Documentaries featuring Mongolia: Babies and Genghis Blues

During a recent slump in the springtime schedule, I thought I would finally take it upon myself to watch four documentaries I had heard about that feature Mongolia. What better way to look at these documentaries than in Mongolia itself? These opinions are mine and mine alone, and I encourage you to watch the documentaries […]

Documentaries featuring Mongolia: The Horse Boy and The Story of The Weeping Camel

Ger Life in Winter

I can finally write about the quintessential Mongolian experience: Ger life in the winter (My apologies to other volunteers who know this life all too well reading this post; been there, done that, right?). The traditional Mongolian dwelling– a felt circle tent known as a ger– is designed to be lived in by more than […]

Backtrack

Traveling down blistered asphalt Ripped asunder by all manner of Natural agitation and man-made Stressors walks on such irritant In his dusty ankle boots and Khaki pants with the crease Slightly faded. Into the building he walks to grab One or two things that will Be needed to prepare the evening Meal that he always […]

Bilguun

He meant well When he lit The Korean Torch and set The stove ablaze. He didn’t realize That the smoke Would reveal Diving light And stifle Busy routine. It was not His fault but The electric Candlelight Failed at that Moment. Outside, A man bathed In light High in the air Clipped with Needle noses […]

The Week I Was Gone

My teeth wail with each step As I walk around the yard, Head tilted slightly aback, Sandals muddied from recent rains. Everything burns but nothing Turns to ash, no smoke to be seen Aside from the cigarette hanging Drolly from my mother’s mouth. I sweat the time from my body, Rising one morning to head […]

2 AM

Silence all around The stars on the steppe As I shine my beacon On the hardened earth, Trying to sense my way Back to the home That really isn’t mine, But is mine for the time That is kept on the watch I keep in my pocket. Nothing can be heard From the two-story house […]

Summer School

Colorful badges And dirty hands, Blank notebooks Tickled by Emptying pens, Transfer from One generation To the next Across an ocean, Cold and vast. Raising voices With orchestral Arcs and adagios, Tempo changes How eyes dart From one Set of hieroglyphs To the next As well as How they escape Sun-blistered lips. Benches and tables, […]

Culture Center

Approaching monolithic pairs Of weathered wood covered In cheap plastic sheets of Days long gone when the stores Had no food, only salt, Because of the withdrawal Of white wolves with red blood. Leaden hoops are shackled in place By a lock with loose teeth That no key can sink into Without special assistance from […]

Men of the Bottle

Strange things happen when the light Begins to fade and illuminate the clouds In such a way that they begin to glow, Astounding colors sewing a patchwork Behind their billowing folds. Everyone is on the street because There is only one street to be had And everyone must share it: The children with their volleyballs, […]