Two days in the countryside

On Friday, we had a good trip to visit families and schools just outside of Ulaan Bataar. The countryside is very open. Mountains, cattle, horses, sheep, and a few homes dotting the countryside. The towns are small, and a mixture of the traditional ger and brick, wood, and cement homes. The homes look well constructed, but have been poorly maintained. The family we visited lived in a ger. The woman lost her husband a few years ago to a mining accident, shortly before her second child was born. She makes about $1 per day, and barely survives on that income. Her story is apparently common, as mining is the top industry in the country (second is cashmere production). The mines are unsafe, and there are many accidents each year.

We weren’t able to take pictures inside this ger, but hopefully I’ll be able to visit another later in the visit. The ger is a circular construction of fabric, felt, and wood. They usually lay something like linoleum or wood on the floor, and decorate the walls with heavy, colorful fabric. A small stove sits in the middle of the ger, and it is used for heating and for cooking. There is a small table near the door entrance used to store dishes and cooking items, then a bed, a play or storage area, another bed, and then another storage area. Apparently, all gers are organized in about the same way. To get into the ger, there is a door that stands about 3 ½ feet high. You stoop way down, come in, and then you can stand upright.

After the family visit, we went to a school. The school is new to the town, and is using new learning styles, which are a bit more like western teaching styles. Most schools in Mongolia still use Russian teaching styles that are a bit less participative. In this school, the children were very engaged, and all seemed to love learning. The teachers are doing a great job, and the school has received recognition from many locations for the great job they are doing. These kids did not have a school at all until a few years ago. The town it is in, is very poor, and the kids had nowhere to go. Now the school gives them a place to learn and to grow. They say songs, and one even recited a short story they had learned in English. He was clearly proud of what he had learned. The story went like this: “I am a mouse. You are a cat. One, two, three, four. You can’t catch me cat!” Short but sweet. This is actually quite a hard set of sentences for the child, as it contains many sounds that are very hard for Mongolians to make. On the flip side, I can’t even say thank you right, as I can’t get my mouth to make some of the sounds that are a key part of their language!

Today, we had the day off, and our hosts took us to the countryside to see the Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex. This is about 60 minutes from the city, in the area where Ghengis Khan was born. The complex’s focal point is a 40 meter statue of Ghengis Khan riding a horse. It’s made of stainless steel and weighs about 250 tons. The base of the statue is an exhibit hall, but the complex is still very new, so there is not much to see in the museum portion. You then take an elevator, and then some very narrow stairs up into the statue, coming out at the horse’s neck. The head of the horse is actually an observation deck where you can view the surrounding countryside.

I would imagine this is a beautiful view on a clear day, but today was very cloudy. Just before we arrived at the site, it began to snow. The good news is, that when it’s snowing, it’s a bit warmer! By the time we got up to the observation deck, the clouds had descended, and you couldn’t see a lot.

We left the Chinggis Khan statue, and then went into one of the national parks for lunch. The national park has a series of family camps where people can stay year round. Amazingly, they had people staying in the one we went to for lunch. By this time, it was snowing pretty heavily, and becoming nearly a white out. Go the truck stuck on the way, but was able to push it out, and then help some other motorists who found themselves in the same predicament. Lunch was great, and we hoped the weather would clear a bit, but it was not to be. So we started back, thankful that other motorists before us had found the road, and we could follow their tire tracks through the snow. Eventually, we made it back to the “highway”, and started back to the city, stopping now and then to get the ice off the windshield wipers.
We had a great day today. Tomorrow, we’ll do a few more things in the city, but no more countryside excursions in the snow. One last thing – tried to post those videos of the cultural event, but I can’t seem to get that function to work. Just too slow! I’ll try again tomorrow and see what happens. More then!