Heading out for a brand new adventure

It is Saturday, May 3^rd, and we are preparing once again for a big trip. As some of you may know Tugsu graduated (with high honors) this past week with her Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) from the University of Michigan majoring in Sociology with a minor in the Environment. Well, she turned down some very generous offers from the top PhD programs in the country to return to Mongolia this year. Why would she do this you might ask? Well, I have a wonderful opportunity to build on the research I have been engaged in looking at alcoholism in Mongolia over the past year and actually try to apply it. I was offered a position as the Coordinator for the Mongolia mission of Medecins du Monde (MDM), a large international NGO based in France (http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/gb/). In this position I will organize and direct the organizations efforts in attempting to address the issue of alcoholism in Mongolia.

The position is quite an honor and in addition allows us to live together, comfortably enough, in Mongolia. So besides me working with MDM Tugsu will continue to build on the work she has been engaged in the past 2 summers working with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) (http://www.wcs.org/sw-home). This will be focused on working with one of the world’s last truly unique cultures, the reindeer herders of northern Mongolia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukha), in trying to bring them together in efforts to collectively manage their natural resources. This ongoing effort of hers will last the summer and from there who knows? She will have MANY opportunities.

Amina will, of course, be the most important member of our expedition. This summer we hope to expose her to more unique opportunities. We plan on providing her with a tutor to assist her in developing her Mongolia language skills, giving her ample opportunities to return to the amazing Mongolian countryside, and provide more varied educational opportunities like piano lessons. We will turn her over to relatives and good friends during the day and also introduce her to more children her age. After all, the best incentive to learn another language well is a friendship that has the potential to grow as you master it.

However, first we are off to Paris for a couple weeks. Here is the hotel we will be staying at (http://www.hotel-victoria-montmartre.com/accueil.htm). I will engage in training for my new position there, learning what it truly means to be a representative of MDM in the field. I will also be attending the annual MDM coordinator’s meeting. Both are wonderful opportunities for me and these of course will lead to wonderful opportunities for Amina and Tugsu as well as they get to explore and learn about the most wonderful city on earth. After being there for a couple weeks we will head back to Mongolia and being out work. We will keep you all up to date and hope you stay up to date with us. You already have our e-mail but if you would like to send us snail mail my address will be:

Desk Asia
Medecins du Monde
For the attention of Sean Armstrong, Mission: Mongolia
62, rue Marcadet
75018 Paris, FRANCE

In addition, we will be using videos alot more this year. You can view our vlogging (video blogging) and the first sample is provided here:

Hope to hear from you all soon!!!!!!!

Back to the countryside

I have been carrying out initial literature review on alcoholism in Mongolia for the past couple weeks, meeting with all who will consent, while I develop my Mongolian skills further. However, though I have been doing much to assist the Health Sciences University develop their International Relations here they have done little to assist me with my research. Last I talked to them they said they will be unable to get me the Research Assistant they promised until October. Therefore, when the opportunity to travel out to the Gobi Desert in the state of Bayanhongor to do some research I jumped on it. So, off I will go tomorrow once again and will probably get behind on my blogging again. Oh well, the research will consist of interviews with the hospital staff regarding the capacity they have to deal with chronic and/or mental diseases. I will work with communities as well on health needs, alcoholism, and nutrition. It will be a wonderful opportunity and be expected to see several pictures when I return. However, I have been told it may snow on Monday and will continue to be cold till the end of the week, just my luck. I will return before October. Till then, all my best to you all! Don't forget to make comments.

Back in UB for the rest of the Summer

What follows is a brief summary of the month following our return to UB from the countryside on July 15th:

We set out from Murun by a Russian van (the UAZ 452 or Furgon) which you can take a look at here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UAZ-Bus.jpg

(by the way have I mentioned how much I have grown to love Wikipedia since I arrived in Mongolia?) It is a touch and completely uncomfortable machine, I recommend staying away from it if you can.

As I mentioned, we were quite tired after we arrived and yet we had alot to do. We had had only 2 days in UB before we left and had to make up for lost time. We began by doing errands like buying a cell phone. However, what followed was no more interesting than that. After returning I had to set up multiple meetings with my host organization in Mongolia, the Health Sciences University (http://www.hsum.edu.mn/index.php) and of course Tugsu had a ton of work to do to begin making the actual preparations for her conference which would be back in Tsagaan Nuur on the 3rd of August. So we initially relied alot on Tugsu's family and Bilguun (her niece) to watch her. In addition to all this work he also had to locate an apartment. We were warned the search would be difficult but were not prepared for what followed. You can take a look at this website to get an idea what is available and what people are charging now: http://www.mongolia-properties.com/properties-mongolia/property/apartments-for-rent/
We were in no shape to pay these types of prices and so had to look in Mongolian newspapers for ideas.

We found that even the cheapest (acceptable) places were starting at around $250/month and going up from there, quite steeply. When we started to look we also found that a great many of them had been empty for often close to a year or so. (Apparently, Mongolia lacks property taxes, so once you buy a place the only motivation to rent is the building association fee, usually around $15/month. They, therefore, hold out for "rich" foreigners like myself whom they can charge a fortune to). They were, consequently, quite dusty and bare of everyday essentials like: shower curtains, silverware, lamps, chairs, cleaning supplies, etc... After looking at around 5 places a friend of mine, the director of the Natl. Social Health Insurance recommended I check out her brother-in-laws, which they hadn't even put up for rental yet. The owner is quite a handyman and it was lived in so needless to say it set itself apart. We negotiated a very reasonable price but it was still more than I was hoping for. We then contacted another friend who had a place available and said they would get it to us cheap. We decided to take this place and move in!

However, after living there for a few days we realized this was going to be alot of work. First, there were few working electrical outlets, we needed quite a few supplies for the kitchen, their was only one very small bed, The cable TV didn't work, we were told the building was not equipped to set up DSL (high speed internet), etc... We decided to try once more to renegotiate and attempt to get the nicer apartment. One other important consideration was the building we were currently in was difficult to describe on how to go there. There are no street names and few landmarks everyone knows in Ulaanbaatar, so this caused quite a few problems. The nicer apartment was located directly next to one of the most recognized landmarks in UB, the Wrestling Palace, so this was not a problem with the new place. We were able to lower the price by 15% and so took the other place.

This is the wrestling palace, you can see my building located behind it

Once we had moved in we felt a great burden lifted off us and for the first time in 2 months were able to begin unpacking our bags. This would be my home for the next year and the process of settling in began. I now had to worry about my work again and began a whirlwind of meetings, with the Health Sciences University, the Ministry of Health, the BioRegions Team, the Embassy, family and friends, my bank, the Red Cross, the Natl. center for Health Development, Peace Corps., the American Center for Mongolian Studies, to name a few. In a week I was spent and also realized that while I was out meeting one group after another Amina was being stuck at home with nothing to do.

We decided to take our first field trip out to a farm organized by the Catholic Church. It was a gorgeous place about an hour and twenty minutes out of town in an area still called by the name that was given to it after the Russians developed chicken farms there, the bird fabrication are. This was all closed and never reopened (like many of the production centers in Mongolia) and the place is now dreadfully poor. This farm has been established to deal with that, and the bulk of the farm is managed and farmed by local community members who are granted plots of land for free if they agree to work it. They also have a bakery on site to make cookies and buiscits for resale, another industry that is managed by the local community. It was wonderful to have fresh vegetables for the first time in over a month and a half! They let us pick what we wanted but we insisted on letting us pay for it.

However, those weeks were not all work, we did have quite a bit of fun as well. We went out with the crew from BioRegions for a night on the town and also met up with some of our friends from U of M (both Mongolians) who were in the country for the summer. We bought movies and went to the cinema a couple times (usually that was just Bilguun and Amina). We even went to an indoor playground and the natural history museum with Khurelee and his daughter. However, we were quite challenged by the lack of any programs for children in the city. We tried sending Amina to a Mongolia kindergarten but the kids there were too rough for Amina, she is not used to other girls hitting her. We tried finding private lessons for Amina, but aside from a little bead jewelry maker nearby our house who was rarely open we didn't have any luck. Even the Children's Park was closed for renovations, though I didn't ever see any construction going on there, just looked deserted. We did hear rumors the government was trying to sell it. It was quite frustrating and because of that I took the next couple weeks mostly off from work to stay at home and try and provide my daughter with some fun and educational activities.

Then, as August was just beginning Tugsu headed back out to Tsagaan Nuur for her conference. She will have to tell you what that was like but I can tell you for 8 days we missed her alot. The weather was very hot and there we were in UB with very little to do for fun. Everyone in the summer with any means heads out of the capitol city and those with means who cannot are working extra hard at their job so they can leave soon. We were therefore left with very few people we could go to. Yet, the three of us managed and it was nice to be able to spend the time with Amina. However, I have now met many expats with children in Mongolia and am confident next summer Amina will have much more fun and be far more productive!

The time that followed after Tugsu returned was far too busy and we had very little chance to talk. The build-up to their departure was one of the hardest things I have had to deal with in my priviliged life and the departure on August 19th was pure torture. However, there, that is all! I am going to skip filling in all the gory details of what has happened since and the next post will (finally!) be a current one. I wish you all the best and keep reading!

Hatgal Naadam

Well, for those of you who don't know what Naadam is, click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naadam_Holiday

However, the countryside Naadam's are something special. First, we went out to see our hosts son, he must have been about 14 and was preparing his first horse for the race. He had been living with a small stable of young men all doing the same thing for the past couple weeks, though he had been working with his horse to prepare it since February. It is a complex regimen of exercise and diet meant to slim it down to all muscle. Young men have been doing this for over a thousand years in Mongolia, and it serves as a type of introduction to manhood. On the first day of Naadam we headed out to see the horse race, which marks the beginning. His horse was running in this first race, though there are several different age classes for each gender, his age class was the youngest so it goes first. We were arriving in a jeep with his parents when we saw the race heading towards us, we timed it perfectly, riding next to his horse in the jeep and cheering it on. In Mongolia, horse races last almost 5 miles, so the speed they had going into the finish was even more remarkable. Unfortunately, his horse didn't win but since he was competing against people who had been training horses for years. After that, we headed into the main festival area to pick up some food and see the official opening ceremonies.

Horses are ridden by children between the ages of 8 and 14.

Heres our guy! Coming to check his horse out after the race.

After a nice lunch of fried meat pancakes, huushuur, we headed to the central stadium and watched some of the opening ceremonies. I must tell you that it was a tad bit boring, but we didn't want to walk all the way back to where our car was and talk because we thought the wrestling might start and the walk to the car is quite hazardous. Everyone riding their horses around at full speed, regardless of pedestrian traffic. Quite a challenge to negotiate the less crowded areas, but around the stadium there were so many people they had to walk their horses. When the wrestling finally began it was great fun, in the opening rounds it is a small Naadam and they didn't have the full compliment of wrestlers required by tradition (512) so they take volunteers from the audience, in particular foreigners. It was hilarious watching the herders toss them around like rag dolls. I was too smart (and chicken) to get in there.

These are big guys! And they are strong and skilled as well, not for the faint of heart.

It was alot of fun, and we decided to return the next day, though we were due back in UB, we wanted to go one more day. Amina had a great time too, there was a constant stream of horse races arriving on a bi-hourly basis, to divert our attention from the wrestling. Fun foods to be tried and little side events going on, at one point the tourist children were wrestling the local children, it was great fun to see. However, mid-way through the second day it was time to head back, back to Murun. A two hour trip on one of the nicest roads in the whole country. Our trip to Renchinlhumbe was down a different road but only around 100 kilometers farther away from Murun than Hatgal, yet it took around 8 hours longer. However, the trip to Renchinlhumbe still couldn't prepare us for what waited for us in Murun. We decided to save $200 and drive back to Ulaanbaatar, a 19 hour trip over nothing more than a dirt path in a completely overcrowded truck. No fun at all! However, it felt nice to be back in civilization, with indoor toilets, hot water, reliable electricity (or just any at all!), and a selection of non-mutton dishes. It was now July 14th. We will pick up with our time in UB next time.

It is still hard to look at Amina's beautiful photos without missing her tons!

Here we are with the stadium in the background, it was beautiful weather!

Vacation at Huvsgul National Park

With the work completed in Renchinlhumbe we headed back to Murun. The stay there was pleasant enough, as we had the company of one of the BioRegions volunteers, Loren. However, Murun is not exactly a place where you would want to spend alot of time. The guest we stayed at had only one English language television station, the Korean propaganda channel Arirang. Amina became quite proficient of making fun of their obvious attempts to sell Korean cultural hegemony. We also stayed in quite a bit as their are no real cultural sites in the city, just drunks aplenty. Loren and Tugsu, however, did go out for a couple days of beauty treatment. When I did go out it was primarily for work, meeting with the Health Department directors and the Hospital managers. After 3 days we had had enough and we got a truck for the ride up to Hatgal.
In front of a statue of one famous soldier from WW2 whose home was Murun.

Once in Hatgal we located our new home there, the Guest House of the former National Park Director and current regional representative of a big UN project, the UNDP's Altai Soyon Project. You can find out more about it here: http://www.undp.mn/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35
He had a wonderful little place right up against some small hills, that Amina loved to climb. She became a little mountain goat quite early, and of course gave me small little heart attacks on a routine basis. However, we didn't want to discourage her exploration.

Our lovely little Guest House and Amina's favortie teeter totter.

Enjoying breakfast over one of a million games of cards we played.

At the tops of another hill. A beautiful view onto the river that drains Lake Huvsgul.

Though Tugsu was there to work and did quite a bit, explaining the purpose of her workshop and learning what the UNDP people were engaged in, so she could find some opportunities for synergy, we also had some fun. First, we went up to one of the most famous tourist areas in Mongolia, Jankhai. It is a rocky peninsula out onto the lake with amazing views. We had a wonderful time just hanging out in the sun with the smell of the freshest lake in the world! It was very cold, even in July, but it still felt marvelous. Unfortunately, we couldn;t get Tugsu to stay in the lake long enough for a picture.

It was astonishingly clean and clear!

We all skipped rocks!

No trip is complete without getting a picture in front of the horses.

We also had a chance to go out and see the UNDP directors Eco-resort. He has brought in all types of native animals that have long been wiped out from touristy areas, so people can see them in their native habitat. He also has the most marvelous sauna built right next to Lake Huvsgul. So we stripped off our clothes one early morning when the other tourists staying there were off on excursions or lounging around their gers and headed into the sauna. Then, once you are all hot and sweaty you run into the lak and wash off with Lake water. It was amazing! You have never felt so alive. We also took the time to go around and see the beautiful premises, hike up some more hills, and eve one night so several roe deer running around the woods nearby. Incredible! And only a 3 hour ride from Hatgal, to he middle of nowhere.

The one lone boat on the whole lake passing in front of us.

The proporieter in front of his beautiful lodge. How he built it way out in the middle of nowhere I have no idea.

After we returned to hatgal it was Naadam time! Our first soum Naadam. What a cool celebration. I will tell you about that next time. All for now, please write some comments when the mood strikes you, I like this to be more of a conversation. See you all later,

Back to Renchinlhumbe

On the 27th of June we finally arrived in Renchinlhumbe and were greeted by a large new group of volunteers, save the familiar Mongolian faces and Loren. It was wonderful to be back and participate again in such a lovely community. However, time was now desperately short and we had alot to do. Tugsu and I began immediately working to organize the required administrative meetings to discuss a farmer's market for Renchinlhumbe. The responses we received were uniformly positive and gave us great hope that even with reduced time we would be able to pull this off. The market was to be held in the town square, would begin as free to all members, be held on Sunday to appeal to soum capitol inhabitants who had to work doing the week so they could visit and on Monday as well to appeal to herders who had to come into town on Monday to take care of business, it would have a polic officer and food inspector on site, we would need a director but no other staff, we could advertise is several different ways with heavy subsidizing, and Bioregions would primarily provide the infrastructure and salary for the director. The rest of the components would be provided by the government house.


Meanwhile, Amina was enjoying her time with both her Mongolian friends in Renchinlhumbe and her new friends, the volunteers from BioRegions, were enjoying her company immenslely. She even found her own work to do, regularly going with the American English teacher to her summer English course with students from Renchinlhumbe. She was not only a source of inspiration and fun for the students but a wonderfully patient asistanct instructor as well. She also continued her art. Taking the time to make numerous artistic gifts for the endless stream of new volunteers coming in and out of the camp.


When the market finally entered the impementation stage the advertising began in earnest and with the help of a local radio statio manager and the cultural center director peaked community interest. Meanwhile we found a director and took the time to educate her regading the plan and organization of the market. We also continued surveying community members regarding what they hoped for from the market and went around town with brochures. Finally, on the day of the first market we had the man with the stereo blaring andthe tables brought downtown and set up. It started slow but after a few vendors showed up all of a sudden the excitement built and around 75 people were there. However, in the end I was dissapointed with the market's performace as we could get no herders to show up. We had been hoping to make the biggest impact by getting them to sell food products there and have a positive influence on nutrition. What we were not ready for was the lack of acceptance the community maintainted for capitalist practices. Despite an overwhelming interest in soum capitol community members in purchasing dairy, meat and fruits from the countryside we couldn't get them to sell it. However, the market is, supposedly, still up and running and plans in place to develop it further, if the community chooses to do so, next year. This way they can get used to the idea and we are not forcing too much too fast.


This was not the end of our adventure in Renchinlhumbe. We were also working with the health team, made up of mostly Doctors and medical students, in their project to carry out a biochemical health assessment of the soum. It was a worthwhile project and we were able to assist them in adjusting to some of the unique cultural challenges one finds when you work in Renchinlhumbe. They did marvelously and with that we considered our work there for the time being complete and prepared to head back out, this time to the Huvsgul state capitol, Murun. We had to bid adieu to a wonderful group and knew that Murun was a different, very unkind, environment. So the goodbyes were heartfelt and we made plans to meet up in Ulaanbaatar, the national capitol, before they left. We hopped into the Russian van preparing for another 10+ hour ride over very rocky and hilly terrain, averaging about 45 km/hour. It was July 4th.

Our camp in Renchinlhumbe

The whole team
Amina and one of her friends

With the Reindeer People

Our hosts in Tsagaan Nuur were an NGO dedicated to the preservation of Reindeer People culture called the Itgel Foundation. However, Amina and I were far more comfortable staying at the one Inn in town, Gannbaatar's Guest House. So the next day as Tugsu prepared to go to the camp about 35 kilometers away, where the Reindeer People were waiting to meet them, Amina and I moved into the guest house. It was very comfortable and the hospitality of the hosts was unparalelled. The proprieter is an amazing artist and Amina was treated to some private art lessons. Though it was in Mongolian she understood the bulk of what he had to teach. His wife meanwhile was an amazing cook and Amina had some of the freshest fish in the world 3 times a day. Compliment it with a nice fry bread and juice made out of pine berries and we ate quite well. Their daughter was wonderful with Amina and was kind enough to lend Amina all her old toys. Finally, their little white shaggy dog was alot of fun.

Meanwhile, Tugsu was off meeting the reindeer herders participating in a workshop meant to educate them about the new Tsataan Center, get their feedback and try to establish a grass roots community organization among them. Important work for a ethnically and culturally distinct people that only have about 200 members left. For more information on the reindeer hereders you can visit the website of the group Tugsu was working with, the Itgel Foundation:

http://itgel.org/

However, after three days we were set to join Tugsu out at the camp where the reindeer herders were staying and participate in a Reindeer herders festival. We were pretty excited and headed off in the morning to join her. It was a typical Huvsgul countryside road so though the distance was only 35 kilometers it took us an hour to get there. However, the site that greeted us was worth it, well over a hundred reindeer and teepees everywhere. Of course seeing Tugsu was a nice bonus as well. Off we went to see the festival and what was really amazing was how kind and considerate everyone was. I should explain that the reindeer herders were a long way from home, they live up in the mountains where their reindeer can find the food they pretty much subsist on, a special moss. It is about a 3-5 days ride (on reindeer) home for them. In addition, they had been there so long their meagre stores of food were mostly used up and they were quite hungry.

That did not stop them from enjoying the festivities, their was reindeer races, reindeer polo and plenty of wrestling for all. Tugsu was constantly being invited into peoples teepees, in only a few days she had made some very good friends there. We got to try lots of Reindeer milk products, and found them quite tasty. Amina was also invited to sit on quite a few reindeer, however, she politely declined each time. In the end we were there, in the beautiful surroundings for two days. The last night we were there they had a real Shaman come and perform a ritual meant to put him in touch with the dead, around a raging campfire. The shaman of this region are the most feared as they are considered to be in touch with ancient forces and have remained unchanged for centuries.

With the festival over we headed back to Tsagaan Nuur and all shacked up in the guest house there. It was nice being back with Tugsu and we were also happy to have more excellent fresh fish fried up for us. It took a couple days to finally negotiate a ride but even though they are neighbors, the road to Renchinlhumbe is so frequently flooded or the bridges so often washed out, hardly anyone goes there. Fortunately, they recently established a ferry in place of a bridge so the road was passable. We left to continue work, this time mine, in Renchinlhumbe. This gets us to the 27th! More to follow