I’ll get straight to the main highlight of the week – my three-day trip to the Gobi Desert! I was lucky enough to be taken to the Dornogobi (Eastern Gobi) region. One of the members of the network that I work for, the Mongolian Youth Federation, was doing a trip to see some of their countryside-based volunteers. They very kindly invited me along for the ride, so I couldn’t refuse…
Sleeper-train from Ulaanbaatar to Sainsand – Dornogobi is a good 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar, so we took an over-night train. Whilst it was a 10-hour journey, the time flew. My collegues and I were swapping songs (something Mongolians seem to love to do), and I had the chance to give my Mongolian a good work-out. Some time later we unfolded the beds in our train compartment, and went to sleep for a while. It was a lovely sleep, but oh too short – we arrived at our stop at 4am. However, I can’t complain too much, as the head of the Youth Federation kindly booked us into a local hotel, which we stopped off in for a few hours. After a hearty breakfast we began our trip to Dzunbayan, a small town in which some of the Mongolian Youth Federation’s volunteers are based. It was a 70-minute trek across the Gobi Desert. Luckily we were travelling in a sturdy Russian jeep, which had a lot of padding inside – necessary for all the bumps we went over. We got to our destination in one-piece, and what a place it was! I’d never seen anything like it. Dzubayan is now a bit of a ghost town, as many of the building are either left unoccupied or are falling to bits. The town used to be a big army base, but since the end of communism the army’s priorities changed and so the majority of the soldiers (and the jobs they brought with them) went away. Thus, in the space of a year the town’s population went from 12,000 to 2,000. This kind of situation is relatively common in Mongolia – it’s one of the few places in the world in which people are moving from towns into the countryside.
Visiting school / doing training – after settling into our youth hostel (which, bytheway, was absolutely freezing!), we made our way to the local school. It is here that the volunteers we came to see work. These volunteers are part of a programme which encourages well-trained teachers to go out to the countryside to support regional communities. They are needed as most of the well-educated people leave the regions to go to Ulaanbaatar, where real money can be made. It was a real pleasure to meet them, and to see the work that they do. They were really friendly, warm and committed people. After having a tour round the different classes (and the very well-behaved students!), I was privileged enough to run a training session for them. We looked at how to run group meetings effectively – as they are so far away from the Youth Federation’s headquarters, it seemed a good idea to help them to become more self-autonomous, and to give them more tools to decide/do things by themselves. It was well received, but despite my warnings the odd mobile phone still went off in the meeting (for some bizarre reason, it’s perfectly acceptable for people to interrupt any meeting, no matter how formal, to answer their mobile phone!). The day was rounded off with some celebrations organised by the school. The students sang songs, and did dances. Then the evening progressed into a disco (I would have never have guessed that Dr Dre would have such a following in the Gobi Desert!). It was so kind of the school to organise this – all for four people coming to visit…
Trip to army base – whilst I mentioned above that the majority of the army left Dzunbayan, there is still a small army base that remains. The town’s location, not far from the Chinese border, makes it still of some strategic importance (I think it’s fair to say that the Mongolians do not trust the Chinese, and so worry that a future invasion may occur. They think the only thing protecting them from the Chinese is that Russia, Mongolia’s neighbour to the North, would not take kindly to further Chinese expansion). Anyway, I digress. We got taken round the army base, and got to see the regiment’s museum. It was fascinating to see all the communist flags, and to see photos of meetings between Mongolian officers and those of other communist nations. However, perhaps most surprising was what the regiment is doing today. In recent years it has sent soldiers to serve in Iraq, supporting the Polish troops in the region. Back in the UK (correct me if I’m wrong) we never heard anything about the contribution that smaller countries are making to support the “War on Terror”.
Whilst all these activities were fun, the main highlight was just meeting the people. Their kindness really struck me, everywhere we went we were treated to the best food they had (even though most of the people were quite poor). I made many new friends, despite my lack of Mongolian language skills (although I’m sure the large amounts of vodka that were going round helped things run that little bit more smoothly). It was also interesting to see the life the people live – they are a small community that is surrounded by desert and a long way from the nearest town. Despite this/because of this, they seemed very happy. I’ve been invited to go back to Dzunbayan sometime next year, an invite I’d like to take up at some stage…
P.S. The locals were desperately looking for an English-language teacher (not necessarily with relevant qualifications!) to join their English language department, so if anyone’s interested get back to me. It would be an amazing experience – the chance to live in the Gobi for a few months doesn’t come every day - and you’d really help these very nice people out!
Sleeper-train from Ulaanbaatar to Sainsand – Dornogobi is a good 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar, so we took an over-night train. Whilst it was a 10-hour journey, the time flew. My collegues and I were swapping songs (something Mongolians seem to love to do), and I had the chance to give my Mongolian a good work-out. Some time later we unfolded the beds in our train compartment, and went to sleep for a while. It was a lovely sleep, but oh too short – we arrived at our stop at 4am. However, I can’t complain too much, as the head of the Youth Federation kindly booked us into a local hotel, which we stopped off in for a few hours. After a hearty breakfast we began our trip to Dzunbayan, a small town in which some of the Mongolian Youth Federation’s volunteers are based. It was a 70-minute trek across the Gobi Desert. Luckily we were travelling in a sturdy Russian jeep, which had a lot of padding inside – necessary for all the bumps we went over. We got to our destination in one-piece, and what a place it was! I’d never seen anything like it. Dzubayan is now a bit of a ghost town, as many of the building are either left unoccupied or are falling to bits. The town used to be a big army base, but since the end of communism the army’s priorities changed and so the majority of the soldiers (and the jobs they brought with them) went away. Thus, in the space of a year the town’s population went from 12,000 to 2,000. This kind of situation is relatively common in Mongolia – it’s one of the few places in the world in which people are moving from towns into the countryside.
Visiting school / doing training – after settling into our youth hostel (which, bytheway, was absolutely freezing!), we made our way to the local school. It is here that the volunteers we came to see work. These volunteers are part of a programme which encourages well-trained teachers to go out to the countryside to support regional communities. They are needed as most of the well-educated people leave the regions to go to Ulaanbaatar, where real money can be made. It was a real pleasure to meet them, and to see the work that they do. They were really friendly, warm and committed people. After having a tour round the different classes (and the very well-behaved students!), I was privileged enough to run a training session for them. We looked at how to run group meetings effectively – as they are so far away from the Youth Federation’s headquarters, it seemed a good idea to help them to become more self-autonomous, and to give them more tools to decide/do things by themselves. It was well received, but despite my warnings the odd mobile phone still went off in the meeting (for some bizarre reason, it’s perfectly acceptable for people to interrupt any meeting, no matter how formal, to answer their mobile phone!). The day was rounded off with some celebrations organised by the school. The students sang songs, and did dances. Then the evening progressed into a disco (I would have never have guessed that Dr Dre would have such a following in the Gobi Desert!). It was so kind of the school to organise this – all for four people coming to visit…
Trip to army base – whilst I mentioned above that the majority of the army left Dzunbayan, there is still a small army base that remains. The town’s location, not far from the Chinese border, makes it still of some strategic importance (I think it’s fair to say that the Mongolians do not trust the Chinese, and so worry that a future invasion may occur. They think the only thing protecting them from the Chinese is that Russia, Mongolia’s neighbour to the North, would not take kindly to further Chinese expansion). Anyway, I digress. We got taken round the army base, and got to see the regiment’s museum. It was fascinating to see all the communist flags, and to see photos of meetings between Mongolian officers and those of other communist nations. However, perhaps most surprising was what the regiment is doing today. In recent years it has sent soldiers to serve in Iraq, supporting the Polish troops in the region. Back in the UK (correct me if I’m wrong) we never heard anything about the contribution that smaller countries are making to support the “War on Terror”.
Whilst all these activities were fun, the main highlight was just meeting the people. Their kindness really struck me, everywhere we went we were treated to the best food they had (even though most of the people were quite poor). I made many new friends, despite my lack of Mongolian language skills (although I’m sure the large amounts of vodka that were going round helped things run that little bit more smoothly). It was also interesting to see the life the people live – they are a small community that is surrounded by desert and a long way from the nearest town. Despite this/because of this, they seemed very happy. I’ve been invited to go back to Dzunbayan sometime next year, an invite I’d like to take up at some stage…P.S. The locals were desperately looking for an English-language teacher (not necessarily with relevant qualifications!) to join their English language department, so if anyone’s interested get back to me. It would be an amazing experience – the chance to live in the Gobi for a few months doesn’t come every day - and you’d really help these very nice people out!
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