by Chris Smith, RRCS Mongolia Summer 2018 Program Instructor 

After two years of preparation and planning, we are excited to announce the beginning of our Summer 2018 Student Program in Mongolia! The looks of excitement on our students’ faces as they emerged from Mongolian Customs was quite refreshing for me, Rebecca, and Badmaa to see, as we stood waiting in the crowded receiving room of the Ulaanbaatar airport.

Since then, our first few days in Ulaanbaatar have gone amazingly fast. In the short time we have been together, we have managed to see Sukhbaatar Square and the capital building, the National Museum of History, a Buddhist temple, and eat some distinctly Mongolian foods, including yak cream and bortz (fried bread).

Sukhbaatar Square is an amazing collection of tributes to ancient and modern Mongolia, with its statue of Mongolia’s ancient hero, Genghis Kahn, the statue of General Sukhbaatar who led the Mongols to ally with Russia in order to end the Chinese occupation, the ring of Soviet-era buildings encircling most of the square, and the modern-day Mongolian Stock Exchange symbolizing its democratic revolution and start of capitalism in 1990. The National Museum of History, though small, is rated one of the top 100 museums in the world, and has an amazing collection of Stone Age to modern day era artifacts, with everything from life size mounts of Genghis Khan’s archery horsemen, skeletons and artifacts from Bronze Age burials, to traditional Mongolian formal outfits, reminiscent of outfits worn by Star War’s Queen Amadalla. The three-story tall bronze-cast Bodhisattva in the Buddhist temple we visited was incredible to stand underneath. Rebecca, who completed two years of Peace Corps in Mongolia starting in 2000 and has spent the better part of the last 18 years working and conducting research in this country, turned tour guide and taught us about the hundreds of gold prayer wheels we were turning, flickering butter lamps, and the orange-robed monks around us.

Outside of exploring the city, we have had time to get to know each other better and work our way through much of our orientation activities that include project background, planned fieldwork for the summer, and safety and emergency protocols. Over the last few days, we have covered everything from the basics of Mongolian Culture, to the geology, birds, and natural history of the region. Our meals have included Korean, traditional Mongolian, Turkish Pizza, and a smorgasbord of foods we will be eating in the field. While Rebecca and I have been able to spend time with the students, our third instructor and Mongolian native, Badmaa, has been busy securing our permits at the immigration office. Her expertise resulted in an expedited processing of our necessary documents and we are free to begin our journey to the Darhad Valley three days ahead of schedule.

After traveling part of the journey to the Darhad Valley by train, students will ride the remainder of the way in Soviet-made Furgon vans.

Listening to the students talk about their backgrounds, previous experiences, and why they chose to come on this program, I am feeling especially excited and grateful for the quality of people that Round River attracts. It is exciting to be teaching a group who are so mature, inclusive, attentive, open minded, and inspired to be here. I am especially thankful right now to have a job in which I can be doing meaningful conservation, while getting to be part of a community of fun, excited, similar-minded young adults, in a culturally vibrant and ecologically wild place. It makes “working” fun. And I can tell the students are itching to get north to the Darhad Valley and out into the field to begin learning, researching, and contributing to the conservation of this remote and ecologically important region!

Our next step is to get on the Trans-Siberian Railway heading north. At the point where the railway strays from our intended route to the Darhad, we’ll switch over to public transit and ride in Soviet-made Furgon vans the remainder of the way. In a few days we hope to be at our base-camp where the Parks director and his staff will welcome us, and we can settle into our Mongolian gers (yurts). More soon.

View of the Darhad Valley from our base-camp where students will spend time between field excursions.