As most of you are aware I have been fortunate enough to secure a 2 week
posting with the Canadian Co-operative Association in Mongolia. My intention is
to try and share some of my experiences and learning’s as I go. This is the
first time I have attempted a blog so I apologize in advance for and all faux
pas that I commit. As soon as I figure
out how…I will provide the links to a couple of my colleagues who are also
posting blogs, (much more competently than I, I must confess).
My first couple of blogs are a couple of days old as I work my through
this process. Going forward I will try
and post more regularly. Wish me luck!
The
Beginning
The sun is
just peaking over the horizon; beautiful shades of bright orange ting the gray
morning clouds. The plane we have just
boarded lurches and bumps its way through the breaking day, making me question
my choice of morning coffee on the flight.
My stomach
is upset. I’m not sure if it is from the
antics of our Dash 8, the anticipation of the adventure to come or the text I
received from my son as I buckled my seat belt…’I don’t think I’ll make it (to
the airport) hit a moose, I’m sorry I really wanted to give you hug.’ Thankfully this text was followed immediately
by a second, “I’m okay!”
A myriad of
thoughts run through my brain everything from “thank goodness for bush bumpers”
to “if he was in Mongolia what might he have hit?” I have to admit I am
stumped, don’t get me wrong, I’ve done some research, I know for instance that
the capital city Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world and that
roughly a third of the population lives on less than 1 US dollar a day. I’ve read about the impacts mining is having
on the economy but as to wildlife its back to Google I go…
Google
says…that Mongolia like Canada is a vast land, over 1,566,000 sq km (making it
the 18th largest country in the world) with a population of only 2.8
million with 1.5 million living in the capital Ulaanbaatar. The coldest month is January with an average
temperature of -35C , the warmest is July at +25C. The life expectance for the
average Mongolian is only 62.9 years, and 35% of the population is under the
age of 15. The literacy rate is exceptionally
high at 98% (if only Canada could achieve this!). As for wildlife, well apparently Mongolia has
136 mammal species almost 400 different types of birds and 76 species of
fish. Included in these numbers are
wolves, snow leopards, wild, boar, elk, roedeer, brown bears, Golden Eagles,
Siberian Ibex and the world’s largest wild sheep – Argali.
There isn’t
much chance that I will be seeing a lot of wildlife this trip, but no doubt in a
country that still boasts a strong nomadic culture and has a horse to person
ratio of 13:1 we will see our share of livestock. I wonder, how do you structure
an ag loan with a nomadic culture?
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