78-year-old Grandma Chagan spent her days dreaming of the homeland she was forced to abandon over 53 years ago due to the construction of the country's spaceflight base. Chagan said she remembers the day the helicopters landed near her yurt and her family were forced to pack everything they owned and leave the only land they knew to be home. Chagan lived in the Baori Ulan village, which housed over 200 families as well as 70,000 sheep as well as 1,400 herdsmen of the Tuerhute Tribe of Mongolia. With no where to go, they wandered the desert for eight years.
In the summer of 2010, M•CAM team members Ken Dabkowski and Dr. David Martin ventured to Mongolia to initiate the Heritable Innovation Trust program. The Heritable Innovation Trust Program (H.I.T.) is the first non-property based means to document, protect, and steward indigenous and customary knowledge. Enkhtuya Tsend of the Mongolian National Business Incubator Federation introduced them to the members of two felting co-ops; one in Dalanzadgad (the Gobi Desert) and other in IkhTamir Soum, Arkhangai.
The following images were shared by team member Ken Dabkowski who recently ventured to Mongolia in June when the Greenhouse Project was set into motion. Ken, while very modest about his involvement in this project, played a major role turning what was once a great idea into a tangible greenhouse made from recycled Mongolian glass bottles.
To view the entire collection of pictures, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55376082@N07/sets/72157625291230320/. More updates and stories about this exciting project are still to come. Be sure to stay tuned!
For the first time leaving the United States, Mongolia was never the place I thought I would go. However, it has turned out to be the experience of a lifetime. The first thing I noticed is the hospitality must be ingrained into the Mongolian psyche at birth, because our host family and all of our contacts there were amazingly generous and exceptionally nice to us.
Being in Mongolia for the past 17 days has been quite an experience. The most important thing I should definitely mention is the people. Every single person we stayed with or even met has been extremely hospitable. Our host family gave us everything we could have asked for and more. They shared their food and home with us, as well as their incredible culture.
Where to even begin... Thus far the Heritable Innovation Trust trip to Mongolia has been a whirlwind. We arrived late at night on the 7th and have been going since the morning of the 8th. The city of Ulaanbaatar is not what I expected. When I think of a big city, images of New York and Washington D.C. come to mind but UB is not comparable to either of these. At first glance, it looks like there is not much to the city; there are a lot of unused buildings and most activity is centralized in the same 6 buildings.
Our Heritable Innovation Trust team has arrived safely to Mongolia. They arrived safely into Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday around 1am EST time. They were greeted by one of our many contacts in Mongolia, Nergui and spent the first day getting acquainted and meeting the family that they would be living with for the next 15 days.
We received word from Katie, our HIT Trip Coordinator, last night. As of last night, EST, they had headed out to the wheat farm where they will spend the next 15 days.
1. How does the "Double Bind" impact your understanding of engaging with communities which have experienced colonial influences, intellectual extermination (killing the educated elite), and related multi-generational active external destructive and/or transforming forces? Please comment at length on your response using a minimum of three comparative communities and historical inflexions.
It's hard to believe that the H.I.T. trip to Mongolia is almost here! It crazy to think that it has been almost 6 months since interviewing for the internship! As of late I've still been preparing myself mentally and physically for the trip. I have been exercising and sticking to a dietary plan so the transition in Mongolia will be as smooth as possible physically.
Riley is currently a sophomore studying history at Christopher Newport University. His family is originally from New Mexico and he really enjoys visiting whenever I can. As far as interests and hobbies go he loves spending time with his family, playing sports, reading, and listening to and making music. He also spends a lot of time outdoors fishing, hiking, and camping.
