The Final Week in Bayanhongor

After attending the ADB PDA training in the aimag center, I spent 7 days in the countryside with 2 different bagiin emch and then returned to UB.  In total I worked with 3 bagiin emch, all from different hangai sums (e.g. - see photo left).  During the next visit I will work with 3 bagiin emch from govi (desert) sums.  For previously stated reasons of participant confidentiality, you won't see any photos of people from the research here, or mentions of specific sums.

The last week was thoroughly exhausting, and I still have 6 days - starting today - of working the field data into narratives.  I plan to head out to the field again in another week.  Within the aimag, I traveled just over 1000km by furgon and jar yus, almost half of that within sums - in some places, households were 80-90km away from the sum center.  Just as exhausting was drinking tea at every household visited.  In one sum, we went to 18 gers over 2 days representing about 30-40 households.  At 16 we drank tea and ate something.  While I really, really enjoyed the multiple opportunities to eat yak cream (urum) I was usually in physical pain from eating too much.  Being "on" for that long was also very tiring.

In the third sum I visited, I traveled with the hospital driver and the bagiin emch to visit households in the bag last Tuesday.  That afternoon, they had their first rain of the year.  We had planned to return to the sum center that evening, but the rain turned to wet snow (noiton tsas) and the pass (davaa) separating the bag from the sum was, well, impassable (dirt road on a hill with snow is a bad combination I learned).  So we spent the night at a household in the bag.  All the people had moved to their summer locations where there were no animal enclosures.  Because of the cold and wind, herders in some locations had to stay up the entire night to make sure the sheep and goats didn't flee (see photo right).

The next morning I needed to handle my business, so the woman of the household saw me outside to make sure the dogs didn't attack.  After I was about 20m away from the ger she went back inside.  I was squatting atop a hill facing a cold headwind when one of the dogs approached me.  I was afraid he would try to attack, but he just stood there watching.  As soon as I stood up and began to walk away, he ran up and swallowed up all my business in one go.  Several minutes later I saw all the other dogs licking this one's mouth.  I didn't mention this to anyone out of a combination of shock, disgust, embarassment, propriety, and confusion.  But 3 hours later, the driver was talking to some herders about this phenomenon.  They proudly pointed at their dog and said "Manai nohoi baas iddegui" (translation not needed I think).

I needed to make it back to Ulaanbaatar by Saturday for a friend's Sunday wedding, so I knew I needed to leave the third sum by Thursday afternoon.  During a sit-down interview Thursday morning with 2 bagiin emch, one of them said the furgon (public transport van) wouldn't leave until Friday.  Sometimes there are no rides to the aimag from this sum, so I tried to find alternatives as soon as we finished the interview.  We had spotted a benzin truck from UB that had come into town in the morning.  The hospital driver asked on my behalf, but they were refusing passengers.  Then he talked to the furgon driver who now said he would leave on Thursday.  The 265km trip normally takes 10 hours or so, but took us 14.  This furgon had a habit of overheating quickly.  We were driving with a tailwind and the furgon has a front-mounted engine, so as soon as the water temperature approached 100, the driver would pull over and turn the van around to face back towards the sum.  After 10-20 minutes, we would continue the trip.  In total we made 10-12 stops like this.  We left Thursday at 4pm and arrived Friday at 6am.  After resting, meeting a couple folks at the Health Department, and trying to quickly recover from a mild case of food poisoning from the previous night, I took another furgon from the aimag capital to UB.  We left at 430pm and arrived the following day at 830am - 16 hours on this leg.  The 630km trip normally takes 14-15 hours, but 50km into our trip  our rear driveshaft dropped out onto the road.  The furgon is 4WD, so they were able to drive on and repair it at the next stop.

As tiring as the overland public transport is, I found it to be surprisingly useful for my research.  I met people from the sums I had visited on the ride to Ulaanbaatar as well as a nurse from one of the govi hospitals close to the Chinese border.  All were able to talk to me about topics relevant to my work.  The rides between aimag and sum were even more useful because all the people lived in the specific sum or were from that sum.  The extensive within-sum social networks ensured that people from one bag often knew people from other bags.  And on long rides, everyone is captive and interested in talking to pass the time.

Comments

[tater-tot]

I am coming to a country where a dog might eat my poo??

[riti]

Sounds terribly exhausting - glad you're back.

Btw, I remember reading somewhere that dogs seeking human poo in early settlements was one of the first steps in their domestication.
Come on now, can't you imagine what a nice warm treat it must have been out there in the cold? ymmm...just like cookies out of the oven ;)

hope it's not telling that my first post here is one on poo. i'll be sure to redeem myself.

[k]

Is there a Four Seasons Ulaanbaatar? I think I have similar concerns as tater-tot.

[Jaspal]

That story wasn't intended to define the place!

They are building a Shangrila Hotel downtown if my home ain't good enough for you. That should be done this year - Hilton's project will finish in 2008.

[k]

Trust me, I will make your home my home. I guess I'm more concerned about putting on a dinner show for the canines outside the city.

[G-Lo]

We have a dog that eats TP. How do you think she would fare in Mongolia?

Glad to hear your back. Has the postcard arrived yet?

[Jaspal]

k, remember this is your vacation. If you just want to stay at my place, play Wii, watch DVDs, order in pizzas and Korean Fried Chicken, we can make it happen.

G-Lo, I think she'd fare better than the average American dog. I got the postcard a couple days ago - just taped it to my fridge this morning. I'll do my best to send one back before I leave for the countryside on Tuesday.

[bhuv]

Jaspal, just make sure none of those poo-eating dogs licks your face. Though I get the sense they aren't as affectionate as American dogs that are pets.

Perhaps you should stop posting in such detail if you still want people to come visit you. ;-)

[Jaspal]

Are you kidding? No post before has attracted such attention. Look forward to very detailed writings.

[bhuv]

Awesome - I told Der about this post and he's looking forward to more details about dogs and poo. Or any other topics that come up in your travels around the Mongolian countryside.

[Jaspal]

Ok, for Der I'll do it.

[AB]

Did someone say korean fried chicken? I am there. I guess I have been converted.

[Jaspal]

I knew that would draw you in. And don't even get me started on all the Korean serials on TV.