Group picture at the entrance of Gandan Monastery. Photo by Elizabeth Brunner

 

by David Ahrens, Carleton College

After traveling for 24 hours, we landed in Ulaanbaatar (UB) at about 10pm, disembarked the plane, and walked through the small airport to immigration. Eager to meet our instructors and sleep, we lined up in what we thought were the fastest immigration lines. I thought I chose the best line, but five minutes later, I realized I was horribly wrong. The line next to mine where everyone else was moving at a mind-blowingly fast pace. The immigration officer stamped passports and entered information at the same time, moving at the speed of light! My friends moved through security equally fast, while I was left waiting to enter Mongolia. Once I caught up to them, we moved as a group towards the baggage claim area. A note about the Chinggis Khaan International Airport: there is one baggage claim and about 5,000 luggage carts swarming the conveyor belt, making it hard to get next to the conveyor, much less grab a bag off. After a worrying amount of conveyor belt cycles and time had passed, our bags finally came out all at once. We slid past the carts, grabbed our bags, walked through customs, and headed out the door to meet our smiling instructors.

Lesson Learned: Be patient! Regardless of the speed of your immigration officer or the baggage claim, trust that you’ll get where you need to be, regardless of pace.

Our first few days in Mongolia were spent touring UB and getting to know our greatest enemy: the UB heatwave. Rebecca, our Instructor who has been coming to Mongolia for almost 20 years, told us that she’s never seen it stay so hot. Sunscreen and a hat were a must in the near 90-degree weather that we battled with for four days straight. On one of our walks around UB, we visited Sukhbaatar Square in front of the parliament building and stopped to look at the National University of Mongolia. After this excursion, we were hot and sweaty, and thought that it would be good to return to the apartment. The heat was more than any of us had expected, but none of us said much about it beyond the occasional sweat-related joke. About halfway through our journey home, someone finally said they were exhausted and needed a break in the shade. We found a shady place under a tree and took a water break. One after another, we all admitted that the heat was pretty intense, and we were thankful to be taking a break. Throughout the rest of our time in UB, more breaks were thankfully taken, many of which included gelato.

Lesson learned: Speak up! If you have an opinion or need, share it! More often than not, there are other people who have the same need. It is not until one person shares, that others are thankful that somebody said something.

Sukhbataar Square and the parliament building. Photo by David Ahrens.

Photo2: National University of Mongolia on a very hot day. Photo by David Ahrens.

Not only did we spend our time in UB walking around the city, but we also spent time learning about Mongolian culture and history in order to better understand the country we would be calling home for the next forty days. This included an informal language lesson, a visit to the National Museum to learn about history, plenty of cultural questions, and watching a cultural performance. The cultural performance we went to was full of traditional musical instruments, Mongolian folk songs, dancing, singing, and, the cherry on top, throat singing. Most of us knew about the deep sounds of throat singing from YouTube videos, but we were completely unprepared for the almost tangible vibrations that came from the singer and resounded throughout the room. As soon as we felt the atmosphere of throat singing, we knew that it was something special. After the performance, there weren’t really any words that would do the performance justice. Nonetheless, we applauded hard and described it simply and accurately by saying things like, “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Lesson learned: Show appreciation! Whether for a big reason or a small reason, showing that you appreciated or enjoyed what another person said or did shows them that you value their presence, which will inspire them to do other positive acts.

At the end of our five days in Ulaanbaatar, we already have a much better understanding of the culture that we are apart of, and we have a much better understanding of our team. On behalf of our team, I feel comfortable saying that we are all excited for our weeks to come in the field! This is “Dusty Dave” signing off.

Photo3: The stage and the audience at the cultural performance. Photo by David Ahrens.

Photo4: Temple of Boddhisattva at Gandan Monastery. Photo by David Ahrens.