Life in -30 degrees

Many of you would never have believed this but I'm actually pretty used to the Mongolian winter. As someone who feels the cold in Melbourne more than anyone, the thought of living in -30 was a frightful one. But I've adapted. I factor in at least 10 minutes before leaving the house to apply my many layers of clothing (some days recently this has required three pairs of thermal leggings, plus my yak wool knee warmers and camel hair socks), then once outside I bury my face into my pollution mask and neck warmer so as to keep my entire face warm (my eyes remaining the only thing visible), and finally when I manage to get inside again (usually in an overheated building) I instinctively wipe away the ice and water that forms on my eyelashes and eyebrows after being outside for just 10 minutes.

So when the weather congregates somewhere around -15 to -40 (which it's predicted to reach in the next few days) on a daily basis, what do you do? Here's a summary of some of the things I've been up to the past month.

Going ice skating at Children's Park. This was great fun, although I could only manage to stay out in the cold for 40 minutes or so.

Watching Mongolian Wrestling. I did't really understand all the rules and procedures of the national sport, but just the outfits and various shapes and sizes of the wrestlers kept me entertained.

Eating. We've (me and the other volunteers based in UB) been having lots of dinner parties since I've arrived. Held at our homes or out at our favourite local restaurants, it's a great way to catch up and to also keep warm. Some meals include (shown below) hot pot, my housemate's home-made caesar salad, Brazilian, and vegan food.

Engrossing myself in work. I've been pretty designing new brochures, organising seminars, and holding training sessions, for the Agency this month, along with the couple of road trips to which I was invited along.

Work Trip to Erdenet

At the start of last week my counterpart Otgo told me that a work trip to Erdenet, Mongolia’s third largest city, could come up during the week. The very next day, she asked me if I was prepared and ready to go that day. After waiting a few hours for confirmation from the Agency’s Director, we were on the road. That’s just how they do everything here: last minute. Their historic nomadic culture has definitely influenced this flexibility and adaptability of the Mongolian people to be ready (and willing) for anything.

The trip to Erdenet took about five hours, but this time I was lucky enough to be quite warm and have a seat and a half to myself. We went via the city of Darkhan as the Director wanted to show me Mongolia’s second largest city in this trip too. Even though it was already dark, it was nice to stop off there and walk up a hill to a large Buddha statue, and to look at the amazing orange full moon that we could see along the entire trip.

Before our arrival in Erdenet, we stopped on the outskirts of the city for the Director to make a traditional buddhist ritual with fire, vodka and rice. Previous to living in UB, he lived in this city, so he feels a real connection to the place.

The next day the Director organized for us to visit the copper mine, the forth largest copper mine in the world. The city of Erdenet didn't exist before this mine was established in 1975. And now the city has a population close to 100,000. The mine was established as a Russian-Mongolian joint venture, and it currently remains that way with Mongolia currently earning 51 per cent of the profits, and Russia 49 per cent.

We then went to visit the regional SME officer who represents the SMEs of Erdenet city. She was a very nice lady who didn’t speak any English but was willing to learn. Initially she spoke of having issues with SMEs who come in to her office to ask about marketing, sales opportunities, and so on. I introduced her to the SME toolkit, an International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) initiative that provides detailed information about business-related topics and is available in multiple languages, including Mongolia. The officer really appreciated this and hopes to incorporate it into her work and the training that she undertakes with SMEs. I then proposed the idea of conducting a training session in project planning for her and anyone else in her office that may benefit from such training. She contacted about ten other government officers who all RSVP’d for the presentation that would take place in less than an hour and a half: another great example of the flexibility of the Mongolian people.

Before the session we went for lunch to a Russian/Slavic restaurant nearby. As the Russians were heavily involved in the copper mine in Erdenet, they have been very influential on the development of the city. We ate borsch (beetroot soup), which I absolutely loved and am planning to go back for some when we return at the end of February on our way to the Ice Festival.

The training session went really well. Otgo interpreted for me and from the feedback we received, it was beneficial to them. They said that while they do the main steps already (define tasks, establish project team and responsibilities, determine timeline, etc.) they don’t document in written form. They went on to say that by doing so, they would have less worries about who was doing what and when things needed to be done by, because it would all be written down for all to see. I have since developed a project plan template for them to use, so I really hope that it becomes an important part of their daily work.

Otgo and I then waited and waited for the Director to finish up his appointments and meetings after he said we would leave for UB at 4pm. We waited in our hotel rooms, then went to a Russian supermarket for snacks, then waited in the hotel lobby where we were harassed by a drunk (unfortunately there is a big alcohol problem here in Mongolia), then waited in the car with the Director’s driver. By 7pm the Director was done so we had a quick dinner back at the hotel (beef and noodle soup) before the long drive home.

Work Trip to Olziit soum

This week I had the opportunity to go on my first work trip to rural Mongolia. I went with my work supervisor at the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Agency, Suvdaa, and two employees from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), one of whom works as a business advisor with our agency. Our destination was the local government area (called a ‘soum’) of Olziit, which is located in the central Mongolian province (called an ‘aimag’) of Arkhangai.

The mayor of the soum and her driver picked the four of us up from Ulaanbaatar (UB) in their Russian jeep, a Vitz. It proved to be a pretty good vehicle, not breaking down on the trip to and from UB. This is pretty rare here, particularly in these freezing temperatures. It would have gotten below -30 degrees Celsius on this journey. It could only go as fast as 80km per hour though, so it did take us a while to drive the 1100km return. The weight in the vehicle probably didn’t help either. With another woman from the soum joining us, there were 7 of us in this small jeep. We fitted five in the backseat at the beginning, and even after the mayor moved to the front seat with the driver and Ikeda-san, I felt like I didn’t gain any more room to myself. But it was snug, which kept me pretty warm throughout the trip.

Our transportation: A Russian jeep (note the Mongolian flag on the steering wheel)

Scenes from the drive

Once we were settled into our accommodation they brought us an early dinner of mutton and potato soup, the same dish I had eaten for lunch at the restaurant we stopped at along the way. I don’t mind this soup that much, it’s actually quite filling and somewhat tasty for a Mongolian national dish. Although I do try to avoid the mutton fat that makes up a large proportion of the meal.

Dinner (lunch being a similar version)

After dinner we went to the town hall where we had a meeting with around 20 of the local administrators of the soum. We introduced ourselves, and they gave us an overview of the soum, its main industries and development issues. The soum has a population of 3,200 people, the majority of who work in livestock farming. From this meeting and our tour of the soum the following morning, it became obvious that this remote area of Mongolia is facing major problems that are impacting on their economic and social development. Firstly, the rate of unemployment, and in particular discouraged workers, is extremely high. Secondly, a large number of industries, such as flour, butter and brick manufacturing, that were once thriving in the communist era (pre-1990) have been left abandoned as a result of an unsuccessful transition to privatisation (most likely a major contributor to problem number one). It was really depressing to see the reality of this and the effect it’s had on the community. Moreover, it’s really disappointing as the soum is now requesting manufacturing facilities to add value to their products. For instance, if sheep farmers had machinery and equipment for wool and felt processing, essentially they could earn greater income. This would be the same for a dairy farmer who had the facilities to process butter and cheese. Currently, they are forgoing this extra income by selling the raw product at a very low price to larger scale manufacturing businesses in UB. Of course, such investments into these technologies needs to be justified, but it appears that something like this is needed, particularly to improve the motivation of discouraged workers who could gain jobs at these facilities.

Sunrise

This tour of the soum involved visits to several businesses, including the only cobbler in the soum, who does all his work by hand, and that of a young man trying to start up a dairy business with his five cows. We also had a couple of visitors to our accommodation to talk about developing their businesses. One of these was a woman who needs funding to enhance her felt making business. All of the SMEs and potential business owners had the one hope – that we could assist them in gaining financial support through a business loan. This was not possible: firstly, because the next lot of loans that our Agency allocates to SMEs is at the end of the year, and secondly, we as SME Agency officers do not take part in the selection of soft loan recipients. So we could only provide them with advice in terms of how to prepare their business plan.

Scenes from Olziit

In the mayor's office (a common offering in any Mongolian office)

At the boarding school

The drive back to UB was long and exhausting, but it gave me the chance to reflect on the trip, and think about the strength and patience of the Mongolian people. While they may not be patience in the best of times (in supermarket cues they are notorious for cutting in) they are extremely patient by enduring this long and harsh winter, particularly those living in remote rural areas. This strength that they have, both mental and physical, is so admirable. In Australia we talk of people having it tough in the past due to limited technologies and such, but these people living in rural Mongolia are still experiencing such a life. It makes me really appreciate what we have as a developed country. But I believe that while we can teach them all that we can about economic and social development, we can learn a lot from them from them in terms of endurance, patience and personal strength.

The bridge to the soum.

The community relies heavily on this for its economic and social wellbeingThe drive home to UB