Final report from rural Mongolia: stupas, ovos and more cheese curds

Field report May 31-June 2:

We headed out again today with Chimga to finalize plans regarding gers and food, and check out the Dayan Derkh monastery. It was pretty dry and hot again. In the evening it got so smokey from a forest fire that nobody was quite sure of the location of. It felt just like August in Bozeman!

We had much more success and were able to get everything pinned down after spending a few hours visiting homes. Some people we revisited would just end up chatting for a while with Chimga and our driver and his co-pilot. Again, I had no idea what was going on, but it was fun to listen while eating my cheese curds and drinking my tea. I had the opportunity to use one of the toilets that are typical of rural Mongolia and that was an interesting experience. It was a fenced hole in the ground (the fence for privacy) with 2 planks of wood on either side for your feet. The system required squatting and rarely comes with toilet paper. It made me think Kent has a real market with his composting toilets, as almost anything would be better than the status quo.

The monastery was our next stop and Sue had the chance to meet with a man that oversaw the actual construction and with Bimba, the caretaker. While they discussed details of the monastery’s construction, I explored the area and hung out with Bimba’s kids. They were fascinated with my camera and kept talking to me in Mongolian. I think we were playing a game of jumping off the steps, but every time I tried to tell them I couldn’t understand what they were saying, they would just laugh. So I looked up how to say “I don’t speak Mongolian” in Mongolian, but by the time I had figured out how to pronounce all the sounds, Sue was finished with her meeting and the kids were heading home. It was pretty fun to play around with them anyway, and we got some great pictures.

The monastery itself is a beautiful wood building with blue and red trim and adorned with gold figures on the shiny metal roof. It’s right near the bank of the Uur River. In fact, clients at the Sweetwater Travel fishing camp (where Sue and I stayed) often visit the monastery from their boats at some point in their week stay. In the yard surrounding it there were a few trees covered in the blue scarves (some yellow and red ones to). Some trees are dead, but superstitions prevent the people from cutting them down. Next to the Monastery, there is a gated area that has some prayer wheels and a white stupa. Up on the hill above the monastery is a shaman ovo, this particular one only for men (I was informed after I said I was going to hike up to it). Its very common to see these wooded structures drapped in scarves on the tops of mountains. Locals will walk around it 3 times and throw a little offering to it for luck. The ovo’s proximity marks an interesting combination of Buddhist and shaman beliefs that define Mongolia’s culture.

After Sue’s meeting, we went back to fishing camp. It was still super hot so we took a quick dip in the river with some other camp members, which was freezing, and then had another great dinner. That night we got a beautiful performance from some local traditional Mongolian singing and dancing. Most traditional Mongolian songs are about the mother or father, I learned, but we also heard some about winning competitions and nature.

The next day we packed up and headed back to Moron, this time picking up a few other people who needed rides to various places too, so we were nice and tight with 7 people in the jeep for 5 hours. Now we’re back at the hotel in Moron and fly back to UB tomorrow! I enjoyed being out in rural Mongolia much more than I enjoy UB, so I’m a bit sad to leave, but glad we accomplished what we set out to do here. Hopefully everything else falls into place and The Tributary Fund has another great summer eco-camp for the kids here.

That’s all for now.

Grace

How to rent a ger from a rural Mongolian family and more adventures

Field report from May 30:

What a day! Our mission in coming to the countryside was fairly complex, so we have a lot to do in just a few days.  We needed to check up on the Dayan Derkh Monastery that the Tributary Fund rebuilt, find gers for the childrens summer eco-camp, and find food suppliers for the summer camp.  And what I learned from today, is that you ought not expect quick results when working in the rural Mongolia, where most everyone is far apart, daily life is a struggle, and the pace is a little slower than in the city.

First we headed out early to visit various homes of rural families to find out if anyone had an extra ger they would be willing to rent to The Tributary Fund as housing for the children in the summer camp.  It was really neat to go into homes and sit and listen to Chimga conduct business. Sue and I of course, had no idea what was going on until Chimga filled us in, but we would just sit and listen and soak it all in. Each home would give us a nice hot cup of milk tea (which reminded me of cream of wheat, but liquid form) and pass a bowl of cheese curds and sometimes bread around. Occasionally we would receive fresh yogurt instead.  It became apparent that dairy products are a key part of the diet. The houses are mostly one room log cabins, as folks are in their summer pastures now.  Some families still use gers when they move to their winter pastures, but many are starting to build permanent structures for winter as well.  The walls were lined with beautiful carpets and materials and at the center of the room there was always an old wood stove. Also, interestingly, almost every home we visited had a t.v.  While it was fun to just experience the life of these people, we had to find some gers, and we encountered some difficulty. Often, people had them, but the stove pipe was being borrowed by the neighbor down the way, or someone else was using it, or something was broken.  We got told a few times to come back in a few days and check, which was funny, because we don’t really have more than 3 days here.

Finding someone to supply dairy was difficult as well. The local community can potentially benefit from selling some of their dairy products to the Tributary Fund during the summer camp for food for the kids.  That would be ideal. Unfortunately, many families felt they couldn’t spare the little dairy they were getting by with as it was. Hopefully tomorrow will yield more favorably results regarding that as well.

After our home visits, we set out to the Dayan Derkh Monastery so Sue could check out how it’s been maintained and talk with the caretaker, Bimba. We arrived and found that Bimba’s son had gotten ill and he and his wife had taken him by motorcycle to the nearest town (about 2 hrs away) to see a doctor. We stayed at the monastery for a while, eating lunch (even though I was stuffed from so much milk tea and yogurt and cheese curds already) and letting Sue have a look around. Consequently, Bimba happened to comeback just as we were leaving, and thankfully his son seemed to be okay. We decided, in light of the stressful circumstances, to come back tomorrow to have Bimba give us tour.

So then we went back to fishing camp (by driving across the river in the jeep, and stalling, and almost floating down the river) and had dinner with the guys at camp.  It was delicious food and talking to all the clients were interesting too. Plus, I got some good quality rock-skippin’ time down on the river after dinner.

We’ll head out again tomorrow and hope to finalize some deals on gers and dairy!

Cheers

Grace

Catching up: a couple weeks ago in Mongolia continued...

Field notes from May 28-29:

Yesterday we left UB for the wild Mongolian countryside. Sue, Chimga and I caught a flight from UB to Moron. It was about an hour late, but we eventually got to Moron and got some food supplies from the black market. Moron is a good sized, dusty, dry town that happens to be the closest one to fishing camp with an airport. It is also Chimga’s home town! 

We decided to stay the night in Moron and embark on our 7 hour jeep ride to the remote fishing camp on the Uur river early this morning. This turned out to be an excellent idea, as our driver had to stop multiple times and check various parts of the car, including the brakes, on the drive out. Roads are defined in rural Mongolia as a place where someone drove their jeep before you, so the ride was pretty rough. But the scenery was beautiful. It reminded me so much of Montana that I sometimes had to consciously remind myself of where I was!

When we finally got to camp, Sue and I, and some others from camp, hiked up to the top of a nice hill behind our gers (circular canvas homes unique to Mongolian nomads) and got an amazing view of the whole valley and river. It was a nice way to end the slightly stressful and tiring expedition to get to into the field. The ger is incredibly comfortable and warm and I’m looking forward to a great night sleep, because tomorrow we get to work!

Best,
Grace