Did I ever tell you the story of three holes in the ground?

Well, well, well

I am currently interning for the Millennium Challenge Account/Mongolia Peri-Urban Rangelands Project, Project Implementation Unit. So now you will know what MCAM PURP PIU means. The aim of the PURP [condensed version] is to improve the livelihoods and environmental management practices of herders in peri-urban areas through land-leasing contracts and infrastructure investments for herder groups. Land degradation and over-grazing are serious problems that are tricky to solve because the traditional Mongolian practice of open access to pastureland is actually enshrined in the constitution.


One element of the project is well construction and rehabilitation. I had the chance to go to six well-opening “ceremonies” in the peri-urban area west of Ulaanbaatar. This involved driving across fields to each well where we met the leader of the herder group, the well-construction contractor, and representatives from the local government. Those three parties and MCAM PURP signed contracts handing responsibility of the well to the herder group and ownership to the local authority for a period of 15 years, until the herder group has repaid a portion of the investment in the well to a local development fund. 


At each well they turned on the pumps and we made sure the water came out. It did in all 6 cases. They checked to ensure everything worked, gave the herder group leaders instructional books about the well operation, discussed land issues and disputes, signed all the documents and the transfer was official.  They also got signs to put on their new wells that let it be known this was an MCC/MCA project with funding from the US. I later got thanked for paying my taxes. It nearly brought tears to my eyes.


From my perspective, it appeared to be a successful day of well openings.

We finished the evening with one of the herder group families. This was my first time in a family’s ger and my first chance to experience a lot of the things I had heard about.


I drank some milk tea, made with a bit of tea, milk, water, salt and perhaps a touch of butter. I also tried airag, the fermented mare’s milk which is just coming into season. A bit fizzy, a bit sour; I did not overindulge. They had killed a sheep so I got to try some boiled blood and other innard-y delights. They then made khorkhok (see the picture from the previous post). This involves heating up rocks in the fire, placing the pieces of meat and some potatoes and carrots in a large milk jug with the hot rocks, and sealing it to steam the meat. Except for a bit of stray wool, not bad at all. Frequently people will eat this with pickles. This family actually had a sort of pickled cole slaw which I tried when someone was instructed to “give the foreigner some vegetables.”


After the meat we moved on to toasting with the vodka cup that gets passed around. One of the herder group leaders, who appeared to be the mother of the extended family, filled up a cup with some vodka and proceeded to pass it around to each person in the ger, one by one. In most cases it is acceptable to just take a sip, or put it to your lips, or dip your ring finger in it and flick it around the room as a blessing, and then hand it back, at which point whoever is passing will add some more vodka and pass it on to the next person. People made toasts to all of those involved in the project and the cup went around until the bottle was empty.  Lucky for me (envisioning the road back to UB, which has made me finally understand why we have SUVs) this was not one of the occasions where I was told “bottom’s up.” In those cases, you can’t just sip and pass back.


I had intended to write about a couple of those occasions, but apparently I can talk about wells for longer than I thought, so I will save those for another time.