Hoodo Tales

The Mongolian word "Hoodo" means countryside, but since this is a place with a lot of countryside we translate it as anywhere more rural than where you are right now. Two weekends ago we went from Hutul, which has aparments with running water and paved roads, to Orkhan, which has none of these. The plan was to visit some other trainees and maybe see the river which shares its name with the town. That's where the trouble started. We found a taxi to take us to Orkhan, but the driver wanted more money than we expected. He said it was because he would have to wait for us. We said he wouldn't and we started driving. Eventually we pulled of the road (we were expecting to take a dirt road eventually) and pulled up to the riverbank. At this point we realized that he thought we just wanted to go to the river (I had been holding a towell). This struck us as odd and kind of like having someone bring you to the Mississippi river instead of to the state of Mississippi. Dan, one of the four trainees in the car, said he knew the word for city, as in Orkhan city, and told the driver "Orkhan mot". We then went back on the highway and across to the other, shadier side of the river. At this point I looked in our dictionary and saw that "mot" and "hot" meant city.

After that we had a little laugh with the driver and ended up making it to Orkhan to see our friends. We swam in the river and played frisbee and had two lunches (one with each trainee's host family). On the way out of town the wheel of a second taxi fell completly off and we had to find another ride. This week learned more word to use when arranging transportation so hopefully we can use them soon. Well, I have to go learn how to play a Mongolian musical instrument . I'll more Hoodo tales in my next post.