Hello from chilly Mongolia! For those of you who feel miserable sometimes because of the heat, most days I'd be glad to give you a little bit of our cold. We had our first frost in early August, our first big snowstorm in mid-September and now temperatures are just below freezing point during the day and well below (-15F) at night. There's already a good layer of snow on the ground in the mountains and hills that surround Ulaanbaatar. I haven't been cross-country skiing yet, but just bought skis and boots, so it'll come soon!
Some of you probably wonder what Mongolia is like. I've been meaning to write to the Blog for quite a while, but with most of my week-ends away camping in the countryside or traveling for work (I've been to 12 provinces out of 21 in Mongolia already!), time is always scarce. Which is a good thing – I've been keeping busy and overall have been having a great time here.
Mongolia is a vast country with a huge count of livestock (30 million) and a tiny population (2 ½ million). Close to half of Mongolians are nomadic herdsmen, living life like in the 12th Century. The combination of traditional and modern is amazing. Some of the wealthier cashmere traders who carry cell phones still dress like Genghis Khan -- including wearing traditional Mongolian shoes which, according to folklore, point up at the toe so as to not harm the land. In contrast, in the city, every Mongolian lady wears stiletto high heels that stab the ground with every step.
In Ulaanbaatar ("UB"), the capital, where I live, half of the city is Soviet style block concrete buildings and the other half is called Ger districts. Herders who lost most or all of their livestock during the "dzud" (extremely cold winters) of 1999-2002 were forced to move to the city, where they live in their traditional Mongolian tent homes, on the margins of poverty. Their lignite stoves are a huge source of pollution; with the recent cold days, the city has started to smell like a big campfire and visibility is very poor.
UB is neither a very pretty nor very exciting city, but it has a decent selection of restaurants, theaters, art galleries and such, so there is always something to do after work. On week-ends I usually go to the countryside with a group of friends/colleagues. The countryside is beautiful. We go camping, or sleep in a ger the group owns just outside of town. During the summer we swam and went tubing down the river; now we mainly hike, and soon we'll ski.
At work, in addition to several small projects, my main activity has been an assessment of the Mongolian livestock and meat sub-sector. The goal of the research is to assess the desirability of strengthening local production for local/regional processing and sale. Through background research and discussion with people at all levels of the supply chain – herders, changers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and buyers – I've found that supply, not demand, is currently the main constraint facing the sector. Despite the large national herd, Mongolia does not produce enough meat to supply the growing national and export markets. So I'm now looking at how Mercy Corps can work with herders to help them increase animal productivity and how to improve linkages to facilitate herders' access to markets.
Mercy Corps Mongolia works on diversifying incomes and promoting economic growth through agribusiness support and development. Thus, our herder 'clients' are not the poorest of the poor but rural businesspeople that are fairly educated and reasonably well-off by local standards. The idea -- which took some getting used to for me -- is that by raising the overall economic level of the country, the general wealth and well-being will, in the long run, trickle down to the most poor. This is similar to the Millennium Challenge Corporation's poverty reduction through economic growth strategy. It's quite different from the type of work that a lot of you do (from what I read on the Blog) and from what I've been used to in the past, but I can understand the rationale behind it now, and see the benefits.
There is a lot of commotion at the Parliament, Foreign Ministry and US Embassy these days – and even smaller at organizations like Mercy Corps: Mongolia will be having important guests next Monday. The Bushes (and Condi) will be here to visit, for four hours! This is the first official visit to Mongolia by an American president. I never imagined that so much preparation went into these official visits - it's unbelievable. Rumsfeld was also here a few weeks ago and Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, came in August, so this fall has been replete with events significant for US-Mongolian bilateral relations. One of the main reasons for this new interest is that Mongolian soldiers are serving in Iraq.
That's the news... I hope all of you are doing well. I wish you all a lovely 'Holiday Season' (not much going on here as this is a Buddhist country) and I look forward to seeing you all again next summer!
Sylvie
P.S. A funny poem, written by a Chinese princess who was obliged to live in Mongolia longer than she would have liked...
"A tent is my house,
Of felt are my walls:
Raw flesh my food
With mare's milk to drink"
Her description is all true, but things aren't nearly so terrible, I would say. Even the popular fermented mare's milk is not so bad – right, Margaret?
Sylvie,
I *love* your photos. You look like you're having such a fabulous time out there. Margaret showed me a copy of the great calendar you guys made. How funny :). I'll send you some heat, but better yet, come out and visit Brian and I!
I'm looking forward to testing out some of my Mongolian vodka!
Posted by: Michaela | November 21, 2005 at 02:35 AM