Mongolia in a Nutshell!

It has been so long since the last post, I know, but since leaving our hostel in UB there has been no available internet access. But plenty has happened!

So, on our second day in UB we had a meeting with Mongolia’s federal water agency, the Zorig Foundation and the Ministry of Nature and Environment. We also ate at a vegan Restaurant in Mongolia, Loving Hut, and the fake meat was so good Bob thought it was real! After our meetings we spent the afternoon exploring Sukhbaatar square where the Parliament building is located and shopping at the State Department store. We spent the evening at Sarnai’s (2009 Mongolian Alumna) apartment with her German husband who made us what Leila refers to as “leprechaun drinks”, better known as Green Meadows (Blue Curacao, Orange Juice and Champagne. We also had the opportunity to meet with and spend the evening getting to know our two Mongolian participants that were unable to get their visas (Dagva and Ganaa). It was a pretty great night.

Some of the TBI ladies dressed up for our night out

 

 

 

Mongolian Parliament Building in Sukhbaatar Square

 The next morning we packed up everything and headed to our meeting with the Geo-ecology Institute. TBI signed an MOU with this organization in 2001 and since we have been long-time partners and the director, Mr. Tsogbaatar has provided funding for many of our past Mongolian participants. This was one of my favorite meetings in Mongolia because it was very informative and very well organized. The geo-ecology institute also does great work with water, soil and forests all around Mongolia. We said our goodbyes to Mongolia’s capital city and hit the road, en route to Darhan with Odsuren, TBI Mongolian alumna 2008 and a worker at the Geo-ecology Institute also in tow.

Three hours into the trip we stopped in a small agricultural and mining town, Bornuur, where we met with yet another Mongolian alumna from 2008 and had a great meeting with her husband who runs much of the agricultural operations in the area. We learned about the way agriculture was run under the communist regime and also how it was getting back onto its feet for the past few decades after the fall of the Soviet Empire. A lot has changed about the way of life and governance and agriculture was forced to change along with it. We got to see what Bob Harris refers to as the “real” Mongolia—little villages and gers dotting the mountainous, green landscape with herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses roaming. The town also had an irrigation system dug out and we discussed water use in cultivation. After experiencing our first “real” Mongolian toilets (a little squatter with no toilet paper in sight), we got back on the road and soon arrived in Darhan.

Our 20 passenger Van on the road trip to Darhan

Buddhist Worship site in Bornuur

So, even though Darhan is the second biggest city in Mongolia, it has less than 100,000 people, where as Ulaan Baatar has over 1 million. There was not really much to Darxan, but the participants had meetings with the Bureau of Nature and Tourism and the Agricultural Institute. We were very excited to head to Yoruu, but the long drive, much of which was on unpaved roads, was not particularly pleasant, although it was extremely picturesque.

In the evening we arrived at Environmental Camp, run by Naraa, a dear friend of Bob’s and a former Mongolian Parliament member. The camp, although in the middle of nowhere, was very quaint with a number of small cabins, bigger barracks, a meeting/dining facility and a few gers. After the extremely hard and uncomfortable beds at the Darhan hotel, I think we all got a great night’s sleep.

Day one in Yoruu began with a phenomenal cultural experience, one to which words cannot even do justice. We visited a traditional nomadic ger family and we were welcomed warmly into their home. We learned about their customs and lifestyle, sampled their cuisine (bread, dried milk curds, salty milk tea, home-made fermented mare’s milk vodka, traditional Mongolian sheep BBQ and pickles). 

Inside of a traditional nomadic Ger

We also all had the opportunity to ride on their family’s horses and play volleyball with their kids. It was an experience none of us will forget. They were so hospitable and gave Bob and hand sewn wool piece of artwork decorated with historic images that were found as hieroglyphs in Mongolia. They loved the gifts from the participants and said that they never expected to have such a great group of people from so many different countries in their home! That night the children put on a very special cultural show for us which included poetry, song and dance. We then performed a few numbers for them, including the US and French national anthems. This was followed by a heated dance competition. A quick explanation: the children were split into four working groups, or teams and every day there was a sort of competition and each team came in first, second, third or fourth place each day. All of the TBI participants, translators and staff were placed on these four teams also. The first day was a berry picking competition (wild strawberries that were then used for home-made jam), the second day was the dance competition, the third day was a trash clean up and the fourth day was environmental/on site project planning.  So onto the third day of camp:

The next day we were supposed to travel to a gold mine many miles away and not only learn about but see firsthand gold mining operations and water use/effects on water, but the state inspector that was our guide was suddenly called to Sukhbaatar for his work and was unable to join us. So instead we stayed at the camp with the local children also staying there from Yoruu and Bargant. Javier and Igor led us through a project WET and a project WILD educational activity, Bob spoke about forest health and re-forestation and we went on a short hike, educating the kids on some of the forest and stream environment zones near the camp. Lots of work was also going into designing and re-building the collapsed bridge leading to the camp (it had been non-functioning for the past 6 years and people were instead driving through the stream).

After days of blazing heat and humidity, we got our first rain, which was a welcome surprise (especially since showers were far and few between, even after Lucky fixed their well system). That night Gantulga held a seminar on remote sensing, we ate pasta with only a little bit of meat (yum), and a number of us learned some of the traditional games played with sheep knuckles.

The fourth day was great, but bittersweet because after the day’s activities we had to say goodbye to the children. We were asked to brainstorm a number of projects that could be put on at the site which were either environmentally friendly or would improve the experience at the camp (all of them had to be practical and feasible). Then each team was asked to choose one project to elaborate on and create a plan which included man power, supplies, cost, responsibility, advantages and disadvantages. Between the four groups, an educational vegetable garden, a water catchment system, a gazebo and a welcome sign were all designed and will hopefully be projects for groups of school children at the camp for seasons to come.

Traditional Mongolian Garb Dress up at the environmental camp with some of the local kids

Gifts and contact info were exchanged, we all dressed in some traditional Mongolian garb, lots of pictures were taken and we said goodbye to all the children. That evening after another traditional Mongolian sheep BBQ we had a dance celebration into the night.

Our last full day in Mongolia had finally arrived. We shared a traditional Mongolia goodbye, filled with kind words of appreciation and sips of Mongolian Vodka. We packed ourselves into the 20 passenger bus and headed to Sukhbaatar, the border city with Russia. We had our last meeting in Sukhbaatar with a classmate of Gantulga’s at the Environmental Safety and Inspection Agency which concentrated on hydrology and meteorology. It was a Sunday after a week of anniversary holiday celebrations and they were nice enough to meet with us! After checking into the hotel and finally getting a shower, we drove to a park near the Russian border which offered a breathtaking view of the Selenga River and the mountains leading into Russia. It was quite the popular Sunday picnic destination and allowed for some great pictures and much needed reflection and connection with the upper parts of the Baikal watershed.

In the evening we had another goodbye celebration and really reflected on our time and Mongolia and the people who made it happen. Thank you to Lucky, Bob, Gantulga and Naraa for making it everything that it was, having patience with all 12 of us who spoke no Mongolian and were pretty clueless and we very much look forward to returning in the future. It was quite an adventure for us all.  Баярлалаа.