the net has no geographic boundaries

[cellio]

Several years ago I wrote an article (for an SCA newsletter) on how to build a yurt (aka ger), the portable Mongolian structure. This article found its way onto the web, so every now and then I receive email with feedback or questions.

The latest such message comes from a school teacher who has been having his seventh-grade class build model yurts every year, and after reading my article he thought "why not a real one?". He was writing to me for advice on using local materials (bamboo) in the construction.

This piqued my curiosity. His domain name ended in ".mm", which is unfamiliar to me. To the Google-mobile, batman!

Ok, a group of seventh-graders in Myanmar might build a bamboo yurt based on my instructions.

I don't know why, but I think this is cool.

Comments

Making a ger

[kiane36.livejournal.com]

How surprising this is! My daughter, 12 year old, is making a model ger as we speak! She is doing a school project (4 month long) on Mongols and one of the pieces of the project is making a ger. I have no idea if we looked at your page or not (we looked at a lot) but it is a small bit synchonicity. You don't happen to have any recipes that are easy to make, with easy to find ingredients, keeps well so that she can share some food from that region? We have searched everywhere for something that will be fun and interesting to share. We both have had fun with this.

We were also briefly in the SCA in Idaho (An Tir) but now that we are in Kansas, the groups are further away so we don't get to participate as much. My kids loved it and I thought it allowed them to practice some very good core values that they learned at home.

Kiane

Re: Making a ger

[cellio]

My daughter, 12 year old, is making a model ger as we speak!

Neat! One of life's little coincidences, I guess. :-)

Food: I don't know; I haven't studied Mongol stuff, but just wanted nice Pennsic accommodations. :-) (I've since moved on from the yurt, by the way.) But we have someone locally who is a laurel in Mongolian stuff, so if you send me email (address in profile) I'll pass it on to her for you. I don't think your daughter will want to make kumiss (fermented mare's milk) for her class-mates, but with luck our laurel can help get her hooked up with food sources.

Sorry to hear that the local SCA is far away from you. Do you still get to go to occasional events, even if you don't have a group to play with more regularly?

Re: Making a ger

[kiane36.livejournal.com]

I don't get a chance to play in the SCA anymore and I miss it very much. I liked to be around people that had the same interests as I did. It was so much fun.

I don't think the fermented mare's milk would go ver very well.....I can't even get her to eat sour cream or yougurt unless I'm sneaky. Picky eaters!

Hopefully, the class will keep you updated as to their progress and will send you a picture of the completed yurt! I think that would be outstanding!