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Monday, August 01, 2005
Hello All,
I had meant to send more pictures, but the computer was being especially weird about uploading attachments today.
This was taken at the 'Lady' Tree just outside of Sukhbaatar. The real tree burned down last year, so this is what's left in its place. It's a pretty cool buddhist place. The blue prayer scarves are everywhere. In some places you can see old scarves that are disintegrating on the ground. I made an offering of money to a collection box while my grandfather and other relatives threw milk and vodka into the air. Vodka gets thrown around all the time though. Any time that I have drank with my family or friends here, the first shot gets offered to the gods. The air was thick with the smell of old milk. While I was there, a large
herd of goats happened to pass by. You can't go too far without
encountering some sort of livestock here.
I was told that this place is where you're supposed to make wishes, so I made sure to make a very special one. I'll follow birthday wish rules here, however, and keep it to myself in the hope that it might come true.
Although, I fear that most of the magic has left the world in which we live.
Dreams seem so insignificant and silly when placed next to global economic development.
Hopefully I'll get a good computer the next time I go to UB, so that I can unload some of the pictures I have. I think that I can get some digital photos developed there as well. If I try to do that in Darkhan, they charge you a lot of money and simply print them off on a low-quality printer. That could be in a few weeks or several months depending on how the rest of the summer goes.
I hope that you are all well,
Chris Roecker M16
p.s. Doc, I got a picture of Ben Ost and me, but it turned out pretty
dark. I'm gonna try get a better one of the Hope grads to send to you
I had meant to send more pictures, but the computer was being especially weird about uploading attachments today.
This was taken at the 'Lady' Tree just outside of Sukhbaatar. The real tree burned down last year, so this is what's left in its place. It's a pretty cool buddhist place. The blue prayer scarves are everywhere. In some places you can see old scarves that are disintegrating on the ground. I made an offering of money to a collection box while my grandfather and other relatives threw milk and vodka into the air. Vodka gets thrown around all the time though. Any time that I have drank with my family or friends here, the first shot gets offered to the gods. The air was thick with the smell of old milk. While I was there, a large
herd of goats happened to pass by. You can't go too far without
encountering some sort of livestock here.
I was told that this place is where you're supposed to make wishes, so I made sure to make a very special one. I'll follow birthday wish rules here, however, and keep it to myself in the hope that it might come true.
Although, I fear that most of the magic has left the world in which we live.
Dreams seem so insignificant and silly when placed next to global economic development.
Hopefully I'll get a good computer the next time I go to UB, so that I can unload some of the pictures I have. I think that I can get some digital photos developed there as well. If I try to do that in Darkhan, they charge you a lot of money and simply print them off on a low-quality printer. That could be in a few weeks or several months depending on how the rest of the summer goes.
I hope that you are all well,
Chris Roecker M16
p.s. Doc, I got a picture of Ben Ost and me, but it turned out pretty
dark. I'm gonna try get a better one of the Hope grads to send to you
Posted by: William Craft / 8:44 PM 
