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Mongolia-America Friendship and promotion of Cultural Exchange
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Charise Charley had never seen a camel before she was led out of a ger in southern Dundgovi and told to climb on. The camel had never seen an American before, but jerked to its feet and carried Charise around two gers, a livestock shelter, and a herd of wary sheep.
A student from Greyhills Academy in Tuba City on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Charise was traveling as part of the School Pairing Program, an ongoing cultural exchange administered by the Denver Sister Cities Committee and the Zorig Foundation. This year’s itinerary took Charise and five other Americans, along with six Mongolian counterparts, through Ulaanbaatar, Tuv, and Dundgovi Aimags.
The program, conceived during a trip by a delegation from Denver, Colorado in 2005, is an effort to connect rural and urban students from Mongolia and the Western United States through technology and yearly physical exchanges. This year’s exchanges took place in Mongolia from March 13-29 and from June 15-28 in the United States.
School Pairing has been able to support 18 Mongolian students and teachers to visit the United States through ongoing support from the Khan Bank Foundation. Support from the United States Embassy, the Denver Sister Cities Committee, the Denver Zoo and individual donors has helped as many US participants to discover Mongolia. Ongoing work by educators and administrators has connected over 100 students through year long activities in schools.
The exchange begins with English and Mongolian clubs at each of the four participating schools - Greyhills Academy, the Denver Center for International Studies (DCIS), Ulaanbaatar’s Future Complex, and Dundgovi’s Erdmiin Dalai Complex School. Students and teachers work on projects and exchange letters, emails, pictures, and facebook messages. By the spring, two students and one teacher from each school are ready for physical exchanges that land them on camels and other unfamiliar situations.
During spring and summer breaks, students and teachers travel to see firsthand what they have experienced remotely. These trips are intended to improve language skills, allow opportunities for cultural exchange, and strengthen relationships between students and teachers.
[While in Mongolia, participants visited Manzushir, attended classes, learned how to make Mongolian food with the help of the chef Tengis, and experienced countryside life in Dundgovi’s Huld soum. In the US, students rafted in Arizona with Navajo guides, visited Grand Canyon and Great Sand Dunes National Parks, and toured the Denver Zoo. ]
The program also shows Mongolian students life in the United States, including many elements they don’t expect. Dagdan Ulziibadrakh, a student from Erdmiin Dalai Complex, stayed with a family in an ethnically Hispanic neighborhood in Denver during some of the 13 days he spent in the United States. “We went into a restaurant,” he said, “and I saw that everyone was looking at me. It was the first time that I was the only one, the only Mongolian. But it was ok.”
On the American side, the program includes the Navajo community of Native Americans and the ethnically diverse city of Denver, CO. In Mongolia, schools in Ulaanbaatar and Dundgovi represent two very different sides of one country. Topics of study have varied from creative writing to cooking to a recent shift toward environmental issues and allow participants to follow their interests. Bilguun, a student from Future Complex, was struck by the rule of law, a topic organizers may never have considered.
“While we were in US, I noticed most people respect the law,” he said. “especially in driving, they are more polite than Mongolian drivers. I used to think – we make laws to break it. Now I think differently.”
Despite a broad range of issues, the program emphasizes learning through building relationships between diverse groups. Each community has something to offer the others, a fact Ulziibadrakh realizes. “I met wonderful people in the USA,” he said, “I won’t forget them, and they are the best and biggest part of the School Pairing Program.”