My Journey to Mongolia..

My journey began on March 19^th, 2007 when I flew to Beijing and stayed at Gloria Plaza Hotel with 10 Tokyo Tech students and 2 Tokyo Tech professors. At the same day, we had a short briefing with several UNESCO staffs at the UNESCO Beijing office. I (as Tokyo Tech team representative) was presenting our plans, objectives, and expectations from this program. We (11 students and 2 professors) got scholarships from ACCU (Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO) for this trip, meaning, we didn't pay anything except for visa in this field visit.

Before I go further, maybe I should tell you a bit about the program itself. I know it would be very long, but I'll try to make it as short as possible (I took some part of the introduction section in our report to ACCU).

Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has been collaborating with UNESCO Beijing office in implementing and evaluating a project of UN Human Security Fund in Mongolia, (Rehabilitation of Boarding Schools and Provision of Refresher Training Course for School Principals and Teachers in the Dzud Affected Gobi Desert Provinces in Mongolia) since 2004. The project also involves UNICEF and Government of Mongolia to improve quality of schools in rural Mongolia where schools were severely hit by Dzud (extreme cold winter from 1999 to 2001). The project components consist of 1) mobile training programs for principals and teachers as well as appropriate material production to assist the training, and 2) rehabilitation of school building and dormitories.

In teacher training aspect, Tokyo Tech contributed in 1) introducing distance learning materials to promote training of rural school teachers and principals, and 2) providing advises and consultations for training content production to appropriately reflect the needs of rural principals and teachers. The end-of-the project evaluation was conducted in March 2006 and its evaluation shows positive impact and effectiveness of the project.

In Tokyo Tech, a lecture entitled “Sustainable Development and Integrated Management Approach” has been held semi-annually. The class covered theoretical concept of how to promote sustainable development in international development project. However, in order to understand how the international project's sustainability can be promoted under practical and realistic circumstances, students need to experience a real project implementation through field visit. As Dzud project in Mongolia was introduced in the lecture as a case study representing a successful project implementation, this field visit provides opportunity for students who attended the lecture to visit rural schools in Mongolia to see the positive impact and effectiveness of the project.

So, that's why I can go to China and Mongolia.. Ok now, I will continue the story. The day after (March 20^th, 2007) we flew to Ulaanbaatar (the capital city of Mongolia) and stayed at Ulaanbaatar Hotel. In Ulaanbaatar, we had several interviews with the Director of Education in Mongolia, Director of Non Formal Education, etc. We also met several Mongolian University students and eat dinner together.

Two days after (March 22^th, 2007), I flew to Bayankhongor aimag (one of provinces in Mongolia) with 5 other students and 1 professor using a domestic flight. The other 5 students and 1 professor already went to Zavkhan aimag the day before. The trip from Bayankhongor airport to the village was very difficult. We used 2 cars for approximately 8 hours across Gobi desert with no traffic sign and even no road at all. All deserts!! I wonder how the driver found out the way somehow.

Finally, we arrived at Bayan-Undor village. This village has no fix electricity supply (only one school generator) and very limited water. Even to brush my teeth, I have to use mineral water that I bought from Ulaanbaatar. I lived in the school dormitories there for 4 days. I spent the next 3 days in other village called Jargalant village which also has the same conditions with Bayan-Undor village. So, I couldn't take any bath nor hair wash for 7 days.

Interestingly, in those two villages, we have to eat mutton everyday! As you know, Mongolia has very little arable land since the area is covered by unproductive steppes with mountains to the north and west, and Ghobi Desert to the south. So, it's very difficult to grow anything. Moreover, we have to drink milk only (water is very limited). But there was no cow milk, only goat milk, camel milk, or horse milk. Vodka (made from milk) was also very famous. It's a very honored drink. We have to drink it whenever we visited the gerr --traditional house of rural Mongolians, looks like tent--.

This is basically what I eat --> morning: mutton and little noodle, noon: mutton and little rice, night: mutton and small potato. And this is what I drink --> milk with tea, milk, fermented milk.

Other interesting thing is the so called toilet. There’s no water and the toilet was just simply a hole in the ground with wood on the top of it. It smells like mutton (maybe because the main food is mutton). Moreover, the distance between dormitory – toilet was quite far. In the morning, when I took a pee, I always see a volcano made from “pup”. Why did I say volcano? Because my pee was warm and the outside temperature was low, so it vaporized in the top of the “pup” mountain. Hehehehehe..

During my trip to Mongolia, I had a very rare opportunity to ride a camel, learn Mongolian dance, and join parties. The parties were held every night after dinner until midnight, with generator as the only source of electricity to play the music. But anyway, my main purpose was to work, not for fun. So, during the day I have to conduct interviews with many stakeholders and join the teachers training activities. During the night, after each party, I have to analyze and evaluate the data from questionnaires and prepare for presentations. I was very tired and I think everybody in the team were tired too..

What impressed me most were the Mongolian people. They were so kind and friendly. Even if they can’t speak English, they tried to communicate with all of us. They realized the importance of education for their children. Although Mongolia is one of the countries with low GDP, their literacy rate is very high (more than 90%). The morality and people’s awareness were also very high. They helped and understand each other even in such severe condition. I was very impressed by their spirit and motivation to develop themselves and their country. I wonder why people who live in a better condition sometimes don’t have that kind of motivation. I think if all Indonesian people have such kind of spirit, motivation, and awareness, Indonesia will soon become a better country.

I felt very lucky that I could learn so many knowledge and values of life from this journey. I am very thankful for all of this.. I wish I can share what I’ve learned with all Indonesians and people around the world. Is it too much?? Yup, I think so.. Well, at least my writings here can give something to the readers..  (^_^)v