I have returned to UB after a full six days in the countryside. Twas a wonderful escape from the polluted air and city hustle, but I’m glad to have left the blood-thirsty mosquitoes that devoured every inch of exposed skin. In any case, I have returned with some great data and a fabulous sandal tan. Thus, I consider my trip a success! Details are below for those interested, but they're hefty.
Friday, June 18th
Started out early at 8am. Voyage, Voyage was playing on our way out of UB, which I thought was fitting. I soon learned, however, that it was part of a dreadfully 80s cassette tape that I came to despise after its continuous repetition.
We stopped in Bornuur soum (town) on our way up to Shaamar which is about an hour outside of UB. Purevdarj, an aged, blue-eyed old man who was probably the most hospitable farmer I had met last November, lives in Bornuur and he asked me to bring some Calcium supplements from the States for his son. Last November they had cooked a feast of horse meat for my driver, my translator and myself and this trip’s visit yielded an equivalent level of hospitality, albeit more modest. A lunch of fried mutton, noodles and onions topped with carrot salad (a treat!) was the first of many breaches in my attempted maintenance of a vegan diet this summer (it’s possible in the city, but impossible in countryside lest you appear rude). Purevdarj proudly led a tour of his greenhouse before our departure and offered me a place to stay if I wanted to escape UB in July, an offer I very well may take up.
We continued north to Shaamar arriving at 3pm. We met with Gantomer, another farmer I had met last November, in addition to three other vegetable farmers before seven when our stomachs called for supper.
The majority of land in Mongolia is owned by the government and people are free to camp wherever they please, so we settled down for the night in a quiet meadow just outside of Shaamar. My driver, Daasha, and my translator, Boloroo, sat talking into the night while I laid looking up at the sky as it evolved from a periwinkle to a navy blue. The evening was lovely except for the swarm of mosquitoes that smothered the meadow. Their hum was overwhelming as they bounced swiftly side to side in unison like ready Cassius Clay.
An friendly, old man with a cane approached us from the dirt road at dusk and knelt on one knee for about an hour chatting about the weather and other news with Daasha and Boloroo.
Saturday, June 19th
I awoke to several itching bites and the chilled morning air. As we were packing up our things a young man approached us from the dirt road. He was the old man’s son and their family was inviting us for boiled milk. We all piled into our car and drove a half kilometer south. The man’s mother was eager to meet us and she set us down on a bed in their two room home. She served us boiled milk, orom (or clotted cream) and biscuits and proceeded to pull out all of her photo albums to show me (vegan diet attempt: FAIL number 2). A little girl was sleeping on the bed across from us. I learned that the girl’s mother was in Chicago when they pulled out her gift bag from the States and an English ABC’s book. They asked me to read it with the little girl on camera so they could send it to her mother and show her that she was learning English. This was, of course, followed by a compulsory photo shoot with the foreigner.
We stayed and chatted for about an hour and left for a 9am meeting with Burenjargal, another farmer I had met last November. This day we visited a total of 7 more farmers, most of them new. A small ger camp was coincidentally located about 100 meters from where we set up camp the night before, so for 15,000 togrog (about 10 USD) we opted for beds for the night.
Sunday, June 20th
A marathon of interviews took place visiting 19 farmers in about 8 hours. The temperature had peaked at a grueling 37C. We went to Sukhbaatar, the provincial center about 20km North of Shaamar, for lunch. I couldn’t bear to eat a hot meal so I opted for the potato and carrot salads instead. Daasha laughed at my measly order, but I relished in the cold, crunchy vegetable medley (vegan diet attempt FAIL number 5, but a vegetarian WIN).
Monday, June 21st
Another HOT day which we fortunately spent in the cool, cement buildings of Sukhbaatar. We stopped at the government building first. An hour and 2000 togrog later I recovered five years of fantastic statistics on Shaamar soum and Selenge province’s demographics. We then stopped into the land department office to meet with an expert of land management. The office was swarming with people and loud requests were going in every direction, so we were asked to return at 2pm.
We stopped into the Ger Initiative office and spoke with a representative there (Ger Initiative is one of three NGO programs helping vegetable farmers in Shaamar). The World Vision office (the second NGO program in Shaamar) was right across the square, but they were busy writing a report and asked us to return at 9am the following day. Lunch was in the Selenge Hotel restaurant where I, yet again, ordered potato and carrot salads.
We returned to the government building to meet with the land department woman who gave me some great stats on land ownership in Shaamar, a map of the current land lots and, best of all, the “Citizen’s Guide” to reforming land relations in Mongolia (in English)!! This booklet is what I’ve been searching for for the past seven months. It explains the land law in its entirety and its implications, something the actual land law, despite its translation, fails to do (at least to my limited legal vocabulary). She let me borrow the book for the evening.
We stayed in a hotel in Sukhbaatar for the night. The shower was the selling point for me. In the prior four days, every reapplication of sunscreen resulted in more and more dirt clinging to my skin as the afternoon dust storms of Shaamar blew.
Tuesday, June 22nd
We visited World Vision at 9am. Then waited around for about an hour waiting for a store to open that had a working photocopier (or a Kanon as they’re called in Mongolian). Three opened at 10:30 and an hour and 6000 togrog later I had my own copy of the citizen’s guide. WIN! We returned the book to the land department and went back out to Shaamar for the afternoon.
It was once again 37C and unbearably hot under the sun, but we managed to meet seven more farmers that afternoon before retiring to the cold, cement hallways of Shaamar’s government building. We met with a local representative of World Vision as well as a local land department representative, which was great.
We finished the day with some sea buckthorn popsicles and retired to the ger camp for the night.
Wednesday, June 23rd
I was happy with what I had collected in Shaamar and Sukhbaatar. Though my sample of 37 farmers was only about 3% of the population in Shaamar, my budget for the trip was rather small and I couldn’t afford another day out. But I think it will provide a good illustration of the current situation for small and medium vegetable farmers in Mongolia. Satisfied, we embarked on our return to UB in the morning listening to Hands Up…again. We stopped in Darkhan to visit the Agricultural Institute. They unfortunately was unable to identify the two pests plaguing the watermelon crop in Shaamar, as the entomologist was on vacation, but I was able to meet with the Institute’s director.
We arrived in UB at about 3pm and stopped at Bars Market, a food market near the train station that harbors several vegetable wholesalers that vend Shaamar’s produce. And I arrived home at 4:30.
I’m back in the city for the rest of the summer, more or less. I’ve got a World Cup event to attend on Friday and a meeting with an official at the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday. In the meantime, I’m taking a day off to relax. Twas a good trip, but hard work.
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