Thursday: Arriving in Ulan Bator

Ulan Bator or UB is the capital of Mongolia and home to 45% of the population of the country. There about 1.1 million people in UB. Upon arrival on Thursday, the local Humanitarian Services missionaries drove me out to the east of the city to visit an existing and another potential water project that the humanitarian missionaries are working on. One of the major initiatives of LDS Humanitarian Services is clean water (see: http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/funds/clean-water.html). Even just outside downtown UB, many people have to walk about a quarter of a mile or more to obtain water which they carry back to their homes in plastic jugs. In the "ger" (pronounced gair but with a rolled R) district that we visited, many of the fenced yards contain a small house and a "ger" which is a round tent like structure which is insulated with felt made out of animal hair. Families typically live in a house during the summer and then move into a ger for the winter since it is warmer and therefore less expensive to heat. UB is the world's coldest capital city with an average winter temperature of 0°. LDS Humanitarian Services works with local governments to provide about 5 well projects each year. Saturday we will attend the groundbreaking for a new well project which should be completed in about 2 months.