Beautiful Bayan Ulgii

In August I spent a week in Bayan Ulgii doing an assessment on the possibility of ADRA establishing food security projects there. Bayan Ulgii is the western most province in Mongolia. It is also home to the majority of ethnic Kazakhs in Mongolia (the largest ethnic minority in Mongolia). ADRA's food security coordinator, Bek, is Kazakh, so we were visiting his home.

The landscape is as epic as the rest of Mongolia, even bigger (which I didn't think was possible). Floating above the mountains are at least five mountains that have permanent snow throughout the year. Although beautiful, the landscape is tough, with very few trees and sparse grass. There is ground water in places though, and we visited three places where ADRA might be able to work where the villages have access to water only 3 to 5 metres below the surface.

Unlike other parts of Mongolia, where gers and wooden structures are common, in Bayan Ulgii wood is a luxury so most of the construction is mud brick. The Kazakhs also have bigger gers than the standard Mongolian ger, and most are richly decorated inside with elaborate needlework wall hangings and other decorations. They also have stronger tea. I liked the tea, and drank many, many, many cups of it.

 

On the weekend I was taken up into the mountains to visit the family of a traditional eagle hunter. We camped next to their ger, by a small stream. It rained and snowed during the night, so we ended up in the jeep, but the next day we got to see the eagle. It was a young eagle, not much more than 2 years old. The hunter had captured it as a baby bird from the nest and trained it.  The hunter uses the eagle to hunt foxes and other animals. A big eagle can even kills a wolf. Every day it is fed fresh meat (at least a kilogram or two from memory, which means lots of squirrel hunting). They offered me a chance to hold the eagle. I was not sure at first, I felt very vulnerable, but the man seemed comfortable by it, so I put on the protective glove and squatted down on the ground as instructed. The eagle was put on my right wrist and I was shown how to hold the tether with my left hand. Then I was told to stand. My arm started to shake, as the eagle weighed at least 10 kilograms. At one point the eagle looked me directly in the eye and I felt completely inadequate.

Then it was Bek's turn. As you can see by the photo, he got to wear the special hat, and looked much more comfortable with the eagle than I did! The eagle opened its wings to the wind, and I wondered if it would prefer to fly than sit down on the ground with us.

In between visits to local governments and possible community gardening sites Bek took me to see some beautiful landscape. This river was winding its way along a plain, the only green in the landscape for miles around. We climbed up to an old Russian monument on a small hill and sat and contemplated the water and the trees. Next to us was a young shepherd, watching his herd while looking at the view. Very peaceful.

This baby belonged to a young woman in one village who discovered during our visit that she was making us lunch. This is not that unusual when we visit places without any public eating places. It is important to show hospitality so usually the government person we are meeting or someone else senior in the village will make a phone call and then an hour later lead us to someone's home. This young woman had studied English at university and was teaching English at the local high school. Kazakhs speak Kazakh at home, and do school in Mongolian and Kazakh. Some of them know Russian, and a few speak English as well. The young woman wanted to practice her English with me, and I was humbled that she could probably speak four languages and I can only manage one. Her baby was propped up in the chair to watch us, during the conversation I watched the baby as his eyes slowly closed and finally he was asleep. No fuss.

I loved the landscape, the mountains, the sunsets, the interesting people. Hopefully I will be able to visit this beautiful place again one day in the future. Definitely we plan for ADRA to work here in helping people grow more food and improve their ability to generate income.