Musings in Mongolia

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Where did spring go? Someone flipped a switch.

Terelj - a beautiful sight in summer

Where did spring go? Someone flipped a switch in Mongolia. It went from winter to summer in one day. Since about May 1^st, the weather has turned warm but not uncomfortably so. No more coats, gloves, scarves and hats!

Terelj in winter

We will experience two summers (pleasant), two autumns (short but quite pleasant), two winters (long and cold) and one spring (so brief it is hard to describe).

Spring has arrived at a renovated park at Sukhbaatar Square

Green grass is poking up through hard ground. The gardeners are out in earnest. The first mini-skirts of summer have appeared. We even saw some swirling dust replacing the smoke/smog of winter. Either one or two springs ago, the spring weather (what little there is) had an unusual amount of blowing dust.

The countryside has its appeal

After school finals in mid-June, the “he, she, they are in the countryside ” season begins. This means Mongolians return to their nomadic roots somewhere outside of Ulaanbaatar for a couple of weeks, a month or two or even the whole summer.

Police-escorted caravan during an International Democracy Conference

Someone who has been a fixture in your life suddenly disappears. How they handle their employment during this time is a bit of a mystery. A fortunate few have summer homes. Mongolians love their rural lifestyle despite all the energy, economic opportunity, jobs and excitement Ulaanbaatar offers. It may be the economic hub and brain of the country but the heart is definitely out in the countryside somewhere.

An all-Mongolia youth conference. Despite the expense and logistics, the church leaders here have planned an all-Mongolia youth conference for the last week of June. Twenty one handcarts are being built and the youth will be crossing the steppes a la the Mormon handcart companies of the 1850s.

Mongolian steppes are a bit intimidating

The West Stake had a successful youth conference handcart trek a year ago. This year it is being expanded to include the youth from the whole country. I think the plan is to have an all-Mongolia youth conference every four years and this is the year.

Maybe not this year - another time it could happen

It was going to be a King Benjamin tower camp but Mongolian creativity pushed the conference into another realm. Who knows, next year it might be the Sons of Helaman being prepared to invade China as an army of missionaries?

Elders Odd, Boyd, Neuberger and Muldowney over for a Cinco de Mayo dinner on the seis de Mayo

Our routine such as it is. English teaching is our big constant anchor. It is rewarding but a lot of hard work with lesson planning, handouts, tests, props etc . The classes are going well.

Our English class working hard

We are settling into our group of 10-12 students who are regulars. The company that sponsors us keeps their employees really busy. A lot of them have work conflicts that interfere with their attending class.

Darlene has her Saturdays booked solid (except when we travel) teaching piano and training Family History Consultants. One Saturday a month, the UB Family History Center has a training meeting and we are usually we have a role to play.

Darlene at a Sukhbaatar Branch Relief Society meeting on a Saturday - of course

Our Magic Jack phone is really handy for contacting the Family History 24 hour help line in Salt Lake City to straighten out problems we are finding with Family Tree and to iron out data entry problems with complicated Mongolian names and family relationships. Then the challenge is to communicate all this technical knowledge (Family Tree navigation using English Screens and how to handle the aforementioned complicated histories) to Mongolian Family History Center Directors and Consultants. Not easy!

Sheer delight at seeing her information on Family Tree

We will travel more for Family History training with the spring, summer and fall seasons. Two Sundays ago, we spoke (Darlene in Mongolian) in the Nailakh Branch, one hour east of UB.

Darlene, Buyannemekh and Dege at Nailakh Branch

This coming Saturday we are going to Darkhan and one weekend in June we will be going to Bulgan, a city one hour beyond Erdenet. There is a chance we will go to Choibalsan at the end of May if we can get a negotiation meeting scheduled with the Dornod Provincial Archives for a records acquisition project.

Monkhbaatar invited the Stewarts and ourselves for dinner at his home. He is graduating from college this week.

Marriage classes. Our series of eight marriage seminars on Saturday nights are drawing to a close with the final class being held on May 18. The plan for next fall is to have a videotape production of 8 marriage enrichment topics being filmed over two or three sessions with 6 volunteer bilingual couples.

My role as the teacher/moderator will be minimized and what role I play in the training will have a Mongolian voice-over. We will use all of Alima’s TV production skills and Bat Orgil’s distance education learning models to generate a product that can be checked out and used by couples in Mongolia for the next several years. Alima is having my book translated into Mongolian so marriage education will be a part of the legacy Darlene and I will leave in Mongolia.

Mongolian/English, English only, Mongolian/Signer, English/Mongolian/Signer

We had an unusual session two weeks ago when the Institute teacher for the deaf didn’t show up and the deaf class joined our marriage class.

English was being translated into Mongolian and sign language. Mongolian was being translated into English and sign language. Manduhai, one of the signers, had her language translated into Mongolian and English for the audience. It was a bit of a circus but I think our new students for the night got a lot out of the class.

Bumka and Egge demonstrating changing the floor in a conversation; Elder Noef is an enthusiastic signer

History of the church in Mongolia. I was asked to help write up the history of the growth and progress of the Church in Mongolia in conjunction with the 20^th Year Commemoration of the Church in Mongolia. Puje (Asian Area media representative for Mongolia) and I conducted a series of interviews during the celebration week.

I turned in what I wrote. President Clark said to take our time, incorporate some quotes from the interviews and to conduct a few more Skype interviews with former mission presidents who couldn’t be here for celebration. We are planning to have this project done by July 1^st before President Clark concludes his mission.

The Stewarts, Woods, Englands, Clarks (with halo) and Sister Farmer - Family Home Evening

Monday, April 29, 2013

Black Market, Returned missionary reunions, Sunday visits, farewell to Mongolia

Chandeliers for sale at the black market

Besides all the charity visits on Friday and Saturday, our daughters still found to explore the Black Market, buy carpet at the Sate Department store, go to the 20 year cultural extravaganza (see earlier blog), go to Battsey's home for lunch, attend church,, sing at church, and make one final visit to one more family Tawny helped bring into the church 13 years ago.

Missionaries from Tawny's era 1995 - 1999, Pres. and Sis. Cox are in the center back

Tawny attended her missionary reunion meeting instead of carpet shopping and going to the black market.

Tawny arrived after this photo was taken of all the returned missionaries attending the Saturday afternoon event

Here are photos from their last two days in Mongolia. It was a whirlwind vist from start to finish.

Small group discussion

Some groups were larger than others - groups of Mongolian returned missionaries since 2003

We squeezed in a visit to the State Department Store for carpet buying

Floor coverings at the black market --- Ogie on the left

It couldn't have worked out better. To see more pictures and learn from one of our daughter's perspective, go to tassabarney.blogspot.com.

Outdoor carpet shop

Looking for a purse?

Material for traditional clothes (deels)

Our taxi driver drove us right to Battsey's home despite a few obstacles

Battsey's mother Shuurai is in the middle - her sister Bagira is on the right

Shuurai and her family made two nativity sets we purchased for our family - she gave a camel to each of our daughters

Sacks of coal they use to heat their home

Last dinner with Tawny's convert family before their trip home. Enkhtsetseg and granddaughter back and front

Chinsanaa, Enkhtsetseg. Tawny and year old granddaughter (Ariuunsanaa's daughter)

Cute as a button

So long to Mongolia and to Mom and Dad - a whirlwind trip comes to an end

Daughters’ charity visits, Family History Open House, and family dinner

Children who performed their talents at School 80 where the Foundation donated school supplies

Friday: Our daughters' collected gifts and donations in conjuction with a granddaughter's personal progress project for Narantuya's family.

Grandmother, Enkhjin, Ekh Achlan and friend

A previous blog showed our first visit to their home the day after they arrived. They followed up with a second visit on Friday.

Special appreciation program at School 80

To get the complete details of their visit there and other charity visits with Nara Thompson and her foundation, you can go to the Barney Family blog at tassabarney.blogspot.com to see more of these visits. For Narantuya's family, look for Maren's YW Service Project blog entry.

Household headed up by 22 year old brother (looks like 15) with two little brothers in front. Nara Thompson and Social Worker are on the right

They saw lots of poverty and sad situations while in Mongolia intersperesed with tourism, family visits and meals, and 20th year commemoration activities.

They made a number of home visits delivering clothes

We didn't go on any of these visits made on Friday and Saturday. We were a part of the Family History Open House Friday afternoon that was a part of the week long celebration of the LDS church coming to Mongolia.