Monkoo’s favorite toy

Day: 239-240

Sunrise:
07:27/07:24

Sunset:
19:34/19:35

Total kilometers:
1281

Temperature – Day (maximum):
minus 5°C

Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 15°C

Temperature – Night:
minus 26°C

Latitude:
51°33’336”

Longitude:
099°15’341”

Maximum height:
1981 m above sea level

8:00 a.m. in the morning. Gusts of wind blow over our yurt and tear open the plastic sheeting we use to seal the roof crown at night. The plastic rattles unpleasantly loudly in the wind. Tired, I open my eyes and look at the fluttering foil. Although the month of March is already one and a half weeks away, the thermometer still drops to minus 26 °C at night. What a long winter. “I’m not getting up until you’ve made a fire,” I hear Tanja’s voice muffled by the down sleeping bag. “I know,” I say quietly and slip out of my warm shell into the cold of the early day. I’ve been firing up our cannon stove every morning for six months now, thus redeeming my birthday present to Tanja day after day. “180,” I mumble. “How 180?” I hear Tanja’s question muffled by the layer of down. “For 180 days, I clean the ashes from the stove every morning, light the fire, fetch new firewood, put on water and sweep our yurt. That’s probably the biggest birthday present I’ve ever given you,” I say. “Yes, it really is a fantastic gift. I appreciate it anew every morning. Thank you so much, my darling.” “That’s all right. I’m happy to do it. You also cook for me, do the laundry and fetch snow. So we complement each other quite well. Apart from that, I was glad to have found a present for you. You can’t buy anything here.” “I usually prefer presents like this to the ones I buy,” she replies, sticking her head out of her sleeping bag.

Because almost all the men in the camp have gone in search of Jade, there are currently only 11 people living here with us. After the long festivities, the peace and quiet is absolutely soothing. Nevertheless, we get visitors every day. Saintsetseg and her daughter Monkoo visit us up to three times a day. Because our coffee supplies are exhausted, they are also happy to have milk tea with sugar and sweets. Monkoo, who was so shy that she hardly spoke to us, thawed out after three months. She often laughs and jokes around with Tanja. Our Mongolian language skills improve through the conversation with the Tuwa. A rudimentary exchange is now possible. When I think that we could hardly get a word out at the beginning of our trip, this progress is absolutely pleasing. “Can you charge my cell phone battery?” the young Monkoo asks me with a kindness I wouldn’t have believed her capable of a month ago. She received the cell phone as a gift from a relative for Tsagaan Saar. Since then, she and the cell phone have been inseparable friends. Unfortunately, it is a Chinese production and therefore very fragile. The cheap battery broke after just a few days and caused the girl great sadness. It has now received a new battery from Tsagaan Nuur. Unfortunately, it has to be constantly charged during continuous operation. Every two days Monkoo brought me another faulty charger which I repaired, glued or soldered on cables for them. In the meantime I have run out of solder. We have been waiting for weeks for supplies from Germany. “Monkoo, I can’t repair your charger. I don’t have any more parts for it,” I say, whereupon her face almost petrifies and she leaves the yurt without comment. Hours later, she opens the yurt door again, laughing. She shows me a kind of MP4 player that runs on the same battery as her favorite toy. “Can you load this for me?” she asks me charmingly. Although we need the energy generated by solar power for our laptops and technology, I don’t have the heart to refuse her request and connect the device to our battery. “Come back in two hours. The battery should be full then,” I say. “Tschin setgeleesee bajrlalaa”, (“Thank you very much”) she says and leaves. “Have you seen her face?” asks Tanja. “Yes.” “I can’t believe how happy she is that you’re charging her battery.” “And so the Tuwa are also becoming more and more dependent on technology,” I reply. After just one hour, Monkoo storms back into our home. “And is it full?” she asks excitedly. I remove the battery from the MP4 player and hand it to her. She immediately puts him on the radio and laughs. She activates the music program and Michael Jacksen plays from the small loudspeaker. The young Tuwa woman leaves our yurt to bring her reindeer to camp accompanied by the superstar. “Crazy world,” says Tanja, shaking her head.

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