By far the most exciting thing that I was looking forward to upon coming on this trip to Mongolia was being able to go out into the countryside and see how the original settlers of Mongolia lived. Being able to see what I had only read and seen on TV about how people lived in Mongolia in a time before me was something I never thought I would get to experience first hand.
Staying in a Ger was something I definitely needed to get used to. Having a live fire burning in the middle of your room and constantly tending to it to stay warm at night made me realize how lucky and privileged I am to have a heating system at home. I feel I take it for granted most of the time. Not everyone lives in the same style that I am used to so this was very eye opening to see it first hand.
Something that was very interesting was the sacred lake at Lake O. Why this was interesting is because as a group we came to this country to study the leadership of women and their importance in society. Unfortunately, because this lake is sacred and Mongolia stays true to their beliefs, women were not allowed to touch this water. This really had me thinking about the oppression on women in other countries. Studying women in society is something I recently became aware of and learned about through classes on campus. Seeing first hand how something simple, such as swimming in a lake, allowed me to empathize with women who feel oppressed every day. As a dare I was challenged to go in the lake, I had no problem physically going in, but mentally I felt like I was unfairly abusing my power over a class of people who are seen as lower than me. This did not resonate well with me.
This example gave me hope for the future of Mongolia. From research, I was able to understand how important women are in the community and how much education Mongolian women have versus men. This realization allowed me to see a lot of progress concerning gender equality come to Mongolia in the short future.