Yaks and Ponies

 House in the distance

Yesterday I got to ride a pony! It's the first time in years since I've been on a horse, so I was really excited. Ani asked her friend to bring his horse down, which was one I had seen on the hill grazing every day on my way to school. The horse, who I named Melvin, was very calm and easy to ride, and the saddle was the most comfortable I had ever been in. The riders here often put a carpet over their leather saddle, which makes it a really nice place to sit. In fact, people here put carpets over everything. I rode Melvin around the yard, and then Namnang's cousins each took a turn as well, and even though they don't know how to ride, they still had fun. 

 

 The past week we've had a visitor at the house. Namnang and I call her The Red Lady because she dresses in bright red everyday. She's a Chinese woman, and only speaks Chinese, and apparently wants to become a nun. She just sort of showed up. She's quite a character, very enthusiastic, and no one knows what to think of her, but she helps around the house all day long. Today was bread making day, and she wanted to do that, so she and Ani made bread all morning while Grandma and I watched the entertainment of it all. 

 

Ani at the stove

The Red Lady rolling out dough

This morning I took a walk up the nun's mountain, which is the mounain behind the nun's houses. I stop about halfway up because it's pretty steep around here, and there are no trees to break your fall. While I was sitting there, a few yaks came from the other side. I had seen them earlier with a young boy herding them, but now they were coming my way. While there were only a few, I took some photos, and then when more showed up, I got up and started down the hill. I didn't want a herd of yaks blocking my way down. As soon as I started moving, so did they. They seem pretty responsive to people. I know herders sometimes use rocks to move yaks, so picked up a few just in case any needed some persuasion to move out of the way, but luckily they all kept going in front of me and down across the river at the bottom. They are smaller than I thought they would be, but pretty animals.