Margaret in Mongolia, China and more

Naadam Festival…celebration, wrestling, archery, horse racing and throat singing!!!

2009-07-16T04:58:00.001-07:00

Naadam Festival is the biggest holiday here. It is a huge celebration that is a combination of an independence celebration and the largest national sporting event. Ulaanbaatar comes to a halt, except for Naadam for about 4 days. The festival includes much traditional celebration with costumes, dancing, music, wonderful horse routines and displays of Mongolian pride. It also includes the “three manly games” – wrestling, archery and horse racing. Really women participate in everything but wrestling, but it is still called the manly games.

In order to see the most of the events, get tickets and not hassle with transportation I bought a 2-day tour package. It was a great decision. I was able to see the magnificent opening ceremonies, wrestling, archery, anklebone shooting and horse races. Also, we had great guides who shared a lot of history and stories with us. It was wonderful.

The opening ceremonies were fantastic. They included music both by an impressive military band and the national orchestra, which is great. All of the participants were in traditional dress, which is very impressive and beautiful. Then there was dancing, music, acrobatics and a colorful display of traditional entertainment. The skills and costumes are unbeatable.

Next, the horses came in bringing the Mongolian flag. The traditional flag is circular and made out of horsehair. It is majestic and beautiful. The horses are beautiful and the riders are very skilled. It is a sight not to miss. Of course, speeches and pomp and circumstances included as well.

Then the wrestling began. The wrestling went on for the full 2 days. I don’t have the best photos due to the distance, but at least you can see the dress and the sizes of the people. Mongolian wrestling is unique and fun to watch. In Mongolian wrestling there are no weight categories so people of different sizes face off together. It is a display of strength and strategy, with a lot of tradition. If it appears that a wrestler is not trying hard enough, the officials hit them on the butt. The matches can go on for quite some time. If it does not seem likely that it will end then the officials put them in a certain position with one’s head against the others shoulder and usually it comes to an end shortly after that. The match ends when one of the wrestlers is on the ground. After the victory the winner puts his hands up, bent at the elbows and then dances around. He then comes back and moves his body over the losers shoulder. Then the judges put his hat back on and he dances around the flags in the center of the area. It is fun to watch.

Though my photos of this are not the best you can tell that the wrestlers jackets are open in the front. Our guide told us that they used to be closed in front. But in some major event one person kept winning and winning and eventually won the champion match. Only when the jacket was removed did everyone see that the champion was a woman. Good for her!!! Instead of letting women wrestle they changed the tops the wrestlers wear so it would be impossible for a woman to participate in the event. This holds today, but women do participate in other events.

Next was archery. Men and women both participate and all wear traditional dress. They look so beautiful and impressive and they really can shoot. It was really fun to see. I also got to watch another event, anklebone shooting. In this event they use a small sheep anklebone, and a metal tray to shoot them with. Then they flick them across an area to knock down targets that are other bones stacked up. It is a very collegial atmosphere with chanting and encouragement for all.

After all this, I went with another person from my tour to a throat-singing concert at the Choijin Lama Temple Museum. This is a form of singing that has a very, very long history in Mongolia. If you want to hear more about it there are some cuts on YouTube; and there are Naadam bits also. The 2 people singing on this day were amazingly gifted. I do not know how they do it, but the sounds emanate from so deep in their core and the range of tones is huge. Literally, every cell in my body was vibrating and responding. The musicians accompanying the singers play a magical accompaniment to the strength of the throat signing. This was a perfect cap to a magical day.

My day started early the next morning with a 1-½ hour drive out to where the horse races are. The race we saw is considered to be one of the best ones to see. It is out in the country, in an open field, with a bit of a country fair atmosphere without all the junk at our fairs. There is one area of gers that are cooking and selling food, otherwise it is open fields with kites flying, families picnicking and about 500,000 people getting ready to watch the one race. The race is a 24-kilometer, about 14+ miles where the horses run full out the whole way. And in this race it is only 6 year olds racing. WOW!!! They are amazing. Children here start riding pretty much as soon as they can walk, and by 6 they can really ride and race. Though we just saw a part of the race, it was great to see and even better to share this tradition with Mongolians. What a gift to be here.

Truly this was a magical weekend for me with my love for and connection to Mongolia continuing to grow. I will get more pictures up on my face book page from Naadam soon. Saturday I am off to the Gobi desert, then back in a few days and off again to visit a public health doctor in Darkhan, a town near the Russian border. Then one more week here, then off to Beijing then home.

Airmag (fermented horse milk), Camel’s milk, meat, meat, meat and some veggies…food in Mongolia!

2009-07-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

In the past week I have been treated to 2 summer delicacies here. The first is Airmag or fermented horse milk. I was invited out to my friend, Gerlee’s summer home this weekend. Two wonderful friends of hers picked me up and off we went. Her home is out of town about 30 minutes up a small mountain valley. I had a great time. On the way, there were sheep to eat for sale by the side of the road, and a woman near her ger selling airmag, and grilled meat. My hosts tested the milk, bought a bottle of it and some really good grilled meat. Later that night they offered me a bowl of the milk. You know it’s milk, or I thought yogurt like. Well, it is very, very sour. I automatically said ooh and made a face. Thank goodness my friends thought it was funny and were not offended. I had a few more drinks and I was satisfied. Apparently, this drink is very good for your health. During this time of year, some people drink only that and don’t eat all day. I can understand how that would work as it is very rich.

Today, I went with Chimge, my boss and another co-worker, Amraa to Chimge’s old office and organization. They were glad to see her and as a special treat offered us camel’s milk. It is served hot and they had added some sugar. For my taste it was much better than horse’s milk; still sour, but more milk like. It was also very rich and good. I felt honored to be a part of this treat.

The Mongolian diet is mainly made up of meat, wheat, and dairy. There are some vegetables, primarily potatoes, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Vegetables are definitely very secondary and served in small amounts. The photo here is how meat is sold in my local markets. You tell them how much you want and they cut off a chunk. I haven’t bought meat to cook here. We go to lunch together each day at a nice café near us that does home cooking. There is only one item on the menu without meat. It is cabbage rolls filled with mashed potatoes and usually with mayonnaise on top. They do have carrot salad, potato salad, and a cucumber and tomato salad. Lunches here are huge by my standards. Usually I have some hardy meat main dish, with rice, and maybe potato salad or carrot salad. The meal comes with these side dishes. This lunch costs me about $2.50. For me this works fine, because it is so much food that I often don’t eat dinner. If I do eat dinner I have a couple spots where I can get a real salad. I cannot eat wheat and that is surprising to most people here. Bread is such a huge part of the diet here, and yet they apparently have not heard of people with wheat allergies or celiac disease. To meet my treat cravings I make gluten free peanut butter cookies at home; really the only time I use my oven.

We did one more training on grant writing, project planning and small business, income generation planning. It was for the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor here. We met with the head of the social welfare service department before the training. He reviewed our agenda and said it was what they needed. Well, once the training started, the program manager was in the class and began stating they knew all of this and it was not what they needed. They were trying to support poor people and people with disabilities in developing income generation strategies. It turned out they knew very little about starting a business, what questions to ask, etc.

So on Thursday, Chimge and I quickly tailored the training to include relevant examples, topics and information related to beginning a small business and assessing if your idea or product is needed. It went well. On Thursday night, I located some beginning information on how to write a business plan. On Friday, Tunga was working with me. We covered the business plan information and it went very well. Tunga added information and stories from her work in income generation also. By the end of the day, the participants had learned a lot, were using the information we had covered and were very excited. It ended up being a very successful training. The program manager is going to work to develop new, more complete and appropriate proposal application forms and proposal review forms and then possibly hire CSWE for more work to review those.

At the end of the day, the head of the department came down again to thank us, give out certificates and talk to the workers. He told them that now they had to go teach other workers in their district how to do this work. Once again, I saw how hard it is to work here. They had just been presented new material and were just beginning to really grasp it. Then their big boss tells them he expects them to train others. There is such great need here and so little capacity and depth in human services that people are expected to do so much and to function at levels they have not been trained for. I am glad I have been able to help increase their knowledge some and hopefully make their work a bit easier.

My life here reminds me of the movie Slumdog Millionaire. One of the things I really liked about that movie is how it showed earlier events in his life becoming relevant during the game show. I feel like this Mongolian trip has done the same for me. My past work in sexual abuse was critical to meeting a need here. In our first grant training, there was talk about the environmental and safety problems of huge sawdust mountains. I knew about these from my time living in lumber country in Oregon. For our training at the Ministry of Social Welfare all of my early career work starting and operating my own business and my experience writing business plans was very important. It has been fun to use all these different life experiences in my time here. Clearly, I am meant to be here now and share what I know. And I am so glad I know how to think on my feet and speak well in public.

This weekend is the largest holiday of the year here, the Naadam Festival. It is a two-day celebration and athletic event. There are opening and closing ceremonies, wrestling, archery and horse racing. It is a huge thing and hard to get tickets. I bought a tour package that includes tickets to all the main events, food, guide and transportation. I am so excited. Many of the events are done in traditional dress and this is a celebration of Mongolia and their way of life. I will post more about this next week. Have a great Naadam weekend!

My heart is forever moved…Bayarlaa…Thank you!

2009-06-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

6/28/09

Despite its complexity, Mongolia is a special, sweet place. Chimge, my wonderful supervisor, co-worker and interpreter and I completed a 2-day training on grant writing, logic models, project planning and sustainability planning. The Center for Social Work Excellence, where I work had made up nice certificates for the people completing the training. Of course, they were in Mongolian and Chimge and I both signed them. Individual names were put on each one at the end of the training. I asked to have my name put on one, even though I signed all of them for me to have as a memento. Well, when I made that request our participants went to work to make it as nice for me a possible. They spent about 15 minutes figuring out how to write my name in Cyrillic script, and then went even further to write my name in Old Traditional Mongolian Script. They collaborated and worked very hard on it. Then when they gave it to me, they all clapped and were so grateful and joyful. My eyes were full of tears. It was such a gift and such an effort of appreciation and respect. I bowed to the group and many bowed back. It was a very special moment that I will never forget; and I will frame the certificate for my office. This was a precious moment in my journey of life.

About the training, it went very well. Chimge and I work really well together. We build on one another and have fun. Though I know this material very, very well and have taught it many times this training was a bit harder. We had set it up to have activities, where people develop and write plans, outcomes etc. Normally, I would move between groups and assist. Due to the language barrier I was not able to do this. Chimge did it very well and filled me in or gave me tips, though. Due to me not knowing the language I was limited in the activity part, but overall we still got an A evaluation from all but 2 of the participants who gave us a B.

My supervising professor arrived yesterday. He was coming from Beijing though he was diverted to Russia for several hours due to the intense wind in UB. He made it and Chimge, her son and daughter and another Brown School trained social worker Tuya (spelling?) and I had a delightful Indian dinner, compliments of Gautam Yadama. It was a real treat for me.

Today Chimge’s son, Tsengel, Gautam and I went to the large outdoor market here where things are cheap. I have wanted to go there, but have been told not to go alone or without a Mongolian. It was great fun. It is a lot of cheap stuff from China, but there are also traditional Mongolian items. I bought a great jacket. I love to explore and this is a great place to explore. I hope to go back again. I have posted a few pictures of the Mongolian clothing, though after these few shots it became clear they did not want me to take pictures, so I stopped.

Next onto another great Indian meal. Gautam is from India and has been working here for years. He found a great Indian restaurant in the hotel he stays at where we ate last night. We learned that the chef, who GY has known for years, opened a second location, so we ate there for lunch. Both times the food was great. Having a person from India, who knows the chef, and they can both speak Hindi is a guarantee for great food!

Tsengel is a delightful, bright engaging 18 year old who speaks English, due to living in St. Louis while his Mom, Chimge got her MSW at Brown School. He oriented me to UB on my second day here and we have done a couple things together. Being with him is really fun and I so appreciate all he does to help me out here.

Gautam and I spent time talking about my work, my schooling, future work together, etc. I so appreciate his counsel and advise. Not only does he help me with schooling, career directions etc, but also he has helped me learn about communicating across cultures more effectively. I respect him, enjoy him and am very grateful for all his help and support.

Over the next few days while he is here, we will be meeting with some of the many social workers and professionals he knows here to gather more information and data and to formulate the next steps in our work here in Mongolia. I know I will learn a lot and it will be great fun.

My life is very full here and I am tired. So off to an early night for me. I have more stories and photos to share, so I will add more soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Mongolia, Mongolia, Mongolia... so much to share!

2009-06-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

6/22/09

Mongolia, Mongolia, Mongolia…so much to share

I am sorry for the delay in posting. I have been working very hard and having a lot of fun. First I will follow up on a question left open on my last post; when the Russians ran the place did they paint things? I once again asked my co-worker and told her I was serious. She said that the Russians painted about once every 10 years. I have never been in the Soviet Union, so I do not know if it has always been unkempt and run down or if that is a result of the fall of communism. If you know please let me know.

This Friday and Saturday I am delivering another training on grant writing and project planning. Once again, I am thankful I have both studied and taught this material. Training here is an adventure because of the translation and me not having a sense of what they already know. For the second time, please wish me well.

My supervising professor, Gautam Yadama arrives here in UB on Saturday and stays until Wednesday. He has worked here a lot, is the contact for Washington University for the Open Society Institute; a George Soros Foundation project, and has taught summer school here for social workers. It will be great to have him here and I am sure I will learn a lot. He is brilliant, driven, over committed and really supportive of students and me. I never quite know what to expect, but it is always interesting.

I think I mentioned earlier that we are working on a proposal to increase access to health services for disadvantaged groups in the ger districts here in UB. This proposal is for work to support a project in place funded by the Japan Poverty Reduction Fund channeled through the Asian Development Bank. Our work will be to do a situation analysis, household survey, and institutional assessment to develop a very clear picture of what is really happening for poor people in the ger districts related to health. Next, we will develop criteria for starting pilot projects to improve access to health services, and then monitor and evaluate these projects.

Mongolia and many countries around the world are trying to switch their health focus from a treatment model to more of a prevention, wellness, and primary care model. The primary care model is the preference of the World Health Organization and is being “pushed-supported” in many developing countries. Here it is a really good idea, but it is very different from the hospital based health care system utilized before. So the hurdles for effective implementation are large including the need to change cultural expectations and health behaviors and patterns.

Last week we went to visit a Family Group Practice (FGP) – primary health clinic in one of the targeted ger districts, the pink house in the pictures. I know I missed the meeting details due to the language barrier, but my co-workers filled me in. This FGP does a fabulous job with what they have to work with, but the same as my information on treating victims of sexual abuse there is not the money or infrastructure to do what they really want to do. They do not have adequate equipment and what they do have it is because this group solicits organizations for equipment, support, etc. Apparently this is not the norm. But even though I could not understand the meeting discussion I did learn a lot, just by observation.

I have walked through ger districts between my house and the largest monastery in the city – more on that to come in another post. But I have not really had the opportunity to grasp the details or lay of the land for those who live there. This visit gave me a much better sense of it all.

The ger districts surround the city, and last I checked over 49% of the population lives in these districts. They are made up of areas with wood houses and a fenced in area. Within the fenced area are gers, sometimes several. People who have more money have built houses, and then they allow relatives to put gers up in their yard, or they rent the space to others. I want to make it very clear that these districts are huge and they surround the city. None of these houses or gers have running water or toilets in the houses, and the government is not planning to change this. The government is building more wells in the districts, but all residents have to haul their water. And remember UB is incredibly dirty, even in the parts of the city with buildings. All the roads in the ger districts are dirt.

When I inquired why the government is not working to bring water to these houses and gers, I was told that they want to do away with all of these districts and replace them with apartments. I was stunned. As my co-worker Chimge said this will never happen. This is a culture built on nomadic pastoralism. People don’t like cities, they want space and they have a lot of stuff in their yards. How that will ever work for these people to live in apartments is truly a question that should be asked. Also, last semester I did a large research project on Urban Development and the research shows that the most cost-effective and best way to implement urban development is through urban upgrading – providing infrastructure in place where the people already live. Not only does this cost so much less than moving people, building new apartments, and then re-locating them; but also across the board if infrastructure is built and people are given secure tenure rights then they invest on average 2 to 4 times what was spent on the development. The people living in the ger districts want to be close to the city for employment and they definitely like having more space. So, the expansion will continue and the lack of sanitation and basic necessities will continue.

Inside the FGP we visited, there are small wall altars to Buddha and the Mongolian doctors practice a combination of traditional and allopathic medicine, which is great. They do have sinks with running water in each room, and the place is very clean. There is limited equipment and certainly not what we would call “advanced” equipment. There are no toilet facilities in the building. The toilet is out back in the fenced dirt yard in a locked outhouse. The outhouse has a big pit with wood planks above it and there is space between two of the planks. In Mongolia, there usually is not toilet paper provided so you bring your own, and even if there is a toilet you do not put the paper into it. It is amazing the level of commitment and caring these doctors have and how hard they work even with so little.

I read a recent report that talked about how poverty levels in the ger districts are rising. Counting all of Mongolia the average household monthly income is 344,700 togrogs, roughly about $243.60. The average monthly household expenditure is about 355,700 togrogs, roughly $251.38. And this is not dealing with just the ger districts. Ulaanbaatar’s poverty level this year is 57.5%. It is amazing to me that a country that once was doing very well, has been ravaged by both Chinese rule and then Russian rule. And yet, I remind myself that India and many of the African countries have been working at development since they gained independence from colonial rule varying between 1940’s and 1960’s. Mongolia has only been independent since the early 1990’s, was left in an economically devastated state and is slowly working to rebuild. It is a very interesting, fascinating and challenging place and I really like it. Except for missing my wonderful husband tremendously along with my family and friends, I am thriving here. I will update more frequently because I have lots of stories and info to share. But for now, it is to bed! Thank you for reading and for your ongoing interest and support!

Training Results & Social Work in Mongolia

2009-06-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

My training went wonderfully. Chimge, my supervisor and co-worker did a great job translating and it was truly a success. I know it was successful based on what Chimge said, and the comments from those who could speak English. Also on Saturday afternoon, they were supposed to cover another topic and they chose to put it off to another time, so we could have more time to cover my topic. I was definitely the lead trainer, so thank goodness I do know that material well. I also learned a lot.

It is hard being a social worker working with abuse in any country, but it is exceedingly hard in Mongolia. Until the 1990’s Mongolia was funded and run by the Soviet Union, and so social problems were covered by government funds and there was not much acknowledged need of problems existing let alone for social workers, or social work as a profession. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy has been very hard for Mongolia. The poverty rates rose drastically, along with many social problems that had not been acknowledged during the Soviet rule. Violence, alcoholism, unemployment, street children, abuse, and human trafficking all skyrocketed.

Mongolia like so many developing countries put laws on the books but the institutional infrastructure and funding are not in place to implement the laws, let alone meet the needs of victims. Social work only started as a profession in Mongolia in the mid 90’s with a lot of support from the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundation. My co-worker Chimge was one of the first Open Society students and she came to my school to get her Masters in Social Work, even though her undergraduate degree is in engineering. She is an awesome social worker.

So with social work being so new here people do not have specific training in practice modalities and effective ways to remedy problems. And on top of that the government adds laws in order to be able to tell the international organizations such as the UN that they have the laws, but there is no way to enforce them or train police, or provide adequate support to social workers or victims. My training was held at the National Center against Violence here in UB. They deal with 10 victims each day, an astronomical number for a shelter to take in; and that does not count their centers around the country. And yet, they have no government funding and private Mongolian funding does not exist. So they rely primarily on international aid, which is not predictable or guaranteed.

I was honored to share my knowledge and experience with these amazing people who work so hard to improve the lives of people who have been horribly victimized. I was able to help them understand and grasp the penetrating consequences of sexual abuse, whether as a child or an adult. It was amazing because one social worker said that she just thought the women were behaving horribly and she had no idea that their behavior was a normal response to sexual abuse. I watched her move to a sense of compassion for these women. And then I later moved the discussion to even though people have been victimized; they are responsible for making decisions to create a new future for themselves. That was great, because the same woman had an Ah-Ha moment saying I only thought of them as victims and no wonder when they left our shelter they went back to the same situation; we need to help them make new choices, and move beyond being only a victim.

Also, the shelters here are such a new concept and not based on former experience that they do not have the necessary rules and guidelines in place for shelter operations. We talked a lot about rules and realizing that women, mostly teenagers who have been victims of sex trafficking may come to the shelters but until they are ready to change, you cannot help them. So for the safety of others, shelters must have rules, structures and boundaries and be willing to make people leave the programs if they will not comply. Several of the social workers said this was extremely helpful and they were going to develop more rules and structure for their shelters. All in all, 2 days very well spent.

This week I was able to attend a meeting at the United Nations office here in UB. My organization, Center for Social Work Excellence presented the results of an extensive research study they completed on Gender Based Violence in Mongolia. It was a great learning experience for me, watching the group dynamics and the dynamics around language. I will also be meeting for coffee with two of the UN workers so that will be fun.

Here are a couple pictures of my training. One is the door to the National Center against Violence. This is a typical entrance in UB. Even the UN building desperately needs paint. I asked my co-worker today as we walked past some student dorms that really need work if when the Soviet Union ran the country were things painted? She just laughed at my question and I never got an answer. I will have to ask again tomorrow. Chimge my co-worker and translator is shown with me in the pictures. We had about 20 people on Friday and about 10 on Saturday, all crowded into this one room. Thanks for reading my thoughts, Margaret

International Training Debut tomorrow

2009-06-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

Little did I know that before the end of my second week of work, I would be co-training on a 2-day training for social workers and psychologists on Interventions with Child Sexual Abuse! I will be co-training with my supervisor and Executive Director, Chimge. I will be the only English speaker so Chimge will translate for me. Thank goodness, I do have a significant knowledge and experience base with this subject and I have been researching for the last several days. Chimge put an agenda together and I have filled in my parts. Please send me your positive thoughts for a successful training! Next week we are also doing another training on grant and proposal writing. I am very comfortable with training and public speaking but this is a new audience for me. After that, it is on to submitting a proposal researching health conditions and services in the ger districts. This is closely related to all the research I have been doing so I am very excited about this. I am working very hard, and enjoying it. Yeah!

I also have a fun thing going at one of the little markets I shop at. Two of the people have started helping me learn Mongolian. It is so fun. The checker asked me if I wanted a bag in Mongolian and I tried to repeat the word for bag. This let her and the security guard know that I wanted to learn, so they repeated the word until I pronounced it right. Then I forgot it. But she did the same thing with saying goodbye and that I remembered. So I will sign off tonight in Mongolian – bayartai – goodbye.

PS – Mongolia uses a Cyrillic script but that is way beyond me.

Here are a couple photos of my work building and the road outside it; typical of the contrasts in UB.

UB 10 days in and still smiling

2009-06-01T03:48:00.000-07:00

It has been 10 days since I arrived in Ulaanbaatar – UB – Mongolia. It is amazing because I feel like I have been here so much longer. I am settled in my home, know my way to and from work and around town. When I get on the wrong bus, I know enough of the main square landmarks to get off and find my way home and I am learning a small amount of Mongolian. UB is a fascinating place. It is dusty, dirty and very unkempt, and I really like it. I live amongst a block of old Soviet block style concrete buildings that look pretty bad on the outside, but inside my place is ok. I have not seen another foreigner around here so I am living amongst the locals. I have mostly mastered laundry except the centrifuge on it is eating my socks. I have found one of the missing ones, but the other one has to be in there somewhere.

Some of you are probably wondering how I got here. I went back to graduate school to change my focus to International Social Work. I chose Washington University in St. Louis because it is the # 1 school in the world for SW and has a large focus on international work. My wonderful husband, Timothy said that I had moved for his career and now it was my turn so off we went to STL. Last summer as I was interviewing faculty members to find additional opportunities while in school, I met Professor Yadama who has done extensive work in Mongolia, and around the world. He asked me to do a research work-study with him and help with his work in Mongolia. It felt right and I said yes and have been learning about here ever since.

Since sometime in 2007 or 2008 for the first time on earth, we have more people living in urban centers rather than in rural areas. Many large cities worldwide have experienced a huge migration into urban areas. Here in UB these people migrate in due to economic needs, due to millions of their livestock being killed in drought and severe winters and due to the disintegration of the country and traditional nomadic pastoralism since the Soviet Union collapsed. People here move in with their gers – pronounced gears. Yurts are the Russian word for these and it is not used here. The ger districts have expanded rapidly with most areas not having adequate infrastructure, services or ways to meet basic needs. They are placed in yards amongst other houses or in whole areas of gers. I have been researching physical and mental health conditions in the ger areas and what services are available there with 3 wonderful faculty members from UB who have been at my school. And now I am working at the Center for Social Work Excellence with a group of social workers, 2 who have been educated in the US and are fluent in English. My work is great. I edited a report on gender-based violence and will attend the meeting when they present this report to the United Nations. I am helping design trainings on best practice in treatment of child sexual abuse & domestic violence, doing research in the ger areas and community based efforts in place in the ger areas, and helping with several other projects and proposals in the works. It is a great, very, very committed group of people who are improving the quality of social work throughout Mongolia. And they are fun to work with; a real bonus for me!

In my time here, I have been to the country, attended a fabulous traditional Mongolia song & dance performance, found a Temple Museum and walked all over town. I was scheduled to attend a 2-week China Summer Institute that the Chinese cancelled due to concerns over swine flu. I am trying to adapt and make new plans – maybe working longer and also taking more time to travel around Mongolia, and China on my way home. I am sure it will become clear and the adventure continues. I am posting just a few pictures here, as it is hard to post many. Please check out my facebook page where I have posted and will post more pictures throughout.

More posts to come about Chinggis Khaan, no not Genghis Han, Mongolian people, food and life. Thank you all for your interest and support. Margaret

Happy Anniversary, Timothy and Margaret - 31 years!

2009-05-28T03:44:00.000-07:00

Today is our 31st wedding anniversary and truly the only regret I have is that Timothy and I are thousands of miles apart today. I made the best decision of my life about 32 years ago when I asked Timothy to marry me and I am so thankful he said yes! Being here in Mongolia by myself has allowed me to see clearly how much I have relied on Timothy to "take care of me and to figure out details when we are in new places". While he has done an excellent job at this, I realize how by being unaware of this I have not always carried my share of responsibility, and placed an extra load on Timothy. Timothy all I can say is thank you and job very well done! But now I know I can figure out details of new places and take care of myself, so from now on I will help carry the load and hopefully give you some rest.

We do have a remarkable marriage where we give and take, lead and follow and truly love, like and enjoy each other. The passion continues on wonderfully after all this time and I know I am married to the best man in the world for me! Thank you, Timothy! I do love you so!

New home in Mongolia

2009-05-24T02:04:00.001-07:00

Greetings, I can not figure out how to easily load more than a couple photos onto this blog. If someone knows please email me. So the photos that go with this blog are uploaded to my facebook page - can yo believe how techie I am. But here is the description to go with photos. If someone knows once again, please send me emails about how to get photos - probably a lot - and narrative onto 1 site for people to see.

I think I am officially moved in today. I will attach photos of my home. On the web Ulaanbaatar - UB from now on - is called a cosmopolitan city. Well it is in that it is the capital, is large for Mongolia and has lots of foreign restaurants and visitors. It is not cosmopolitan in that it is run down, dirty and dusty. UB has not been well kept up and if you were to judge it only by it's exterior you would think it is pretty bad. This is not true and one more time that judgement on form does not work. I like UB and the people have been fabulous. That being said in many ways it is like you step back 30 to 50 years but with cell phones and internet.

The outside of my apartment building looks shabby and even scary to me at first. The inside is fine. It is well protected as you can tell by all the doors. I am on the 8th floor and have nice views and the apartment is furnished adequately and my landlords are great.

Now the washing machine is another story, though I guess I am lucky to have a washing machine at all. As you can tell from the pictures it sits above the bath tub. You connect a hose from the tub to the washer and then fill it. Next add soap and clothes and turn it on. It rotates but much less forcefully than our machines. After it is done I can tell it worked by the dirty water still in the tub. Next I take the clothes out and rinse them using the bathtub and sink faucet - they are the same faucet that moves from sink to tub. Once I have rinsed them then I put them in the dryer side of my machine - both sides are quite small. Then I put a lid on the dryer tub and set it to spinning. It really does spin the water out. The water from the clothes empties into the tub, so you can see if you really got them clean. I didn't do too bad on my first load. From there you shake them out and put them on my drying racks that you see in the pictures. And from there the iron becomes your good friends. Those who know me well know I do not iron, but I am evolving. Ironing while watching BBC World News on my TV may become a regular event.

I will add more soon. Yesterday I was invited to go with a Mongolia and a Czech social worker to one of the national parks outside UB. We had a great time, ate lunch in a ger, hiked, rode horses, visited a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and made new friends. I am too tired to add about that now and I need to do more laundry before work tomorrow. I will write about that within the next couple days.

Made it to Mongolia

2009-05-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in my apartment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The wonderful staff and family at Council for Social Work Excellence got me in and settled. I even have food in my fridge. Life is excellent and I am so excited to be here. Now it is time for sleep and I will add more later.