Yes, it was her dream.  Since she was in high school Maagaa was great with numbers, with business, with financial management.  She dreamed some day of being a professional accountant, but coming from a middle class family in Mongolia struggling under the Soviet System until the mid 90's it gradually became clear that even if she could manage to get the schooling, there would be no jobs for her.  Instead she went to school and studies Finance, Spanish and English hoping for work somehow in international business.  That didn't eventuate.  There was marriage and children and all that that involves and as time went on, there simply were no jobs available. She did what most people ( certainly many people in Mongolia!) do and that is take what you can get.

When I met Maagaa she was working as a cleaner. Quiet and reserved she did an excellent and very thorough job but hesitated to engage in conversation - even though her English was quite good.  Gradually as I got to know her I found out about her passionate desire ( unabated!) to become a professional and I came to respect her unswerving honesty and attention to detail. When it became obvious that the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Project was going to need a bookkeeper I went to Maagaa.  I knew she had previously kept the books for a restaurant where she worked and  I also knew that the single most important thing to ensure the success of the Project was me being able to have 100% confidence that the money was being properly managed.  I needed someone I  knew - someone I could trust.  And it was obvious to me that that person was Maagaa - I just had to convince her of it!

In fact, convincing her was easy.  She was thrilled to be able to  have an opportunity to finally find a way back into the field she had for so long wanted to join but hadn't been able to.  About 4 months into her job she came to me and told me that she needed more training.  She needed more experience.  She told me that if she was to do her job properly, she had to get certified.....oh, and she had already registered for school.

So began the journey of our very first participant in the Staff Development programme at the Peak. Maagaa insisted on paying for her own school even though we offered to pay.  She looked at me very seriously and told me that it was inappropriate to pay for staff development unless the staff member had already proven that they were going to be capable of their new role.  She was very clear about the fact that I didn't know if she was going to pass and therefore it wasn't right for me to help her - it was up to her and her alone.   She worked full time ( very full time!) putting together monthly reports for the Mongolian Government, for us, for our accountants in Canada and other intereted parties.  She oversaw the spending at the Kindergarten - not always a smooth and easy task given the many different demands from many different parties.  As her husband says, if she has a dollar in her hand you have to take it three times before you end up with any money,!  I could see from the reports and from being at the kindergarten that Maagaa was ensuring that we got the very best value for every dollar we were spending and that made it possible for me to continue with our expansion  and development without worry. She did her job so seamlessly that I almost forgot she was also going to school full time!

It's been a very challenging 2 years for Maagaa and her family.  She has worked full time AND done a 4 year programme in 2 years.  Yesterday was her graduation.  I was touched and honoured to be welcomed to the graduation as part of the family.  Maagaa graduated with honours...94%.  She was smiling and laughing and radiant.  It was beautiful to see her dream come true and even more beautiful to see how confident, outing and secure she has become as she has travelled this journey. It was beautiful to see her mother awash in tears of pride and her husband and daughter looking at her with joy and admiration.   It is inspirational to me to see how she  ( and her family!) have managed these two years.  Many days she was at work at 7:00 int he morning and not back from school until 11:00 at night and THEN had to do her homework.  Her complete dedication was the thing that pulled her through and I am very proud not only of her but to know her and to have her as part of the team up at the Children of the Peak Sanctuary.  

When I told her yesterday that I was reimbursing her for her tuition for the 2 years of school as part of our Professional Development Programme ( FYI those monies come from our own personal donations, not from yours!) she was stunned and shocked.  Then she smiled a huge smile and said, "I'll give it to other people - I'll help others with it!  You have helped me and this is a way I can pass that along".  Tears...yes indeed, there were tears.  That's just too beautiful, and just the kind of person she is.  

Congratulations Maagaa !  Excellent job well done!

, February 2nd, 2016

Dateline - Children of the Peak Sancutary, Songin Khaikhan District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

What a wonderful and amazing day! It is not every day that you get to experience hands-on the joy of seeing people helping people but yesterday was just that - a day to celebrate the generosity of spirit in our community!  The combined efforts of schools, companies, donors (both local AND international!), sanctuary staff and volunteers meant that we were able to distribute Tsagaan Sar joy to over 80 families in the form of food hampers, wood & coal! This means there will be a celebration, warmth, food and family joy in over 80 households that would have had nothing.  Many of them would not have been able to celebrate this most important of all holidays in Mongolia without your help.  The joy and heartfelt thanks on their faces and in their eyes is hard to express but  I'm hoping that you will be able to see in glowing in  these photos. They were all extremely happy to receive these wonderful gifts and, once again, the Tsagaan Sar Food Drive, the brain child of the indomitable Susan Durrant, has reached the into the heart of one of the poorest communities in Mongolia and brought some joy!

Thank you to everyone who donated, organized, sorted, carried, delivered, and distributed donations.  Special thanks to Michelle Borok for getting the idea rolling, the word  out there and the donations rolling in!  Porsche Mongolia, I have it on good authority, looked like a grocery store for a while last week as a steady stream of generous local individuals dropped by with donations ranging from a few bottles of oil to 100 pound bags of flour and everything in between! Thanks to Porsche and their wonderful staff for being the drop off centre, organizing donation events, sorting and boxing all the goodies, AND bringing them up and handing them out.  As many of our recipients are elderly, this really meant putting your back into it !  The great folks at the American School did an amazing job of collecting food, wood and coal and bringing it along. Thirty of our hampers were made with the food collected by the students at ASU and, this year having been exceptionally cold,  we found many homes that had nothing to burn except scraps of wood or tires and this addition of warmth on these cold Mongolian nights will make a huge difference to these peoples lives.  Gatsuurt Company arrived in the midst of the food distribution with a mountain of potatoes ( which will be rebagged into smaller bags and handed out this week!) AND 1000 buzz as a surprise - hand made by their staff!  The buzz will be part of the Tsagaan Sar Children's Celebration at the kindergarten later this week.  To top off the day, Wagner Asia's CSR team showed up with a television, cable box and cable set up to donate in addition to a generous cash donation earlier in the week to the Tsagaan Sar food Drive.

The Children of the Peak Sanctuary Staff (as always) stepped up to the challenge and did an amazing job of managing the people at the gate, helping Grandmas and Grandpas on their way, carrying a ton of HEAVY boxes and bags, rounding up local children to help the elderly and just generally making sure that the people from our community were well served, enjoyed themselves and had a great day!

 Great team effort !  Next year will be even bigger and better!!  Thank you all for helping us make a difference, one child at a time.

Saikhan Shindleerei!

                                                      With   Brad Winters of Foulger-Pratt  (My Hero) and his right hand man, Pugee

Some blog posts are easier to write than others.   This one is a tough one.  Not because the subject matter is difficult.  Quite the opposite - the subject matter is so wonderful that I fear English may be short of superlatives to describe it...but here goes...

A few weeks ago I took some folks up to the Sanctuary and into the dump to see the lives of our people up close and personal.  One of these people "knew a guy" who had a building he was trying to get rid of ...would we potentially be interested?  Well, sure, I guess.  We're fundraising to expand the kindergarten to help more kids and if we could get a fully completed building for a reasonable price...well, that might work.  That's how it started.  Two days later I had a phone call from Brad Winters, the Country Director for Foulger-Pratt and my own personal angel, as it turns out!  Brad asked me about what we were doing up at the Peak, the Mission and long term goals of the Foundation and a few other probing and serious questions...and then he told me about the building. 

Foulger-Pratt contracting is a construction company and the building had been their office building while they were working in Mongolia.  A steel frame modular building built in Mongolia, it was designed and built for the cold weather here - always a problem in construction - and could easily ( well..with six very large trucks and the second largest crane in the country!!) be moved.  The company was looking to sell the building but when Brad heard about our work he said he thought maybe he could work something out with his boss.  So it was that two days later ( while out horseback riding) I got the call from Brad to come and have a look at the building and see if we could use it.  

It was BEAUTIFUL!!  Four thousand of the warmest, safest, most beautiful square feet that I have ever seen.   It was apparent that with very little effort we could retrofit the 4 large conference rooms / 5 small offices / 2 kitchens / 2 bathrooms  to make a spectacular 3 classroom  / 1 kitchen / 1 dining room / 1 library / 1 boot & coat room / 4 office / 2 many little toileted bathroom kindergarten!  As I walked through it marvelling at the international standard fittings (emergency lights, fully networked, fire extinguishers for heaven's sake!!) I knew that THIS was the perfect solution to our kindergarten expansion plan.  The funny thing is that I have dozens of  drawings that I did for a 6 container kindergarten building.  I had it all laid out in my head  - the containers seemed to me like the best way to quickly and efficiently get a building up and running ...but the local inspector had said that it was a problem because the pipes on containerized buildings so often freeze at minus 50 or so. So we had been in a real dilemma about how to construct a new building.  But here was the answer.  It was my  'container building' come to life - only much much better!

So, after we had walked around the ( fully plumbed, networked and wired..... Yahoo!) building and I had seen the wonderful potential..and wanted it for our kids, I was getting set to ask that universally difficult question..."How much do you want for it?..." When Brad preempted me by asking what I thought of the building - Could we use it?.  What do I think..hmmmn..that's a tough one - could we use it?  In my head I am dancing and whooping and turning cartwheels and yelling " Yes! Absolutely! I LOVE IT!!!  It's Perfect - amazing ...Exactly what I had hoped for, imagined , envisaged...it's great!"  But, as one does in these negotiations, I held that all in and said something like " Yes, I think it would be a very good fit for our expansion goals".  

And then....and then Brad reached into his pocket and pulled out a key.  And handed it to me.  Just handed it to me. I couldn't breathe..but wanted to make sure I wasn't making one of those several thousand dollar erroneous assumptions so I asked " So, does this mean you are GIVING us the building??"  "Yes," he said with a lovely ( somewhat watery ) smile " Yes we are.  We couldn't think of a better use for this building than helping all those children up at the dump".  

Well, it was time for my own waterworks and much joy and gratitude .  What a wonderful human being to make a gift of this magnitude happen!  And what a wonderful company!  Foulger-Pratt is to give such an incredible gift that will literally change the future of thousands of children .

Well, that's  how the donation came to pass... but there was one small  hitch. When I met with Brad  and toured the building on Wednesday,  the building was set up in the compound at the American Embassy and Foulger-Pratt wanted to get it out of there...by Friday.  Those of you familiar with Mongolia know that that short of a timeline is more or less like asking someone ( anyone...) to walk on water...backwards and blindfolded.  BUT...where there's a will, there's a way.  And we definitely had a will!  And we found the way!

First of all, there was frantic meeting on Thursday up at the Peak to find or, as it turns out, make a place to put the building.  Our  construction guy, Ganbaa who was already up at the Sanctuary working on renovating our existing building was truly tremendous!  He switched gears, BUILT a retaining wall, brought in a bunch more guys and  in 48 hours had a spot cleaned, supported and designed for the new building.  Everyone pitched in .. teachers, parents, construction people. The first building move was the play house off of the basketball court that would be home to the new building.  We have a  second property about 400 meters away where we have been holding summer camps this year, so the decision was quickly made to pick up the house and move it up there.   That done, the team set about getting permissions from the appropriate departments to allow us transport the SIX enormous ( much larger than containers...for the record) sections through the town.  Persmission was granted ON THE SAME DAY!!  Baskaa - a miracle worker!

Brad organized ( AND paid for!!) the appropriate crane...read the second largest crane in the country! ....to show up at the Embassy on Friday morning at 8:00 and Baskaa organized the trucks.  We  don't have any photos of that process as the Embassy doesn't allow photographs on the grounds, but here we are as they were loaded on the trucks.  Happy People anywhere??  Such a phenomenal thing to witness!  I have never seen such a sight really ... and I have to admit that I was glad that our permission for transport was during the night and I wouldn't be there to witness it... The roads into the sanctuary are very narrow and rutted and in places the electrical wires hang very low.  The logistics of getting up there were pretty daunting but the crew was phenomenal !  The trip took 6 1/2 hours ( instead of the 40 minutes it would have taken by car at that time of the night!) but by 7:00 a.m. everyone was there - through the rain and the muck and across the swollen creek / river that one needs to cross to get to the sanctuary they had all made it!  Six laden trucks, the crane, Ganbaa's construction crew - and the rest of us  lookie loos who just wanted to see how they were going to make this happen!

Piece by piece the sections were lifted off the trucks and gingerly , like the biggest tetris game ever, set into place beside and on top of their corresponding pieces. And EVERYWHERE you looked... there was Brad, making sure that it was level, that the construction guys were manoeuvring the lifting pegs properly, that they were being unloaded in the right order and that the sections were  properly locked in place.

In short... he was supervising it all... and making sure the children would have a wonderful, safe new home for their kindergarten!

OH..and  he was giving interviews as well!  News star of the day!  We had 5 television stations up and reporting on this wonderful donation.  It is not every day in Mongolia that a foreign company makes such a direct impact on the lives of so many of the most disenfranchised people in the country.  Through this building Foulger-Pratt and Brad will be leaving a remarkable legacy.  Because of this building we will be able not only to take an additional 60 or so children each year, but we will be able to do it better.  Much better .  We will have an arts and crafts room, a library, a dining hall, a music and movement room and a construction / science room.  We will have running water, flush toilets and a preparation room for the teachers.  We will have a supply room and offices for our Kindergarten chief.  We will free up what is now our kitchen building and will be able to immediately set up a location for our vocational training programmes.  That means  that in addition to helping more kindergarten aged children, we will be able to help somewhere in the neighbourhood of  forty  8 - 16 year olds  every year  get a skill  or a trade that will enable them to take their place in society at large.  These children are currently up at the dump scavenging in the garbage for food, recyclables and fuel  instead of going to school.

This also means that our operating expenses just doubled! Yikes!! So... I will be spending the next few months going door to figurative door raising  money to  make the best use possible and help the most children possible with this wonderful new building!  Expect to see me soon asking for help  so we can keep helping children like the ones in the photo below from our summer camp!!

Chad  
Canada


.At 69, he is definitely the oldest participant we have had so far, and what a participant!!  On board  Tom Har ( or Tommy for short) he was graceful, stylish and.... impervious to pain....not once complaining of aches, pains, fatigue...just always asking the same thing..."Can we gallop now??"  At the end of the 712 kilometres, he was so attached to the wooden Mongolian "comfort" saddle that he bid on it at the auction and it now graces his home as a constant reminder that he rode over 700 kilometres across the vast Mongolian steppe.

Originally posted on: Sunday March 16th 2014
I've been waiting...and waiting...and waiting....

I wanted to share with you all the wonderful, special visit that we had with Her Excellency, Mrs. Sharon Johnston up at the Children of the Peak Sanctuary back in November, but I really also wanted to include a shot of...

.....US...
getting the Governor General's Award for 
"creating civil society linkages between Canada and Mongolia".  

It was an amazing honour - and a  what a surprise!!  I am still pinching myself!  This is something I would never ever have imagined happening to us! 

More about the medal in a  bit - but first, let's have a look at the visit and how I got to find out that Her Excellency, Mrs. Sharon Johnston is truly a great human being and why it is that she jumped up with us after the first official shot so she could be in the other official shot!




So...here is how the visit started...

It started out like any other day - well actually not really.  Not really like any other day at all...today was the day that we were going to be honoured by the visit of the dynamic wife of Canada's Governor General, two Canadian Members of Parliament and a whole raft of media and security personnel.  And no one at the centre knew it yet....although I have to say, I think the parents were getting a bit suspicious when they arrived to drop off the children and found a whole flotilla of "management" (including me) in the centre frantically organizing and arranging desks.  What the parents didn't know is I had just had a meeting with the teachers, the security guard, the cooks and the cleaner to tell them all that the "important" visitor who was coming today was, in fact, the Queen of Canada. Ok, Ok... so I  know she is not, in fact the Queen of Canada, but I was doing this all in Mongolian and for some reason my vocabulary doesn't quite stretch to "Constitutional Monarchy" and I didn't have time for a detailed lecture on our political system.  So - Queen of Canada she became.  Poor teachers!!  I had purposely not told anyone because I really wanted Her Excellency to see the "real" centre.  I didn't want anyone dressed up and I knew if the parents knew that we were having such a high ranking visitor the children would all show up in their one  fancy Tsagan Sar outfit...and it wouldn't look like the Children of the Peak at all!  Hence..the somewhat deadly surprise for the poor assistant teachers who have been doing such a valiant job of keeping the centre running....in the absence of the promised Professional Teachers from the state...but that is another story.  It was lovely though, after I had told them, I stepped outside for a few minutes and when I came back in, they were all around the corner...putting on make up!!  

The day began as all the days at the centre do - happy kids playing with toys.  They, of course, had no idea that they were about to be the subject of the highest level visit from a Canadian Government Official to Mongolia...in history.

Some things about working up at the Sanctuary are just too wonderful.  This is one of them.  The day of the visit we still had snow hard frozen on the ground from a snowfall the previous week - but the day was shaping up to be a warm one and as the morning progressed, the snow on the playground was melting...and making the walk way that Her Excellency and her staff would have to walk into a huge mud soup!!  Mongolian industriousness to the rescue.  Our security guard ( who was still walking around with eyes agog and mouth open at the fact that he was going to be liaising with the highest level of both Mongolian and Canadian security later in the day!) set about breaking up the snow, and two of our teachers came out to help rake away the mud and fill in the area with sand from the other side of the playground.....I'm pretty sure when they showed up, not one of the delegates imagined that an hour earlier the walk way had been impassable.  Phew....

We did have a little run through with the kids as to what was going to happen later in the day...because rehearsing with 3 to 5 year olds is so useful..  Not so much.  But it made the teachers feel better about what was coming.

I was so happy that my husband Chelvan, our son Jacob, and Sue Crews the Executive Director of the Foundation ( and our emerging spokesperson!  Nice job on the official video Sue ...see below!)  were all able to be there for this wonderful, special day!

We even had time to play with the children before the visit!  I'm not sure who had more fun...but I am suspecting it was us!

You could say this is a basic lesson in counting... one, two, three....or a basic lesson in waiting your turn or, perhaps, more accurately, crowd control so the poor child at the bottom of the slide has a chance to disembark before the next one in line does it for him!  

And this is how you know for sure that our Sanctuary is, in fact, in Mongolia.  While waiting for the visit from the "Queen" we have a teacher sanctioned wrestling match between the 4 & 5 year old boys.  Yes, these are boys - they just aren't old enough yet for their "head shaving" ceremony...but that's another blog! ( literally...I wrote a blog about it in www.myinternationaldepartures.com...)

I'm pretty sure we can all figure out how old she is....

Jacob having fun with the gang!

...And Chelvan getting in on the action. 

But then the official started showing up...or at least that's what I thought.  It turns out that these guys are... Fire Marshals...Yes, you got that correct, the Fire inspection that we had been waiting for .....since JUNE...suddenly has to happen today!! It was pretty funny really - but in the end excellent because we got a promise from the fire marshall to come out and give our staff lessons on using the fire extinguishers and the like  - something we very much need!

Finally at about 12:00 the real security folks started showing up.  Much to the delight and amazement of the kids!  Actually, I was a little worried that it was going to create quite a lot of havoc with everyone from the neighbourhood showing up to find out what was going on but, as I learned later, they were all too freaked out about the sudden presence of 30 or 40 policemen in a neighbourhood that usually doesn't have any...so they stayed home!

The kids were just chillin'...

....and waiting....

And then finally, she arrived!  I had a lovely chance to talk to her and the Members of Parliament, Wai Young and Scott Simms.  What a truly delightful lady Her Excellency is! She was direct and conscise and asked tons of relevant and important questions...

..and had cool shoes to boot!

While we were outside discussing the reasons for the problems in our community and what the Veloo Foundation / Children of the Peak  are doing to address these problems, the kids were inside with the teachers ( and our cooks!) waiting to for the dignitaries to come in so they could sing the Mongolian National anthem.  Very very cute!!

Her Excellency then proceeded to read the story " My Little Round House" to the kids  - a very endearing tale of the first year of life of a nomadic baby in Mongolia...we had worked on the vocabulary and the subject matter was very much the fabric of the children's lives, so they took to it like ducks to water...or Mongolian kids to gers...or something like that!

Just as an aside...she's not very tall...really, I am NOT a giant...seriously...

And then she was reading...and even learning about Mongolian culture from the story as she pointed out herself!

Some of the kids were showing that they had missed their nap that day...

Then it was play time with the kids!! This is when it became clear that she really loves children!  She was so down to earth and engaged and really interested in what they were doing and how they were learning.  Lovely!

While the kids were building blocks with Scott Simms , Member of Parliament,  and pasting together little people and their deels, Sue was outside being a spokesperson for the foundation ... gorgeous!

The kids had fun showing MP Scott Simms and MP Wai Young their miniature ger - complete with furniture & animals and fences they were building themselves to complete their Owol jaa ... winter place.

Her Excellency is certainly a 'hands-on' official - the kids had no idea that they were playing with a the Canadian "queen"!

 Wai Young, Member of Parliament,  with one of our gorgeous little girls!

Working together: making "family members"...grandmas, grandpas, aunts, sibling....etc. etc.  Such fun exploring families!

One of our bright sparks..he was loving the attention!

And then it was time to give Her Excellency the gift from the children....complete with the traditional offering of a Hadag (spelling?) , the blue scarf that is so important when giving an official gift in Mongolia.

And here it is... each of the children decorated a ger to look like "their" ger and then we put it all together to look like the community up at the peak...and it does look more or less like our wonderful hillside community.  In real life, it's not quite so colourful and cheerful looking - but we're working to make the community match the children's representation of it!  And, now it's hanging at Rideau Hall in Ottawa!  

Then it was time for the Canadian Government to gift the Children of the Peak with a whole selection of arts & crafts supplies, toys, and Books, Books, Books!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! 

Here's the whole gang!  I love the little girl squatting at the front checking out "her" ger!

Time to say a fond farewell !! We were so happy to have the whole contingent from the Government of Canada  come along and see what we are all about! It was so nice to meet them ALL!

...some of the kids didn't want to share the new books...

.. but it did make for a very quiet afternoon after they left...

So...here's the cool thing...we took this photo to show which child made which ger....and so in the future, they will know that their work is gracing the halls of the official residence of the Governor General of Canada!  As for me, I am honoured to say that I have  actually met (and gotten to know a bit)  these two lovely people who are such excellent representatives of Canada, and even more honoured to know that Mrs. Johnston was impressed enough with our work up at the sanctuary that as we received the medal, she ran  to the front of the stage and hopped up to be in the second "official" photo.  

For me, this is the official photo.  It means that much more to me to have had Her Excellency share in the joy (and surprise!!) that receiving this medal entailed especially after having shared such a wonderful afternoon together up at the peak!

OH...but the story doesn't end there ( no matter how much you wish it would!)...here's where you find out about the Mongolian tradition of "washing" a medal.  Literally...

 Of course, "washing" is best done with alcohol...right?  Right?? Well, I didn't know it before, but it turns out that my steadfast Mongolian friends were going to take the opportunity to teach me  that the appropriate celebration to commemorate such an auspicious event is to place the medal in a cup, cover it with vodka...

 and then...you got it....drink up !!  I think it has something to do with taking the honour and good fortune associated with receiving the medal into your body so that it forms part of your futute....or something like that anyway!!

Of course, everyone who receives the medal gets to ( has to?) participate...sooooo

 Not only me, but the venerable President of the Veloo Foundation, my husband, Chelvan, also took the opportunity to celebrate the medal , Mongolian Style...hey, do you think this is what they meant by "creating civil society linkages"....? I suspect not...

In any case, being fortunate enough to recieve one on the ten medals minted for this occasion, the first ever official visit of a Governor General of Canada to Mongolia is, of course, a special moment that will never be forgotten.  We did not, however, get there all on our own...and yes, fair warning, this is where the blog goes a wee bit maudlin - I can't help it, I'm so touched by this event that I have to take a moment ...

Sue Crews, pictured here in the final official group photo (beside me in the back row...oh, and a girl!!) has been invaluable in her help in getting the Sanctuary up and running.  She has been my right hand and stand in when I've been away for two years now - so.. Thank you  Sue for all of your help - we truly could not have done it without you! Can I also take a moment to thank Erin Day and Lorie Leitz - our board members back in North America who do a ton of work with virtually no recognition!  This medal belongs to you guys too!!

This medal also belongs to Baskaa, our local NGO partner and the other half of that "linkages" business, Zolaa, our special projects manager who makes it possible for us to actually impact our local community and , of course, our son and youngest board member of the Veloo Foundation whose sound judgement and caring heart really has an impact on the way that we are moving forward and the kinds of relationships we are building here in Mongolia.

Thanks to everyone: friends, family, co-workers,  Mongolian & ex-pat for helping us get to this place ...I know we could not have done it alone!  And thanks for your continued support - so we can keep on building those strong relationships that will ( hopefully!) help the Children of the Peak grow and learn and take their rightful place in society.

Something very cool is happening, something I never expected but an so thrilled to report on....there is an echo boom of philanthropy in the countryside here in Mongolia.  My good friend and Mongolian teacher Saraa (Standing beside me in the photo above....and Mongolian) and her husband Baagii ( you'll meet him in a minute..) have started thinking about the world in a whole new way.  Saraa and Baagii run a small (wonderful!!) ger camp and horse trekking business ...www.horsetrekmongolia.com where I go riding every week.  The International Equestrian Club ( fondly known as the riding club) has helped Saraa and Baagii and their neighbours tremendously and has allowed them all not only to remain in the countryside, but to thrive.  This amelioration of their life has lead them to stop and consider their good fortune - and look at their other, far flung neighbours who have not been lucky enough to benefit from the riding club or the like....and, has made them want to spread the love and help their neighbours!  It's a beautiful thing to witness!  Saraa and Baagii  have been involved on many levels with the foundation already - including helping us set up the Children of the Peak Sanctuary and running our annual fund raiser, the Gobi Gallop.   Recently, after looking around and trying to decide the best, most sustainable way to help their rural neighbours,  Saraa & Baagii came to me with a suggestion.  "There are a lot of people out in the countryside just barely hanging on" they said... "why don't we help thembefore they have to give it all up and move into the city..and onto the dump!  Even more, maybe we can gather them together, buy them a few animals and set them up in a business they all know well ....a farm!"  Great idea ! I love it!  And I love the the idea of helping your fellow man is spreading!!  First things first though - let's just get them some warm clothes for Tsagaan Sar!

So, we bought a bundle of  children's used warm jackets, had them washed by a local expat lady here,(thank you Joy!!)  used some of the wonderful sweaters donated from Australia ( see previous blog... you won't believe how wonderful they are if you haven't seen them!) and  I set about, with the  help of Elaine and Sue - two tremendous volunteers really making a difference here in Mongolia -  bundling up 80 or so bundles to give out in Erdene Zoum, a small town about 60 kms outside of Ulaanbaatar....all set up by Saraa!

Such Fun !!  And it was so lovely to see how happy Saraa was to be instigating this wonderful outreach.

80+ kids, 23 families...like this one - 4 children, almost no animals left and the husband  unable to find other work, they live on 80,000 MNT / month - family allowance.  About $60.00 / month - and meat is about $6.00 / kilo.  Very tough.

 So sweet to see the happy smiles on the kids' faces!

 These people are not used to people helping them and so it took them a bit to realize that we just wanted to give their children something warm and snug to help them through the winter.

Thanks Elaine...

And thanks to you too Sue!!  And to your wonderful husbands who gave up their Saturday to come out and help us help these kids!

 ....with just some of the recipients!

...and why is it that the women always end up holding the babies..hmmmn...

.. I guess you could say look who's talking!

 Saraa - having a blast!

 It was nearly over and only had one problem... and we had not found a suitable recipient for this absolutely adorable little western fur lined jacket!  Never fear...Baagii to the rescue!  He saw that we were looking to find a LITTLE one for it, scoped out the crowd and took control!

Will it fit under that dell?

 Yes it will!!  How cute is that! ??  And how lovely to have another WARM layer under the dell! And how lovely to see Baagii get into the spirit of giving!

Thanks everyone!  Another really wonderful day.  I can't tell you how great it feels to be able to meet and help these people!  After we had given something to everyone there, the local director wanted us to take our remaining 8 or so packages of clothes out to one of  the poorest family in town - 3 women living with 10 children..in one ger.

This is the ger....inside wasn't any better.  And yes, that door is a blanket.  Suffice it to say that this week we are organizing another donation of clothes to this family - we found out that most of these  ten kids aren't going to school because they don't have clothes - and food ( staples & meat), Boov, candy and tea for Tsagaan Sar.  And next week Baagii and the guides he uses for his horse treks are going to help us out again.  The Veloo Foundation is  donating a fully decked out ger to help these ladies and, most importantly, the children out, and Baagii and his team are going to put it up for them.  How good is that?!!  So, once again, thank you all for your donations that make it possible for us to help like this...you really can't imagine the changes you are helping to make in so many lives here!!

It is Tsagaan Sar here in Mongolia..New Year's Day...and the Foundation is busy busy busy as it always it this time of year with lots of initiatives. This year, however, we got an unexpected bonus.  We always try to give out new clothes at this time of year as it is very important in Mongolian culture to have something new to start the new year with - this year we received 45 stunningly gorgeous hand knitted sweaters from Australia for the kids up at the Peak.  45 knitted by the same lady!!!  As you look through the photos that follow....please remember that.  One gorgeous sweater after another - all different - all beautifully designed and wonderfully constructed.  I don't know the angel who knitted these sweaters but I hope some day to meet her and let her know that her gift was SO much more than sweaters...it was love.  The teachers, other volunteers, parents and children ALL could simply not believe that one person could have this much talent, dedication and stamina to produce what is really MUCH more than just a lot of sweaters. The collection was a work of art, and, the entire Kindergarten was alive with joy and happiness as the children chose their sweaters and Oh so happily donned them. One lovely boy carefully chose his and then helped the others choose theirs then took a book and spent the next hour curled up reading in his new sweater.  It was gorgeous!  As I walked out he looked up at me and smiled a wonderful smile of pure contentment and said "This is a really warm sweater." and then went back to his book.  So, to whoever you are Madam who knitted this amazing collection, thank you.  Thank you for making life brighter, more beautiful and warmer for 45 of the poorest kids around.  

...starting at the beginning though -The last few days, along with a couple of volunteers, I have been a little wee bit swamped with sorting out donations  - this is what my house looked like getting ready to give out the sweaters, plus get toiletry bags and clothes ready for the 100 or so people that we are sending from the dump to the public shower to be clean for Tsagan Sar,  plus putting together 85 packages of hat / coat / scarves to hand out tomorrow in the countryside...but that's another blog!

The teachers and volunteers ( and kids!) were blown away with the selection and the intricacy of the designs!  Beautiful! 

Choosing....

 ...Maybe this one?

 Just as an aside, half of the children slept through the first selection process - kind of amazing because it was NOISY!  

Bliss...

 Everybody had such fun getting to choose what they liked...or sometime what their friends liked!

 Our littlest member - a little under the minimum age for the kindergarten...but.... he lives with his handicapped Grandpa and no one else so the teachers , when they found out about this, went over and offered to pick him up and take him home every day so that his Grandpa can have a break.  How sweet was that??

 It was so beautiful to see the children looking like living Christmas decorations in their new duds! The whole Kindergarten looked so festive!!

 The Puzzle Station ... I think it's time for some new ones.  These guys could do these puzzled with their eyes closed!  

 Anybody happy here?

The first lot up and dressed it was time to head out to the "Community" ger at the centre where we would be handing out Boov - Traditional Mongolian bread which is piled up and topped with traditional curd, candy and sugar and forms the centrepiece of every Mongolian table at Tsagaan Sar.  If you don't have this, it isn't Tsagaan Sar.  This year the Foundation is giving out 100 of these - mostly to elderly people as they get the most visitors at Tsagaan Sar and, for them, it is crucial to have a proper table.

Volunteers brought the Boov from the storage container to the Community Ger.

 Then, in groups of 10 they came in.  We started with the Grandmas. 

The eldest woman and the eldest man in the community each also received the chest of a cow which, when boiled will also take its place on the table beside the Boov so that each visitor who comes will be offered some meat.  

Gorgeous ladies!  

And then the men!  This gentleman had to called down from the dump where he was working in order to receive his Boov and meat.  Check out that nose!! At some point that had to have HURT!  Yikes!

Taking Boov home for Grandma who is house bound....then we were done with the Boov and it was back to the kindergarten to get some sweaters on the little ones who had just woken up!

Although, some of them did have to be convinced to leave the puzzle table for a moment...

Then it was on with the lesson!

I love the ducks on this sweater!!  

Almost everyone woke up!  Not to worry - he still has his choice of sweaters - I took up 5 extra so that we can keep a small supply in the centre for new kids who join in and don't have anything warm to wear!  Anyway, that was yesterday.  An amazing day and I am really touched to be able to be a link in the chain that got  our Australian Angel's "jumpers" onto so many little angels' backs....now it's time to pack up the car with the 80 or so jacket & hats and head out to the countryside to make more peoples' Tsagaan Sar a cheery and warm one!