Morning Beer

I'm on the move --- but only for a short while. Two weeks vacation time so it is back to Australia to visit the family there, catch up on some Aussie food and air and generally try and relax a bit before heading back to Mongolia for the next period of my contract. I should note that my flight left at 6:45 am this morning. My Mongolian family, Puujee, Buyant, Munkhbat and Tseye decided that they would drive me to the airport, picking me up at 4:00 am. I should mention two things at this point. The first is that the airport, Buyant Ukhaa, is slightly outside the town, so technically it is in the countryside. The second thing is that when we go to the countryside, Puujee likes to share a beer or two on the drive (Munkhbat is driving so this is no problem). Every time we empty a bottle of beer, the empty bottle is worth 60 tugrugs. We try a generate a fair amount of income this way.

So, picture this. My alarm rings at 3:00 am. I get up, shower, clean teeth, do the last minute bag packing and have a cup of tea. The doorbell rings at 4:00 am, in walks the family. We chat for about 10 minutes then slip downstairs to the car and start driving out of town. Some Mongolian is muttered. Tseye leans over into the back of the car and retrieves two bottles of beer. These are opened and one given to Puujee, the other to me. It is explained to me that as the airport is outside of town, then we are technically having a country drive. We always drink beer on our country drives. Then there is a lot of laughter.

The bottles are clanked together and the word "mendee" is uttered (Tseye told me how to spell that). Some beer is sipped.

I really feel very warm and loving to my Mongolian family. Their sense of humour and good fun (as well as their sense of what is right and wrong) has always made me feel like a member of the group from the time I first met them. Mind you, beer before breakfast was, well, actually, truth be known, it wasn't too bad. If Kevan McAllister reads this, remember that flight to Bahrain Kev?

Mendee!