Katzer’s coffee yurt

Day: 173-177

Sunrise:
09:24/09:20

Sunset:
17:38/17:44

Total kilometers:
1281

Soil condition:
Ice, snow

Temperature – Day (maximum):
minus 21°C

Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 25°C

Temperature – Night:
minus 30°C

Latitude:
51°33’336”

Longitude:
099°15’341”

Maximum height:
1981 m above sea level

Darimaa and 59-year-old Suren are bending down at the entrance to our yurt. “Oglooniimend” (“Good morning”) is how we greet our guests. They reply “Oglooniimend” in good humor. “Ta suu daa” (“Please sit down”) we say, pointing to the little folding stools. The two women settle down with a smile. “Do you want coffee or tea?” asks Tanja. “Coffee,” they reply, whereupon Tanja pours them each a cup of the drink, which is rare in the taiga. While Darimaa sips her latte with relish and eats a cookie, Suren has slight difficulties keeping her facial features under control. Obviously she has never enjoyed the bean drink in her life and finds the taste just like a child who is allowed to try her parents’ bitter coffee for the first time. Suren can’t share her tribe’s enthusiasm and puts her cup down on the table as inconspicuously as possible and doesn’t touch it again. When Darimaa has emptied her cup, she asks Tanja if she would like another one. “Ügüj”, (“no”) she refuses with thanks. Tanja tries to entertain the two women with her knowledge of Mongolian. They giggle and enjoy the simple communication about fetching snow, melting snow, making firewood, the cold wind, the wonderful sunshine, the cold nights and how pleasantly warm it is in our yurt.

Every day we learn more about the camp residents and their character traits. Some of the information does not fit in at all with our romantic idea of reindeer people. Others, however, confirm the old myths that are told about the people here.

The challenge for us in this context is not to get involved in people’s everyday problems. Above all, it is important to remain impartial. This is certainly a major challenge that requires skill and sensitivity.

We are of course aware of how difficult it is to establish friendly contact with the people here. Monkoo, for example, comes to our yurt up to four times a day to drink coffee. She pulls open the yurt door unannounced, sits down and waits for a drink. As we can’t serve sweets every day, today we have freshly baked bread. To keep our food as varied as possible, Tanja enriches our bread with sunflower seeds and other grains. This morning she even baked a few dried tomatoes in it. Monkoo bites into a piece of the delicious bread. Similar to Suren, her facial features remain motionless for a barely perceptible moment. When she thinks she’s unobserved, she quickly puts the bread in her jacket pocket. Certainly not to bring home to her mother. However, Monkoo usually tastes excellent here. One reason for her frequent visits. As soon as she has poured her tea or coffee, she quickly reaches into the tin of sweets again, stands up without comment, puts her cup in the sink and disappears. I have never received a thank you or a request. Okay, we are here with the Tuwa. You can’t expect that. And yet most of our guests are friendly and polite. Some even thank us several times and seem to really appreciate our coffee and tea service.

On peak days, Tanja serves up to 16 drinks. On average 300 drinks a month. That’s 60 liters of tea, coffee, cocoa with milk and sugar. An unexpected strain on our supplies. Tanja brings about 25 buckets of snow from the forest to melt it on the stove. She is very busy to keep the coffee business going. Despite the effort involved, it is a great pleasure for us to be able to offer the people here a change. Regardless of this, our yurt has become a daily meeting place, or rather a nearby excursion destination. We swap stories and find out what’s new at the camp.

We look forward to your comments!