Have you ever been to Mongolia?
Have you ever even HEARD of Mongolia?!
Even though the majority of my university education revolved around visual communication, I had the opportunity to travel abroad to Mongolia about 2 years ago. Before this trip, I honestly knew absolutely nothing about Mongolia.
Through this post, I'd like to share with you the culturally rich experience that I had in Mongolia.
This adventure of mine took place before I got into photography, so all these photos were just taken with my iPhone to capture my extraordinary memories and experiences.
Whenever I think or hear of Mongolia, my heart swells because of the love I was able to develop for these people. We met this family at church one Sunday in Ulaanbaatar, and they were kind enough to invite us to spend the evening with them.
Even though we spoke different languages, we felt that we were able to develop such a connection with these people. The little old lady that you see in the middle is the one who found us, and she was the definition of hospitable. She took us to a few tourist sites on our way to her home, and then she prepared a wonderful dinner for us to share with her as well.
The thing that was truly amazing about this whole experience with this family is that they lived in such humble circumstances. Some would call it poverty. While we traveled to their home, I expected it to be an apartment or a small home, but after roaming the streets of the city and eventually coming to small dirt paths with lots of stray dogs, we realized this family lived in a yurt.
That is the interesting thing about this Mongolian city. There are lots of big apartment buildings, but then there are random areas with a ton of yurts. It really is a blend of city and nomadic lifestyles. Super unique.
These yurts are just one room. All their family members would sleep together on the floor. So small, so modest. They didn't even have a toilet. They had a little hut outside with a hole dug in the ground for when they needed to relieve themselves.
They made us a very nice dinner called "bodes" (or something like that). They were like little dumplings with beef inside. This family was so considerate, they even bought very lean meat for us so that we wouldn't get sick, because apparently Mongolians eat very fatty meat that doesn't sit well with the American stomach.
This family even gave us gifts! The ankle bone game, and home made portraits of Genghis Khan created by burning wool. SO extremely thoughtful.
The bone game you see above was a huge hit in Mongolia. You literally are playing with the ankle bones of goats - kinda gross! Everyone knew how to play, and they were dang good at it too! I treasure the game that was gifted to me and have shared it with so many of my friends back home in the States (even though many have been scared to touch the bones at first!).
My main takeaway from this Sunday in Mongolia is that even though these people had so little, they were so happy. It's kind of brutal to compare my own privileged life to theirs and then compare my happiness level. Granted, I consider myself a happy person, but it just really hit me how much we take for granted and how truly good we have it.
I encourage you guys to search for authenticity when you travel so that you can have experiences that will not just get lots of likes on Instagram, but instead will change the way you think about life.
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