Farewell Mongolia

On my last Saturday in Mongolia, I visited UB Toastmasters Club in the morning, October 25th. It was snowing when I woke up and peeked out the window. I was excited to finally be able to join the UB club meeting. Enkhee and I took a taxi to the Institute of Finance & Economics. I saw the sign of Toastmasters meeting at Room 204 at the gate.

Frank, the responsible Sergent-at-Arms, greeted us cheerfully. The meeting room was half full before 11 o'clock. Frank wrote the meeting agenda on the blackboard. Enkhee was invited to served as the timer, me served as the Ah-counter plus an individual evaluato. There were four prepared speeches, including two ice breakers speeches, one C-3 speech and one C-4 speech. Frank himself served as Toastmaster of the Day. I was given 5-7 minutes to talk about Revitalized Education Program (REP) at the end of the meeting. There was no grammarian, nor General Evaluator assigned.

The meeting started with the tabletopics session for all participants (13 in total). Everyone was called upon in turns drawing a question from a box. I won the best tabletopics speaker award by telling the most recent holiday with golden ladies toastmasters on Sun Princess cruise in late September. For REP, I shared my experience joining the webinar from 9 to 10 Thursday morning, May 15th, 2014, I gave thank to Toastmaster Mike Yang, Chief Ambassador of District 67, for inviting me to be one of the District 67 REP ambassadors.

After the meeting, Frank invited all club officers for lunch at Haraza, an Indian restaurant in the neighborhood. Originally I planned to invite Frank for lunch at the restaurant on the top of Blue Sky Hotel & Tower to reciprocate his generosity to treat me dinner on my first night in UB. Frank told me it would be easier and cheaper to eat at his favorite Indian restaurant. It was the first time I tried Indian food in UB. The food was really authentic and the naan was the best. Frank allowed me to pay for the drinks for all lunch participants. It was a great lunch till 3PM.

After lunch, Enkhee suggested we walk home on a sunny afternoon. We passed Sukhbaatar Square where a big fun raising festival took place. I enjoyed free Mongolian milk tea, a weak concoction of low-grade black tea, milk and salt. Then we passed the Government Palace Garden where Enkhee and Eegii had a beautiful photo taken with flowers blooming this summer. We passed the National Museum of Natural History closed indefinitely for renovation. We passed Ankara Street, we went into a grocery store to buy juices and fruits.

Farewell Dinner at Home in UB 

Before dusk, Eegii walked home with a big grocery bag. She and Enkhee started making Buuz, steamed dumplings, an auspicious dish eaten at home on Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian New Year. Enkhee made the dough skin, Eegii wrapped the meat ball of minced beef, chopped celery, and scallion. I loved Buzz for farewell dinner with tomato and cucumber salad.

We opened a big bottle of red wine. We laughed all the evening by daydreaming how to get rich and travel around the world. I invited Enkhee's family to come visit me in Taipei and stay with me for a couple of weeks on the house! It's the least I can do to reciprocate what they had done for me while I was in UB to promote Toastmasters to the best of my ability.

After dinner, I watched Apocalypto by Mel Gibson with Eegii and Minjin in the living room. The 2006 film was dubbed in Mongolian language with English subtitles. It was the only time in UB I enjoyed TV with the knowledge of what was going on. Cute Minjin drew two color pencil paintings for me while watching Apocalypto. One is cruising in the blue sky, the other is three swans swimming on the blue lake. I was happy to know her dreams. I shall treasure two painting till I attend her wedding party some day.

I didn't go to bed until one o'clock in the morning. I was eager to go home, I didn't really fall asleep the entire evening, I got up several times to make sure I wouldn't oversleep to miss my flight home.

Back to Taipei

It was still dark when I left Mongolia before dawn. Tsend Auysh and Eegii woke up to give me farewell kisses. Javkhlan drove me to the airport with Enkhee. It was 9 degrees Celcius below zero. Javkhlan was considerate to turn on the under backseat heating. My heart was filled with gratitude.

I don't know when I shall return to Mongolia again, but if possible, I'd like to see Naadam, to ride bicycles on Health Road in Erdenet City, to join local Toastmasters meetings. It is my sincere hope that more Toastmasters clubs can be chartered in Mongolia in the future. It will be awesome if I can celebrate Toastmasters 100th anniversary in UB.

Mongolians and Taiwanese

Nobody would know if I am from Taiwan, so long as I don't open my mouth to utter a sound. Mongolians look more like northern Chinese and Taiwanese look like southern Chinese. I'm a mix of northern Chinese (my father from Beijing) and southern Chinese (my mother from Nanjing). I look more like Mongolian than Taiwanese. Mongolians and Taiwanese are hospitable and warm-hearted people, remarkably similar in terms of the tight family bound and the patriarchy to value men and belittle women.

Mongolian women are in general tougher and stronger than Mongolian men. Daughters are expected to achieve more than sons. More female students graduate from college than men. Mongolian men were spoiled by the mothers and wives. It's generally women who win bread for the family. After the immediate collapse of soviet socialist in the 90s, the Mongolian men were allowed to marry three women. When the subsidized and command-led economy gave way to free economy, Mongolian men lose their shares in job market. Quite a few men turn to alcohol to forget their miserable lives during the painful years of shortages and unemployment.

Middle aged Mongolians speak Russian. They enjoy watching Russian TV shows in living rooms covered by colorful carpets. Many foreign dramas were dubbed in Russian. Young Mongolians are learning English at school, but most TV programs were dubbed in Mongolian.

Be Mongolia close to Russia, there are very few mixed blood of Mongolians and Russians, maybe more in Erdenet City than UB. In Erdenet City, I saw quite a few Russians. In UB, I saw Europeans. Among Mongolian population, 95% Mongols, 4% Kazakhs and 1% others. While I was in Erdenet City, Enkhee told me who were Kazakhs and who were Mongols. Enkhee had keener eyes telling apart Mongols and Kazakhs. Just like in Taiwan, I was easily recognized as mainlanders by Taiwanese.

Mongolian Food and Taiwanese Chinese Food

Mongolians like meat and animal fats to withstand the harsh winter. Meats of domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, camels, yaks, sheep, and goats, but no pigs. Horse meat is common in Mongolia and can be found in most grocery stores. Mongolians cook meet without much salt and spices. Mongolians love dairy products. Just by opening the refrigerator of the common household, you know the eating habits of Mongolians. Like northern Chinese, Mongolians make dumplings, steamed, fried, boiled, or in soup. Fried noodles with meat or noodle soups are also popular.

Taiwanese like seafood, vegetables and spices. The braised pork rice is one of the famous dishes in Taiwan. Taiwanese cuisine is influenced by dishes from all over China, but mainly by the province of Fujian. Hakka food and Japanese food are also popular in Taiwan.

Tips from a traveling Toastmaster in Mongolia

If you look for inspiration in life, adventure in Mongolia is it. On the road, unexpected twists and turns take place every second. Like-minded people will come to your rescue and you are prompted to step into your greatness.

1. Hone the sense of directions. Position yourself with landmark buildings. Memorize faces of strangers. Don't worry about the road signs in Cyrillics. Not many road signs could be easily found in UB. Roads were known or named after the neighborhood. Nobody really knows about road names, except the Peace Avenue.

2. Survive with your natural instincts. Peek from outside of the eatery. Open the door, take a seat, place the order by pointing dishes on other tables. Foster your intuition of six senses.

3. Persistent to keep up going. Excercise self-discipline. Walk the entire city for hours to know your destination. Something dramatic can happen any moment. Take in the excitement.

4. Bargain for fun. Apply the persuasive skills in Toastmasters. Cherish humanity. Strike up conversations with strangers. Give helping hands to those in need. Enjoy the moments with people of different culture and language.

5. Learn greetings in Mongolian language. If possible, learn the alphabets, numbers, a few Mongolian children songs.

6. Winter is not the season of choice unless you love wolf hunting or going to the opera house or concert hall. Warm clothes are a must with good walking skills on slippery icy road (not much snow because of the dry weather).

Epilogue

After coming back to Taiwan from the second trip to Mongolia in 2010, I was happy to learn the birth of the first Toastmasters club—Toastmasters Mongolia club in UB. I didn’t contribute anything in essence, but I was happy just the same to see the blooming Toastmasters movement from the year of 2010.

The third venture to Mongolia gave me the opportunity to meet up with Mongols Toastmasters. And I'm determined to lead Toastmasters movement in Mongolia in a more proactive way. I shall follow up all contacts tenaciously to make sure Toastmasters educational programs benefit to colleague students, company employees, and general public.

I saw potential of people at every Toastmasters Training in Mongolia. I saw the desire and ambition in every person I met at Toastmasters gatherings, eager to be aspired to a new height in life.

I pledge to inspire people to marvel at how Toastmasters empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders through various social networking groups, such as facebook, e-mails to keep them updated about the Toastmasters International and keep me connected with Mongols Toastmasters.

Acknowledgements:

Many thanks to Enkhee and her family for their hospitality. Enkhee translated Toastmasters materials in Mongolian language before I arrived in UB. She translated meetings roles and club officers responsibilities in Toastmasters Leadership Handbook.