Sorry for the lack of photos again; I've been really busy with my interviewing (believe it or not, that's the real reason I came here and it's sort of a parallel life that I haven't been blogging about-- I'm saving that writing for my dissertation!) and just haven't had a chance to get to a computer store to buy a new jump drive.
A quirky story related to my data collection, though: yesterday I was sitting in a classroom at the National University of Mongolia, interviewing a student. About 3/4 of the way through the interview, water started POURING out of the ceiling. Not just dripping, I'm talking about the equivalent of a rainstorm. It was crazy. I finished the interview and then moved to another room while the plumbers who'd been working upstairs found the broken pipe, stopped the leak, removed some ceiling tiles and cleaned up the gallons of water on the floor of the classroom. I guess this gives some indication of what the faculty and staff at the university are up against- the maintenance and repairs of the university buildings is a daunting task.
More photos by the weekend, I promise!
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4 comments:
OH, NO, too bad and sad about your jump drive! I can't wait to see what you do with the new camel yarn!
The Water sounded like a huge distraction for your interview. Did you bring your umbrella? LOL
Is this the general state of institutions there or just a one-off freak accident?
-Ashish
Buildings take a beating here because of the terribly cold weather-- and the National University of Mongolia is underfunded, so many of their buildings have difficulties. This doesn't indicate anything about the importance of education to many, many people- it's just an example of what they're often up against. There is a construction boom in Ulaanbaatar right now and there are many new facilities (particularly office buildings and private apartments) being built-- but many of the older buildings are very difficult to maintain in the severe weather here.
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