01/31/2007

Women of Mongolia share their stories
By Dolores E. Pike

The trip from Mongolia to the Eastern Shore is not a walk in the park.  It takes 26 hours to fly from Mongolia to Korea to Japan to San Francisco to Washington, DC.  As one of the visitors put it so succinctly, she experienced three sunrises and watched several movies during the lengthy flight.  So it was indeed a wonderful opportunity to be able not only to meet but also to socialize with the nine women who came from such a far off land as they and their American sponsors gathered at a dinner hosted by Chip and Susan Bertino and Bob and Sherri Lassahn.

Chimgee (Erdenechimeg Luvsan)

As the designated recorder of the trip, Chimgee, looking chic in an oriental patterned waist-length jacket worn with jeans, was never without her Nikon camera, busily recording the events of the evening, starting out with the guests mingling over hors d'oeuvres and punch.

She is the CEO of Monos Farm Co., LTD a pharmaceutical firm that is family owned and employs 550 people.  It is the leading pharmaceutical company in Mongolia with a 40 percent market share.  She travels extensively for her company, mainly in Europe and Asia.  This was her first trip to America as she joined with her colleagues gathering ideas that will help formulate the upcoming campaigns of Mongolian women running for office. Chimgee said that a law passed last year mandates that 30 percent of the people running for office must be women.  The two dominant parties in the country are the democratic party and the ex-communist party. This law translates the percentage into 24 women's names on each of the leading party's ballots for the June 2008 elections.

According to Chimgee, in order to implement what they have learned on their trip to the U.S. the nine women will have a lot of work to do when they return home.  They have only 17 months in which to prepare for the elections.  "We knew the basics (of a democratic election) but didn't know how it works," she said, being especially impressed by what a grassroots organization can accomplish and how it plays a positive role in winning an election.

Chimgee was 23 when the Communist rule came to an end.  Up to that time one of the restrictions was on travel. "There was no chance to travel.  We just lived in a box.  We were always told how bad America was," she said. 

Her 20 year old son is studying computer science in Singapore and was an exchange student in South Carolina when he was 15.  She also has an eight year old son and a two year old daughter.  The younger children are being cared for by her husband and her mother while Chimgee is away.

Enkhee (Enkhtuya Tsend)

From her vantage point as a banker, Enkhee works with women, helping them apply for loans and write business plans in preparation for setting up their own businesses. After the initial start up, she helps the women network in order to market their products.

Among the businesses already established by women are crafting souvenirs or making small carpets or designing felt accessories like hats, belts and slippers.  Mongolia serves a tourists' market of visitors who arrive from Japan, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, etc. during the summer months of June, July and August. 

Wearing a bright red sweater made of cashmere, fine carded wool woven from goat hair, Enkhee said that Mongolia is second in the world production of cashmere.  The country boasts of 30 million livestock of which 15 million are sheep.  A typical Mongolian herdsman will have horses, cows, goats and sheep. If his herds are in the Gobi region, he will also have a Bactrian (two hump) camel.

Enkhee, whose name means peace, was 34 when the oppression of the Communist regime fell away and only then did she begin learning English.  Having graduated from a university in the Ukraine she was already quite fluent in Russian. Of the nine women visiting from Mongolia, she was one of those most fluent in the English language which she continues to work on by writing newly learned words in the small notebook that is always with her.  The most recent entry in her notebook was "necklace" a word she had just learned. 

Ono (Ouyntsetseg Davaasambuu)

As the general director of the KGM Service Co., LTD Ono lives with her husband, who does much of the cooking in the family, and their two year old son.  They live in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, where the population has seen an increase of 50 percent in the last five years.  Much of this increase has been the result of a migration from rural areas. There are close to one million people living in the capital of a country of nearly three million people.

Typical of most Mongolians, Ono resides in an apartment where her family has cable TV and enjoys watching CNN, MTV, ESPN and FOX news.  During her visit she kept in touch with the homefront, as did the other women, via her cell phone.

Ono was a teenager when the Communist regime collapsed in her country in the early 1990s and today she is head of the Capital City (former name of Ulaanbaatar) Democratic Women's Union.

Negi (Nergui Banzaarai)

As the general manager of Mongolian Telecommunication, Negi lives in a mountainous district where her husband is the mayor.  Her younger son (18) spent a year in America as an exchange student in Oklahoma and he lives at home in the family's four room apartment.  Sports played a major part in her sons' formative years (her older son is 23) when both boys played football (soccer), one of the country's popular sports. Basketball and volley ball are also popular in Mongolia.

As interesting as the interviews proved to be there was still the language barrier to be overcome.  At one point one of the women was asked what she did to relax and answered that she is a Buddhist.

Over the remains of a typical American Thanksgiving dinner Ouynaa (Ouyngerel Tsedevdamba) asked if she might sing a traditional song. She began the haunting melody as the other women joined in. The festive evening came to a close with singing, a universal language that transcends the borders of countries.


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