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.
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)
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).
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.
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.
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
Last night Baatar Hero witnessed an awesome and rare performance.
We went to a World Affairs Council Global Classroom event at Town Hall to learn a little more about Mongolia, and my expectations were blown away. Our evening began with a presentation for local teachers by Dwight Gee, President of the Arts Council of Mongolia, and Pat Burleson, Director of Japanese Connections (a high school study tour program to Japan). Both presentations were informative and inspiring. We were even invited to get up and say a few words about the RoamGreen and the Mongol Rally which was very cool, but the best part was meeting Dwight and watching the presentations…
