Craig & Boldoo went out mid-morning to try again to change our $US for tugriks so we could pay the hotel. Fortunately their second attempt was successful - it seems banks here are happy to sell $US but not buy them. I stayed back and finished packing.
We raced off to Anna Home to say our goodbyes to the kids who go to afternoon school. They were very warm and affectionate and we feel like we are just getting to know them. We gave them some chocolate bars and blew bubbles and balloons together. They sang a farewell for us which Craig videoed. As we were about to get in the car, they gave us pictures they'd drawn.
Next Boldoo hurried through the streets to take us to a wedding. We're not sure how we got invited to this, but were of course happy to have the experience. We had met the groom a few days previously when we were in town. First though, Boldoo wanted to buy a wedding present. Talk about last minute timing, we had 10 minutes to buy the gift and get to the church. The wedding was at the Korean church where the groom is a worship pastor. Fortunately the service hadn't started. The church was a pretty flash building by Mongolian standards and it was decorated with flowers and balloons and everyone was dressed in their finery....except us! It didn't seem to matter and we were made to feel welcome. The groom arrived smiling broadly and looking very happy and the bride arrived a minute later walking up the aisle with her 'wrestler sized' father to "Here comes the bride"! It just didn't feel right in this setting.
There was worship and then the Korean pastor spoke (through an interpreter) and we had the vows. The groom read out a letter he had written to his parents who were not present..... in fact they are not alive. It was very moving and emotional and I've never seen so many tears and hankies (or heard so many sniffs!) from a group of people, men and women alike. Next the bride read a letter to her (present) parents.
There were what seemed like zillions of photos taken at the front of the church with different family groupings and friends and we were invited to be a part of some of them. We felt a bit like frauds really but the groom and bride beckoned us to join them. The bride and groom proceeded out of the church together again to you guessed it... "here comes the bride" and we followed Boldoo out to his car. Thinking this was the end of it for us we were surprised to find we were part of the procession to various photo spots around the city. I envied Craig who had a seat in the front to himself... I was squashed in the back seat with 4 others - two of them being rather large males! First we went to the Mongolian horse statue, next to Buddha Lake and finally way out to a mountain at the China end of the city. The car bumped and shook as we tried to avoid holes (and didn't), it was as hot as and I was close to over it when we pulled into the Chinese restaurant. It seemed we were invited to the reception along with 130 or so others.
It was a lavish affair with dishes of food appearing with great regularity and a variety of soft drinks available. We were ushered to table number 2 with Boldoo. After the food was eaten there were a couple of toasts - never before and possibly not again will we toast the wedding party with vodka! It was potent stuff and could have taken the roof off your mouth. We were entertained by a band playing a variety of music including "Let it be" by the Beatles and we had a traditional Mongolian dancer. The guests were invited to dance too and I hesitantly accompanied Boldoo on the dance floor. I didn't have a clue how to move but afterwards he explained the Mongolian waltz with two steps to the right, two to the left and then a twirl. It seems a tradition that each table performs a singing item and you can imagine our embarrassment at having to get up and try and sing a Mongolian song. Craig was also invited to say a speech and we could have sung a Kiwi song but we graciously declined.
We politely excused ourselves at an appropriate time as we still had a few people to visit before we went to the airport. There were some special people we wanted to say farewell to and leave a gift with and we picked up Bayr Magnai on our travels around - a special guy who is one of Boldoo's proteges - who we have got to know.
Of course the most important duty was to say goodbye to the Anna Home kids who'd been at school in the morning. This is a larger group and contains some real characters that we've come to love. They sang for us and we had chocolates, bubbles and balloons for them. We were also presented with a plague and a gift. They came out to the car to farewell us and we hugged them tightly as we tried to hold in the emotions. We wound down the windows and connected hands and the kids ran to keep up with the car as we drove away. We wont forget them and we hope we've brought sunshine and love into their lives in the short time we've been here.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, hugged Boldoo and Bayr and boarded our Enzis flight. We flew out from Choibalsan into a clear blue Mongolian sky and headed back to UB. It was a wonderfully smooth flight. We made our way back to Uncle Howard's community centre for our last night's sleep in Mongolia.
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