Monthly Archives: August 2012

The History of the Hanhongor School: 1940 to Today

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The “Long Hair Club”

A new school year is right around the corner, and I thought it would be a good time to highlight the history of the Hanhongor school. The first school in Hanhongor was established in 1940 somewhat south of present day Hanhongor. Consisting of 3 gers, 2 classrooms, and 1 kitchen, it was initially endowed with donations of 58 camels and 2 cast iron cooking pots from area community leaders.

The first year there were 25 students, 2 teachers, and 2 workers, and by 1943 there were 65 students and 3 teachers. The first class graduated from 4th grade in 1944, and from there the students went to school in the aimag center for secondary education. In the late 1940s and in 1950 two small classroom buildings were built in Hanhongor proper to house the students more permanently.

Next in 1958, a stone classroom building with 4 classrooms and two office rooms, was built in the center of Hanhongor followed in 1961 by a “Pioneer building” for all those little Socialists. This was during the time Darhuu was an elementary school student, and she has all sorts of stories about malfunctioning stove flues causing students to pass out in class and how the kids thought that the pioneer building was the real bees knees.

The Pioneer Building

In 1971 Hanhongor was awarded the Best Elementary School in the Nation by the Mongolian government, and in 1978 the school expanded from a four year elementary school to an 8 year middle school with the first 8th grade class of 37 students graduating in 1982. Our present day governor and trash man graduated in this class.

The present day school building was built in 1988 to accommodate the 320 students of the day (200 of which lived in the school dorms),

and in 2000 the aimag educational department designated the Hanhongor school as a Performing Arts magnet school. Today about 1/3 of the students study art, dance, or music in the afternoon, and students come from all the soums in Omnogobi and as far away as Ulaanbaatar to take advantage of the talented music teachers.

Presently, the number of students in the Hanhongor school hovers around 200, about 1/3 less than 25 years ago, which means that the classes are small, all of classes are held in the morning (instead of morning and afternoon shifts like many schools), and there is a real sense of community. While many of the classrooms are cold (my classroom was in the 40s last January) and not very well supplied, we all try to make the best of it. Thanks to some very hardworking teachers, there is always a sports contest, a club, or other activity going on in the afternoons to improve the lives of the kids-something that is all the more important when you just spent the morning trying to grip your pen with numb fingers.

The Dogs of Hanhongor: Maxford and Long Dog

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Today I want to honor the memory of two of the best dogs in Hanhongor who are sadly no longer with us.

Maxford Munson

When I was a Peace Corps volunteer, my side kick was Nigel, “sack of wrenches,” cat. I never really thought about getting a dog because I knew I would not want to leave it behind when my service was completed, and I also figured that taking a cat and a dog back to America was too much at that time for me to handle. So it was fitting that a dog adopted me instead. Maxford Munson, or Max was left behind in Hanhongor by his owner when they moved  away one day in the spring of 2003. Being a sweet, gentle, and friendly dog his sad state of affairs caught my eyes-especially since he decided to move into my yard. I started feeding him once in awhile, and quickly everyone in town decided on my behalf that I had a dog. He would hang out in front of my house, and when I moved to my ger I had a cute little dog house made for him. He enjoyed keeping Nigel inline and was wonderfully patient when I decided his dreadlocks needed cutting off and his fur combed. Sadly, I lost him much too early in December of 2003 when someone took it upon himself to poison the majority of the dogs in town. Max was a very gentle soul and I like to think that Santiago is proud to carry his name as her middle name.

Long Dog

The other dog that I remember very fondly from my Peace Corps days was Long Dog. I never knew his real name, but I named him Long Dog due to his hilarious body shape.  While his legs were about 5 inches long, his body was a couple feet long giving him a sort of hyper furry dachshund look. The “long dog” breed is actually somewhat common in Mongolia and when we got Santiago I was hoping she would turn out to be a long dog. Maybe next time…

Мухар Шивэрт Ам

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Last Friday we went camping in the Gurvan Saikhan (Three Beauties) mountains with Darkhuu and her extended family.  We went to a valley area called Muhar Shivert Am (Мухар Шивэрт Ам) which is less visited than Yolin Am where we went to the Yak festival in May. Famous for its rocks that look like animals, it still had some winter ice left in the end of the canyon.

We arrived around 6 on Friday night and were warmly greeted by the park ranger who welcomed us to set up camp in her extra ger. Bayarlakh (her name is the infinitive form of the verb for being happy) was a very nice woman who spends her summers in a ger in that remote national park in the Gobi desert and her winters in Chicago.

After dropping off our stuff, the 15 of us (14 humans and 1 smelly dog) header up the canyon. We spotted lots of rocks that look like camels which you would expect in the Gobi,

but also saw eagles, lions, a snow leopard, and snake rocks. There was also a lot of stinging nettles (not fun) and kangaroo rats, voles, and  pygmy jerboas (lots of fun). Santiago’s attempts to catch them were hilarious, and she only managed to get one that was already dead. Brian and Santi hiked up to the valley ridge but the rest of us stayed in the canyon.

Three Beauties in the Three Beauties Mountains: Tungalag, Darkhuu, and Handamaa

At the end of the valley we found a bit of ice, some very fresh stream water, and Morin doing some rock modeling.

Here is almost everyone (Baatar and Uka were busy taking pictures).

Back row left to right:

Me, “Big” Tsend-Ayoush, Morin, Brian, and Darkhuu

From row left to right:

Zaya and Togoldor, “Small” Tsend-Ayoush, Tungalag and Ugana, and Handarmaa and Huslee

Brian and Morin

and Huslee saying her prayers

For dinner Brian and I had a fresh quinoa salad and fruit, and everyone else had mutton soup. After dinner we all played with glow in the dark necklaces that my friend Angie sent. Uka, Baatar, and Santiago slept in the tent, the two Tsendees slept in one of the cars, and the rest of us slept in the ger.

On Saturday we slept in, watched the sheep and goats go by, enjoyed fresh airag (horse’s milk) from a neighboring family, and just took in the refreshing mountain air. Brian and I visited a bit with Bayarlakh which was fun as we had never discussed the pros and cons of Costco with anyone in Mongolia before.

It was a great trip to the countryside with our family.

Summer School

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The last week of July was Summer English School in Hanhongor. Held partly to appease the many parents of bored children in Hanhongor and partly because I wanted to try out some new lesson plan material, it grew from 9 to 16 students over the week and was a lot of fun. The students ranged in age from 9 to 45 and there was always at least two 1-5 year olds in the crowd to keep things exciting (i.e. Mongolian kids don’t wear diapers). We went over the basics like greetings, numbers, weather, time, and the alphabet, but we really focused on speaking. The most popular activities were counting practice while jumping rope,

student generated crossword puzzles,

and anything that involved smacking flascards with fly swatters.

In retrospect I should have offered a longer and less English focused summer camp as the kids were just starving for stimulation. Summer school reminded me just how much fun teaching can be when you have students who really want to learn-to the point of exhaustion!

The New Teacher Apartment Building

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One of the things about Mongolia that can make life a bit cheaper and easier is work housing. In the countryside it is not uncommon for government, hospital, and school employees to have the option to live in government housing for free or a nominal fee. The downside is that it is often in rundown buildings that used to be something else (the defunct veterinary hospital, anyone?) and with few amenities. For example, when I was a Peace Corps volunteer I lived in this building for one year with a bank teller and 4 teachers and their families.

Life was pretty hard given that when the power was out, which was most of the time, we had no lighting, no heating, and no way to cook. It is no wonder that I insisted on living in a ger my second year.

After I left town, the teachers were moved around every year or 2 to other defunct buildings including one of the old school buildings famous for its roof full of pigeon poop and the afore mentioned veterinary hospital. A few lucky souls got to live in the renovated community center but most of them were stuck in the old hospital with its camel sized doors which let in all the winter breezes. Hardly worth the cheap $3 a month rent.

Well, this summer, after two years of planning and raising government and private funds (from mining companies) one of the old student dorms was renovated. Here is one of the the old dorms (which was lived in by students up until 2 years ago)

And here, is the new teacher apartment building after it got bricks, wallpaper, new windows, and a roof.

It has 8, two room, and 1, one room apartments and is already festooned with all important satellite dishes. The inside changed from one giant wind sieve to something that looks more like it belongs in Ulaanbaatar.

Today was the official new housing party where the school director, governor, and representatives from the provincial counsel and the two donor companies spoke and cut the ribbon.

Lastly, the three teachers who had already moved in received their keys.

The teachers who are living in the new building have been teaching at my school since I first moved here 10 years ago and they have lived in horrible run down buildings, suffered from house fires, and in general had to live in places no one should live in. I wish them lots of luck and hope they don’t have to move for a very long time!

Running Water, Sort Of

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As you may know, we usually get our water from a well-like this

But one day, a few weeks ago, we were drawn from our ger by the sound of a rototiller being used over by the police officer’s/governor’s houses. They were digging a trench and after asking around a bit we learned it was for water pipes. What? Water pipes that bring water directly from the well without you having to lug your 40 liter canisters all around? Where do we sign up?

We got Darkhuu on the case and about a week later Brian found himself and Sainaa out in our neighbor’s yard struggling with the rototiller for the piping to our yard.

A lot of hard machine and hand digging later,

and we were ready to call in the pipe laying professionals: Brian, Bayarmagnai, our neighbor and the town electrician/carpenter, his wife Urantuya, his son Sainaa, the town governor Sainbuyan, his wife and 2 year-old son, and various other neighbors. It was a true community project.

Covering over the pipeline was quickly completed by Brian, and our new spigot guard was installed.

So we now have water in our yard as long as the ground is not frozen, it is either Wednesday or Sunday night between 6-8 p.m. (our well times), we can get the well key from our neighbor, and someone goes to the well to turn on the motor. It is not quite in-home running water but beggars can’t be choosers.

The Dogs of Hanhongor: IP

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The first time we met IP was in February. I went outside to go to the bathroom and to my surprise there was a puppy sitting on our neighbor’s coal pile. She acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a dog to be doing on a freezing cold day but we were worried that she had gotten hurt getting up there. We decided that we would give her an hour and then if she was still there, we would deal with the issue. As it turned out, she had just been put there temporarily and was then moved to our neighbor’s mother’s house which is around the corner. Her I-don’t-care attitude and totally ridiculous hangout spot lead us to calling her Irreverant Pooch, or IP for short.

Sadly IP has a tough life with not enough love or food. She is often covered in mud and roams town in search of food, but still she remains a spirited little thing. The best thing about IP is that she is often found hanging out with her owner’s herd of goats. You never really get the feeling that she is herding them or even protecting them, but instead it is more like she thinks she is a goat. When we go out with Santi we often can see the goat herd in the distance. If you look hard you can usually see IP in the middle wagging her tail and chasing the kids. A dog’s life in Mongolia is not always easy but IP certainly tries to make the best of what she has.