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*inhospitable*

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

by both of us
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Certainly this is a hard country to live in; from winter to summer there are wild extremes in temperature (in the region of 80-100 degrees C), hard winters kill off most vegetation, the dry spring brings countless dust-storms until the rains come, relieving the country with a green blanket for only a few short months. What the summers lack in length, they make up for in intensity – short but stifling hot, up to 40 degrees in Ulaanbaatar.
Civic infrastructure does little to add to the ease of life. Outside the capital, there is next to nothing. Even in the city 60% of the population does not have tapped water, neither for drinking nor cleaning nor toiletting. There are busses, but they only reach the city limits, not beyond. Rubbish collection is supposed to be once a month, but it rarely happens that way. There are libraries, but only three for a million people. Heating in apartments is a blessing through the winter, but no-one has any control over it…it is turned on at the end of October and will not be turned off until May, even if spring comes early as it has this year.
We were told that in the last severe winter when the Red Cross sent international aid, it did not arrive until the snow was already too deep to transport it across the country. Then when the snow melted, the ground was too muddy to allow transportation. And so at the beginning of summer, much too late to be of any assistance to the people who had been starving, the sacks of food were to be found at the market….for sale.
In a country that has broken away politically from neighbours both to the east and west, there is supposedly new scope for democracy and freedom here now. Hard to reconcile this with the fact that six demonstrators were killed in the square just last year, three of them shot in the back as they ran away. And what about the fact that boxes of voting papers “went missing” after the election, never to be seen again?

She’s one hard place.

And maybe that accounts for our second-in-Mongolia, fourth-worldwide  couchsurfing experience to be…well….not as inviting as previous ones. Made me think about Some Ways To Make Your Guests Feel At Home (aka hospitality).

  1. Lend guests a map and give very detailed directions to the accommodation.
  2. Offer everyone a cup of tea upon arrival.
  3. But do not introduce husband or children.
  4. Provide bedding so dusty it could be called a beach (or more appropriately, perhaps,  a desert)
  5. Provide games and toys for the children to play with.
  6. Request guests bring a gift for your children, and when it is not voluntarily produced soon enough after guests’ arrival, ask for it.
  7. Suggest taking a walk down to the river.
  8. Ask guests to cook a meal…..and then……
  9. Insist on accompanying the guests on the food-buying expedition, ensuring plenty of food is purchased at guests’ expense, much of which will not be consumed until guests have left.
  10. Allow your two children to eat all ten lollipops purchased with the intention of all children enjoying one each.
  11. Ask guests to buy a new electrical splitter box as your old one has broken.
  12. Send guests out to collect and pay for water, firewood and coal (fair enough, we did use some – no complaints there).
  13. Insist guests NOT take the bus in to town (at a total round trip cost of 1,200 togrog), and take them in your own car. Guests will have to wait while you visit an internet cafe, do your banking and chat with your friends at the market. They will then have to pay for purchases and spend 10,000 togrog on petrol.
  14. When guests enquire about food that has “disappeared”, explain that it has been eaten or, better still, manage to find it. Hunk of lamb remains a mystery though.
  15. Sit at the computer playing games while the dinner is prepared.
  16. Take the meal your guests have cooked for you to another room and supplement it with your personal provisions while guests eat alone.

All of the above was our experience, and after staying with families, who had welcomed us into their lives, this time we were left with an overall sense of perhaps being used…not quite the hospitable spirit of couchsurfing. We will later be told *this* was the typically Mongolian welcome and the first one was the unusual one! And that we were lucky nothing was stolen <wink>


the ger we stayed in, hosts’ house and *out*house


the street where we stayed

Posted in food, housing, money, postcard: Mongolia, tradition, weather | 1 Comment »

GER: Global Education Received

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

by a very grateful Rachael
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

60% of the city’s population is without running water…is this Africa? Nope, too cold for that. Are we in a refugee camp? No, although we are living in a tent. Is this a medieval town? The distinctive smell pervading the whole area makes us wonder……

After a squishy-squashy bus ride, and at our ten-year-old guide’s command, we have disembarked and are following him up the hill to his home.

The road is no more than a dusty rutted dirt track. The gully beside is filled with rubbish, which apparently neighbours dump there under cover of darkness. A couple of communal toilets perch on the hill, although we see two young boys wee-competing at the side of the road!

Togoldor, more easily known as Todo, leads us into a narrow alley. A second whiff wafts past as we step gingerly over a melting muddy section, a rough wooden fence obscuring from view the source of the smell; the neighbour’s dunny.

Out of the darkness of the fence-sided alley and into bright sunlight, we catch the first glimpse of where we are going to learn so much over the next two days.

As I start to write, we are bursting with things to say, memories to capture, ideas to mull over. Our journals are a jumble of random thoughts, still in need of being processed. It was all so different.
Let’s start with 33-year-old Mungunsoymbo. Most strikingly, she smiles all the time, quietly hovering in the background getting on with the business of living and caring for her family. Like me, she bakes their daily bread and makes noodles by hand, using an identical pasta maker! Like me, she is concerned that plastic bags are littering the environment and has made her own reusable cloth bags for shopping. We both hang our family’s laundry on a line to dry. We both have countless uses for baking soda! As we work and talk together, we are always saying “Ah, me too. Same same. Exactly!”
But while there are similarities in our lives, it is clear to me that Soymbo’s is much harder. Every three days, whether under the scorching summer sun or sliding up snow and sheets of ice, she helps her husband haul 120 litres of water from the bore at the bottom of the hill. This water is carefully rationed. It needs to be boiled before being cooked with or drunk. It needs to be heated before being poured into the washbasin canister, which hangs on the splashback. When the undersink container is full, it needs to be emptied outside. This is your life when you don’t have running water or a sewerage system. And it makes her especially thankful for the fact that she has a washing machine for doing the laundry for her six family members – even if she does have to cart the machine from a building outside the ger into her home whenever she wants to use it.
She also has to keep a fire going all day. Not only does this require attention to the fire itself, but she also spreads out fresh cow dung to dry and then collects it up into sacks, one sack full a day. Cow dung, apart from burning cleanly and not polluting the environment like coal, and being cheap (in fact it’s free, unlike coal, which costs a bit and wood that is expensive), also burns less fiercely. The things ya learn eh!

Then there are some things that are just different. Maybe neither more difficult nor more simple. When I make the bed, it involves straightening some sheets on a frame and mattress and smoothing out a duvet. When Soymbo makes the bed, she bundles up the bedding used overnight and puts it on a shelf before folding up the felt mat on the floor. When I do the dishes there are plates and bowls and cutlery and glasses; a Mongolian family needs only to rinse out an already-licked bowl, one for each person. She has fewer dishes, I have running water. Bedtimes are different too. An early night for their family is 11pm, but the children sleep until 11 in the morning. Our children’s time clocks work about five hours earlier. Our host family graciously allows us an early (for them) night – that means everyone lies down to sleep at the same time and the lights are out by midnight. Exhausted, we sleep late for us – but 8am is early for them. By the end of the second day their children are falling asleep before dinner, tired out from their early morning. Ours are equally tired from their late nights! Different.

The late bedtime and sleeping arrangements (think sardines in a can), and the water restrictions are two of the answers that come when Rob asks everyone what stands out from this first ger experience. Other random answers follow:

  • inside it was HOT (about 28 degrees most of the time during the day) even when it’s literally freezing outside
  • they were always working – making food, cleaning the ger, feeding animals
  • the toilets
    Down the stony dusty hill about 50 metres away from the ger, is a small wooden structure with sloping roof. Even at its highest point it is too low to stand up in. But that’s OK, because the building is supposed to be squatted in anyway. When you’re as tall as Rob, you enter in a ready-for-action position! Two planks straddle a pit in which a brown offensive-smelling mountain is accumulating. By day it’s light enough to see the contents clearly. At night it is pitch black. Any time, day or night, the wind whistles around, chilling any exposed skin, especially when the mercury has dropped below zero! Ah yes, memorable experience that loo!
  • “There were lots of toys”
    The perspective of a four-year-old, who has had next to no toys for six months, and who has obviously forgotten how much has been left at home.
  • they were always smiling, happy and contented, but simultaneously trying to change aspects of Mongolian culture (like pollution, debt, healthy living, maintaining good traditions, education, gardening, civic responsibility, manners – philosophically big dreamers, these guys!)
  • the one-bowl-policy: everyone has one bowl. At the beginning of a meal it is filled with tea and everyone drinks. Then it is filled with salad or soup or whatever is on the menu. If you want another drink, you need to eat up first. Simple and effective.
  • there was a closeness. Hard not to be when you have seventeen people in a circle with a diameter of no more than eight metres. A toddler flicks through a book, a few kids play chess or knucklebones, a few more are chopping apples for a “celebration salad” (apples, raisins and mayonnaise), someone sits off to one side drawing, two little girls are washing dishes in a bowl of water…..we are together.

And together we took in these new experiences. Together we noticed that it was surprisingly light – with the covering pulled back from the glass at the top of the tent, sunshine streamed in. Together we noticed it was also much more spacious than outside appearances suggest. Let me take you on a tour.

You’re standing at the front door, the inside of which is painted blue, red and yellow, the outside covered with a thick layer of felt, slightly larger than the door itself to keep any hint of draft away. The metal door handle has a piece of string attached – grab this when it’s really cold! When the door opens you’ll feel a blast of hot air and if you look down you’ll notice a 30cm high doorstep. Be sure to step over this, not on it.
You’ll find yourself on some cleaned-every-day, but always-dusty rough-sawn wooden boards. Stop here and take your boots off – pop them on the little wooden shelf to your left. Then take your first step on the wooden floor which is covered with a felt-backed vinyl – stop at the washbasin and wash your hands. Three times. In spring the temperature is warming up and bacteria are multiplying rapidly, hence our hosts’ fastidious insistence on handwashing (which we try to accomplish with a mere trickle of water – see above for why).

Now you can turn around. Reach up and dry your hands on the towel hanging on a washing line strung between red-painted roof supports, which branch out from a central roof circle (this is partitioned into eight sections, four of which are glass and can be covered in winter, the other four still covered now). As your hands rub together, you might keep looking up. Tucked in behind the roof supports you’ll spy a world map, a couchsurfing notebook, some brochures and newspapers, some toothbrushes and toothpaste, a saw and a rope.
If you let your eyes keep wandering leftwards from where you are standing, you’ll notice an almost-two-metre-long unit made from more roughsawn planks. You may be as surprised as we were to discover the bottom shelf houses an electric oven (use it between 11pm and 6am and it will cost you half as much as using it during the day). The middle shelf holds the massive bedding bundle. The top shelf offers protection from small family members for such treasures as a chess set, musical instruments and Todo’s “special shoe box”, which contains his precious possessions. Spare space in this unit is freely shared with couchsurfers! Then there’s a “couchsurfing corner” – a glass-fronted picture frame holds coins from around the world, the family’s couchsurfing guidelines are displayed (they have hosted 30 groups of people in ten months), and a Kiwi flag is now tucked into the roof supports too.
Coming further round the room is a beautiful brightly painted chest – orange with two shades each of purple, blue and green, all in geometric swirly design with black and white accents. Containing treasures, it is out of bounds to children! On top sits a television and carved wooden framed mirror. Right beside it, providing a space for a computer to rest, is another a cabinet, big enough for the little children to climb inside to find their toys! You will also find felted wool mats and a small wooden table with seven low wooden stools, which are moved around depending on what they are needed for. Apart from two plastic potties, two electric lights and the curtains which hang down the walls hiding the three layers of thick felt and the wooden criss-crossed wall framing, this almost completes the picture. All that remains is the kitchen, which is somewhat reminiscent of a Lao kitchen in its simplicity.
The centre of the room is dominated by the firebox with chimney pointing straight up through the glass roof. The cow dung container, a poker, metal water canisters, kettles and pots (a cross between pot, wok and cauldron) sit nearby. The large blue plastic water bucket stands just inside the door, to the right. Beside it is a container of root vegetables, ready for daily consumption. There is a cabinet and wooden crate for holding a small selection of food and a few dishes. A pocketed hanger suspended from the roof supports holds a wooden spoon, ladle, fish slice, sieve and grater. Wooden chopping boards, a pasta maker, scales, a thermos and 25kg sacks of flour and couscous are all that’s left for you to see.

Seeing this simplicity was one thing. Sitting around talking with the family was quite another matter. Our conversation was rich as we shared ideas about living. Thank you, Begzsuren and Mungunsoymbo, our first Mongolian friends, for a wonderful introduction to Mongolian life.

 

 

Posted in children, craft, food, health, housing, learning, parenting, postcard: Mongolia, toilet, tradition, transport, weather | 3 Comments »

What We Found In The Gobi

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
by Rach Zooming through the Gobi Desert Predictably perhaps, brown sand. However, it is not quite so simple. The smooth rolling sand dunes I had expected are littered with stones, sprouting brown tussocky grass and dusted with occasional lingering patches of snow ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in postcard: Mongolia, transport, weather | No Comments »

the last that was ever heard from them….

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
was a short blogpost as they headed off into Outer Mongolia in search of snow. 06:00 Leave hostel – take two subways to train station 07:40 Train pulls out of Beijing Station (and if the other ones we’ve caught are                anything to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in postcard: China, postcard: Mongolia, transport, weather | 3 Comments »

Snow on the Square

Sunday, March 29th, 2009
by an adult who thought it was pretty cool too Beijing, China Never mind the cultural or historical significance of standing in Tiananmen Square, facing the Forbidden City, it was SNOWING!!!!!! So they may not have been the biggest snowflakes, and they ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, history, justice, learning, parenting, postcard: China, weather | 5 Comments »

staggering

Saturday, March 28th, 2009
by Rach Beijing, China

 

Badaling is apparently where most people view The Great Wall from. We went in the opposite direction to a less-populous more run-down section, one with the promise of a ten kilometre ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, postcard: China, postcard: Mongolia, recreation, weather | 3 Comments »

One Big Wall (and not the great one)

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
by Superwoman Xi’an, China As well as being the most complete city wall that has survived in China, Xi’an’s wall is one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world. And today after one cold false start we set ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, God, history, numbers, postcard: China, recreation, weather | 4 Comments »

*unedumacated*

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
by Rach Shanghai, China

 

When we were planning our northern China leg we had no idea what there was to see or do in Shanghai. In fact, if it were not for the fact that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, health, history, learning, parenting, postcard: China, recreation, weather | 1 Comment »

Cheapskates Do The Peak

Saturday, March 14th, 2009
by Rach Hong Kong We told you the other day we’d probably make it up Victoria Peak. We also told you we’d more than likely do it on the cheap. And we did. Instead of taking the iconic cable-car, we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, food, health, money, postcard: Hong Kong, price, quote, recreation, transport, weather | 4 Comments »

of mice and men and mercury

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
by Rach Yangshuo, China Down West Street, which until recently was called Foreigner Street, and for good reason, you can buy a t-shirt with a relevant picture and Mickey Maos written on it. You can eat at the Mickey Maos cafe ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in craft, food, learning, postcard: China, weather | 3 Comments »

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