Mongolia, land of the sleep-in. We went to bed at about 10pm. The people in the next room partied on into the night. It gets light here at about 4:30am. I went to the pit toilet at 5am. Bright sunshine, a few dogs barking, nothing else. I went again at 8am. Few more dogs, a car, and one or two pedestrians. Our building remained silent. In every other developing country I have been to activity stirs at first light. Maybe activity stirs here, it is just quiet.
It is official. We are strange. Nat and I brought along our stretch bands to do some exercise on the trip. This morning I was doing the “Pilates in 10 – Arm Workout” on the ipod when a local lady came in to give us a thermos of hot water. I just kept on doing the Saturday night fever move, as I have no language to even attempt to explain!
Family Education Graduation – Ikhuul Soum
Today we drove about 40 minutes from the hotel to a soum (little town) called Ikhuul to attend a graduation of an ADRA funded Family Education program. For the first time I identified with Mongolian music. One of the participants in our adult literacy and vocational training program sang us a song of welcome and appreciation. It was a traditional song. Her voice was strong and clear, big enough to try to break out of the room and reach the sky. The song had few distinct words and seemed more tonal. I could see the rise and fall of the hills and the stretch of the big sky in the sounds. The song seemed to evoke the landscape perfectly. I felt myself getting goosebumps. Later Tungaa (our Education Coordinator) told me that traditional music like this is supposed to reflect the countryside. I think the song had such an impact because I had spent the past two days crossing the epic countryside and my eyes were full of it.
During the program I learned that singing is very common to express feeling. Throughout the official events a few participants would spontaneously stand and request to sing us a song. Tungaa later told me that she usually gets less music at such events, so my attendance was prompting the concert. We were there to attend the final judging of the small business competition funded by ADRA. We work with local non-formal education centres (NFE centres) in what we call the “Family Education Program”. There are many activities in the program. Today we met with children who had not been able to attend school due to the poverty of their families and so were illiterate. They had participated in a four-month “catch-up” program funded by ADRA and now many of them had passed the test to enter the local government schools. At the end of the meeting Natalie gave the teacher a kit of Mongolian books for children (sponsored by private donors in Canada and Australia). The kids loved the books, and the teacher allowed them to each chose one to take home.
After the children we met with those involved in the adult education – usually related in some way to the children. They had participated in literacy, vocational, health and life-skills training. As part of the vocational training they had formed into small business groups. We judged the finalists in the competition (a tailoring group and a carpentry group). The tailors were named the winners, but both groups got prizes of materials or equipment. When they saw my camera I became the chief photographer of various combinations of group photos. Then we all had to dress up in the different samples of their products that they had brought.
After lunch we visited two groups – a carpentry group who made ger frames and furniture, and the tailor who won the award. I have been eating all afternoon, as everywhere we go we get milk tea and nibbles. A guy who was part of the carpentry group had a great story. He dropped out of school at grade 2, so could not read and write. He did the literacy training with ADRA, and told us that it was great that he could now participate in the elections without any help (general elections will be held here at the end of June). He has a talent for carving, so while he was talking he carved a small animal to give to me. He did the vocational training with ADRA and joined three other men to form a carpentry group. They had made enough enough money to get a bank loan for a small band saw. They had paid back the loan and were doing well. He said that each of them did not feel confident starting a business on their own, but together they thought they could do it. His talent for carving was used on the furniture they made.
It was 30 C today and very hot in the sun. So on the way back to the hotel we stopped by a river and put our feet in for a while. It was so quiet. I could only hear the ducks quack and goats bleating. I got one photo of our riverside stop before my camera battery went flat. On the way back to the hotel we passed a nice green expanse of grass by the river with goats, sheep, yak and camels grazing. All we were missing were some horses and we would have had the full set of Mongolian grazing animals.
