Taiga trip (8/6-8/14)

This marks a month since I arrived in Tuva. I'm writing by a campfire, probably farther than I've ever been from civilization. Zhenya, my khoomei teacher, took me (and a trio of middle-aged Belgian women) out to where his relatives live, in the far-western district of Bayruun Khemchik. Getting there require a three hour taxi ride from Kyzyl to Ak-Dovurak, and a three hour ride in a Uazik (Russia's Jeep equivalent). We went far beyond where the roads ended, forded streams, and drove over and around rolling mountainsides. Just when the reemergence of my diarrhea was making the trip increasingly uncomfortable, we made it to the herding camp of Zhenya's relatives.

The camp was comfortably outfitted-- two yurts, a stream, a few pens for animals, and a large herd of assorted livestock (sheep, goats, cows, and a lone pig). I spent our rest day there not eating, save for some boiled rice, and dashing up the hill for the outhouse. On the second day, we woke up early to get packed and saddle horses. Zhenya and his wife, Annaikhak, planned to go further into the taiga, up to a remote waterfall. It was a five hour ride for good horsemen, they said. With four non-Tuvans in tow, it took nine hours. We left the herders around 11:30 and staggered up to the campsite near the falls as the sun was beginning to set. Nevertheless, before dusk, Zhenya and our Tuvan companions (Chayan, Aidimir, Anche, and Aldynai) went up to the falls and caught at least thirty small fish. Over our stay at the falls this was repeated at least two more times. We ate fried fish, grilled fish, salted fish, fish soup, and fish wrapped in newspaper and tossed into the ashes of the fire.

The younger Tuvans taught me a Tuvan version of a game I've played before in the states. Everyone has a word (which can just be numbers or names, or can be random codewords). Then, to a rhythmic pattern, players pass off play to each other ("bre ush" *clap* *clap* "ush iyi" *clap* *clap* "iyi bre" etc.). It's actually really good for learning vocabulary. Unfortunately, most of the time we were playing with fairly unhelpful Tuvan words-- zit, boil, sore, and the like.