World Vision Mongolia take a "steppe"farther to help the Children.
Sunday, 13 July 2003.
While in Ulaanbaatar, I had the chance to meet up again with my good friend Yurek Kulski (pictured), apparently he wears that hat all the time to please his wife Tina. Yurek is an associate professor at the Murdoch University in Perth and at the Tokay University in Japan. He has been in Japan for most of this year and came to Mongolia with his friend Dr.Hidetoshi Inoko, a
professor in the division of molecular life science at the Tokai University. DR Hidetoshi Inoko has just donated all the equipment for the new laboratory of molecular biology research in Ulaanbaatar. They had come to Ulaanbaatar for the official opening of it which was also attended by some Mongolian minister (my invitation must had got lost in the mail even though I had my speech ready).
One night they invited me to an exclusive Japanese club in town, something that I had never seen before. We were joined by Batmunkh Munkhbat, head of the division of molecular biology. We were serve whisky, nuts and chocolates in our own little room equipped with Karaoke while the working ladies sat with us to keep us company. Karaoke is very popular in Japan so it did not take long for Mr Inoko to show me is singing talent, I was impress. Then it was my turn, they insisted and because I have never done it before I was a bit reluctant and anxious to have a go.

One of the ladies offered to sing with me (pictured), I chose "stand by me" it went quite well if I can say so myself and we got a score of 95 out of 100, not bad I thought. Eager to improve on my score I picked up another song a little while later (I am sailing, Rod Stewart) but this time only managed the score of 76 so that was the end of my career as a karaoke singer. My conversation about molecular biology was not that hot either.
One result of Mongolia's recent social upheaval and rising poverty has been the appearance of street children in UB. It is estimated that between 500 and 1000 homeless children live in the city's underground sewers and heating pipes, the only places where the kids can survive in winter temperatures of -30 degrees.
Most of the children were abandoned by parents unable to care for them (unemployment runs to 37% in UB), were sent from relatives in the countryside, or ran away from alcoholic fathers or parents (80% of street kids come from one-parent families). Many of the kids (especially boys) prefer the freedom of the streets in summer rather than the strict rules and classes of homeless shelters, but winters are brutal. Girls often end up in prostitution, both sexes suffer from poor health, with high rates of malnutrition, syphilis, scabies and body lice.

Peter and his wife Sue Bryan (pictured) are from New Zealand and they have been working for World Vision Mongolia for the last 6 years. Peter says " We came to set up & pioneer the WV Mongolia work with 'street children,' Initially the idea was to establish 'drop in centers ' where the kids would have access to food, some counseling perhaps some education, support and some fun. Sue & I could really see that underneath it all they were all hurting, wanted to be loved & given a chance. It was really that which has made the difference right from the start. Very quickly we could see that most of them had received little in the way of 'education,' some of them had never held a pencil in their hands. Can you believe that!!! As we couldn't get any of them into the normal schools, although we tried hard enough, we decided that we would start our own classes, for the kids in our center. We did this & although it is simplistic to say this was the start of our education program, since there is a lot more to the story than that, this is actually the case. We now have a huge dedicated education program which as far as schools/ teaching goes we work with about 1000 kids in both formal (normal schools,) & informal, (classes for kids who

have been out of school for too long & need a lot of tuition before those who can are reintegrated back into the normal schools.) Many kids in the informal classes won't go back into the normal classes since they are too old & that causes too much personal embarrassment & stress. In actual fact through our education program we impact the lives of many thousands of kids & families
From our philosophy of believing that a child is better off within its own family (there are some obvious exceptions to this of course..) We have been involved right from the outset in finding families of street kids gently working with them & determining whether it would be in the best interests of the child to reunite them. So we have reunited many children, probably 80% of the kids that have been through our centers with their families, and then continued working with, supporting & building the capacity of the family. This too has been successful Again a lot of 'love care & forgiveness,' has been involved. Plus a lot of hard & frustrating work as many of the families is by now quite dysfunctional. But we have seen miracles happen. Working with the police has been an essential part of our program& very quickly I could see that to be successful & to achieve some attitude changes we would need to adopt the attitude "if we can't beat them we'll join them," & change them from the inside out slowly . This we have done & work with them in a number of the 'police' domains. The Foster care program has been something else that I initiated as a means of housing homeless kids in 'good' families.
Personally I would add that I don't think there can be any greater reward or blessing than as a foreigner, the father of our own precious family, to have the opportunity to be accepted as the father of hundreds of Mongolian kids & experience the joy & happiness as they take the opportunities that we have been able to provide through our program and made good choices that have positively turned their lives round.
As I have quoted so many times to Mongolian authorities, police & govt. officials when I have had to speak to them etc, 'these kids may be doing bad things, but they are not bad kids.' They need the love & care that we all need & they have a right to, & the changes will be miraculous. This is exactly the outcome that we have experienced during our time here.

Because my shock absorber had not arrived yet I decided to join Peter and Sue Bryan to visit some World Vision project some 400km north of Ulaanbaatar for a few days.
We spent two days visiting some of those centres (in Bulgan and Erdinet) and I could see the joy in the eyes of the children. Once again a little love goes a long way for those children. Peter and Sue are going back to New Zealand in a couple of weeks to be with their own children and grand children. I have no doubts that they will be missed terribly in the corridor of the World Vision office and on the streets of UB. I would like to take this opportunity to thanks them both for taking me along and for taking the time to explain everything to me.
When we got back in UB we learned that some terrible storms had occurred and that 9 people had died and more than 200 gers got washed away leaving many families without a home.

Friday, 25 July.
That day I went to visit several projects in the CEDC Children in Especially difficult Circumstances in the environs of the city.
Youth Open Prison on the outskirts of the city, where 3 gers which house 9 prisoners

With my good friend Byambaa.
En compagnie de mon amie Byambaa.
Next update, USA.
Journal suivant, les Etats Unis.
are receiving consoling, skills training and rehabilitation before release (pictured).
CAIC a Govt. 'holding' institution where street kids are held when first picked up off the streets. WV social worker is consoling and working on re uniting these children with families.
CEDC Day centre, for kids on the streets during the day to come and spend time, wash, eat and
a small class room teaches basics.
Income generation room for parents of former street kids who have been reunited. Parents are taught felting and sewing skills and make items for sale and for their families.
WV works with the CAIC (Children's address and identification centre) a government police youth center where children are first held when the police bring them in from the streets. The WV social worker established here counsels these children, and works at reuniting them with their families while endeavoring to change the attitudes of the police towards these urchins.
While on the streets the children live rough, in winter the underground heating tunnels provide a way to survive the -36C temperatures, in summer they sleep wherever it might be safe. They learn to be wily, surviving by washing cars, working at the markets, begging, pick pocketing and outsmarting others. When they come in they are filthy with lice, scabies and skin diseases and often the girls have STD's.
The day we visited it was very hot and the 25 children (mostly boys) were just in shorts
.
We noticed a young boy with terrible disfiguring burn scars on his front torso, left arm and up to his chin (pictured).
We decided to interview 13 year old Ulanbayar and he told us this story.
He has been living on and off the streets of UB since he was 5 years old, comes from a large dysfunctional family and has an alcoholic mother who beat him. He claims she burnt him in a drunken rage, on the hot wood stove when he was very young.
From 5 years old his mother told him to leave saying she didn't want him anymore.
How can a child endure such cruelty, how can a parent inflict such pain?
On his thighs there is evidence of skin grafts that have

been taken to graft on his torso.
But the contracted muscles and skin are very ugly and he cannot straighten his arm or lift his up his chin.
He appears to be a quiet boy and his eyes and face show no hatred or anger towards the treatment he has received all his life.
W V will try and raise funds to provide further treatment and plastic surgery for this boy so he can at least feel more like other children.
He has never been to school and says he would like to learn to read and write at least.
WV will make inquiries into how they can get further surgery for him and I will let you know what I find out. Keep in touch.

My shock absorber finally arrived on the 22, two weeks later than scheduled. I spend 4 hours at the airport custom to get it out. They wanted to charge me another US$200 for

taxes, likely I had my good friend Byamba (pictured) from WV with me and she convinced them not to charge me but it took sometime to do it.
Because of the unscheduled expense of the shock absorber I had to make a radical change to my itinerary. I decided to bypass Japan and Canada altogether and to fly directly to the USA from here. I bought a ticket to San Francisco for US$700 for the 27th of July, the last day of my visa. Then I had to organize a carrier for the bike. I used the biggest agent in UB. I was told that it would cost

me US$1300 to have my bike flown to San Francisco via China. I prepared the bike myself to save money. The next day WV helped me to deliver the bike to the airport. Everything seemed OK with the custom but the next day the agent called me to tell me that the Chinese could not accept the cargo as it was. They wanted an extra US$600 because it was a so call dangerous good. The only way to avoid the cost was to send it as motorcycle spare parts and to do that I would have to remove the tank and the battery. Removing the tank is quite easy on most bikes but on this one the tank is under the seat, a little complicated for me. I could not do it so I only removed the covers that look like a tank and prayed that the Chinese would not see it. Another complication is when the bike reaches the US, the custom will read spare parts on the invoice and will they agree to give it back to me. We shall see. I have taken some chances here which might turn up to be a very big mistake.
The bike was supposed to leave on the 26th and when I went to the airport on the 27th it was still there, not a very good start but there is nothing else I can do.
See you in San francisco.

Breaking news that I have just received after arriving in San Francisco.
The email reads:
I would like to let you know that your motorcycle could not be shipped on Saturday from Ulaanbaatar, reason is:
Mongolian Airline security inspectors had investigated that the fuel tank not out of motorcycle, according to the Dangerous Goods Regulation of IATA they refused to accept it by air and they going to impose fine to me for lying.
Motorcycles are never shipped out by passenger aircraft from Mongolia, we do not have cargo aircraft.
Therefore, I am going to do the following steps.
Ship the bike from UB to Bejing by railway.
Then from Bejing to San Francisco by aircraft by Dangerous Goods rate.
But you have to pay US$500 more, I will give you money details if you agree with payement.


I have no idea what to do next and been so far from Mongolia does not make things easier.
Are they ripping me off?
How along will I be stuck in San Francisco?
Will I ever see my bike again?
You will have all those answers in my next update. In the meantime just
click here to view more photos.

La vie tragique des enfants des rues.
Dimanche, 13 Juillet 2003
Pendant mon séjour à Ulaanbaatar j'ai eu la chance de retrouver mon ami Yurek Kulski, professeur à l'Université de Perth et aussi à l'Université de Tokay au Japon. Il est venu en Mongolie juste pour quelques jours avec son ami Japonais DR Hidetoshi Inoko aussi professeur à Tokay. Ce dernier a fait la donation de tout le matériel pour un laboratoire de recherche, biologie molécule. Ne m'en demandez pas plus car ce n'est pas exactement dans mes connaissances de science.
Un soir ils m'ont invités dans un club exclusif Japonais. Chose nouvelle pour moi car je ne suis jamais allé dans un club pareil et je n'aurais jamais les moyens d'y retourner. Nous avions notre salle pour nous tout seul et on nous a servi du whisky, des cacahuètes, des chocolats et du vin français. Des jeunes demoiselles ravissantes, travaillant pour cet établissement, sont venu s'asseoir avec nous pour nous tenir compagnie.
Comme il en est coutume au Japon la salle était équipée d'un Karaoké. Mes hôtes, habitués à ce genre de divertissement, me faisaient une démonstration, j'étais émerveillé par leurs talents. Forcément mon tour est venu et ne connaissant pas du tout ce genre de passe-temps j'étais un peu angoissé et inquiet.
Une des jeunes filles m'a offert de chanter avec moi (photo), je choisissais 'Stand by me' une chanson de John Lennon et j'étais surpris d'avoir un score de 96 sur 100. Fier de moi je remettais ça quelques temps plus tard avec une chanson de Rod Steward 'I am sailing' mais cette fois-ci grande déception, un score minable de 76 et avec ça la fin de ma carrière de chanteur. Je remercie toute l'équipe de m'avoir inviter et peu être allons nous nous revoir au Japon?


Il y a beaucoup d'enfants qui vivent dans les rues à UB (Ulaanbaatar). Environ entre 500 et 1000 vivent dans les égouts et dans les tuyaux de chauffage, les seules places ou ils peuvent survivre pendant les hivers quand la température descend au alentour de moins 35. La plupart des enfants ont été abandonnés par leurs parents qui n'ont pas les moyens de les faire vivre (37% de chômage), d'autres ont été envoyés en ville par leurs parents qui vivent en campagne, d'autres encore s'échappent de leurs parents alcooliques.
Les filles finissent souvent comme prostitués mais tous souffrent de mauvaise santé, beaucoup de malnutrition, syphilis et de poux.
World Vision ont crées beaucoup de centres ou les enfants viennent y vivre. Ils leur apprennent aussi à lire, écrire, jardiner et aussi a essayer de les réintègres dans la communauté. J'ai passé beaucoup de temps dans ces centres et j'étais toujours accueilli par des enfants souriant et en bonne santé, certains d'entre eux retournent quelques fois dans leurs familles ou bien apprennent un métier.
Je suis aussi allé visiter des projets dans le nord de la Mongolie pendant quelques jours et quand je suis revenu à UB j'apprenais que la ville avait souffert de violent orages, que 10 personnes avaient trouvés la mort et que plus de 200 familles se retrouvaient sans abris. Les trombes d'eaux avaient emporté leurs gers. Toutes les routes avaient aussi beaucoup souffert par les inondations.

Vendredi, 25 juillet.
Ce jour là je suis allé visiter un centre pour les jeunes défavorisés dans le centre de UB, il faisait chaud et tous les enfants étaient en caleçons. J'ai rencontré un jeune garçon de 12

ans qui avait été grièvement brûlé (photo).
Il habitait dans les rues de UB depuis l'age de 5 ans. Quand il avait 4 ans, sa mère alcoolique l'avait poussé sur une sorte de plaque chauffante ce qui avait causé la brûlure. Il avait été plus ou moins bien soigné à l'hôpital, il ne peut pas se servir de son bras car la peau est rattachée à son avant bras. Il a du mal aussi à lever la tête car la aussi la peau est encore collée à son cou. Sa mère l'a abandonné à l'age de 5 ans. Comment une mère peut se conduire comme ça envers son propre enfant, être si cruel envers lui? Il m'est apparu très calme sans aucune trace de haine ou de colère dans ces yeux ou sur son visage malgré le traitement qu'il a connu dans sa vie.
World Vision vont essayés de trouver des fonds pour soigner cet enfants, pour le réopérer de façon qu'il se considère un plus comme les autres enfants.
Il n'a jamais été à l'école et il m'a dit qu'il aimerait vraiment apprendre à lire et à écrire. WV vont me tenir au courant sur le future de cet enfant.

Ma suspension est finalement arrivée le 22 Juillet, soit deux semaines après la date prévu. Cela m'a pris quatre heures pour la sortir de la douane, ces derniers me demandaient 200Euros de taxes. Heureusement Byamba, de WV, était avec moi et elle a pu les convaincre que je n'avais pas à payer de taxes.
Du fait de la dépense imprévu de l'amortisseur j'ai décidé de raccourcir mon itinéraire en évitant le Japon et le Canada et de prendre l'avion directement de la Mongolie pour San Francisco. J'ai acheté un billet (700 Euros) pour le 27 Juillet, dernière journée de mon visa. Il ne me restait plus qu'à organiser ma moto à envoyer par cargo. J'ai contacté la plus importante agence de UB et ils m'ont dit que pour 1300 Euros ma moto serait envoyée à San Francisco par avion en passant par la chine. J'ai préparé la moto moi-même de façon à économiser quelques Euros et le lendemain WV m'aidaient à emmener la moto à l'aéroport. Tout paressait très bien, sans problème et je m'en réjouissais. Malheureusement le lendemain je recevais un coup de téléphone de l'agence qui me disait que les Chinois ne pouvaient pas accepter le cargo dans ces conditions. Ils voulaient 600 Euros en plus parce que c'était un produit dangereux. Mon agent me disait que la seule façon d'éviter le surplus de frais c'était d'envoyé la moto comme pièces détachés. Il me fallait juste enlever la batterie et le réservoir à essence. Pas de problème pour la batterie mais pour le réservoir c'était un peu plus difficile. Sur la plupart des motos c'est très facile mais sur ce modèle le réservoir se trouve sous la selle, un peu trop compliqué pour moi. J'enlevais les parois en plastique qui serve à la place du réservoir de façon que à première vue il semble que le réservoir a été enlevé. La seule chose qu'il me restait à faire c'était de prier que les Chinois ne s'en aperçoivent pas. Un autre élément qui m'inquiète un peu c'est ce que va dire la douane Américaine quand je vais aller chercher ma moto et que sur la facture c'est marqué pièces détachées. Affaire à suivre. J'ai pris des chances qui vont peut être mal tourner.
La moto devait partir le 26 et quand je suis allé á l'aéroport le 27 pour prendre mon propre avion ma moto était toujours là, cela commence mal mais je ne peux plus rien faire.
Je vous dis au revoir et à bientôt aux états Unis.

Dernières nouvelles que je viens juste de recevoir après mon arrivé à San Francisco.
Le email dit:
Mr Martin
J'aimerai vous faire savoir que votre moto n'est pas parti de Mongolie Samedi comme prévu pour les raisons suivantes:
Les inspecteurs douaniers de la Mongolian airline ont découvert que le réservoir de la moto était toujours là. D'aprés les Dangerous Goods Regulation of IATA ils ont refuses de prendre votre moto et je dois moi-même payer une amende pour leur avoir menti.
Les motos ne sont jamais envoyées par avions passagers et il n'y a pas d'avion cargo en Mongolie.
Voila ce que je vais faire maintenant pour vous.
Je vais envoyer votre moto par train jusqu'à Bejing et par avion jusqu'à San Francisco.
Mais avant de faire quoique ce soit vous devez me payer 500 Euros.

Je ne sais pas du tout quoi faire maintenant et d'être si loin de la Mongolie n'arrange rien du tout.
Est-ce que j'ai à faire à une bande d'escrocs?
Combien de temps vais-je être coincer à San Francisco?
Est-ce que je vais revoir ma moto un jour?
Vous aurez toutes ces réponses bientôt.

A Mongolian family.
Une famille Mongol.
Riding in Mongolia.
Sur les routes de Mongolie.

Mongolians ladies.
Femmes Mongols
The face of an happy child.
Le visage d'un enfant heureux.
A mother with her child.
Une mère avec son enfant.
See you on the streets of San francisco.
On se retrouve dans les rues de San Francisco.
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Retour en haut de la page.
Previous update.
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JOURNAL
22.
27/07/03 . Mongolia 2nd part. Total mileage so far 44,550km .

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