Assembling a ger

Pictures of building a ger taken in 2004. Unfortunately there is not a picture after a completion. 

Balmaha hike

Here are pictures from this year's first hike...

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The weather was not so great; windy and rainy, but it felt wonderful to spend some time outside after a long winter. The view was magical and made a promise to myself that should do more hiking this year.

Loch Lomond

Happy Tsagaan sar!

Tomorrow is Tsagaan sar, which is the traditional new year celebration in Mongolia. I am quite happy that I found a nice blog entry which has extensive history of the mongolian calendar.

I wish you many happiness in the new year!

Cranes

These pictures were taken on the way back from the lake Khovsgol. I have seen cranes before just as a couple or a family with little chicks, but never this many together.

Mongolian Music in The Royal Albert Hall

Mongolian way

In the June issue of National Geographic published a harrowing story about child brides in the world. Stories were heartbreaking and made me appreciate what I take for granted as a woman and as a mother of a little girl. It seems like in many man-oriented cultures daughters are undervalued because they will grow up to be somebody's wife and his family member therefore we should not invest in her too much. I understand that poverty plays a big role, but it is still hard to swallow.

Mongolia is not a rich country and culturally or historically a girl grows up to be somebody's wife, but parents there have a very different approach. If you look at statistics female to male student ratio is very high in mongolian universities, yet high ranked positions in the governmental organizations or companies are mostly filled by men. This paradox stems from the same thinking that a girl grows up to be a member of a different family, however parents think that they should equip their girl as well as they can because they will go away. A typical reasoning sounds like "We have a boy and a girl and money to send only one child to a university. We will send our daughter because she will go away and it is harder for her. Our boy will grow up to be a man, besides we will be here for him". As a consequence girls are pushed to work hard in school and have better education. A simple conclusion is that parents love their children and have their best interest in their hearts and it should be like that everywhere.

Crossing a river