Monday, June 20, 2011
A short weekend
Saturday was a day very similar to Friday. We visited more wells (that watered 16000 head of livestock and the entire village), another school and more fodder storage. We ate more mutton soup and drove around a lot. On the way back we visited a dairy farm that insures itself. It’s not a common thing over here – our project is trying to increase insurance availability. Turns out the entire area never has dzud bad enough to kill enough livestock to claim: they insure themselves because they believe they are insuring themselves for the future, when the climate changes and they get worse dzud. The idea behind the concept is great – the practicalities are not. They’re paying money to insure themselves against something that is statistically unlikely to happen. They would gain more from investing that money in diversification of their farm. But what would I know; I’m just an inexperienced geologist.
After a long drive back to the city, it was an even longer drive through the ger district to get home. The main road in to town has been cut off in order to fix it. I doubt it will ever get fixed. It’s not possible to drive on the road at all – it winds in between and over the braided river system of western UB and therefore has a lot of bridges over the river. The bridges are gone and it’s a 5m drop on to the river bed. So we had to drive around it. It took 1.5hours to get about 5km. I was so ready to scream.
On the drive back I chatted to my boss about Brisbane (he used to live there), his children, public holidays…… He makes his 15yo daughter sit and watch ’16 and pregnant’ which is a tv show on cable over here. Even if the soccer is on, he flicks channels to find the tv show and makes his daughter watch it, as a risk mitigation strategy I guess. I laughed so hard when he told me that. I also talked to him about Nadaam: he said under his breath I could take the last two days of the week off (the beginning of the week is a public holiday) – so I’m busy trying to figure out where in the world I can go with one flight from UB. It’s only one week after I go to Khovsgol with dad but it’s important to take holidays when you can get them. And when you’re given an entire week off, and you’re already getting to see the countryside for free with work – the best option is to high tail it out of town in order to get a non-Mong fix. I am especially aiming for somewhere that eats lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Ideally I’d love to go to Russia so I’m heading to the embassy today to see how long it’d take to get a visa. Else we’ll head to Seoul or Beijing or Hong Kong. It’ll be easier to go to Seoul or Hong Kong. The only issue will be clothes. I don’t have any summer clothes.
Dad’s arriving this week some time –at least, I imagine he still is. I haven’t heard anything from mum because I imagine she’s busy organizing Tegan and I to come home in November, packing for dad, working, doing things with Nikki, making sure Ebony’s okay and…. Everything else. I’ve got no problem with it because it would all be organized – but my boss is desperate to know because he wants to invite dad over for dinner. Great – more mutton (okay, that’s a bit harsh. It’d be lovely – I just wish I had advertised I was a vegetarian from the start) (of which I am not, by the way. Far from it. I just don’t like mutton, guts, coagulated blood products, offal or bones).
We’ve been having housemate issues of late: paying of rent (2months late, might I add) and bond. Last night we hopefully figured it out. Unfortunately my other housemate and I are generally non-confrontational, so together we don’t really complement each other in that regard. Anyway. Together we sorted it out and hopefully things will start to look up.
I also got a parcel from Ashleigh Webb! Parcels and letters are so great.
Yesterday was a tricky day. I had so much to do – being away in the field makes it hard to do much. And then coming back to only one day at the weekend to organize things makes it harder. I had a list but it was too long and I couldn’t prioritise things because I didn’t know what to do. So I went to the markets to get some material for some dresses.
One of the volunteers here had a horrible drama yesterday. Mongolia is just such a remote country, and everyone’s nightmare is for something horrible to happen – and it did. Her mum died in Australia and the best she could do was Skype her brother. I just can’t imagine. There’s an amazing support network here and she was looked after to the n’th degree, thank goodness. Our insurance is such that she gets whatever flights home that are available – and she was on a plane by the afternoon. It’s a 30hour flight at best with lengthy stopovers where ever you fly to. What an unthinkable journey. She would almost be home now, thank goodness.
Kindergarten Ger
Please excuse the change in tenses. I was going to edit this so it read smoothly, but that takes the fun and the real-ness out of it. So you get it, retarded bits ‘n all.
Friday June 17 2011
Nothing better than a single stale piece of bread for breakfast (no butter, no toast).
We jumped in the car for a 200m drive (yeah, I know - ?!), arrived late and…..
Christ almighty. No one told me this would be fancy! I put the same clothes on as yesterday – bloody practical North Face gear. I brushed my hair – only because I had dreadlocks from the car ride yesterday.
F*** a dude is filming me writing! Hopefully he doesn’t see detail. I covered it with my hand…. This is not dissimilar to a room at Parliament House in Canberra. It’s obviously a rich soum – there’s a copper mine in town that helps a lot I imagine.
This morning at breakfast I said to my boss ‘that’s brave of you – to wear a white shirt in the field!’ (he was wearing a long sleeved, button up white shirt). Turns out he KNEW and he didn’t tell me! There’s a film crew going around (five cameras in total). I attempted to make my ponytail look fancy and am so glad I washed my face this morning!
I rolled my pants and sleeves down in order to look semi-respectable. THIS is why I DO NOT WEAR practical gear. Shit.
This soum is very grateful for the work and money our project has given but I imagine it’s just they’re capable of showing it. They’ve got the facilities and the capacity. All other soum centres I’ve visited have been nothing short of a pokey room in an old soviet building.
The main camera man is sucking a lollypop. I mustn’t look too bad because the cameras are definitely spending a lot of time pointed at me.
Meeting over, we moved to an emergency hay storage area. They’ve used money from our project and ideas as well – to mitigate livestock risk during winter. Herders volunteer time to cut and bale hay in a neighbouring soum (this one is too small with no native hay pasture). They pay 1400tugrik per bale to be able to use the land. It’s three times cheaper than buying the hay at market. The hay is stored in the storage facility – along with donated grain from Russia. The price is regulated by the same guy that guards the hay. The price fluctuates with changing conditions (bad winter = less food for animals = higher demand for hay = higher price of emergency hay).
I tried some handmade yogurt. Once I got past the pungent smell of cow fat/hide, it was really yummy sweet yogurt. We were given a copper bowl as a sign of appreciation – this area obviously rides off the back of the copper mine. The bowl is engraved with the date and location. It’s just the loveliest thing ever.
We moved from hay to a community centre – an ex-Russian military base that’s been refurbished and is used regularly by locals. It has a (tiny) gym, a theatre, snooker table, basketball court, small library with two computers and general space.
Lunch beckoned (after a school visit) at a kindergarten ger (kindergartens are often held in a ger as they’re transportable and can follow herders around, or are just practical to pitch in the back yard of a school). Oh man. What could possibly be cuter than twelve Mongolian children sleeping on the floor of a ger in individual sleeping bags, perfectly lined with having their nap?
Khorkhog was on the menu. We ate at the kindergarten’s meal ger on their tiny chairs. A big sheep in a pot with potatoes and hot stones. I managed not to eat mutton again – instead I had a potato, 2 nectarines and stale bread.
I’ll let the photos of the kids tell their story.
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Post-lunch were more visits – to a school full of wholly passionate teachers, another fodder storage joint and a dormitory for school kids (from age 6) who live too far away from school.
On the road to Dharkhan – arrived at 8:30pm. In bed by 10pm. No hot water, and 2 minute noodles for dinner.
I feel I’ve overused the terms amazing, beautiful, spectacular, fantastic – the landscape, the experience – is now made to sound much less than it is as my vocabulary and writing finesse does not accurately describe: the feeling of helplessness. Alternatively the feeling of instilling empowerment. The breathtaking scenery. The patriotism. The staunchly Soviet mannerisms, customs and processes. The whole-ness of the feeling of seeing malnourished children be cared for, and watching them enjoy child’s play as opposed to child labour. The tugging of your heart strings to know that if you took that child, you could offer it a life not only of love but of opportunities. Alternatively the thought process of knowing if I gave them $100AUD, that child’s life would change truly forever….
Back to reality tomorrow night. These trips are so short in time but feel like an eternity of experience. It’s so surreal: a two night, three day trip encompasses more than years and years of learning and studying the topic.
The road to Selenge
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| Shearing in the yards by their house |
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| Temple and the view |