In Mongolia the small round houses made primarily from a felt material are called Gers. In Turkey, they are called Yurts. Their primary use has been to provide shelter for people who are nomadic and follow their herds of sheep, goats, and cattle to wherever it is best for the animals. Around half of the population of Mongolia live outside the cities in Gers and all of the land outside of the cities is public land.
When I was 11 and 12 years old, I would visit my grandfather and grandmother Hoyt and my uncle Jack and his wife Helen for a week or two in the summer. There were times when Jack would saddle up a horse for me and he would saddle up his horse named Dick and we would go check the fences and the cattle. He would sometimes break into an old song called "Don't Fence Me In". If Jack and his horse, with whom Jack had a special bonding, were here in Mongolia in the summer, they could ride for hundreds of miles across green fields and never see a fence. They would see a lot of animals and Gers, but no fences.
The woman in the picture by the Ger is the grandmother of the little girl above. The grandmother's name is "Budiav" and she and her husband live in the Ger in the picture. They live on the edge of the town called Baganuur. In cities and town the government will give people small plots of land of about an acre in size. The people place their Ger on this plot and enclose their area with a wooden fence, like the one you see in the picture.
In Ulaanbaatar, about half of the population of over a million people live in the suburbs of the city called the Ger Districts and in those areas people live in their Gers within their fenced in area called a Hashaa. These people do not have water or sewers in their Gers but there are kiosks in the area shared by many families, where they can go get water. Most of them do, however, have electricity. In the main part of the cities and towns they do have relatively good running water and sewers to their apartments and homes. You do not hear people in Mongolia say they look forward to when they can move out into the suburbs of the city. I must say that I do like the flush toilet and hot and cold running water in the shower in my apartment. Even though the Gers are cute, I do prefer life in the innner part of the city.
