“Warm yurts, warm people.” Notes from Mongolia

United Planet Vice President Theresa Higgs has been in Mongolia recently, getting ready for the amazing exchange we’re organizing between public high school students in the U.S. and Mongolia. Here in the office, we’ve been learning a lot about Mongolia – what a fascinating place! We were delighted to get her notes about the realities of life there.

Theresa writes… The subject line is courtesy of the Board Chair of United Planet; I was telling him before I left for Mongolia that while I love to travel, I do prefer warm places.  His response: “Warm yurts, warm people.”  I chuckled at the time, but I can now say it is totally true!

I have learned a lot in just a few weeks. Mongolia was occupied by Russia for decades. Only 20 years ago, in response to demand from the people, did they begin a democracy – a very successful one at that.

The Communist days can be seen in the old Russian block buildings from the 1980s – ugly on the outside, but warm and lovely on the inside.  It’s interesting to see what it takes for an entire country to make such a shift from government-controlled everything to an open society for capitalism and democracy. It can be seen even in the schools – with brand new student councils, journalism programs and more.

Part of my job here is to visit the schools and families that will host or take part in activities with the Boston teachers and students we will send over for 3 weeks in June next year.  So far I have visited 2 schools in more rural areas and 3 schools in the city –Ulaan Bataar, or UB.

I would get a brief tour of the school, then meet with the  newsletter/newspaper team at the school – all of which are very new. (The focus of this project for which we got funding from the U.S. State Dept  is on journalism.)  I have really been touched by the students who have such light in their eyes – for learning and life.  I could tell they like school and their teachers.

One of my favorite moments was when a student explained to me that they decided to call their school paper “Aspire” because “every student has dreams.” This comes from a student in a ger (yurt) district in UB – one of the poorer areas of the city.  The school has 3,000 students and they have to come in 3 shifts each day because they don’t have enough teachers or space for more than about 1,000 students at a time. These 8th and 9th graders asked me questions about student life in US schools as well as how Rights of the Child are being followed in the US.  Very astute questions!

All of the families were warm and welcoming.  A most memorable moment was visiting a family living in a ger – 8 people in one room! All gers have a coal stove for cooking and warmth in the middle with some furniture around the edges.  Carpets and tapestries are hung all around and they are bright, beautiful homes. I am still trying to figure out where/how the toilet/bathroom activities take place!

At every home we eat snacks, drink tea and look at the family’s photo album.  Family ties are strong and the students are happy and proud to show off their families!

At this one family, we had the obligatory tea and photo album viewing, then the father brought out his bottle of Chenggis Khan vodka, we had a toast and drank that down!  It was cold and pitch black outside with only fences, gers and cows wandering around.  But inside was bright, warm and loving!

Other things I have learned so far:

• Toilet paper is totally unnecessary.
• Coal smoke from thousands of gers can really cloud up a city that has had no precipitation in weeks.
• One cassette tape of traditional Mongolian music is just not enough for a bumpy 9 hour road trip.
• Greg Mortensen’s 3 Cups of Tea have got nothin’ on Theresa’s 9 cups of milky, salty traditional Mongolian tea (that was all yesterday!)