Today, Glenn, the CHF Country Director returned from vacation with his wife and three little children. They had vacationed in Hong Kong and took in Disney Land with the kids in Hong Kong and said it was great. Glenn was the country Director in Sri Lanka before coming to Mongolia a couple of years ago. I had my regular meeting with Seegi and then went out to one of the work sites in the suburban area of the city with the Director of the work site. He is a high energy 30 year old Mongolian with a Masters degree from Istanbul. I will be going with him on Wednesday to another site he manages about two hours to the East of the city. I will talk more about the work of the sites later this week.
It was another beautiful sun shiny day in Ulaanbaatar. It was cold but you could see the surrounding hills and see the Ger communities where people live in their Yurts. This evening the moon was full but it was not a bright white color because of the smog. All of the thousands of little yurts in the suburbs heat and cook with coal and the city proper functions with an old Russian designed coal fired generator that provides the electricity for the city and the hot water that runs underground and heats all of the buildings. If anything ever happened to that old coal fired operation the city would be in big trouble and be without electricity or heat but it seems to be very reliable. Also the smog that comes from it in the winter, especially at night, is also very reliable. So far, the smog has not really bothered me except for that first breath of air when I step out of a building at night and forget to breath through my nose and suck in that smog ladened minus 23 degree air but then I take a breath through my nose and away I go slipping and sliding down the sidewalk.
The sidewalks on Peace avenue are about ten feet wide and most of them are slick as all get out. It is funny though that right in the middle of the sidewalk their is a place about 14 inches wide that is even slicker then the rest of the sidewalk. The teenagers use it and create it by running and sliding on it to expedite their way down the sidewalk. The other day I saw a little kid about five years old enjoying the slick area by holding the hand of what appeared to be his mom on one side and his dad on the other and as they walked down the side walk the little kid had his feet slipping smoothly along the slick area. He just slid along with a big smile on his face. It looked like fun.
One nice thing about getting to know the city a little better is that it doesn't bother me anymore that there are no street signs at any corner or anyplace else and the buildings and houses don't seem to bother with house numbers. No, I don't want to be the mail carrier but I am enjoying volunteering and working with some very nice Mongolian folk who are trying to help some very low income people improve their quality of life through economic improvement. Last night on CNN they talked about CHF International's postive assistance in Darfur and I said to myself, "I know that group" and then hit the sack and slept well.
