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