FAQ Answers: What do you hope to accomplish?
A question from the Frequently Asked Questions page asks: “What do you hope to accomplish?”
Here is my answer:
Mongolia is a country rich in culture and tradition, but it is sadly often overlooked and under-appreciated. Once the center of the largest empire the world has ever seen, the transition to capitalism after centuries of a more community-based society has not been easy on Mongolia. The country is now plagued by many problems resulting from unchecked overgrazing, climate change, crumbling former Soviet infrastructure, and the relocation of its population to urban centers that are already over capacity. The goal of The Mongolian Experiment is to raise awareness of Mongolia’s vibrant and multifaceted culture as well as bring attention to the problems and issues it is currently facing in the hope of garnering more international support for the country.
[Photo by Tormod Sandtorv]
Hello-
I somehow stumbled onto your blog when I was searching about Mongolian snuff. My daughter (almost 27) and I are going to Mongolia in 2 weeks… her for ~3 weeks and me for a month… to volunteer in a hospital amongst other things.
I don’t really have much to say except Mongolia never really crossed my mind until about 2 months ago… and off we go.
I liked your post about the boots.
Good luck to you!
Cheryl
Good luck on your journey!
I think you need a much more focused “goal” (to go against the whole premise of the drifting focus haha)..
But seriously, maybe research or direct a question to the crowd about a very specific project, anything from setting up a charity drive over there or staying and documenting a single Mongolian family’s life. I liked your idea of staying with a family. My best friend Kristina always valued learning about the lives of her host families when living abroad in China and France.
Speaking of, I should get you in contact with Kristina. She’s a lot less flakey than Adam (who I’ll still try to get you in contact with if he wasn’t so busy with work). but she traveled Northern China (Beijing and Harbin) for 2 years abroad (and is fluent in Mandarin, which I know doesn’t help with Mongolian but it’s closer).
Never hesitate to remind me about those suggestions. Bug me. Right now Kristina is in Prague and Adam is just overwhelmed with work. But keep on me and I’ll get you some help from them eventually.
In summary, Kristina traveled solo in China too. But she connected with locals and families and those were the experiences she most remembered.
If you read the “about” page, you will see that I am singling out 1-3 issues per province to focus on for the project. And I will most definitely be staying with dozens of families, as going from ger to ger (yurt) is pretty much the only way to travel in Mongolia unless you are traveling with a company (something I have no intention of doing).
[…] are actually two things I wish to accomplish with TME. One, as I mentioned, is to raise awareness of the issues facing Mongolia today and through that, to help out some of […]