Last Morning

Church in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia!

My last morning in Ulaanbaatar, I went to an LDS church just for sacrament meeting!   It was so awesome and the perfect way to say goodbye to a people and place that I have come to love and respect.  Even though I couldn't understand any of the words, I felt the spirit.  When the music began to play, I really felt the spirit.  I pulled up the words in English on my phone so that I could sing along. Then after the first song an elder came and sat with Nan, Paisley and me and asked if he could translate the talks for us!  He is from Nevada and he wrote both of the entire talks down for us as they were speaking.  It was so nice of him!  And then when the meeting was over, we introduced him to our driver, who throughout the week we came to realize, is a member but not a practicing member- so the missionaries got his name and the bishop introduced himself to him too.  So in some small way, I was doing missionary work this week!

GoodBye (Buyer Teh)  Mongolia!  Till We Meet Again!

Street Kids and Juvenile Detention Center

I don't have pictures for this blog entry.  But, I wanted to make sure to remember the experience I had with the homeless-street kids and the Juvenile Detention Center.

The Juvenile Detention Center
The detention center housed about 25 boys from all of Mongolia.  Kids are not placed in the center unless they have committed a crime 2 times in the same providence.  That means they can commit crimes one time in each providence and not be sentenced.  Most boys are there for theft related crimes.  Their sleeping quarters were bunk style beds with a little more room than I thought there would be.  As we walked through the halls, the boys stood up at attention and I felt like there was one boy in each cell that definitely was the head of the group.  The boys seemed hard and rough. We talked with the social worker in charge of the facility.  He stated that the program they run at the center is focused on educating the boys.  They work on school work, as well as educating them to be able to integrate back into society upon their release.  They have a library full of books.  The social worker coordinates the education and mental health.  There is a psychologist that counsels with the boys as well.  The facility is extremely old.  The boys get to take care of pigs as well as a garden.


 The Homeless Street Kids
 On the first day that I was here, we met a homeless boy and talked with him and bought him some lunch.  He was with a bunch of kids and we were walking by them, they eyed Scotts pockets and started to follow him close so I hollered Scotts name and he turned around right as the boy came up behind him.  So this boy said that he sleeps on the streets in the day and scavenges for food and money then does gaming all night.  We will be interviewing and talking to more homeless kids later this week.

The following are my interview notes of Yalalt (Victory)-male, Bilguun-male, and Sonintogs-female.

• Play games - Internet Cafe opens at 10:00.  They get there at 11:00PM and stay till 6:00 AM.  
• They visit parents - come and go because parents can’t support
• Bilguun and Yalalt are 18 yrs old
• Sonintogs is 19 yrs old
• They have been homeless since 2007.  Poor nutrition = small street kids
• School- Yakalt finished 2nd grade, Bilguun 7th grade, Sonintogs graduated from high school and is going to College.
• Boys have completed haircutting training.  
• 65% of street kids are illiterate.
• How will Sonintogs pay for tuition? She plays trumpet - going to music college.  The college is taking 10 girls and she is one of them.  Tuition paid because she tried out and was selected.
• In 2006 she was sent to the center.  In 2015 she decided to leave to be independent.  Her mother passed away.  Just her and her sister now.  Sister married.  Scared on streets but nowhere else to go.  
• Does anyone make you do something you don’t want to do?  No, because she stays with her friends and she feels safe because she knows the kids on the streets.  Same friends that were in the shelter with her.  Has a father and step mother.  
• Talents- Yalalt’s is basketball, Bilguun is videogames, Sonintogs is trumpet.
• What do they do for money?  Wash cars, sale stuff, at the open market they will carry things for people to earn, take money from old begging people on street.
• They play games till they fall sleep
• Why do they like video games?  Boys like gaming, girl does fb, youtube, music.  11:00 they start playing, then at 6:00 they go sleep.  At 10:00 AM sleep in stairwell or in an attic for a couple hours.  But then back up to earn money so they can game the next night.
• Yalalt- rather be on the street than with parents.  “Happy life” for him
• Bilguun- sometimes at relatives house, parents separated
• No shelter allows children to come to shelter to sleep at night only.
• Do orphans get adopted?  Yes by foreign, and local.  As long as adoptive family want kids that is what is important.  Nationality does not matter.  
• Police, Administrative Affair, Officer from Ministry investigate for 2 - 4 yrs.  No fees for adoption.
• Goals and dreams for future- Sonintogs is college, graduate, study well and then job with music.  Yalalt has no goal, but would like own apartment. Bilguun also would like to have another life.
• If their friends were at shelter would the street kids rather be at the center or cafe?  Would rather be with friends.
• Are they friends with those they game online with?  No, doesn’t consider friends, just playing games.
• 82.8% street kids are males.
• Is there a goal working toward in game?  No score is kept .  Goal is to win.  
• Do they want to be the best player?  No, main purpose just to win, not to be better than peers.
• Where do they get clothes to stay warm?  Police Chief answer- look for clothes at organizations, also donations from churches.
• Where are the kids from originally?  UB
• PC- some kids will come to city from outer areas by bus or train - then the police will take them back to their city.
• Summer numbers decrease and then when winter comes, numbers increase.
• Kids said that their friends that have a typical life, they do not try to recruit them to the street.
• PC said Bilguun did encourage his friend to join him on the street.
• Can they leave the internet cafe if they choose?  In the city yes.  In the Ger district they are locked in so the worker can go home for the night.
• Do they drink or smoke?  Smoke yes everyday.  and some alcohol.
• PC said 3 kids passed away this year.  2 by CO gas and 1 by alcohol.  He said the kids are very dear to him. 
• 80% street kids are 9 - 16 years old.  Anyone 18 yrs and up is not included on stats.  PC follows those that are 18 yrs old to help them.  Kids contact him for help for job referrals or what ever he can do to help.  “I love my children and the children on the street”.

Saturday night at 11:00 pm we met the Police Chief and the street kids on the corner near an Internet Cafe in Ulaanbaatar.  There were about 15 teens waiting to talk to us.  The PC said that it was important for him to be there with us so that we did not get beat up.  We walked over to the Internet Cafe and got permission to quietly walk up and down the isles.  I noticed most gamers were playing the same game.  I'm not sure what the game is called but it was a shooting type of game.  Not the violent person shooting but the laser beam astroid type shooting.  Some kids were on Facebook but most were gaming.  This particular cafe only allows 2 street kids in at a time.  After we saw the cafe, we went back to the corner and each kid introduced himself and briefly told us their story.  Their stories are all sad and heartbreaking.  The one that I keep thinking about is the boy that was left at the train station by his brother when he was 5.  That was 10 plus years ago. When we asked if there was one thing that they wanted most what would that be?  All responded that they would like for us to help them get their center back so that they can get an education and a job.  When the new laws went into effect recently, the center that previously allowed homeless kids to eat and sleep there was shut down.  Now they have nowhere to go for shelter.

Camel and Yak Riding

Camel riding at Gorkhi Terelj National Park

Getting up is quite the experience

The jarring motion of the camel made it hard to hold on.  Then when they walk it is a long swaying stride.   Getting back down so we can get off is jarring too.  It was a fun experience to ride!

Our gracious host that cooked us our traditional meal on our last day said that they move their ger closer to the base of the mountain for warmth in the winter.  They pack up their ger and use their yaks to move.  Their yaks also provide dairy products that they sell in the summer.  We had yak tea, yak yogurt and a hard yak curdled piece of something to clean our teeth after the meal.  They even use the steam while processing to distill their own alcohol.  

Yaks help move the family ger

This little guy took a nap while our meal was cooking

The family's herd of yaks were their pride and joy.  They really are magnificent animals.

Riding the yak was similar to the horses stride in Mongolia.  Short stride but not as energetic as the horses. :)

Police Chief taking me for a ride

Turtle Rock

 After we got done riding the camels in Gorkhi Terelj National Park we hiked Turtle Rock.  There was a narrow slot that we had to squeeze through to get to the front side between the turtle head and shell.

Callie, Scott, Paisley, Me and a photo bomber :)

Between the head and shell of Turtle Rock

This shows the progression as I slide myself through a tiny opening in order to get on the front side of the rock in between the head and shell of the turtle.  Then, I had to come back up through the same opening to get off Turtle Rock.  It was fun squirming my way through and it reminded me of the canyoneering trip our family did this summer in Escalante.

Back side of Turtle Rock

Mongolian Culture

Today we went to a cultural performance.  This gentleman singing is an amazing throat singer!

Gandantegchinlen Monastery

Callie, Me, Nan, Giannina, Paisley, Scott, Jerry

Avalokitesvara

 Tibetan-style Buddhist monastery in Ulaanbaatar has been restored since 1990. The Tibetan name translates to the "Great Place of Complete Joy". It currently has over 150 monks in residence. It features a 26.5-meter-high statue of Avalokiteśvara.

Callie and Me

Inside the Prayer Wheels are tibetan scripture

Gaining wisdom!!!

Prayer wheels are used to accumulate wisdom and merit (good karma) and to purify negativities (bad karma).
Tibetan scripture is placed inside each Wheel.  As you walk past and turn each Prayer Wheel as you go, the scripture and prayers are activated and you accumulate wisdom.  Focusing the mind as you turn increases its effectiveness.

Mongolian puppies are so cute!

At the Monastery, Puugee interprets for us

Monk at Gandan Monastery 

The man in white was our driver for the week.
He is the one that took us to church our last
morning in Mongolia!

In the 1930s, the Communist government of Mongolia, under the leadership of Khorloogiin Choibalsan and under the influence of Joseph Stalin, destroyed all but a few monasteries and killed more than 15,000 lamas.

Gandantegchinlen Khiid monastery, escaped this mass destruction and was closed in 1938, but then reopened in 1944.  It was allowed to continue as the only functioning Buddhist monastery.

Incense burns here 

Morin Khuur (Mongolian:"Морин хуур") is the national instrument of Mongolia.  It is a two-stringed instrument.  The body and the neck are carved from wood.  The end of the neck has the form of a horse-head and the sound is similar to a violin or a cello. The strings are made of dried deer or mountain sheep sinews. It is played with a bow made of willow, stringed with horsetail hair and coated with larch or cedar wood resin.


This young man told us the instrument was created because of the love a man had for his horse.  In remembrance of the deceased horse, the man carved the instrument and used his horses tail for the bow.  This young man was an amazing musician.  He played for us as we visited the Zaisan - Soviet Monument, over looking the city.

Zaisan Soviet Monument

The memorial painting on the Soviet Monument depicts scenes of friendship between Russia and Mongolia. It was built to commemorate Soviet soldiers in World War II. The sprawling mural also illustrates the defeat of the Japanese in 1939 and the victory over Nazi Germany

An Eagle at the Zaisan Soviet Monument

Tibetan Buddha

For the drum and the bell, you are supposed to make a wish and then hit the bell and drum three times to make it come true.

A Shaman ger in Ulaanbaatar where locals go to be healed

Choijin Lama Temple Museum

This temple museum is right in the middle of downtown Ulaanbaatar. It was the home of Luvsan Haidav Choijin Lama (‘Choijin’ is an honorary title given to some monks), the state oracle and brother of the Bogd Khan. Construction of the monastery began in 1904 and was completed four years later. It was closed in 1938 and probably would have been demolished if it wasn't saved in 1942 to serve as a museum demonstrating the ‘feudal’ ways of the past. Although religious freedom in Mongolia began again in 1990, this monastery is no longer an active place of worship.

There are five temples on the grounds.  The first temple you see is the Maharaja Süm . The main temple has statues of Sakyamuni (the historical Buddha), Choijin Lama and Baltung Choimba (the teacher of the Bogd Khan), whose mummified remains are inside the statue. There are also some fine thangka s and some of the best tsam masks in the country. The gongkhang (protector chapel) behind the main hall contains the oracle’s throne and a magnificent statue of yab-yum (mystic sexual union).

The other temples are Zuu Süm , dedicated to Sakyamuni; Yadam Süm , which contains wooden and bronze statues of various gods, some created by the famous Mongolian sculptor Zanabazar; and Amgalan Süm , containing a self-portrait of Zanabazar himself and a small stupa apparently brought to Ulaanbaatar by Zanabazar from Tibet

I love this juxtaposition of old and new Mongolia

It was so interesting to see the paintings and Gods in the temples.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside.  One of the paintings was a depiction of "Hot Hell".  This is where you will go if you physically sin.  There was also a painting of "Cold Hell" which shows the torment a person endures if they sin with their words and their thoughts.

Some Mongolian words I have learned:
San ben oh - Hello, are you good?
Bacca - Bye
Buyer teh - Goodbye
Head way - How much?
Buyer shlaw - Thank you

Disclaimer: this is not the Mongolian spelling but rather the phonetic English spelling


Goat and Sheep ankle bones are used to tell fortunes and play games similar to marbles.

 

This is the Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue in Mongolia

We climbed to the very top and stood on his mane to take a picture!

On Genghis Khan's mane

Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum

In front of the Victims of Political Persecution Museum

 This museum has many haunting displays that chronicle the communist purges of the 1930s – an aggressive campaign to eliminate ‘counter-revolutionaries’. During the campaign, intellectuals were arrested and put on trial, sent to Siberian labour camps or shot. Mongolia lost its top writers, scientists and thinkers.

The building that houses the museum is one of the oldest in Ulaanbaatar. It was once the home of former prime minister P Genden, who was executed in Moscow by the KGB in 1937 for refusing Stalin’s orders to carry out the purge. Stalin found a more willing puppet in Marshall Choibalsan, whose purge ended in the deaths of more than 27,000 Mongolians, mostly lamas. On the ground floor of the museum is a replica of Genden's office, with his desk and other personal effects.

Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum

The numbers of those killed

Despite the massive destruction, Mongolians love the Russians!