Over 150 Songs Later...

I have returned to UB, in the middle of Tsagaan Sar - White Moon celebration. It's lunar new year, and a time to honor the elders. It's also time to visit family and eat lots of bots (mutton dumplings).

The trip exceeded expectations! Traveling together, we (Mishig, Maggi, Badmaa, Bataa and I) functioned as a closely-knit team... no sense of separation based on nationality. It was as if we all adopted each other as family for 2 weeks.

We recorded over 150 different songs, sung by Darhad people ages 7 to 85. They were very supportive of the project. How often do you get to do something that everyone wants to help with? Their eyes danced with delight at the prospect of handing these songs down to future generations and sharing them with the rest of the planet.

We stayed in homes of 9 different families, and visited quite a few more families and several schools during the days. We covered over 600 miles of often rough but frozen terrain (not all passable by vehicle when it's warm out - ground softens and "swallows" vehicles).

Of course, there were those unexpected things along the way... Like the newborn goat kid that was in the one-room house all night (for warmth), howling every two hours for its mamma. Or the shaman's ceremony that began at midnight in his ger and went for 4-1/2 hours. Or the impromptu speech I gave to a room full of octogenarians. Or watching Mishig light a fire under the van (literally) to get it started in the 30-below mornings.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks. I will be posting stories and impressions from this amazing two-week journey through the Darhad valley in northern Mongolia.