IDEA Visit to Mongolia

Flying from Seoul to Ulaanbataar, the first thing I noticed was this:

People per square kilometer in Mongolia: 1.7

People per square kilometer in Seoul: 17,108

From the IDEA base in Seoul, I hopped on the 3-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar to work with the debate network of the Mongolian Education Alliance (MEA) for a week. Fortunately for my interest in traveling, these opportunities are fairly common since Seoul is so close to other Asian destinations. On this particular trip I got to work with the MEA to think about some grant proposals, start a blog (http://debateinmongolia.blogspot.com if you can read Mongolian), train some students and teachers, and help keep Mongolian debaters abreast of happenings elsewhere in the IDEA network. Overall it was an interesting trip and I got to catch a glimpse of a fascinating place. Debaters and educators have several challenges to face: getting quality debate research materials in the Mongolian language, connecting a network of debate clubs over vast distances, and attending international events when the country is so far from most others. The MEA is doing some interesting things to try to alleviate some of these difficulties by, for example, translating relevant parts of the Debatabase into Mongolian or using the new blog to reach those schools in Mongolia with internet access.

One of the main things I did in Mongolia was training students and teachers. Many of them wanted to know some methods for debating about policies or plans, some wanted to know about judging, while still others wanted to talk about the program side of things and how to get their students or classmates more involved. On the last topic, one student from the 2007 Youth Forum returned to her school in Ulaanbaatar and started an English debate club. I’ve included a picture of all of us after we talked along with some pictures from a few other teacher/student trainings.

Of course, no IDEA trip would be complete without a little bit of sightseeing and local activities. On my last afternoon in the country, Davaku, a former IDEA debater, 2007 Youth Forum coach, and current MEA employee, took me and a few others out to her grandmother’s house in the countryside. The beautiful scenery was a nice change of pace from my usual city surroundings. We got to hike up some mountains, eat some delicious food, and, of course, ride horses and yaks…

Alex.