Taking Down a Ger

Friday night we had a game night at Mr. Elliot's house.  There were six guys there so played the most packed game of Warrior Knights that I have ever played.  There were guys everywhere.  Kevin and I got tangled up a bit in the beginning and then had a hard time keeping Mr. Dean and brother Roland from taking off with the game.  In the end brother Roland came out with a pretty good lead, winning the game.  We were up until about 11:30 playing the game and Kevin and I didn't get back to our apartment and to bed until midnight.  That would have been no problem since we can normally sleep in Saturday morning.  However, this particular Saturday we weren't going to get a chance to sleep in because we were being recruited to help Ganpurev take down a ger.  Ganpurev's nephew lived in a ger on his property but was moving out to an entirely different section of town for work.  A light dusting of feathery, flaky snow had fallen in the night and the day was a particularly cold one.  Mr. Dean told us that he would pick us up at 8:45 and give us a ride out to Ganpurev's.  At 8:40 I poured my breakfast.  Before I sat down to eat it, there was a knock at the door.  I inhaled my food to say the least.  Finally we got to Ganpurev's and got started taking the ger down.  Kevin and I realized then that we weren't exactly sure what we could do to help.  We started by taking all the layers of felt off off the frame.  Then we started to take all the roof spars off and untie all the ropes wrapped around the frame.  It was all an interesting process but I felt like I wasn't being that much of a help sometimes.  Finally, after moving all the furniture out, we began to take up the floor.  It was while we were prying up the floor that my back started to hurt.  (No worries though, it feels much better already.)  The floor was loaded into the truck first so after that was put in we started putting all the rest of the stuff in too.  At that point Kevin and just mostly watched as the rest of the Mongolians worked stacking and cramming furniture into all the crevices and cracks.  Ultimately they got the truck stacked up way higher than I ever would and it was time to go.  However, in the ger districts all the roads are just dirt and many are rutted badly.  On top of that, Ganpurev lives on a hill, and it had snowed that morning.  Always the ingenious ones, the Mongolians tied ropes to the side of the truck and as they drove down the hill they had the rest of the guys hold onto the ropes to keep it from tipping over.  It certainly was an interesting experience.  When the rest of the workers had left to take the ger to the new site, Kevin and I waited to be picked up.  While waited we threw snowballs at Bilgoon and  then went inside and had buuz and hot chocolate as we played card games with Bilgoon.  I showed him how to do 'the bridge' with a deck of cards and Kevin showed him how to cut a deck with one hand.  Practicing those tricks kept him busy for a while and provided free entertainment for Kevin and myself.

John