Naadam - 2008. Darhan.

Naadam, just outside Darhan. Waiting for the horses to arrive. 1 - Pieter, 2 - Pieter and Haniki, 3 - Ali and Arioka, 4 - Arioka (in charge of the Youth Centre at ABTC) and 5 - Ulzee-Erdene (our translator, to name one, at ABTC). Ali arrived 4 weeks ago, from Australia, and is currently busy with language study. She will be working at ABTC, teaching English as her main ministry.

Naadam 2008 - Horses and Wrestling

Naadam

Naadam (meaning ‘holiday’ or ‘festival’) has its roots in the nomad assemblies and hunting extravaganzas of the Mongol armies. Even today, Chinggis Khaan’s nine yak tails, representing the nine tribes of the Mongols, are part of the celebrations.

Naadam is known for the three manly sports of wrestling, archery and horse racing (though women participate in the first two events). Winning at Naadam carries great prestige and financial reward.

Wrestlers wear heavy boots, tight pants and a small vest across the shoulders. The open-fronted vest was allegedly introduced after one Amazonian-sized female wrestler floored all the male wrestlers. The vest was introduced to ensure that women would no longer take part in wrestling.

There are normally six categories of horse racing, depending on the age of horses. There are no tracks or courses; it is just open countryside, which leaves great scope for cheating. The jockeys, boys or girls, must be between the ages 5 to 13.

These pictures are taken during Naadam in Darhan in July 2008.

Naadam - 2008. Costumes

Naadam - 2008. Costumes

Naadam 2008 - Children

English Classes for Young Children

The schools are closed for the summer here in Mongolia. For 3 months. I’ve started with a new group of students, at least 2 times a week, ages 7 to 12. The students especially like playing games such as “Old Maid”, Memory games and Word games.

More from Western Mongolia

Dawaa - coffee break, Busy morning in town, Luxury - hotel (turned out, no power, now water, no shower!), Road - what happened to the sign, and "Will you please wait, we're trying to get somewhere".

Exploring Western Mongolia

Snow on the mountain tops in the middle of the desert? Yes, truly! Dozens of camels alongside and on the road. Dry, arid land, sometimes with stones as far as the eye can see without any sign of vegetation causing you to think that may be you are on a different planet. Crawling over bad roads, sometimes at 10 km/h, fording rivers and slip-a-sliding through mud pools! Getting lost in the vastness of Mongolia. These and meeting some very interesting people were our experiences during the ten days from June 16-26.

The Field Leadership Team undertook a journey to Western Mongolia to explore opportunities for extending our ministry and training to this region. We visited three provinces, called aimag in Mongolia, namely Hovd, Bayan Ulgi, and Uvs. Traveling over very bad roads was slow and sometimes painful, both for the vehicle and us. We met many interesting people and were overwhelmed with the needs, opportunities and challenges for ministry in the West. Especially relevant for me is to learn about the needs for leadership development for the church leaders already serving in these areas. As soon as our training program is up and running in Darhan, we will begin to think about how to extend the training to the West. Most likely we will do this in partnership with other organizations and training programs.