Dinner, Again?

Our last day at Khas-Bayan Ulziit SCC was very productive yet busy. I presented our report of findings and recommendations to Davka and the staff in the morning and we finally made it to the ‘Museum of Particular Things’ after lunch. I found out that Lama Purevbat donated a lot of items from his personal collections, which explained the familiarity of items.

Davka had finally managed to get the Board together and organize a meeting room at city hall. As we walked from the office to the meeting, we invited more people along the way. This helped me win the bet Charlie and I had for how many people would be in attendance (I said nine).

This credit union was much more engaged than the first and had a stronger commitment from its committee members and members. Charlie started with an overview of the Canadian credit union movement and I went through our findings and recommendations. The Board was very receptive and participated with questions.

We even accomplished the first ‘Khas-Bayan Ulziit Community Clean-Up Day’. I had suggested this as an idea to promote the credit union through social responsibility and support for the environment. I thought it was especially important since credit unions in Mongolia cannot formally advertise.

About ten staff, board members and credit union members were involved in the success of this event. We quickly filled our bags and emptied them to pick up more. A man even came out of the local pub to help when he realized what we were doing. It was a successful event and I was very proud of my simple idea.

Now that our credit union work was officially complete, it was time for the celebration to begin. We drove about thirty minutes to a summer camp where the Mongolian KGB/CIA visits. We were escorted into the VIP room and served salad, soup and a main course of meat, potatoes and vegetables (there is not a lot of variety in the food). There was also an assortment of vodka, beer and wine on the table. It seems to be a Mongolian tradition to have a full glass of each in front of you at all times – not one or the other.

We were then moved to another room to eat. To eat??? I already ate. Apparently, that was the ‘appetizer’ and now it was time for supper. They had slaughtered a goat for us and prepared a Khorkhog – a traditional Mongolian barbecue whereby meat is placed in a jug and cooked by hot stones. The stones turn black from the heat and the fat they absorb from the goat. As the jug should not be opened during the cooking process, the cook listens to the jug and smells the meal to determine when it is ready (usually in an hour).

Platters of goat meat and potatoes were put on the table and we were each passed a hot stone which we tossed from hand to hand which is meant to have beneficial healing effects. The way to eat at a Khorkhog is to grab a chunk of meat and eat it with your hands. I have never had goat meat before and it was absolutely delicious. Somehow I had found more room in my belly and I didn’t feel full anymore. I kept eating and they said now I was a ‘real Mongolian’. Eventually I couldn’t eat anymore and said “I have officially stuffed” to a round of laughter.

Pontificating is a big part of the culture and every time someone made a speech or toast, everyone had a vodka shot. There were a lot of toasts and I quickly learned a few tricks to make it look like I was taking a shot but really I wasn’t. There were a lot of people there and everyone had something to say… Let’s just say driving over the bumpy roads was not very fun but we made it back to our hotel and I couldn’t wait to climb into bed.