Media Debut

Baatar Hero made its media debut today on NorthWest Cable News!

Happy Mongolian New Year

This Sunday marks Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian New Year.  To celebrate, our new friend and rally mechanic adviser, Muugi, from Seattle Mongols put together a traditional wrestling tournament at the nearby Bitter Lake Community Center last weekend.  With a little help from our friend Glenn Bell, we acquired a wrestling mat from a local high school to help Muugi put on the tournament. 

The local Mongolian community turned out to celebrate with traditional music and treats before the tournament began.  Urtaa treated us again by playing some morin khuur before he joined in with the wrestling.  Tom wrestled too, and represented team Baatar Hero well.  He went up against the eventual champion of the day… which means that he did hit the floor, but not before impressing everybody by holding his own for several minutes! Way to go Tom!

We got to meet Urtaa’s family and got a lot of advice on our route from several people… including these kids who thought we were crazy.

Video coming as soon as I rip it from the camcorder.

You Rocked!

Our second fundraiser followed well in the footsteps of the first.  We had a blast playing Rock Band with our friends last Wednesday in what is sure to be the first of many karaoke fundraisers.  The Spectator was a great location for this event so I suspect we’ll probably continue to have these there… We even engaged some of the regulars to join us!  The new Baatar Hero t-shirts made their public debut and we sold half of them right away… we just ordered more to keep up with demand.  There were some excellent performances… we’ll have to take video next time so you all better warm up for the next one!  Until then, check out our Flickr set.

Party Success!

We had such a great time Friday night at our kickoff Holiday Party and Fundraiser! Friends, new and old, and family all joined us at Roq La Rue to celebrate with wine and music.  We presented our plan and everybody donated generously to help us make it to Mongolia.  Not only did we raise funds to get started, but we’ve acquired reserve fuel tanks (jerry cans), a tent, sleeping bag and a donation of environmentally friendly soap!

… (read more below)

We can’t thank everybody enough for their generous support.  These donations, both financial and in kind goods, along with all the enthusiasm and energy in the room touched us personally and provided us with a boost of confidence to continue working hard to make this endeavor a reality.

With the help of The Snow Leopard Trust, as well as items donated by the local Mongolian community, we held a silent auction which proved very popular. Crafts handmade throughout Central Asian republics from Mongolia to Kazakhstan were auctioned off with proceeds benefiting not just us, but also going to The Snow Leopard Trust which is protecting the endangered snow leopard in that region.

We were especially excited to present the Mercy Corps story and talk about them at our fund raising table because a few people from their local office came down after their own holiday party and joined us for the night. Donations for Mercy Corps have continued to pour in through our FirstGiving page after the event!

The Morin Khuur performances by Urtaa and his student Robert were a highlight of the evening.  They played both traditional Mongolian music and contemporary pieces that everybody was more familiar with.

This first event was a huge success by any measure.  We had so much fun and can’t wait for our next event.  With everybody’s help we are well on our way to Mongolia! Check out more photos of the event at Flickr.

See you at our next event!

- Team Baatar Hero

A Horse Race in Mongolia

Archery, wrestling, and several hundred miles of horse racing… every July the Naadam Festival takes place all over Mongolia. These are the 3 “manly” sports… although the jockeys in the horse races are exclusively children, and the chestless wrestling uniform exists to keep women from competing (and potentially from winning).

Baatar Hero’s Premier Holiday Party!

In two weeks we will be celebrating the holidays at local art gallery, Roq La Rue, with our first fundraising event.  We hope to entertain and educate our friends and family with more info about the Mongol Rally and Mercy Corps.  We also have morin khuur (Mongolian horse hair cello) players lined up to give everybody a taste of what we saw at the Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble performance.  It’s shaping up to be a fun evening! I can’t wait.

Mongol Hip Hop

Post-Soviet Mongolian Hip Hop explores a new found freedom of expression, cultural identity, and… nationalism? Incorporating khoomei throat singing and traditional themes, Hip Hop in Mongolia takes fewer cues from the West than it has in other countries. Definitely more Genghis Khan than Chaka Khan.

Rappers in Mongolia // Current

Alcoholism in Mongolia

Lousia Lim examines the long lasting effect cheap alcohol, used as a tool for colonizing Mongolia by both the Russians and Chinese, has had on the country’s culture and economy.

Alcoholism in Mongolia // Current

Subprime Herders in Mongolia

Mongolia may seem like one of the most remote places on the planet, but it still couldn’t escape the reach of sub-prime lending. Even as the IMF declares the worst of the global recession is over, and the economy starts to rebound here at home, Mongolians are feeling the pain of depressed commodity prices. Many herders who turned to sub-prime loans are suffering increasing balloon interest payments similar to the adjustable rate mortgages that have made so much news here.

Beautiful photos illustrate this report from NPR. Inspiration for a sustainable Mongolian economy.

Ninja Miners of Mongolia

NPR recently had a week long series on Mongolia that I wrote a little bit about on Current.com. Each day of the series focused on a different aspects of the Mongolian culture or economy. I’m going to repost one of these articles each week for the next several weeks. This first report about the Ninja Miners gives insight into some of the challanges Mongolians face managing their wealth of natural resources