Ulaanbaatar as an Adolescent

Never before have I travelled to a city more ripe with signs of growth. Our ears are met with a cacophony of hammering, drilling, plowing, shoveling, and the myriad other sounds of construction. In the twenty minute walk last night to meet the American Ambassador (hopefully a group photo to come soon!), we encountered no fewer than thirty to fourth million construction projects. Perhaps our students should trade their cameras for working gloves and pitch a hand to UB's explosion.

Like a growing child, Ulaanbaatar is growing in all shapes and sizes with plenty of awkwardness thrown in for good measure. In the inner city the main government square is receiving a new statue, private homes and condominiums are springing up on the south side of town, new apartment buildings can be found on every corner, and unfinished buildings are present in neary every block. In many ways the city is like a child's Lego project: finished buildings, partially erected complexes, and empty lots filled with building materials, all spread across town with little rhyme or reason.

Finally, as growth and modernization is evident throughout the parts of the city we are experiencing, the real story of expansion lays to the north, west, and east of town. In the last ten years, the capital city has doubled its population to approximately 1.5 million residents, the vast majority of which have arrived and settled in the "Ger City" which, more accurately, could be called a Ger Slum. Little to no running water, non-existent waste removal, and heating from the burning of raw coal, all contribute to Ger City's massive pollution by air, land, and water. From our hike on the second day we could see these settlements for miles in all directions. Our group's small interaction with that part of town will be the donation of children's books to a mobile library for residents of the Ger City. A small contribution, but something nonetheless.

-Zachary Lauritzen