Wow! How cool, hope you were able to understand my descriptions then! Maybe I’ll see you on the steppe on a Kazakh horse one day ;)

Haha! I’ll try to answer, but some thoughts are too abstract for words, and probably just sound chiche.

-why I visit different cultures: humans are really not so different from each other, at the end of the day we all laugh and cry and have drama and friends and to-do lists. We are all just trying to live. I don’t travel for the differences, though those are interesting and unique and fun. I find inspiration and beauty in the commonality of humanity.

-to live in remote places: I love nature. It makes me happy. So why not? When you are happy what could be considered a sacrifice seems more like a good trade.

-inspired me to be with nomadic peoples: I spent time skipping school at an early age and going to the library to look at maps and encyclopedias and old National Geographic magazines. I would look at mountains in the distance and wonder what living in them was like. I always had a love for the arctic and wild spaces. I felt trapped where I was and escaped by dreaming. When I finally had a chance to experience such a life, I just jumped in a little blindly, and found such a big world. I found it was even more amazing and breathtaking and real than my dreams. So the real moments replaced my dreams, and the big feelings that have heart-wrenching depth and no words took over and keep me going.

-to love nature: hmmm, no direct words. Perhaps because nature is bigger than the boundaries of language, bigger than me and my little feelings, it feels calm and pure. Harsh too, for sure. Anyone can loose a battle against nature, and I’ve got frostbite, scars, and known people who have died trying to make it in the elements. So that isn’t meant to be waxing poetic, I just can’t describe the calm, and it really puts life into perspective so one doesn’t fuss over the small stuff. Plus we wouldn’t exist without it, so I figure it deserves a certain amount of reverence.

So chemically I have no idea! But how you do it: when you slick your skin with the oil you use a special curved bone tool to massage it into your skin. Each person has their own. It seems to do two things, and you apply it twice in one ‘bath’. The first time it does pick up some dirt and sweat (not much sweat in those temperatures to be honest) and you kinda flick that oil off, not rub it in. Then, the next round you rub the oil in. It protects from wind and frost, and keeps your skin from drying out. It is very dry in winter in the arctic. There is almost no humidity and the snow is so dry you can’t make a snowball and when you come inside the snow on your clothes just evaporates, doesn’t even leave a puddle. I had a terrible time with my skin cracking and bleeding the first winter. My hands especially. The older women gave me a special fat that is mixed with some herbs to make more of a slave to help with that.

1. I left before winter in both cases, as winter was setting in (I had spent previous winters with them both and knew how it went). I’d have to leave before winter truly set in or I’d have to wait until spring, and better to let them have an extra winter ration. It seemed natural to help with moving to the wintering grounds and as the snow fell, it just felt time to go. It was hard, but I started to ache a little for familiar comforts, had grown up a lot, a didn’t feel the want to settle down with them.
2. The shock of re-entry was harder than I expected! A big shock was hearing English all around me. I had gotten so accustomed to straining to pick up everything and grasping on to any word I understood and trying to understand that when I got to an English speaking airport my brain kept trying to understand -everything- and it hurt my ears and my head. I almost didn’t make my connection because I had gone somewhere quiet (a prayer room) to give myself a break! The other big shock was air quality. It probably wasn’t that smoky but I was coughing at everything and my nose was totally overwhelmed, I was convinced there must be a factory or fire near by.
3. I did bring a tiny notepad/jotted stuff down, I’m not a big journal person so I tried to just write unique things I noticed or what I was worried I’d forget. I did take pictures! Lots. I had a point and shoot and a solar battery charger that back then was state-of-the-art. The Kazakhs thought it was fun to dress up and have me take a picture and then show them. I couldn’t print it, had no computer with me, they just looked at it on my camera over and over. So much so I had to over-dramatize the delicacy of the camera so they’d take a break. Even after months they loved it, when we met other nomads they had me show my camera.

And wow! Glad you find it interesting and I could answer questions you had!

Thank you very much for this summary! 😊🙏🏻 I do horse archery too, was really curious lol.

Oh, that’s a tough question! Both cultures have amazing weavers. The Reindeer herders were very good at carving tiny pieces of ivory into spiritually important figures like foxes, wolves, and the polar bear. So detailed and maybe the size of my pinky (easy to carry on your person in honor of that spirit). The goat herders have huge weavings of complex spirals and curves in many many colors all made of yak hair that they line their beds and walls with to stay warm. But they are so detailed and tightly woven, and their fingers move so fast when they work.

The Kazakhs are amazing archers! I was severely teased at my lack of skill. It is done from horseback often, the horses are still considered wild even though the nomads wrangle them, and as such they have a lot of free will and almost completely control your direction while you are shooting. You control the speed. I did get to practice (with kids only 10 or 12) but it is a skill mostly used for hunting in autumn, or ceremonially in summer at festivals. That’s when you see the tricks. Those are practiced when you have long days on horseback just herding the goats around. Groups of three or four herders will spend afternoons teasing, competing, and practicing while watching the goats. The most amazing trick I saw was when some young girls got really good at leaning back and spinning upside down, kinda leaning backward off the horse just being hooked on with one leg and shooting completely up-side-down. I did not try that, hah!

Thanks for that fascinating answer, I especially love what happened with the Kazakh nomads.

So I first stayed with the Siberian nomads. Each herding region has its own language (most almost completely undocumented) but many of them also speak Russian. I had a Russian speaker (who was in light contact with them for trading) confirm earlier that year I could help with the big autumn reindeer migration so they knew I was coming and would need shelter (though they nor I really knew exactly when we would meet, I still had to find them). I had some phrases written in Russian (didn’t help as they were either not relevant or the person couldn’t read) and some basic Russian speaking skills but it too was almost completely unhelpful. That way of life and their accents too different from what I studied. Plus they prefer their native language. Lots of pantomime, laughing it off, and kindness from them. I learned nouns first, I practiced throughout my day (usually with the little kids as they are kind and my struggles kept them entertained) and eventually strung sentences and conversations together.

I should have known the Kazakh people had their own language but I just assumed they spoke Mongolian (some do, and some speak some Russian or Chinese as their herding takes them in all those regions) and so tried to learn that before hand. I learned Kazakh pretty quickly, but got along with my terrible Mongolian and rough Russian at first, with pantomime. You can express a surprising amount through body language and expressions and pointing. I even had a conversation with some older ladies that while I may not have a big chest (they were teasing that I’d not find a man because I’m so skinny) I do have a big hips! That was almost entirely through pantomime and we were all in tears laughing.

But either way, there were lots of moments I just had to trust, not knowing what I was doing or why, and many times I just had to keep my thoughts and intentions to myself.

Kazakhs' main animals are horse and sheep, why do you call them goat herders?

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For sure, I don’t think cheese is the best translation, it is more curd like and either fresh or dried (rock hard) and saved throughout the year and eaten by dipping in tea or other liquids to soften. It is called ‘aaruul’ in Mongolian. When you milk the goats you lightly heat the fresh milk and a film on top is created, you strain the liquid from that thick film(not sure the real English term?) and then place the film (usually a few inches thick) on a flat piece of tin or wood and place it on the roof of the yurt (ger/tent) and let it dry. Depending on when you want to use it that varies the drying time. It is so dry there (landlocked country with almost no humidity) it basically dehydrates. When we moved about in early summer near melt rivers we could not make it dry enough for long term storage due to humidity. It is a pretty simple process and sometimes the dried pieces grow a thin layer of mold and those pieces are considered extra tasty.

Can you talk more about the cheese making process? What type of cheese was made?

What are your three favorite food to eat when in Cambodia?

How does cleaning your skin with animal fat work?

1. How did you decide it was time to leave the nomads and return to Western life? 2) How did you handle the shock of re-entry? 3) Did you document your time with the nomads in writing or photos? (Thank you, this is the most interesting AMA I’ve seen in a while!)

When you first arrived how did you communicate your intentions or ask for shelter? Did you have some phrases written down or memorized?

Can you tell me about any archery they do, if you’ve seen it?

What was the most beautiful thing you saw them make by hand? Or learned to make by hand from them?

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I did! Luckily just twice, but not fun. I got a flu of some sort when I was with the arctic nomads, and the women took care of me by burning incense and making me drink a lot of a very bitter herb water mixture. I also had ibuprofen and antibiotic cream and I brought a Garmen inReach in case I needed to reach the outside world. I took the ibuprofen but had a fever, violent sweating and body aches, for about five days. In Mongolia I had the stomach flu and unfortunately it started when we were hours from the yurts (gers) so I had to hop off my horse and moan every time it hit me, hiding behind the horse for privacy because there is not a lot of plant coverage in the steppe. It was a very public spectacle and they segregated me from everyone else by setting up a blanket divider in the yurt and I just ran outside to my own special pit toilet that they dug for me because they didn’t want me using the regular outdoor toilet when I was so sick.

Did you get sick? How did you handle that?

Siberian nomads have (to an outsider) very complex tribal systems of ‘what’ your spiritual body is (your spirit has an earthly embodiment like a reindeer, or fox, or river), and therefore who you can and cannot marry. It is patriarchal so the woman joins the man’s tribe. They move frequently even in winter, so you come across other families a lot, and there are times where you camp with other families, or have festivals where the entire region shows up. Lots of matchmaking at those events.

For the Kazakh people it similar but without the spirit world involvement and it is usually the man who moves to the woman’s family.

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That's really interesting thanks for replying. I've never imagined someone could just go and hang out with these people unless they had done sort of agreement or transaction, so it's nice to hear that you did.