During the school break in late January, the school teachers took a work trip to a nearby town that has a lot of mining, and thus a lot of money for things like a brand new school. Now, a work trip in America might involve a car ride with 2 or 3 coworkers or a plane trip to a neighboring state. You stay at a mid-rate hotel and attend a conference or meetings. This is what a work trip in the Mongolian countryside is like.
8:30-scheduled departure time. After waiting for one van and then another van and then a missing teacher we left at 9:30.
9:40 A.M. While still within sight of town we stopped due to our first flat tire. 10:00 A.M. back on the road.
10:15 A.M. Stopped for our second flat tire. In order to stay warm while waiting outside in -15F temps the teachers in my van decided to play the Mongolian version of duck duck goose. I never really figured out the words and managed to abruptly end the game by falling spread eagle on the desert floor scrapping the skin on my chin off. The funniest part about this is that when I got home and showed Darkhuu my boo boo even before I could tell her what happened she asked me if I had been playing a game with the teachers. Apparently they are notorious for rowdy games!
10:30 A.M. Finally back on the “road” to Tsogt-Tsestii. We finally made it to our destination at 11:45 A.M. It only took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel 55 miles! After dropping off our meat and noodles at the local public school for the dorm cook to make our lunch from, we headed to the new private school “Мөрөөдөл” or “Dream” school.
The school is temporarily housed in the first floor of one of the new apartment buildings being built by Tavan Tolgoi, the large coal mine located about 8 kilometers from town. Eventually there will be hundreds of new apartments, and brand new public/private school and kindergarten, and numerous stores and parks. They are currently in the first stage of building
but some lucky families have already moved into new apartments.
The school is small but nice and has much higher quality furniture and electronic equipment than our school. The director told us all about the present school as well as the plans for the future much larger school they will start building this spring. We then took a tour of the classrooms and met some of the teachers.
The English language room was especially nice–not only because the teacher had a television in her room which she used to show language videos and such, but because they are one of the selected schools in Mongolia that are piloting the new Cambridge system English materials. Even just a quick glance at the books showed that they are much better than the books I am teaching from and are highly integrated with listening, speaking, acting, and audio visual activities.
Sadly the rest of the schools won’t get the system until 2014, so until then I am stuck teaching my 9th graders, who live in a town with basically no electricity and internet, lessons on internet shopping and using ATM machines.
2:00 P.M. We headed on over to the headquarters of Tavan Tolgoi mines and had a safety briefing in their very nice office. We then boarded a bus, all decked out in safety gear, for a tour of the mine.
We were not allowed to take pictures in the mine unfortunately but I wish I could have. The place was much larger than I had remembered and amazingly dirty. (here is a view from the outside taken a few years ago)
While most workers live in apartments or gers in town, it appeared that some people live in gers within the confines of the mine. The gers were pitch black in color due to the constant coal dust in the air. I don’t know how anyone could live there. The bus drove us around the mine pit and we got out at a lookout. They mine and process an area the size of a football field everyday!
3:30 P.M. We left behind our hard helmets and headed back to town for lunch at the public school. We also took a little tour of the school. Tsogt Tsestii, because of the mine, has grown in leaps and bounds the last few years so the school population has exploded. Where as my school has one group of students per grade, they had 4-5 groups. Their school building was also much more rundown than ours so they truly are in need of a new school. As much as I wish Hanhongor had a fancy new school I don’t wish a mine, horrible population growth, or the loss of community on our sweet little town.
5:00 P.M After a few stops and starts for vodka with friends alongside the road, we left town and headed to Baran Naraa another, smaller coal mine, located northwest of our town. We had another safety training and then got into our vans for a mine tour. As we were there after the sun had set we got to see them working under floodlights. Both mines were very professionally run, accessible and accommodating to public visitors, and eager to show how they benefit the people of Mongolia. While the environmental impact of these mines is yet to be seen at least they seem to be starting off in the right direction.
8:00 P.M. After a dinner of chicken breasts, french fries, and a green salad (!) at the mine we headed back, getting home around 10 P.M.
To recap my work trip in the Gobi Desert:
Mines visited: 2
Hard hats worn: 2
Schools visited: 2
Vodka shots drunk: 4
Flat tires: 2
Scrapped chins: 1
It was a great trip!