Cultural Event

We had a wonderful evening at our cultural event. Several local groups put on performances of local music and dance. The first groups demonstrated several different types of native singing styles. For our western ears, some of them are a bit hard to listen to, but I can’t imagine how I could get my voice to do that! One of them was the Mongolian style of throat singing. I need to do some reading on this, but it basically uses the throat to make two different pitches at once. The gentleman that did this performed about a three minute song using this technique. It’s a very unique sound. I’ll try to post a video of it another day. They also had a musical group playing local stringed instruments and horns. They were wonderful.

Next we had the children’s group perform. This group has apparently toured to other countries and won awards. They are all very good singers, and performed wonderfully. Their songs were more modern, and they sang in both Mongolian and English. One of their selections was a Christmas medley. Never thought here Santa Claus is Coming to Town, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Jingle Bells in March in Mongolia! Tow of the boys sang solos as well, one of them an operatic piece. I doubt he was more than 10 or 12 years old, and has a huge voice for a kid so young!

The kids performed several pieces, along with the adult groups. They also had a contortionist perform. This is also a local art form. The way she could bend and contort her body made it hard to know what direction she was actually facing!

After the show, we went to a local Korean restaurant for dinner. Great food and good fellowship, getting to know all of our hosts better. The team here is made of people from all around the world. At our table, we had people from Mongolia, UK, Nepal, Nigeria, US, Australia, Cambodia, and China. Makes for very good conversation.
Next is our first trip to the countryside. Our understanding is that it is even colder there, so it’s time to pull out all the really warm things. I imagine we will have a very interesting day!