Mongolia - Cynophobia and Ger-tiquette

Apart from being landlocked countries, I was trying to find something else that Mongolia and Lesotho have in common and I came up with this:


they have similar levels of population.


Hard to imagine this would be the case with Lesotho being the size of Belgium (or a little bit bigger than Massachusetts, for our friends in the US), whereas Mongolia is the 19th biggest country in the world, right after Iran. It's also the least densely populated independent state in the world, with only 1% of Mongolia's territory being classified as urban.

I can't even begin to comprehend a 'space' like that. It must influence everything about Mongolia, from their love of horses, the bird dancing rituals before wrestling, the timelessness of a landscape barely altered by man.


If claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces, then what is a fear of open spaces called? I've looked on the Internet, but no one seems to know the answer to this. Officially it should be 'agoraphobia' which is the fear of crowds (or markets), but can also imply the fear of an empty market, of being alone in a landscape.


By all accounts Chingis Khan had an irrational fear of dogs. Dogs seem to be all-present in Mongolian society. A common greeting is Nokhoi Khor, which is the polite thing to say on entering a ger (traditional Mongolian home, like a big tent made of poles and wrapped in felt). It literally translates as 'hold the dog'.

Being Irish, children and dogs are brought up (or is that dragged up?) together and, until I went to Uzbekistan, I'd always felt comfortable around dogs. Arriving in Samarkand, the floppy, affectionate puppies of my youth were suddenly replaced by the earless, snarling guard dogs (they chop off their ears, so that every sound will be irritating, which makes them incredibly nasty and fierce.) It certainly reminded me of their primary function and put their essential relationship with man into perspective, in a way I'd never really thought of before.


To learn more about Mongolia, I ordered a cheap second-hand copy of Lonely Planet, dating back to 2001, coincidentally the year I went to Samarkand and, much as I've learned a lot from Lonely Planet over the years, some of the advice made me giggle.


Although it's probably quite practical, the phrases they recommend learning, for when you're hiking in the Mongolian wilderness and finally stumble across civilsation are 'Where am I?' and 'Is that dog dangerous?'. I can't help thinking that if that dog were dangerous, I wouldn't get the chance to ask my question in the first place!


Okay, so I'm being a smart-alec but, to be honest, I think I would have found Lonely Planet's guide to does and don'ts, in a ger, terrifying. I loved the advice to leave your weapons outside. Who goes to Mongolia with weapons, honestly? I could just picture myself, the clumsy foreigner, walking the wrong way round the ger to avoid the dog, stumbling over ropes and people older than me, banging into poles and frantically shaking hands with everyone! Disaster!


I remember taking this kind of advice all too seriously when I went to Uzbekistan, being afraid to blow my nose in public, never knowing where to sit when invited to someone's house. I think people understand that you're a foreigner and can be very forgiving. That doesn't mean you don't make an effort to do the right thing, of course, but trying to remember lists of do's and don'ts can take away from the experience. The important thing is to interact with people and join in the laughter when you get it wrong. Stoopid foreigners don't have many uses, but at least we can be amusing, without even meaning to - oh, and it's nothing personal.


As part of my learning about Mongolia, I've been reading the blog of an American woman, Tara Munch, who is currently teaching in Ulaan Baator. It's called 'So I moved to Mongolia' and her stories about traffic and dodgy door knobs have brought a smile to my face and conjured up memories of Samarkand, the frustrations of living in a country that barely functions, the feeling of not knowing what's going on a greater part of the time, but also the sheer hospitality of the people you meet and the adventure of being somewhere so totally different from the place you grew up in. I like the way she tries to focus on the positive things, too many people end up being grouchy ex- pats! Enjoy it, Tara, while it lasts. You'll have enough time back in the West with all its rules and familiarity :-)


If you want to visit Tara's blog and wish her luck, it's

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tara-Munch/


Image credits

The image of the Mongolian flag is from www.33ff.com/flags

The image of the snarling dog is from flickruser misterbisson an information architect and librarian from Manchester, New Hampshire.

The image of the Ger is by flickruser jrubinic

Lesotho - Chakalaka and Pap

Chakalaka and Pap was probably one of the easiest dishes I've made as part of this learning experience. Chakalaka is a fiery hot stew made from everything red and orange - tomatoes, bell peppers, scotch bonnets (I know, again!), onion and carrot. I added chicken and the result was a delicious, albeit incredibly spicy, dish. For Pap, I used Polenta, which I have an inexplicable fondness for and which helped cool my mouth down, as I shovelled it into me in sticky spoonfuls.

I think Chakalaka is probably the second hottest dish I've ever eaten. The hottest dish was in rural Thailand and was called Phad Phet, literally 'fried spicy'. Whatever you do, if you go to Thailand, never order anything which is called 'fried spicy'! Mind you, I probably should have used regular chillies, rather than the Scotch bonnets which I seem to be dangerously drawn to.

After much nose blowing, forehead mopping and watching my partner, Zhenya, turn a funny crimson colour, I comforted myself with the thought that my stomach probably needed a good spicy dish to kill any harmful bacteria, or just . . . anything, lying around in there. Am I the only one who finds that palate-blowing spices can be cleansing?

Anyway, we've lived to tell the tale. Would definitely make Chakalaka again, but maybe ease up on the chillies next time! As you can see from my photo, I've tried to make the polenta look presentable, by shaping it in a ramekin, before putting it on the plate :-)

Lesotho - The Ampleforth Connection

A quick blog about an interesting connection between Lesotho and the UK. Both modern Basotho kings Moshoeshoe II and his son Letsie III were educated at Ampleforth College, the so-called 'Catholic Eton' on the edge of the North York Moors National Park.

Most likely due to intense missionary work, most Basotho Christians are Catholic, including the two modern Kings and it was certainly the first time I'd ever heard of Ampleforth.

I do a lot of work with schools in the UK and it always amazes me how many Catholic schools there are here. Coming from Ireland, it's easy to fall into stereotypes of Britain as a Protestant nation. Not forgetting the influence of Irish migrants to Britain, there seems to be something else going on: an older, aristocratic Catholicism, that has somehow been preserved in the upper echelons of British (particularly English) society. This fascinates me, as does the thought of Lesotho's kings being educated in the wild setting of the Yorkshire moors.

I know this post may not seem to be entirely relevant to learning about Lesotho, but I believe that learning about other countries is in fact learning about your own country/society and, in this case, our closest neighbour, which is Britain. I would say Britain has been in the background of this entire journey so far. Whether it's Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kiribati, Lesotho, Britain's presence is undeniable.

Coming from a small country living in the shadow of Britain, it has been difficult for Ireland to find its place in the world. I guess, as I'm learning about other countries, I'm learning about how other countries interacted with British culture. I'm trying to understand our own reactions to our powerful neighbour, but I'm also finding traces of Ireland everywhere the British have been.

Lesotho is a good example of this. I see a lot of parallels between Lesotho and Ireland and I'm beginning to understand why our two countries have had such a close relationship.

Image credits:

The photograph of Ampleforth College is courtesy of cat-loving grandmother and flickuser Verity Cridland who lives in Yorkshire. Thanks Verity for sharing this image using the Creative Commons License.

Lesotho - Singing Away the Hunger

The tagline for Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya's book Singing Away the Hunger is 'read this book if you want to get your life in perspective' and it certainly delivers a story that is hard-hitting, heart-rending, but with moments of humour thrown in.

I had to keep reminding myself that the events of the book were taking place partly during my life time. The high infant mortality rates, the overbearing superstitions and the grinding poverty put me in mind of the Ireland of Angela's Ashes - also not that long ago, by the way.

But apart from anything else Nthunya's story was inspiring. We all know that life has its ups and downs and it almost seems like fate that Nthunya met the American academic, who teased the stories out of her and brought them to the attention of a wider world.

It's incredibly important to hear stories like Nthunya's and I learned a lot about Lesotho, as her book is a kind of cultural record, as well as her own life story.

I learned about the beauty of the Maluti mountains and the almost naive faith of the Basotho people. I learned that it can snow in the mountains, that the Basotho have adopted thick English blankets as a national costume, that Christianity has had a strong impact on some Basotho people, like Nthunya's late mother.

I learned that there is a wealthy, highly-educated elite in Lesotho, especially in the University town of Roma where Nthunya spent many years cleaning rich people's houses.

I also learned about the darker side of Lesotho. A land of murderous uncles and lethal spells. A country with high-unemployment and an addiction to joala (homemade beer). I learned about Lesotho's umbilical connection with the townships of Gauteng, especially Benoni. I loved how she referred to South Africa as simply 'the Republic'. It reminds me of home, how I grew up calling Ireland 'the Republic' or 'the Free State' - an interesting comparison with South Africa.

I also learned some new words like Ntate and 'M'e (words for older men and women). I learned sangoma (traditional healer) and thokolosi (evil spirit), motsoalle (close friend), rondavel (a traditional African round house), papa (a type of porridge, which is the main staple of a Basotho diet).

Most of all, I learned to love Nthunya's story and draw strength from it. The book was published in the mid-90's and I wonder where she is now and how life has been treating her.

Image credits

The image of the flag is as in the previous post. The book cover is an image I took on my iPhone.

The amazing photo of the Basotho village with a rondavel is by flickruser rogiro - he is a professional photographer and has shared this image with us using the Creative Commons license - if you want to see more of his photos, or get in touch with him go to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/riot/

Lesotho - Khotso, Pula, Nala

Having done so many islands recently, I thought I would go for a land- based country this time, albeit one that has island-like qualities. Lesotho is a moutainous kingdom totally surrounded by South Africa.

My first question was How? How did Lesotho become an independent country, whereas the other 'nations' in this part of the world were incorporated into the union of South Africa? Well, as far as I can see there were several factors that brought Lesotho into existence.

The first was the determination of a chieftain called Moshoeshoe, who galvinised the various Basotho tribes in the early 19th century in response to an expansion of the Zulu Empire.

The second was the influence of the missionaries, who Moshoeshoe welcomed and encouraged to preach to his people (although he didn't convert to Christianity himself), thereby gaining white allies and diplomatic skills that would ensure the survival of the Basotho nation.

Most importantly was the fact that, after numerous wars with the Boers, who grabbed most of the low-lying lands, the Basotho tribes managed to get the British to agree to establish a protectorate in, what became known as, Basutoland. Being a protectorate, or crown colony, ultimately kept Basutoland out of the Union of South Africa, which happened in 1910, by default sparing the country (but not the people?) from the worst excesses of apartheid.

Sesotho is the language that people speak. Basotho is the people who speak it and Lesotho is the land of Sesotho speakers.

I get the impression they are a resiliant people. They've managed to keep their nation intact and (mostly) peaceful through the long years that their neighbours in South Africa have endured oppression. Despite being one of the poorest countries in Africa, literacy rates are high. There has been a long tradition of Basotho people going to South Africa to work in the mines in Gauteng (around Johannesburg) but this seems to have more or less come to an end.

A few years ago, there was a lot of optimism in relation to a growing textiles industry - the US had given Lesotho and some other African countries special rights to sell their textiles duty-free on the US market. This progressive move was undone by a later trade agreement with China, which saw cheap Chinese goods flood the US market and put the few textile factories in Lesotho out of business. It really hit home to me that, what nations like Lesotho need, isn't so much hand-outs from the West, but merely open access to the affluent Western consumer.

Meanwhile, Lesotho is struggling with 40% unemployment rates and one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.

From what I've read so far, I can see that Ireland has had a very close relationship with Lesotho down through the years. The country's motto 'Khotso, Pula, Nala' means 'Peace, Rain, Prosperity'. Coming from a country as wet as Ireland, I could never imagine having 'rain' as something on our wish list for the nation. I guess 'Peace and prosperity' are things most nations aspire to, but so rarely achieve.

Apart from reading a very inspiring book called Singing Away the Hunger by Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya (more about that later), I have also been reading a blog by an American researcher who spent the best part of last year in Lesotho. It's quite interesting to get the perspective of a Westerner who's lived in the country recently, you can check it out at http://johnlesotho.blogspot.com/

Image credits:

The image of the flag is from Wikimedia Commons and is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharelike 2.5 licence. The image of Moshoeshoe is also from Wikimedia Commons and is copyright free.

The image of the landscape in Lesotho is by flickruser tjeerd who is a professional photographer from Amsterdam. Thanks tjeerd for sharing this image with the flickr community.