since early July. Without getting into the details since I don't want the FBI to come knocking on our door, let's just say that she really enjoyed it and, in Ashlee's words, "God speed, Dumbledore."
So yeah, it was a great trip, but I'm happy to be back home. When I flew back into Olgii yesterday, I was greeted not only by my loving wife, but by two care packages sent from our family in California! Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll let you see the appreciation on our faces. Thanks Mom & Dad Riggins, Grandma & Jon, and the Hawleys!
YESSSS!Our Kazakh Family (Scott)
Ashlee and I have been living in Olgii for almost two months now and we are settling in quite nicely. We have done all we can to turn our little house into an oasis of Americana out here in the far west of Mongolia. From our American-style meals to our plethora of books and movies (not to mention all 10 seasons of Friends) to the fact that we keep our place insanely warm, our house is rapidly becoming a home. Now that we're feeling more comfortable with our living situation, we thought it was time to invite our hashaa family over for dinner. As a sidenote, the word "hashaa" is Mongolian for yard or compound -- so our hashaa family is the family we rent our house from and share a yard with.
There are 7 people in our hashaa family: Mom (Saulesh), Dad (Nurlan), four daughters ages 7 through 17 (Bekalai, Baby, Bopel, & Pettie), and our 80-year-old grandma (Apa). They are all incredibly kind and extremely helpful -- also, like most Mongolian/Kazakh families, they are very close. From household chores to running their stall at the bazaar to digging a 30 foot trench to install a water tap inside their house, they seem to do everything together. Everyday the entire family is out in the yard washing clothes, milking the cow, chopping wood, working on the cars, and/or gardening.
Like I said, the family has been very kind to us and they have welcomed us right into their lives. To show our appreciation, we decided to invite them over to our house for an American-style meal. Ashlee put out a very nice spread of homemade spaghetti, tomato and cucumber salad, bread, cookies, tea, and juice. She was a little bit worried because she didn't put meat in the spaghetti sauce -- and having a meal here without meat is practically a crime -- but the family seemed to like it. Or at least they were good at feigning their excitement, which is something we have gotten good at doing every time we are served a large plate of fatty mutton followed by four bowls of salty milk tea. Mmmm!
The whole family speaks both Kazakh and Mongolian, except for Grandma who only speaks Kazakh. Most of time Ashlee and I have to fumble through with our feeble Mongolian and Kazakh -- fortunately we seem to get our points across most of the time, which is probably more of a testament to the family's patience and desire to learn English than to our language skills. We discovered, however, that the oldest daughter, Bekalai, is a young scholar with big dreams. She speaks five languages: Kazakh, Mongolian, Arabic, Turkish, and decent English and after graduating from high school this year she plans to go to university in Turkey and study to become a reporter. She spent some time showing us her language skills. She used my homemade whiteboard (white paper covered with packing tape). She wrote our names in Arabic, Turkish, and Mongolian script.
So our dinner turned out well, and while we do like our personal space, I hope that we can become close to our new family. When I told them that I would be taking a little trip to UB for Peace Corps business and that Ashlee would be here all alone, they made it clear that if she needed anything all she would have to do is ask. Bekalai even offered to stay in our house with her is she she was scared.
There are 7 people in our hashaa family: Mom (Saulesh), Dad (Nurlan), four daughters ages 7 through 17 (Bekalai, Baby, Bopel, & Pettie), and our 80-year-old grandma (Apa). They are all incredibly kind and extremely helpful -- also, like most Mongolian/Kazakh families, they are very close. From household chores to running their stall at the bazaar to digging a 30 foot trench to install a water tap inside their house, they seem to do everything together. Everyday the entire family is out in the yard washing clothes, milking the cow, chopping wood, working on the cars, and/or gardening.
Like I said, the family has been very kind to us and they have welcomed us right into their lives. To show our appreciation, we decided to invite them over to our house for an American-style meal. Ashlee put out a very nice spread of homemade spaghetti, tomato and cucumber salad, bread, cookies, tea, and juice. She was a little bit worried because she didn't put meat in the spaghetti sauce -- and having a meal here without meat is practically a crime -- but the family seemed to like it. Or at least they were good at feigning their excitement, which is something we have gotten good at doing every time we are served a large plate of fatty mutton followed by four bowls of salty milk tea. Mmmm!
The whole family speaks both Kazakh and Mongolian, except for Grandma who only speaks Kazakh. Most of time Ashlee and I have to fumble through with our feeble Mongolian and Kazakh -- fortunately we seem to get our points across most of the time, which is probably more of a testament to the family's patience and desire to learn English than to our language skills. We discovered, however, that the oldest daughter, Bekalai, is a young scholar with big dreams. She speaks five languages: Kazakh, Mongolian, Arabic, Turkish, and decent English and after graduating from high school this year she plans to go to university in Turkey and study to become a reporter. She spent some time showing us her language skills. She used my homemade whiteboard (white paper covered with packing tape). She wrote our names in Arabic, Turkish, and Mongolian script.
So our dinner turned out well, and while we do like our personal space, I hope that we can become close to our new family. When I told them that I would be taking a little trip to UB for Peace Corps business and that Ashlee would be here all alone, they made it clear that if she needed anything all she would have to do is ask. Bekalai even offered to stay in our house with her is she she was scared.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
It's Friday!!! (Ashlee)
Life has been an odd torrent of activity the past day and a half; well, a "torrent" by Mongolian standards. Scott left for UB (the capital) yesterday morning for a Peace Corps meeting. He'll only be gone for 2 days, but I've been having lonely lunches, spending ALL my free time on Facebook, and lots of time chopping coal and doing (most) of the chores (LOL, I'm not very good at remembering to refill our sink or the water filter...). Aside from that, I've been working on some research into graduate school. Here is what I've found out so far: There aren't THAT many schools in California that offer a Speech-Language Pathology masters, and most of the ones that do, require the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). Lame. I see looooots of studying in my future. The programs take a few years, which means another few years of waiting for a job that I (hopefully) will really enjoy, but then it will all be worth it, no?
Walking back and forth to work, to the market, to the post office (our packages from home still haven't arrived! its such a bust, but I still check every day), to the bazaar, and to Matt's apartment this morning also takes up a lot of time. We went to Matt's for "consolidation" this morning (we being the 3 Peace Corps Volunteers currently in Olgii). Basically, Consolidation is when all Peace Corps volunteers converge at multiple points around the country; this is basically to practice for emergencies, like in elementary school when the fire alarm sounded and everyone "calmly" walked in a "line" to the playground and "quietly" waited for the all clear. In respect to the walking, I don't really miss a car, except when I'm walking home and loaded down with groceries or with a package that I can't wait to tear into :)
Not much else to report. Work is the same; very slow. Next week might bring more activity (teaching children about Hepatitis A and the importance of washing your hands and then maybe planning for a Halloween Fair and World AIDS Day Fair in December).
Walking back and forth to work, to the market, to the post office (our packages from home still haven't arrived! its such a bust, but I still check every day), to the bazaar, and to Matt's apartment this morning also takes up a lot of time. We went to Matt's for "consolidation" this morning (we being the 3 Peace Corps Volunteers currently in Olgii). Basically, Consolidation is when all Peace Corps volunteers converge at multiple points around the country; this is basically to practice for emergencies, like in elementary school when the fire alarm sounded and everyone "calmly" walked in a "line" to the playground and "quietly" waited for the all clear. In respect to the walking, I don't really miss a car, except when I'm walking home and loaded down with groceries or with a package that I can't wait to tear into :)
Not much else to report. Work is the same; very slow. Next week might bring more activity (teaching children about Hepatitis A and the importance of washing your hands and then maybe planning for a Halloween Fair and World AIDS Day Fair in December).
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Eagle Fest, Baby!
This past weekend Olgii hosted its annual Eagle Festival. It was awesome!
The event kicked off Saturday morning at 10am with a parade around the central square. I never thought I'd see so many tourists here! There were Russians, Germans, Brits, Americans, and even one rude French guy wearing a beret. The parade opened with all the students in Olgii marching through the square in traditional Kazakh dress. After the students the eagle hunters rode in straight from the countryside. They were all mounted on horses and dressed in horse-skin coats with their faces peering out from underneath enormous hats and their huge eagles perched on their arms. It was so amazing seeing the birds so close! We got quite a few good pictures.
After the parade we headed out into the countryside to see the birds in action. We were fortunate enough to catch a ride with our hashaa family. The reason we were fortunate is because the event organizers were charging foreign tourists anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 tugriks ($15-$30) to get in, but our hashaa father was able to convince them that we are Mongolian residents and we are not flush with cash like the other foreigners. Thanks, Nurlan!
The event in the countryside was pretty great. There was a long row of vendors peddling different kinds of Kazakh handicrafts: tapestries, bags, hats, purses, and even Christmas decorations! Needless to say, Ashlee was in heaven. She finally got the bag she's been looking for and she picked up a few souvenirs for the family back in California. I, myself, came pretty close to buying one of those fox-skin eagle hunter hats, but I wasn't able to completely pull the trigger. Next time...
As for the eagle hunters, the first event of the day was having the hunters line up to individually display their birds for the judges. All the speaking/officiating was in Kazakh over a very questionable PA system, so we were left to use our imaginations to guess what was going on. It appeared to be something like an American dog show, where the birds were judged on their appearance, coloring, responsiveness, etc. The birds were just so big!
Olgii being the small town that it is, we bumped into one of our Kazakh friends, Nerbol -- he's actually the one who will be tutoring us in the Kazakh language over the next few months -- and he found a hunter who let us hold his eagle. Those things are heavy!
The rest of the afternoon was spent watching some traditional Kazakh games. There was one where two people on horses play tug-of-war with an animal pelt. There was another where horseman run through a course and have to bend down from their horses to snatch handkerchiefs from the ground. It was quite impressive.
Sunday was much of the same. After brunch -- complete with eggs, potatoes, and cinammon rolls! -- at our house with the large group of visiting fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, we were back out in the hudoo by 1pm. The first event was watching each individual hunter drag an animal skin behind his horse while calling his eagle down from a nearby mountaintop. The eagle would then tear down through the air and strike the pelt, tearing into it with its talons. Or at least that's what I imagined it would be like, as we were standing a bit off in the distance -- we heard some horror stories of festivals in the past where stupid tourists got attacked by the birds and we didn't want to take any chances.
The weather in the afternoon turned surprisingly cold and extremely windy and we were not too disappointed when the last event of the day was announced: a real-life wolf was going to be released to be hunted by the winning eagles. For a grand finale, it was a bit anticlimactic -- but then again, I was not part of the huge gaggle of tourists to rush up and take pictures of the striking eagle tearing into the wolf. My decision not to was partly because of the barbarity of the event, but mostly because there were still eagles circling in the air and a few tourists were wearing some shaggy hats and coats, and I could just picture one of the giant birds swooping down and taking them -- and me -- out. No thanks.
All in all, we had a great time and we felt incredibly privileged to get to witness such a festival. Below is one of our favorite pictures from the weekend. It's a little boy who's trying to hold a bird that probably weighs more than he does. If you want to see more pictures, visit my Facebook album.
The event kicked off Saturday morning at 10am with a parade around the central square. I never thought I'd see so many tourists here! There were Russians, Germans, Brits, Americans, and even one rude French guy wearing a beret. The parade opened with all the students in Olgii marching through the square in traditional Kazakh dress. After the students the eagle hunters rode in straight from the countryside. They were all mounted on horses and dressed in horse-skin coats with their faces peering out from underneath enormous hats and their huge eagles perched on their arms. It was so amazing seeing the birds so close! We got quite a few good pictures.
After the parade we headed out into the countryside to see the birds in action. We were fortunate enough to catch a ride with our hashaa family. The reason we were fortunate is because the event organizers were charging foreign tourists anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 tugriks ($15-$30) to get in, but our hashaa father was able to convince them that we are Mongolian residents and we are not flush with cash like the other foreigners. Thanks, Nurlan!
The event in the countryside was pretty great. There was a long row of vendors peddling different kinds of Kazakh handicrafts: tapestries, bags, hats, purses, and even Christmas decorations! Needless to say, Ashlee was in heaven. She finally got the bag she's been looking for and she picked up a few souvenirs for the family back in California. I, myself, came pretty close to buying one of those fox-skin eagle hunter hats, but I wasn't able to completely pull the trigger. Next time...
As for the eagle hunters, the first event of the day was having the hunters line up to individually display their birds for the judges. All the speaking/officiating was in Kazakh over a very questionable PA system, so we were left to use our imaginations to guess what was going on. It appeared to be something like an American dog show, where the birds were judged on their appearance, coloring, responsiveness, etc. The birds were just so big!
Olgii being the small town that it is, we bumped into one of our Kazakh friends, Nerbol -- he's actually the one who will be tutoring us in the Kazakh language over the next few months -- and he found a hunter who let us hold his eagle. Those things are heavy!
The rest of the afternoon was spent watching some traditional Kazakh games. There was one where two people on horses play tug-of-war with an animal pelt. There was another where horseman run through a course and have to bend down from their horses to snatch handkerchiefs from the ground. It was quite impressive.
Sunday was much of the same. After brunch -- complete with eggs, potatoes, and cinammon rolls! -- at our house with the large group of visiting fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, we were back out in the hudoo by 1pm. The first event was watching each individual hunter drag an animal skin behind his horse while calling his eagle down from a nearby mountaintop. The eagle would then tear down through the air and strike the pelt, tearing into it with its talons. Or at least that's what I imagined it would be like, as we were standing a bit off in the distance -- we heard some horror stories of festivals in the past where stupid tourists got attacked by the birds and we didn't want to take any chances.
The weather in the afternoon turned surprisingly cold and extremely windy and we were not too disappointed when the last event of the day was announced: a real-life wolf was going to be released to be hunted by the winning eagles. For a grand finale, it was a bit anticlimactic -- but then again, I was not part of the huge gaggle of tourists to rush up and take pictures of the striking eagle tearing into the wolf. My decision not to was partly because of the barbarity of the event, but mostly because there were still eagles circling in the air and a few tourists were wearing some shaggy hats and coats, and I could just picture one of the giant birds swooping down and taking them -- and me -- out. No thanks.
All in all, we had a great time and we felt incredibly privileged to get to witness such a festival. Below is one of our favorite pictures from the weekend. It's a little boy who's trying to hold a bird that probably weighs more than he does. If you want to see more pictures, visit my Facebook album.
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