Tsagaan Sar

Happy New Year! Today all of the stores are closed and there is very little traffic on Peace avenue. Everyone is at home celebrating Tsagaan Sar. This is the last day of the last month of winter called white moon or white month. It is one of the two big holidays here in Mongolia and the office is closed for three days to celebrate. It is kind of like Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years all rolled into one celebration.
During the past couple of weeks, the ladies here in the office have been talking about all of the house cleaning and preparation they have been doing. The home has to be extremely clean and the celebration is primarily centered around Mongolian food and lots of it with some presents for everyone. I was lucky enough to be invited to two traditional Mongolian homes for Tsagaan Sar.
The top picture is a picture of Batbaatar Gurbazar and his mother. She was the oldest member of the family and only about ten to fifteen years younger then I am, so the celebration centered around her home and she sat at the head of the table.

Then there is the picture of part of the family gathered there in the home where Batbaatar and his siblings were raised. Tsagaan Sar is a celebration of the beginning of the new year with a major focus around honoring the oldest member of the family. Genghis Khaan started the tradition, when he went to visit his mother and pay her respect and honor.




In a lower picture you see another table that is set in the same way. It is the picture at the home of the mother of another CHF employee, Tuul Tuvshinbayar. Then lower down in the blog is a picture of Tuul's husband and son and a picture of her husband slicing the sheep.
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The picture of the little girl by herself is a picture of Alice, one of Glenn's three children. Glenn and his family and Brian and his wife were present at Tuul's mother's home for the celebration. Alice is wearing her Deel, the name of the traditional Mongolian dress. Usually on the street, except for folk more from the country side, people wear western dress but on Tsagaan Sar, many people were dressed in beautiful and brightly colored traditional Mongolian clothing. There is also the picture of Batbaatar's older brother and his daughter.

The Mongolian Tsagaan Sar is a terrific holiday and a great way to celebrate the New Year. There are many traditions that revolve around the celebration. I know only a few of the traditions and those only partially but I could fill the page just with the ones I know a little bit about. It is always a rich experience to be in a different culture and experience the very meaningful traditions that have been around for hundreds of years. If that is not enough to be grateful for, there is the fact that winter is officially over and it was warmer today, just for the occasion of the beginning of spring. I wonder how they say Hallelujah in Mongolian?

Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way

Coming out of California, where Pedestrians are always right, it is interesting to be in a country where just the opposite is true. Here in Mongolia Pedestrians have no rights. There are very few traffic lights and the ones that do exist are not given much attention. The good thing about this is that there are also no rules against Jaywalking. If you walk up to Peace Avenue, a major street with three heavily traveled lanes of traffic going both ways and you want to cross the street...Fine....Go For It. There will be other people Jaywalking and maybe you can trudge and dodge across with two or three other brave (or stupid) souls. If you get hit by a car, just remember that you might have to pay for the dent you cause in their fender.
This picture was taken on a side street on a Sunday afternoon, when there was not much traffic. One might ask if I was standing there waiting for a large dog to come along so I could pet it or maybe trying to explain to someone how high the snow gets in the Sierras for using snowshoes and making snow angels. Actually, I was signaling for a cab. You just put your hand out a little ways from your waist and cabs come a running. It is not like New York, where you have to wildly wave your hand above your head and whistle as loud as you can to get a taxi. Now there is a difference between Mongolia and New York in that here, anyone can be a taxi. There are a few cabs with meters but the vast majority are just guys or gals driving a car and they charge you about a 400 Tugrigs a Kilometer, roughly a dollar a mile.
Another difference between Mongolian and New York cabs is that the Mongolia cab drivers are usually in a good mood. It is not unusual for a cab driver here to be singing a simple song to himself as he drives through intense and demanding traffic snarls.
Since there are basically no street signs or house numbers (and there is no mail service)then you normally cannot give the driver an address so you just have to know where you are going and know three words....Cigeeree is straight, Zuun is left, and Baruun is right and there you go. It works every time....so far.

Endings and Beginnings at CHF Mongolia

There are a lot of very positive things happening here at CHF Mongolia. Yes, the Ger Initiative program of CHF is ending and one could say that is a sad thing. On the other hand there are real reasons to celebrate because the program has been very successful. It has served thousand of people trying to begin or upgrade their micro or small business and it has been going on for nearly six years. Very few Programs like this are ever funded by USAID for that many years. So it is closing, but because it has been so successful, there are reasons to celebrate.
Then as CHF closes one program here in Mongolia funded by USAID, it has received funding for a new two year program by USAG to begin a new one as the older program closes. Opening a new program is always a good reason to celebrate. It is also great because it will be able to hire most of the same staff, to serve in a large part, the same micro and small business people trying to get started. There is another reason to celebrate.
Then if that is not enough to celebrate, CHF has created a totally new Mongolian NGO that will carry on the work previously funded by USAID. This has been an important part of CHF's plan for years here in Mongolia and a lot of work has gone into this process. It is great for me to be here to see this long term plan become a reality.

In this picture you will see Glenn, Brian, Serjmaa and Oyunbayar Tserendorj, the one in the center of the picture, who is one of the CHF Accountants, at work in one of the weekly planning sessions as one NGO becomes two NGO's
Then in the black sweater is Myadagoa, or if you prefer "Mia" the new Finance Director for CHF Mongolia. There are a lot of budget changes going on here at CHF. They are being significantly complicated by the decreasing value of the Mongolian dollar. Glenn and Brian are having to do an incredible amount of budgeting and re-budgeting.



Serjmaa is busy with new program changes but is also diligently working with her new Board of Directors. Here you will see her with two of her five Board members. The gentleman in the picutre is Ariunbat, the Managing Director of the Mongolian Educational T.V. station. Then the lady in the picture with Serjmaa is Narantuya Tsagaan, who owns a book store. She is the Chair person of the Finance Committee and she and Serjmaa are going over the finance report for the upcoming Board meeting.

Here you have a picture of Bagana, the new NGO Program Director, standing in front of a map of Mongolia at the TV Station. The program area of CHF and the new NGO covers a great deal of Monglia. It takes staff three hours by air to reach one of the 11 Branch offices.
My role of working with Serjmaa as her CEO coach, is a very small part of the exciting things happening here with the changes and that is the way I like it. I must say though it is a lot of fun watching all of the hard work of the regular staff that is going into these changes.
(If you want a better view of any of the pictures, just click on them and they should expand to cover your screen. When I took Bagana's picture, we were in a TV station but I could not get the light correct.)

Musical Chairs at CHF Mongolia

A lot of change is happening here at CHF Mongolia as the grant from the U.S Agency for International Development(USAID) closes out on March 31 and staff prepare to begin the new grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USAG). Each of the programs have a different focus, the staffing requirements and positions available are different, the accounting is moving from dollars to Trugs (the Mongolian dollar) and then reports go back to CHF Washington in dollars. In this process a majority of the staff have been spun off to the new Mongolian Non-Profit. This is the new NGO where my work is focused on consulting with Serjmaa as she begins her work as a CEO with the new Board of Directors. The new NGO is being given a contract to do a great deal of the field work for the new program grant that CHF has received from USAG. In the middle of this process, the Tugrig continues to drop in value rather dramatically. "So who is on First Base" asked one comedian to the other.
You will see here a picture of Glenn Moller, the Country Director and the tall guy is Brian King, the Deputy Director. I think they are able to keep smiling, not because they know for sure who is on first but because both of them have been with CHF for a number of years and worked in other countries for CHF, where they been involved in major changes in contracts more impacting then this one. Also, other than what is happening to the Tugrig, most of the current changes were designed in to the plan originally and it is not new information for anyone. Glenn and Brian are also very capable guys. The smile on Brian's face is even more amazing because he had to cut his position out of the budget to make it work with the loss of the value of the Tugrig. Brian is practicing saying "Do you want fries with that" since his job here in Mongolia is now scheduled to end the first of July. Glenn and I are both hoping some other CHF country program will use his excellent skills and significant experience. So, as the game of musical chairs is played, when the music stops in the near future, there will not be enough chairs for everyone. For a few staff, as I understand it, this will be at the end of March and for a few others as late as probably the end of June. The majority of staff, however, will probably not experience a great deal of change.
On the left you will see a picture of Narantsatsral Gonchig"Nara". She is the translator for the organization. Then there is Tserenchimed Batbayar or you can just call her "Chemka" like I do. She is in charge of the business linkage program, where they are able to batch small producers together and sell to larger markets. These are two of the approximately 75 staff involved in the programs happening at this time. Brian and Glenn are the only paid non-Mongolians.
Then of course, there is the old volunteer guy, who enjoys the great view from the office he shares with five of the other, approximately 30 people, working out of the Corporate office.

Religion in Mongolia

In 1937, more than 17,000 Mongolian Buddhist Monks were executed, 700 monasteries were purged and thousands sent to Siberian labor camps. The communist were just as ruthless on religion in the 30's as they had been on private enterprise in the 20's. Today, 19 years after the collapse of Russian control, it is estimated that over 90% to 95% of the population would say they embrace Buddhism as their religion.
Here you will see me standing in front of the main Buddhist temple in Ulaanbaatar, the Migjid Janraisig Sum. This is one of the few temples that survived the purge.

Chinggis Khaan was very supportive of all religions but did have his own personal Shaman. Buddhism has been part of the Mongolian culture for the past 600 years and continues to this day to be the major religion of the country. Between the Chinese and the Russian control of the country, there was a short period of independent control under the Bogd Khan. The picture below is one of the structures at the museum of Bogd Khan's Winter Palace. In the front of one of the structures at the Winter Palace is the CHF Agribusiness Coordinator, Batbaatar, who took me on the private tour of the Buddhist structures remaining in the city.

This next picture is one taken at the Choijin Lama Temple Museum. It is no longer a temple but just a museum.

Next to the Buddhist Dharma Center, in the center of the city, there is a Church of the Latter Day Saints. Some young folks outside the Mormon Church tried to recruit me to come in as I was leaving my meditation class at the Dharma center the other evening. I just tried to remain centered...and not slip on the ice. There are numerous religious groups working in the city, but Mongolia is definitely a Buddhist country.
There might be only a limited number of monks and Temples in Mongolia, but the Dharma Center, here in Ulaanbaatar, does have a meditation instructor as good as any I have had in California. Even old guys like me, who don't classify themselves as Buddhist, are warmly welcomed and find beneficial training at the Center.

Change is The Name of The Game

The National Museum Of Mongolia has a great pictorial display showing the history of the country. Here in front of the museum is a large upright stone typical of those common in ancient times here in Mongolia. It reminded me a bit of Stonehenge and the upright stones you find in Ireland.

The main impact of the museum for me, however, was it's pictorial history of all the historical drama that has happened here in the last 20 years. In 1990 the Soviet Union collapsed and Mongolia moved away from Communism. In 1991 the country privatized 20 million head of livestock. Then in 1997, twelve years ago, it privatized over 90% of the housing stock. The picture of the nine story apartment complex you see on this blog is a very typical scene you see all over Eastern Europe. There must be hundreds of these buildings here in Ulaanbaatar. These were built during the 69 years the Soviet Union controlled Mongolia.

When Russia pulled out of Mongolia and took their highly controlled social and economical system with them, there were some desperate years here in Mongolia as they coped with the radical change in everything. This very large country is now trying to make its way as a Democracy with a market driven economy. It was controlled for nearly 300 years by China and then for nearly 70 years by Russia. Now, it is trying its hand at Democracy and a new economical plan. It seems like Murphy's law is at work here as this new country, trying to make it economically, finds itself caught up in a global economic collapse and serious environmental issues.
Hopefully, CHF can help some of the small businesses find their way in this new game plan.
A few other stress points in this game change involves nearly half the population living in Ger communities in somewhat of a nomadic culture and they are now finding themselves being pressured with urbanization, globalization and the high tech phenomenon.
One of the very interesting things I find in all of this is that even though the Russians did some really bad things during their 69 years here, the people like the Russians. However, they don't seem to like the Chinese, even though they get nearly all of their vegetables from them in the winter months. Then in the middle of this mix, the language of choice to learn here is clearly English.

Ambassador Mark Minton

Today, the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, Mark Minton, held an official press conference here in Ulaanbaatar on the subject of the Mongolia-U.S. Relations during the Obama Administration. I did not have my press card with me but they let me in the door. I think my grey hair, sports coat and tie probably got me through the check point. Ambassador Minton assured everyone, the U.S. would continue, and in fact, increase it's program for U.S. Aid For International Development and complete it's commitment to The Millennium Challenge Grant.
Probably the biggest concern of the Mongolian government officials and mining industry revolved around the Millennium Challenge Grant. This program was signed during the Bush Administration and targets about 300 million U.S dollars for Mongolia. This money will be spent for some medical concerns, some vocational education, and some legal work on land entitlement, however, the major part of it will be going to improve the rail system in Mongolia that goes primarily from China to Russia. It was not discussed today of course, but one could ask, why are we helping Russia and China develop a better trade route. The unofficial answer seems to be that the rich mineral reserves of Mongolia are its long range hope. If you are going to export large quantities of coal, copper, uranium, gold and other precious commodities out of the country, then you need a rail system to export the product. If Mongolia is going to make it economically and be an effective Democracy embracing fair trade and commerce here between the two giants of Russia and China, then it needs some help as it tries to find its way, after being a part of the Soviet Union.
Ambassador Minton also lifted up there were over a 100 Peace Corp Volunteers in the country and the program would continue. I liked the part where he said the U.S Aid Program would continue and increase, but he did not put at the end of that sentence "in Mongolia" and that is what I was hoping to hear.
He also said he was in daily contact with the International Monetary Fund and that was probably the elephant in the room that was barely mentioned, since the economy in Mongolia is truly on the edge.
Meanwhile, CHF is doing everything it can to enable the micro and small businesses here in Mongolia to make it in a down economy. If it works here, maybe we will be funded by Mongolia to try and make it happen in the U.S.

Trade Fair

This is a picture of Dairiimaa, one of the CHF staff working the trade fair being held today and throughout the weekend here in Ulaanbaatar.

CHF International works in many different ways in over 35 different Developing countries. If you check out the web site for CHF International, I think you will be amazed at the diversity of programs and places where CHF works. People ask me why I selected Mongolia in the middle of winter and I respond by saying, who says I selected Mongolia? I thought I was going to Africa when I volunteered until Barbara Jones at CHF called me and said, How about Mongolia? I don't know what it would have been like wherever they might have sent me in Africa but I am certainly enjoying Mongolia and the Mongolian people.
The program here in Mongolia is focused on Business Development through providing business consultations and services to primarily micro and small businesses. This program is not built around loaning money to small businesses but around providing all types of services to them. One of those services is helping the micro and small businesses obtain loans from Mongolian banks. There are 16 different Mongolian Banks and who knows how many branch offices. Currently, with the Mongolian dollar in a free fall, the banks are not making many loans. This activity, however, is only one of many services being provided to small businesses by the eight branch offices of CHF in Mongolia.

After meeting this morning here in the Corporate office of CHF, I caught a ride with some of the staff out to the Trade Fair CHF has going on for 75 clients. CHF has been working with these clients in many different ways in helping them develop their businesses. The above picture shows me finalizing a purchase with one of the trade fair participants. One of the things I purchased was a mug for drinking coffee at the office. It cost me 5,000 Togrog, the name for the Mongolian dollar or about 4 bucks.

Saturday, Feb 7th---A work day?

Today is Saturday, and the sun is shining through a bright blue sky. It is a brisk morning but then what should one expect, when you are in Mongolia. My computer at the apartment is not working so I came over to use my office computer for some personal emails, only to find several staff were already here and working on Saturday. I left the office around one, leaving a bunch of folk glued to their desk, and headed for the gym, hoping to catch the DUKE U. basketball team on the tube while I did my time on the treadmill. On the way to the gym, I saw these guys out on the ice playing what I decided to call Swish Ball. I could just hear these guys planning this, saying well it is Saturday and it is below freezing but it is the warmest day we have had in months so let's go do something. Then they figured that what they had to work with was ice, and there is always ice in the winter in Mongolia. snow brooms that are used with clearing this very dry Mongolian snow, some kids ball and a dog. So what else do you need for a good game of swish ball where you don't need ice skates or a hockey stick or anything like that. I think the dog was the referee because every time the guys would fall down, and they fell down a lot, the dog would run out on the ice and bark or he might have been keeping score. The guys were definitely laughing too much to keep score.

On the way back from the gym, I took a couple of pictures of these uncovered
manholes that are dangerous for people and cars. The one man hole has been uncovered for two weeks and is on a rather busy street. A good rule here is that if you are going to walk at night, be sure to carry a flashlight. Slipping and falling on the ice would be nothing compared to falling into a manhole. They say if you are homeless and don't get down into a manhole, where there are some hot water pipes, then you will freeze to death. It is a strange way of dealing with the homeless population but I am sure the Mayor of San Francisco would vote for it.


After my Saturday workout, a little shopping and dinner, I came back to the office this evening to work on this blog. It was 7 in the evening and the accounting department was still working, Serjmaa was working on the third floor and here in this nice large office suite I share with five other people, Oyuntungalag Zundut, the lady whose picture you see below was still working. She was working on the Value Chain Program in preparation for the new grant that officially starts the first of April.

It was an easy Saturday for me and I hope a productive Saturday for all of the staff who were working here in the office and not out someplace risking life and limb playing Swish ball.

Listening, Planning, and Implementing

You see in this picture Serjmaa Bavuudorj, The Executive Director of DS (Development Solutions), a new Mongolian non-profit that has come into existence under the guidance of CHF and her right hand person Altanbagana Bayarsaikhan (Bagana),the Program Director of DS. They are both well educated and have worked there way up the ranks here in the CHF program during the past five years. They know the program of providing Business Services to micro, small and medium sized businesses from the inside out. Currently, they supervise eight branch offices with a total of about 45 members of the DS staff. It has been planned for years that DS would be a spin off non-profit from CHF and continue to have a primary contract with CHF for the next two years. This plan is finally becoming a reality.
My primary task is to mentor or be the CEO coach of Serjmaa here in the beginning of this process and to work with her on a Business Plan and other start up tasks for this new non-profit.

In this picture you see BatOrshikh Erdenebat, the fellow on the left side of the picture, who is the Branch Manager of the Sukhbaataar Branch office. He is leading a listening and planning session with a group of small restaurant owners in the area of the Branch office and staff of the Branch office as they talk and plan for the transition into a new phase of work for CHF and DS. In the right hand corner of the picture is Chloe, a grad student on a Fulbright Scholarship, who is volunteering part time with DS on marketing issues.
During the past five years, CHF has been working under a Grant by USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). It is now in a transition stage as its USAID grant winds down and a new Grant for the next two years with USAG (The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)gets going.

Here we have another group of clients at a different Branch office holding another listening and planning meeting. This one is being led by Batbaatar Burbazer, the Agribusiness Program Coordinator for CHF in Mongolia. Batbaatar is the father of Buka, the three year old snow angel shown in the last Blog.
Listening to the clients and planning new programs with them is always a critically important task for CHF to manage change and transition with staff and clients. Batbaatar says he is amazed at the differences he finds in interest and concerns in different Branch Offices of CHF in different parts of Mongolia. Sometimes it would really be nice if everyone were the same but then it seems the uniqueness of each person and each community of people is part of the overall creative process that makes life so interesting and at times so challenging.

Work Hard and Play Hard

The CHF staff here in Mongolia work hard but they also really enjoy structuring some time every once in a while to hang out together. The CHF offices open up at 9 in the morning and goes until at least 6 or later in the evenings. I have been in the office the last two Saturday mornings until at least 1 and there are always staff in here working. There is a good spirit here in the office and it continues out of the office, when there is a gathering. This past Saturday, was a time for a snow picnic. The organizers had anticipated more folk to show up but it worked out great just the way it happened. Buka, one of the younger picnic attendees, was not counting how many were there, he was just enjoying the snow and his dad, Batbaatar, did not seemed to mind everyone enjoying Buka's presence.

The group pitched in and rented a GER for the day for about 15 dollars at a GER camp, about three miles out of the city. Time was spent inside the GER and climbing the snow mountain but primarily just enjoying having fun being together. It is not difficult for Mongolians to just have fun being with one another, when work is not on the agenda.

One of the nice things about the snow here is that it is so dry that when you fall or sit down in it you don't get wet. The only problem with that is that it makes terrible snow balls. In fact it does not make snow balls or snow men but Buka enjoyed making snow angels.

The GERs at the GER camps come in all sizes and prices like a large campground in America. The one we rented had no facilities but there were decent common facilities that we could use in the area. Some of the larger GER's actually had indoor facilities and were used by families who had a few dollars and wanted to get away from the city for a weekend or whatever.

I will toss into the blog this picture of me with my t-shirt from DUKE University for the benefit of my grandson Mike, who is attending DUKE. He convinced me I could use this blog and got me started with a thirty minute lesson on how to use it. I needed another dozen lessons but I was grateful for his help anyway.
It was a fun afternoon enjoyed by all. Then as the sun began to set, the crowd dispersed for a local pub, since it had been a very dry afternoon. Buka's dad took Buka home for the evening and I called it a good day and headed home myself.
It was a fun snow picnic.