The Christmas Test

It’s Christmas time! May you and your families all have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. As a special Christmas treat, here’s a quiz for you to try. Time to test your knowledge of Mongolia so far!

To see the answers, hold down the left button on your mouse and drag it over the line underneath the question. The answer should then be revealed to you. Once you’ve finished the test check the score table to see how you’ve done. Good luck…

1. What is the capital of Mongolia?
Ulaanbaatar (Red Hero City)

2. Who is Mongolia’s most famous leader of all time (clue: he helped to created their biggest empire)?
Chengis Khann

3. How do you say “hello, how are you?” in Mongolian?
Sain bain uu?

4. Where do many of Mongolia’s street children live during the cold winter months?
Underground, in the sewers

5. What are 'nomads'?

People who live and constantly move around in the countryside

6. Name two types of Mongolian food.
Buuz and Hoshur

7. What is the name of the traditional Mongolian game played with sheep’s ankle bones?
Shagai

8. What does MEPPЙ ЧPИCTMAC translate into? (the word is spelt using the Cyrillic alphabet, so go back to my previous Project Mongolia entry on the Mongolian language for help)
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Test Scores:
0-2 Have you been paying attention?!
3-5 Ok, but there’s room for improvement.
6-8 Well done, the Mongolian people would be proud of you!

Project Mongolia will resume early January 2008. See you then!

How do Mongolians keep warm?

[Question from Louisa, Phoebe, Georgia & Miguel]

Mongolia is one of the coldest counties you could possibly visit, and its capital (Ulaanbaatar) is the coldest capital city in the world! Temperatures reach -35C during January and February. If you leave your clothes to dry outside they’ll quickly become frozen! As it’s so cold, it’s very impressive that the Mongolians manage to survive in these temperatures. So just how do they do it?
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Their clothes – everyone wraps up warm during the winter season. People spend a long time putting on warm clothes before they leave their house. Here you can see what the average Mongolian man would wear on a cold day:

Thermal underclothes

A jumper, many t-shirts and a warm pair of trousers

Hat, gloves and some very warm boots

A big coat!

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Their accommodation – People who own a house make sure that it has a lot of heating. All the windows and doors have a lot of insulation put around them, to stop the cold air outside getting in.
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Those who live in a gir (Mongolian tent) use coal fires to keep their gir warm. Because girs are well designed for Mongolia’s cold weather, it only takes thirty minutes from when the gir’s stove is lit for the temperature inside to rise from freezing to a nice, warm +20C. However, some people are not lucky enough to live in a house or a gir.

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Ulaanbaatar has many street children, who live on the streets begging for money. The only way they can keep warm in the winter is to live underground. The children climb down manholes and sleep next to the warm heating pipes that run underneath the city. They keep warm, but it’s dirty – they have a very difficult life.

What is school life like in Mongolia? (boy's view)

[question from Louisa, Sam, Ed, Danielle, Miles, Anna, John, Victoria, Jake, Tom B, Louisa and Patrick]

Carrying on from last week's edition, this week I asked Bud, an 11 year old schoolboy from Ulaanbaatar about what school life is like in Mongolia. As Bud had previously been in a school in England (his family worked in Manchester for a few years, before returning to Mongolia), his answers were particularly interesting:

1. What subjects do you learn at school? Maths, Advanced Maths (Bud's school is a specialist maths school), Mongolia, English, History, Biology, P.E, Art, Physics and Geometry.

2. What do you like about school, and what do you not like?

:) I really like seeing my friends at school. There are 46 people in my class, so I have many friends to play with. I like Maths, English, Mongolian and P.E lessons. My maths teacher is really nice and teaches very well.

:( My school has some very strict rules. We have to walk around the school following a particular system - we cannot take short cuts, and we always have to walk on the right-hand side of the corridors. Running and shouting is definitely not allowed! If we break these rules, or misbehave in class, then we are given punishments. Usually the punishment is to wash the classroom after the end of the school day. I have had to do this when I was late for school! If someone is really bad then they may be smacked by the teachers, or may even have to leave the school. Other things I do not like are that I have to wake up early for school (at 6am), and that sometimes the lessons can be boring.

3. What games do you play with your friends? I play basketball and PC games with my school friends. I really like to play football, but we are not allowed to do this - the teachers think that we will hit the ball into the windows. We have to play our football in secret, so that the staff do not see us! My favourite team is Manchester United.

4. What are the main differences between English and Mongolian schools? (N.B. Bud studied in England for a few years before returning to Mongolia).

In England I had one teacher who taught us all our classes, whereas in Mongolia I have a different teacher for each of my subjects. Also, my English school was smaller (200 children, not the 2000 that are in Bud's current school), but it had a bigger playground! In Mongolia boys and girls don't really play together, but in England they did. I think that English school is easier than Mongolian school. I had a real shock when I came back to Mongolia - the maths that we were learning in Mongolia was a lot more difficult than the maths that we were learning in England. I had to catch up quickly!

5. How long it takes for you to get to school?
I have to take a bus to school. It takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop. Then I take a 15 minute-bus ride. My bus drops me off very near to school.

This edition of Project Mongolia was brought to you with the help of Bud and his mother Urnaa. To both of them many thanks!

What is school life like in Mongolia?

[question from Louisa, Sam, Ed, Danielle, Miles, Anna, John, Victoria, Jake, Tom B, Louisa and Patrick]

Well, I’m not an expert on this subject, but luckily I found someone who was. I asked Ankhzaya, a local schoolgirl, about school life in Mongolia. Ankhzaya had some interesting answers:


1. What subjects do you learn at school?
Mathematics, Mongolian, Reading, Korean language, English language, Nature, Society, Music and Dance, Sports/Gymnastics, Health, Drawing, Technology, and Mongolian traditional script.

2. What do you like about school, and what do you not like?
:) Generally, I like mostly everything about our school, but there are several things that I like most. I like the uniform, because it’s pretty. We have two foreign (Korean) teachers. One of them teaches Korean language and the other teaches English. Both of them are young women and I like them, because they are friendly. Also, we have a cafeteria in the school, which I like to go to during the 15-minute break. Another thing I like in our school is its discipline.

:( But there are a few things that I do not like. We do not have a specific teacher for the Health subject, therefore, our class teacher is teaching Health at the moment. But often, she uses the hour for other subjects. But Health is one of my favourite subjects.
The boys fight with each other in the classroom, and I do not like that.

3. What games do you play with your friends?
We play ball games (throwing and catching small ball against a wall), volleyball, hopscotch, skipping, “run and chase”, and the “wolf and camels” game (one person plays the role of a wolf and tries to catch a baby camel, while the others play the roles of different age camels. All the camels stand in line with the father camel at the front, mother camel stands next in the line, etc, and the baby camel at the end of the line. The camels have to stay in line, holding to each other, and they can not break their connection while trying to save the baby camel from the wolf).

4. How many lessons do you have, and how long are they?
I have 5 - 6 lessons everyday, each for 40 minutes. (Most Mongolian children only have school for half the day – half the children go to school in the morning, and the other half go to school in the afternoon)

5. How long it takes for you to get to school?
As the school is quite far from my home, I go to school by bus, and it takes me about 40 minutes to get to the school.

6. How many days do you go to school and how much holiday do you have?
I go to school 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday.
We have school holidays throughout the year. We have a week’s holiday after the first term (in mid November), two weeks holiday after the second term (in early February) and another one week holiday after the third term (in mid April). Then, we have summer holiday, which lasts for 3 months from early June until the end of August.

We also rest during the national holidays. These are New Year (on 31 December and 1 January), Independence Day (26 October), Mongolian New Year (3 days in February), and International Women’s Day (8 March).


Next week I will ask the same questions to Bud, a local schoolboy.

This edition of Project Mongolia was brought to you with the help of Ankhzaya and her aunt Bulgan. Many thanks goes to them!

What part of Mongolia are you staying in?

[question from Theo, Georgia, Anna, Jake, Katie and Victoria]

I am living in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Here are a few interesting things about Ulaanbaatar:

*1.1 million people live in the city, which is almost half the entire population of Mongolia! Some of these people live in ordinary houses and flats, whilst others live on the outskirts of the city in ger tents.

*Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, with temperatures often reaching -35C in January!

*Ulaanbaatar means “Red Hero”.

*The best thing about Ulaanbaatar: There are lots of things to do. The city is full of museums, shops and cafes, and even has a cinema. This is very different to most of Mongolia, where most towns only have a few shops, and if you’re very lucky a sports centre. Life outside of Ulaanbaatar is a lot more quiet and basic.

*The worst thing about Ulaanbaatar: the city’s air is quite polluted. This is partly because of the large amount of cars in the city. However, the smoke around Ulaanbaatar is also a result of some of the things people in Mongolia use to keep warm. Those lucky enough to have a house will be using electrical heating to keep warm – the big power plants nearby supply this electricity, but create a lot of smoke. The Mongolians who live in the ger tents burn a lot of coal to keep their tents warm. This also creates a lot of smoke. As Ulaanbaatar is surrounded by four mountains, this traps the smoke in, so the city’s air is quite dirty (cough, cough!).

Why did you choose to go to Mongolia?

[question from Sophie, Sam, Danielle, Miles, Jake, Louisa, Emily, Theo, Aaron, Phoebe, Lilly and Rebecca]

Hmmm, tough question! Well, I’ll be completely honest and say that the choice was not entirely my own. I wanted to work in a poor country and to help the people there, so I applied to work with the charity Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). VSO takes people to go and work in some of the poorest countries in the world (you can see the list of countries here: http://www.vso.org.uk/about/cprofiles/index.asp). I could have gone anywhere, but the job VSO offered me was in Mongolia. However, I was very happy when I heard that I had the chance to work in Mongolia. This is because of some things that I had already knew about Mongolia:

Mongolia’s countryside/animals – Mongolia is a huge country, with loads of countryside. I’m very fond of the countryside, and so looked forward to exploring it. I was excited about seeing the mountain and desert areas, and going to places where there are no other people for miles and miles. I also thought it would be great to see the many animals in Mongolia. I knew that if I went I’d get the chance to see wild horses, yaks and camels. I even thought that if I was very lucky I might have the chance to see snow leopards! During my many visits to Marwell Zoo (near Winchester) I always went to see the snow leopards, one of my favourite animals. The chance to see snow leopards in the wild was something I found hard to miss! Now that I’ve arrived in Mongolia I doubt I’ll actually see them (they are very shy creatures, and have good camouflage) but I can always dream…!

Mongolia’s history – Mongolia has a very interesting history. Under Chengis Khaan, one of the world's greatest ever leaders (who can be seen in the picture to the right), Mongolia had the second biggest empire the world has ever seen (1206-1294). Mongolia once controlled over 10% of the world, which is pretty impressive! More recently (1924-1992), Mongolia was part of the ‘communist bloc’ (a group of countries which tried to make sure that all people were equal – no one should have more than another person). As a result, Mongolia developed in a very different way to most other countries in the world.

The Mongolian people – The Mongolian people are famous for being friendly and welcoming. I looked forward to getting to know them, and discovering more about their special culture. Perhaps the most interesting people are those who live in the countryside in big tent-like houses called ‘gers’. They are ‘nomads’ – people who constantly move around the countryside. I wanted to see this type of life as it is very different to our life back in the United Kingdom (a country where most people live in houses and stay in one location for many years).

Mongolia’s climate – I have never lived in a country with a crazy climate like Mongolia’s climate! Whilst I may live to regret my decision during the winter months (the photo shows you what the view is like from my bedroom window), I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing what it is like to live in a country in which temperatures often drop to –30C. You can see what the weather is already like in the photo to the right - it's the view from my bedroom window a week ago.

What language do Mongolians speak?

[question from Sam, Julia and Tonicha]

Mongolians have their very own language - Mongolian! The Mongolian language is quite difficult, as it is very different to most European languages. However, there are a few words that are similar – for example, “komputer” (computer). I’ve found the language quite tough to learn, but am improving every day. Here are a few useful phrases that I’ve learnt so far:

Sain bain uu? – Hello, how are you?
Tim – Yes
Ogui – No
Ootchlarei! – Sorry!
Saihan amrarei – Have a good rest
Gal dzuu! – Crazy! (especially useful when a car almost runs you over)

The Cyrillic Alphabet

Mongolians use a different alphabet to the one we use – the “Cyrillic Alphabet”. Many countries in the world use the Cyrillic Alphabet, perhaps the best known country is Russia. You can see how Cyrillic works in the picture below (the Cyrillic alphabet is in the grey column, and our own Latin alphabet is in the white columns):

Here’s a challenge for all of you - see if you can work out what this sentence means:

ßeЛЛ ДOНe, ЙОУ КАН РeАД СЙРИЛЛИК!

To see the answer, just hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse over the next line:
Well done, you can read Cyrillic!

What games do Mongolians play?

[question from Sophie, Tom and Edward]

Mongolians play many of the same games that we do in the United Kingdom. Playing cards is something that helps people get through the long winter nights. Chess is also very popular - most families will own a chess board. I have also often seen people meet in the streets to play dominos. Groups of people will sit down together in a park and play dominos for a couple of hours.

However, there is one game which is only found in Mongolia, called "shagai". Shagai is a game which uses pieces of sheep's ankle bones. Families will have boxes of these bones - one family I stayed with had a box with over a 100 pieces of bones! The game starts when one player throws all the pieces into the air. The pieces then settle on the floor, landing in different positions.

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The positions the bones land in are important to the game. How the bone lands determines which animal the bone represents.

• If the bone lands on its side and it is curving inwardly, then it is a camel.


• If it lands on its side and is curving outwardly, it is a horse.


• If the bone lands completely flat, and is curving inwards it is a sheep.


• A goat is a bone that has landed completely flat, and is curving outwards.

You can see the different positions can be seen in the photo:

The game is a bit like playing marbles - you have to flick the shagai bones so that they hit the same type of bone (so a 'horse' bone would have to hit another 'horse' bone). If you hit the correct bones you get to keep them. However, if you miss or you hit the wrong bone (for example, your camel bone hits a horse, sheep or goat bone), your turn ends and your opponent gets to have a go. The one with the most bones at the end of the game wins. Shagai is a very traditional game, which has been played for hundreds of years. It is still very popular - many children play this game.
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Some people also play a slightly different game with the shagai bones - the "shagai horserace". Some bones are lined up to create the racetrack. Next the players chose another bone to be their counter on the 'racing field' (the space next to the racetrack). Then each player takes it in turns to throw four bones. If they throw any 'horses', they can move their counter forward one place. The person who is the first to get to the end of the track is the winner!

P.S. I'll talk about the sports that Mongolians like to play in a future post.

What is Mongolian food like?

[question from John, Miguel, Sophie, Louisa, Annabel, Theodora and Ed]

As it doesn’t rain that much in Mongolia, and the winters are so cold, Mongolian people find it very difficult to grow vegetables and fruit. This means that most meals are based around other things. Over the last five weeks of my stay in Ulaanbaatar, I’ve mostly been eating meat. Mongolians definitely like to eat meat – it’s quite difficult to live here and be a vegetarian! They also like fatty foods. I suppose they eat a lot of fat so that they can be comfortable in the very cold winters.

The two most traditional Mongolian dishes are ‘hoshur’ and ‘buuz’.

Buuz are small dumplings filled with mutton and herbs. When eating them, one usually takes a small bite to get through the pastry, and then sucks out the juice from inside. Mongolians are very happy to make noise at the dinner table (it’s a sign of appreciation of the meal), so slurping is definitely allowed!


Hoshur are large flat pastries filled with steak and gravy. The best way to describe them is that they look a bit like flat cornish pasties. Whenever I want to treat my myself I go to a local café and buy some hoshur – I love them!



I was lucky enough to see how both were made when I stayed with a Mongolian family. In the photos below you can see Chimgee and Bud making them:


Cutting and rolling the dough

Filling the dough circles up with meat & herbs

Closing up the dough parcels. The buuz are ready to cook!

Mongolians wash all this food down with a variety of drinks. The most popular is called ‘suutei tse’, which is a very milky tea. Suutei tse is prepared in a big cauldron which is filled with milk. Once the milk is boiling some tea and spices are added, together with some butter. The result is a very warming and quite rich drink. I quite like it, but my fellow British friends aren’t too sure about it… Adults like to drink vodka and a special drink called ‘airag’. Airag is made from fermented horse’s milk. Whilst I like to eat and drink almost anything, this was a bit too much for me – it tasted like vinegar. Mongolians seem to love it though!

Some of the perhaps more unusual things that Mongolians eat are:

Camels,
Horses,
Sheep’s heads!

I hope to try all of them before I leave, so I’ll tell you how they taste in the future…

Welcome to Project Mongolia!

Dear pupils of St Peter's School,

I'm writing to you for Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar. It's a beautiful day outside - the sky is blue and everyone in the city is relaxed as it's the weekend. The only thing that's spoiling it is the traffic outside. Mongolian drivers like to use their car horns a lot!

It's been a while since I came to St Peter's School to talk to you about Project Mongolia. Since then I've been settling in to my new life in Mongolia. It's been a busy, but fun time. I hope you all have had a good break over the summer and are now settled back at school. Thank you all so much for the lovely letters that you wrote me. Thank you also for all the lovely pictures you drew. I've stuck the letters up on the walls of my room, which has really made the room very colourful. If I have a bad day I only need to look at your letters and I'll be cheered up!

In your letters you asked me many questions. Over the coming weeks I'll try to answer as many of them as possible. I'll answer one of your questions each week, and will display information and photos on this webpage. If you ever have any more questions about Mongolia and the lives of the Mongolian people then please send them to me (click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of this message and you can leave your question/comment there).

Best wishes from Mongolia to you all,

Robert