Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Peace Essays

Mongolian Journal

September 24-October 17, 2004

Day One and Two: September 24, 25 and 26

Early in the morning, we were driven to the Bush International Airport in Houston, after a drive down the night before from Waco (193 miles) and staying with our daughter, Samantha, and her family. We flew United to San Francisco (4 hours and 6 minutes); to Seoul (12 hours and 10 minutes); had a delightful and needed overnight at the Seoul Incheon International Best Western Hotel ($127.50 US per night); flew out on Mongolian Airways, MIAT, (3 hours and 30 minutes), the next morning and arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 2:35 p.m. When we left Texas, the temperature was in the mid-90s; Seoul in the mid-70s; and Ulaanbaatar in the high 30s. We had left the heat and humidity of Houston to walk off the airplane to see snow falling in Ulaanbaatar. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in world, reaching 60 below 0 in the dead of winter.

An Embassy greeter and his driver met us, as well as the Dean of the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts (Assoc. Prof.  Basasandorjiin BAYARAA) (the first name is the father’s name and the one in caps in the given name that the individual is known by) and the English professor (Munhktuul) for the University who would act as our interpreter to the faculty and students. We drove to our third floor, two-room apartment in the center of the city, about three blocks from the university. It had two telephones (which we have had difficulty working in this first week), a television (with at least five English speaking stations- CNN and BBCWorld are our most watched so far), a very, very small place to prepare food, a refrigerator in the living room, a shower that is functional when it functions, and two padlocked steel doors. From our balcony, we can see the Khuree Building, a hotel where the English-speaking Rotary meetings are held each Friday at 1:00 p.m. After the Dean Bayaraa and Munhktuul, our interpreter (although the Dean speaks flawless English and has done most of the translation to the Rector and the University faculty), left, we discovered that we had no running water and we could not work the telephone to call anyone for help. The bed was little more than a hard, shifting, springy slab that divided in the middle (we bought a cover for it all and two pillow with cute little dogs on them the next day at the State Department Store). It was better than expected and supported by a grant to the University by the US Embassy of Mongolia.

We slept from 12 to 3, got up and watched something (anything would have done) on television, went back to bed at 5 a.m., slept until 7, bathed with bottle mineral water and a cloth, and prepared to be picked up at 9:30 for a meeting with Rector Tsedev.

Day three: September 27, 2004

Breakfast was a cut slice of bread from the local market (taking the Swiss Army Knife in our luggage was more important than we anticipated) and half an apple each (purchased from the local market, halfway to the University) For me, we bought a can of Coca Cola Light (which is rare to find in Mongolia). We were picked up at 9:30, walked to the University and escorted into the Rector’s office where we sat our side of the table with the Rector (Dr. Dojooghn TSEDEV), Vice Rector (Gunchingiin AL TANGEREL) and Foreign Affairs Officer of the University on the other side. As usual with these kinds of introductory meetings, I was introduced as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, coming to the University to have workshops in arts management, public relations and fund raising, and then it was turned over to the Rector to tell about the history, aims and successes of the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts. I was to work at that point only with one of the four divisions of that University complex. After he was finished and his message was translated for me, the Dean spoke again and asked me to speak. I discussed my background and experience plus what areas of expertise I could bring to their “already successful program”.  The last thing that I asked was: “What image of the University do you envision in the year 2020?” The way that I begin any curriculum planning is with a vision statement and a discussion of the mission of the organization.

It was enlightening and interesting to see that Vice Rector Al Tangerel answered the question about a vision for the future with a long, but concise vision statement. Obviously, she is the visionary for the University and the Rector is the researcher and political humanist (I learned later that he is also a poet). The third member of their team never spoke (which was true of Munhktuul and Anne, my wife, on our side of the table). Lastly, Rector Tsedev invited us to lunch after our first preparatory, two-hour session, beginning curriculum development plans, the three days of workshops with the students and two with the faculty on public relations and fund raising. They had planned to have only two days for preparation the next week (discussing what I was to do and having it translated into Mongolian). I changed that and set up three meetings in the first week for planning (this turned out to be important as the Dean had to go to the hospital for emergency appendix surgery on Friday and will miss several weeks in recuperation).

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We had lunch around the corner (Anne and I, the Rector, the Dean and Munhktuul). I was invited (in the strongest way by the Rector) to toast with vodka. I learned later that I could take sips to honor the invitation. As it was, I drank mine and part of Anne’s. It was better vodka than I had heard from my research but I will honor the custom next time in a ceremonial fashion.

Later, we were taken to change money, shown the State Department Store, stopped at the local market to get more bread and bottled water, had our tap water turned on in the apartment, and rested for the evening (after eating at the Century Mongolian Restaurant across the street).

Day four: September 28, 2004

I met with the Dean Bayaraa and Munhktuul at the University at 10:00 and began outlining a strategy for curriculum development with arts management. We worked until 11:30, had lunch, walked back to the apartment, rested for a couple of hours and went to the Arts Council of Mongolia at 3:00. The six of us (me and the five members of Arts Council staff) worked on the process that would be applied to writing one grant for art and English. Also, we began the visionary work for a 2022 “vision statement” which would be examined by the staff, revised and improved by the Board and the Executive Director, Ariunaa, and finally used as a roadmap to where the Council might wish to go. We did not take the whole

three hours until 6 so Anne and I went to the US Embassy and met with Scott Weinhold, Public Affairs Officer. I asked him to talk about Mongolia and his two-year of experience here. His impressions of how to proceed bore fruit the next day. He is on the board of the Arts Council so I could pick his brain on the politics, directions and dynamics of that Board.

We ate out again, retiring early at eleven. I got up at 4 a.m. and worked on the vision statement for MUCA, which I expected to be discussed at the 11:30 meeting at the University the next day.

Day five: September 29, 2004

We went to the State Department Store and looked for cameras (since I have left mine in Houston by mistake). They were all too expensive. We also explored the five floors of goods for future use.

At 11:30, I presented the Vision Statement and went over it in detail with the Dean Bayaraa and Munhktuul. We worked an hour on the schedule (which was printed but still in flux). After lunch at the Modern Nomad Restaurant, we went to the Art Council of Mongolia again and discussed the work that I had done, examined each detail of the children’s three-week workshop that the staff was planning for 2005, and again picked their collective minds for clues to where they wished to go in the next twenty years. After our discussions, we went over to the Zanazaba Museum of Fine Arts (Zanazaba was a famous artist and the first leader of Buddhist in Mongolia), Red Ger Gallery, and began plans for the opening of my exhibition the following week. In a visit of three weeks, it is critical to have at least one public gathering where my work (the stuff of my mind and spirit) is introduced to the artists, academic professionals, arts organizations, business individuals and politicians. I will also present the print of Texas children’s art, donated by the Texas Commission on the Arts for Mongolia to the US Embassy representative. Lastly, there is a problem with the walls therefore I begin to figure how the 28 works of my art can be hung and still rolled for returning to the States. When we returned to the Council, we found chaos and the floors covered with extension cores since all the electricity was non-existent on the Council’s fourth floor. They had to still print the award certificates for the winners of the Germany Embassy’s sponsored German Music Competition for piano and violin (featuring all German composers). They worked until six and then a caravan of staff and us went to the concert hall. The music was marvelous but both Anne and I nodded off at times with jet lag and the pressure of duties unknown still in our bones. It was not a distraction for others since we alternately nudged each other. We got home at 10:00 p.m. Fortunately, it was on by 3:30 a.m.

Day six: September 30, 2004

I awoke at 3:40 a.m. again, worked and finished a two-page grant proposal for the Arts Council of Mongolia, a one-page budget and a one-page summary of budget notes and a time line. Before leaving for the university, we bought a cheap but efficient camera from Fuji, changed our seats with United for the long return flight from Tokyo to Seattle, shopped for supplies which would do for the next two days, found a construction site dumpster where we could deposit our waste and walked the three blocks to the university. All our contacts and meetings seem to be on the third or fourth floors, as is our apartment. Since we have found only one elevator in the Arts Council Building (which runs well when they have electricity), our normal exercise program is obviously not needed.

In the morning session at the University, I shared the Council’s grant and reviewed the University vision statement with the Dean Bayaraa and Munhktuul as those two written works would give us models to discuss for what they wished to accomplish in the future. We went to the Council building at 1:00, worked on the exhibition until 2:00, assisted Alina Campana, marketing and publicity staff member (a former Peace Corp worker from the States who recently married a Mongolian), on a $37,554 grant for children 7-13 and several local photographers, and at 3:00 began a long session discussing the grant proposal that I had completed the previous night and some ideas for a vision statement for 2022.

We finished this session at six, drove to a wonderful German restaurant for dinner, meeting English and Belgium workers in marketing who were consultants to Mongolia and finally returning home at 10:00 p.m. I was exhausted and went right to bed, yet getting up again a 3:30 to write the vision statement and an article for the Arts Council weekly newsletter, and outline some ideas for my classroom work at the University.

Day seven: October 1, 2004

This was to be a free day to explore Ulaanbaatar and some of its special sites. It was not. The Embassy invited us to attend the first Bush/Kerry televised debate. We left that a little early to drop off my article for the Council’s newsletter and a layout for the invitations for the October 7^th opening at the National Fine Arts Museum. We went from there to the University to have an initial meeting with the arts management faculty (thirteen members). It was an interesting study in a different culture. Dean Bayaraa (who casually mentioned that she was not feeling well and would not go with me to the Ulaanbaatar Rotary meeting at 1:00 p.m.) supremely ran the meeting, speaking first, translating and then directing me to discuss what I was there to help do in terms of curriculum development. Then we both sat back and waited. There was great gulf of silence for a period of time but the faculty eventually began a dialogue. It came with fits and starts, but it came and was finally quite energetic and enthusiastic.

I had to run to my Rotary luncheon as the meeting ended. The Dean said that she was going to get some medical advise but that she was feeling better (we did not learn about her having to have appendix surgery until that evening). We attended the local chapter of Rotary, were asked to speak to them in two weeks, and then exchanged flags, business cards and presents. We had a marvelous meal (our third so far that day and it was only midday). Again, we thought that the afternoon would be free to explore Ulaanbaatar and Buddhist wonders that we had researched. It was not.

We received a call from Munhktuul that the Director (Dr. Dashiin BAT-ERDENE) of The Cultural Institute wished to visit with me. After attending a meeting at the Embassy with Scott Weinhold to formalize the final plans for my exhibition and the presentation of Texas school children’s work to the people of Mongolia at the opening, we went back out to the University and met the Director of the other college. He told us about his institution. Again, it was a formula of waiting our term to talk and watching for signals to keep quiet. This system of what I call “power information” sessions was consistent all through our stay to date.

He wanted me to meet with his students and discuss museum management from my 30 years of experience as Executive Director of five American museums. It was only after dinner and much more discussion that I conceded to find time the following week, as long as he worked out the timing with Munhktuul. He was a delightful dinner companion and told us about life as a nomad and the grazing cycle on the Steppes.

I got home at 9:00, fell asleep watching something or other on television and then again got up at 4:00 to write and plan. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be taken out of Ulaanbaatar by Rector Tsedev, Munhktuul and others to see the expanse of space for the nomad. In the city, there are a million people; outside across Mongolia there are 1.5 million people in area two-thirds the size of the United States. It is one of the experiences that we requested.

Day eight: October 2, 2004

Got up again about 4:00 again, started this journal and watched BBC World until five. Slept until seven and then went out with Anne at ten, attempting to find a French/Mongolian bakery near our apartment. We found it quickly, getting oriented to directions and the city.

At 1:30 p.m. Munhktuul and Rector Tsedev, with several others, came to pick us up to go into the open land beyond the city’s edge. We drove 32 miles to the national park called Terelg. We passed sporadic clusters of gers on one of the few paved road in Mongolia. It was cold but not bitterly as it had been most of our first week. In the park, at a tourist site, we stopped to have a snack lunch, using a large flat rock as our table and chairs. A French Canadian, on his way to Tibet, came over and joined us for our lunch snack. He was traveling and exploring for three months. Again, vodka was passed around and toasts made to our respective nations. One woman in our jeep, Paola Fraltola Gebhardt, an Italian married to a Bavarian, told Anne about her work in Mongolia centered upon the problem of HIV. There were only 4 cases reported but testing is poor and the researchers feel that the total might to closer to 500. Anne, a retired nurse, knew the right questions to ask.

We followed the road to a tourist retreat and restaurant, surrounded by many rental gers. Anne commented to me that she had thought that the snack on the rock was lunch. We still ate heartedly, listening to stories of how the Rector had gone to America in the last two years, visiting many states and talking with American Indians (our nomadic tradition which we forced onto reservations). Also he lectured at Indiana University on Asian history, Genghis Khan and present day problems. At one point, he offered vodka again but I refused this time.

After dinner, I was privileged to visit a family in a ger and was invited to take their picture. I took several shots and gave them buttons from my hometown in Texas (a gift to Mongolia from the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Waco and Central Texas). I was surprised how warm and cozy the ger was, even for a family of eight and the husband’s mother who took care of the littlest children. Once outside, I photographed the outside of the ger and its elaborately decorated door. In the winter, there are five layers over the ger; in summer, only one. It is the essence of functional architecture.  

On the way home, we stopped by the side of the road where another Jeep pulled over. There was a dead wolf tied onto the back tire. This was a special event for the Rector and the driver since wolves are hunters of men in the winter season. We got back to the apartment in Ulaanbaatar at 8:30. Both of us were asleep in the comfortable chairs as the television became background sound. Tomorrow, at ten thirty, we will be taken to another site outside the city.    

Day nine: October 3, 2004

As is our normal routine now, we both awoke at 3:30 a.m. Anne read and I worked at the laptop computer. We retuned to bed at 5:00, slept until 6:30, did our morning chores and then walked out to find the French Restaurant and see where the Internet Center might be located. Munhktuul came to pick us up for another trip outside Ulaanbaatar at 10:30. As Anne mentioned to me, “it would be nice if we knew where we were going before we went and how long we would be there, but it is not part of the culture.” We drove to the Gandan Buddhist Monetary and Temple which has the eighty-foot high Buddha and over 1000 other Buddha’s. Since it was Sunday and people had the day off from work, the grounds and temples were packed. We hear the priest at oral prayer, spun the prayer wheel and gave some money to the offering stations. In the gift shop, we bought three small, inexpensive gifts for friends in Waco who were taking care of our son while we were gone.

In the courtyard in front of the main temple, children played, chasing the pigeons which were there in thousands since peddlers were selling seed to feed them. The kids ran into a cluster of pigeons and laughed as they flew away, only to return a few second after. Artists sold watercolors and work on leather (which was of interest but not of great artistic value) and some small children begged. In one publication that I read, there are over 5000 children living under the streets in the cold weather and on the street when it warms.

We finished the afternoon by going to an Internet Café to answer emails and had lunch at a marvelous French restaurant. The Mongolian Chinggis beer is very good but the chocolate mouse was magnificent. I have not tasted that richness in chocolate since our days in Prague.

Then we looked for two liter bottles of water. The smaller ones are emptied too soon. After journeying through four markets, we finally went back to where we knew that we could get what we wanted, the State Department Store. We returned to the apartment for the evening at 4:20, went to sleep until 7:30 and then had spicy soup for dinner with a dash of BBC World. I cannot put ideas to rest the way that I can my body. They bounce around the corners of my mind and search for parallel thinking images so that I can start curriculum planning from a point where the University faculty feels comfortable and from a place that they already know.

With today’s visit to the Buddhist Monastery, I began to run images of the Buddha through my mind. Many of his symbolic hand gestures are the basis of any study of management (arts and culture or anything). The three fingers on the raised hand are teaching; the palm on the lap is asking for alms; and the fingers and hand pointed to the earth is symbolic of contact with your base. They have worked in the past: you educate your audience through situational leadership; you find ways to ask and sources to cooperatively share resources and funding; and you do the public relations and networking to stay in contact with your audience, your field of expertise and your changing world. When talking to the students and faculty, I will begin with this image that they know better than I do since I am not Buddhist and they are. Their problem is that they are so close to their religion that they make a separation between what they believe through faith and heritage and what they do academically or professionally. Maybe that is the secret that a Fulbright Senior Specialist can bring to a culture. He or she points out connections between where the culture has been for centuries and where the latest ideas and practices in any field are moving or have moved. I see connections that others do not, may not or cannot see because they are too close to what they wish to observe. It is like cooking a fish when you are starving. You cannot see the world from the viewpoint of the fish and the situation that the cook in put within. Mongolia seems to be in that point in its development. 

Day ten: October 4, 2004

Got up at 2:00 a.m. and worked on the concepts of arts management which will be translated today for presentation tomorrow. I am not used to this kind of preparation where every word is pre-ordained. I like the interaction with the students to determine the direction of the lecture, once the overall ideas have been chosen. I will go up to the University at 10:00 and work until 12:00 with Munhktuul. It will be the last of these sessions before the workshops with the students. There is still much work that needs done (which will be complicated with the recuperation of Dean Bayaraa since he leadership is needed to make any reforms work) with curriculum development. Here are notes for arts management:

Arts and Cultural Management

1^st Principle: Arts management is not a series of sequential 1-2-3 points but a series of interlocking circles, such as: self, profession and resources. Each of these needs a mission statement, a vision statement and then goals, objectives and strategies. At the center of each circle is the most elemental concept or essence that effects the whole; such as, with self, it is the character of the individual (how does one interact with the world); with profession, it is art or creativity or culture (in arts and cultural management); and in resources, it is the mission for the organization and its needs.

2^nd Principle: When you travel to foreign places, remember that you are the foreigner. What this means in arts management is that each situation or each person that one meets; you must find out the culture of that situation or person and adjust. This can be balancing act between the ethics of your profession and the actions of the world or an individual.

Therefore, there are three circles that one begins with:

Self

Knowledge (the basis of any beginning)

Public Relations (a process with the outside world)

Networking (working with others)

Culture (understanding and respect for others)

Leadership (a final destination)

Profession                                        Resources

Knowledge (internal skills needed to do the job) Others (staff, Board, volunteers, public)

Methods of structuring (management)                    Money (finances, grants, fund raising)

Ethics (how to act correctly)                                   Ideas (self generated and outside)

Tools (media, Board of Directors, contacts)           Language (English, computer)

Principles of Management:

Control of: 1) Mission

                  2) People- staff, board, public, volunteers, other professionals

                  3) Personal traits and human relations- self and others,

                            leadership and management

                  4) Finances- budget, fund raising, grant writing, annual report,

                              audit

                  5) Image and communications- public relations, networking,    

                           media, publications, and language skills

                  6) Programs- internal (children and adults), external and virtual

                  7) Modern thought and Mindsets-the changing world culture,

                           philosophy, aesthetics and cultural learning

3^rd Principle: May the beauty we love be what we do.

Methods of learning:

1)    Academic classroom study

2)    Workshops in the university with arts management professions

3)    On the job learning (working for a non-profit or profit arts or cultural organization for a salary and credit)

4)    Interaction and communications with previous graduates

We went back to sleep at 3:30 and I got up again at 5:00 (Anne at 6:15), reviewed the work that I had written the previous night and watched ABC Asia Pacific. Later, a thorough and fascinating program on the building of skyscrapers and the current threat of terrorists was shown on National Geographic. Breakfast was again simple but adequate.

We walked to the University at 9:30 and worked on preparation for the student and faculty workshops until 12:00. I went over all this last week but this is the first time both young teachers have attempted to translate for a Fulbright Senior Scholar (for anyone actually). What they want is a word for word narrative of what I will say to the students. My style does not work that way and it is not good for the idea of flexibility in arts management. I will find a middle ground so that I do not change my American interaction style and the more Mongolian (fashioned from the Russians), formal style of lecture with no impute from the students.

We ate lunch at 12:15, met a banker from Fort Worth who had two or three banks in Ulaanbaatar that he was running, and walked back to the apartment at 1:30. We were picked up at 2:30, taken to the The Institute of Culture and I gave an hour and a half lecture to museum study students. It was patterned on the notes that I did the night before last. At the end of the class, the students requested that we go with them sometime to the National Palace Museum. We will when it fits our schedule of work. We walked back to the apartment at 5:00 p.m.

Munkhtuul picked us up at 5:30 and we all drove to the colorful theater when we enjoyed a concert and dance by the folk art ensemble “Tumen Ehk”. Everything was marvelous but Anne and I were astounded by the throat singing and the acrobatic, contortionist act of two small but artistically flexible young girls. We walked through a dark park and then took a cab back to the apartment at 7:45. I was asleep by 10:30 (Anne at 11:30).

Day eleven: October 5, 2004

I awoke at 3:30 (my usual time in Ulaanbaatar since the bed does not allow more than five consecutive hours of sleep) and began work on the workshop and lecture for today. It is my first formal session (actual classroom and workshop sessions) at the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts (it is interesting that I am corrected to call the University this title, which I have been told several times is correct, since downstairs the logo says, “Mongolian University of Art and Culture”). There are some things that I have been asked to come to Mongolia to help change and some that I just accept. The haunting sound of the throat singer lingers in my memory. I do not know of a time in my life when I have been so surprised to hear something come out of a young boy’s mouth so astonishing and original. That sound will last long after we leave Mongolia. It is, to this date, something that is totally “Mongolian” for me. 

Each time I awake I begin to sneeze for a short time. The air quality is poor with all the cars. Anne thinks that she is coming down with a cold or it, too, is an allergic reaction to the city. This was not true when we visited the national park outside of the city. All this, along with our sleep pattern, is part of the ritual of each day.

Met with the students at 10:20 and worked until 12:00 on art management ideas and background material. We covered basic human needs: intellectual, emotional and physical and how the arts fulfill them. We examined the signatures and styles of Seurat, Picasso and Renior. We discussed gestalt thinking in the 20^th century and how an arts manager had to guess an outcome when the bits and pieces of information was not adequate for a final decision at the point when it had to be made. We discussed “quality circles” for self, profession and resources for an arts manager. A similar approach was used in the afternoon with the faculty and arts managers but on a higher and more detailed level. That session lasted from 2:00 until 5:00. It was determined that the second day would deal with public relations and I asked one profession, who also works with the national ballet company, to bring in a public relations problem that she was having getting ready for an upcoming ballet in late October. I plan to give some insights into how to handle public relations as an on-going aspect of arts management and separate it from the immediate need for publicity. Public relations are not part of the national mindset and therefore it will not happen until the arts managers begin to see it as one of their primary functions.

We rested for an hour at the apartment, went out to find a pizza restaurant and celebrate a long but successful day. The taxi took us to the wrong location but I knew that we were close (about ten blocks from the restaurant)

and I knew that the State Department Store was also near this location. We showed a slip to a parking attendant and he pointed in a direction. We set out and found the department store. After shopping for the next three days, we walked the remaining eight blocks to the restaurant. We got home at 8:00, relaxed until 10:30 (again, Anne until 11:30 because of her medicine cycle) and went to bed.

I got up at 1:30 to work on fund raising ideas for classes today and write in this journal. I will return to the hard surface of the bed at 2:30. Things went better with the translators today. I feel that both of them began to handle the ideas and get them across to the students and faculty. It is a process of timing, slowing down in speaking and trust. We are getting there. They are so used to scripted lectures that a free session of give and response is not in their teaching style. All the participants in the afternoon are teachers in the arts management university department or recent graduates out in the field handling daily problems of arts management. Since the organizations here were under Communist rule for 70 years (until 1990), the carry-over is total government control (by giving all the money but not enough and not allowing public boards to function as decision and policy making units). What I suggested is the idea of “Friends of Ballet”, just do not call what you create “a board of directions”, or call it “an advisory board”. What is needed is some partnership with “friends” who can bring money, power or expertise to the organization.

The next two days will be difficult since the idea public relations and fund raising in totally foreign to what all these individuals have been taught or allowed to think. I must find a key to unlock the systems into which they now think so that I open their minds to some (for them) new ideas.

Day twelve: October 6, 2004

I awoke at 7:30 and worked on notes for the public relations sessions in the morning and afternoon, morning for the students and afternoon for the teachers and art managers. It is not part of the student’s education or mindset but that is also true of their professors in the afternoon. I had typed notes to help my two translators and marked pages from two books on management (which I borrowed from Liz at the Waco Convention Center) for the faculty session. At 9:00 I went to Fuji, tried to get them to make me pictures from my new camera, but they said that there were more pictures to take. I went home and forwarded the film in the dark of the bathroom so that tomorrow I will take this roll back.

At 10:00 I taught the students on “public relations” and in the afternoon I lectured to the faculty on the same subject. They call “public relations” what I call promotion or advertising. The distinction that I make is two-fold: promotion and advertising takes money to create the desired results but public relations does not take money but does take time. When cornered for a definition, I told the professors that “public relations has no timetable and is all consuming” or to put it another way, “public relations is moving out to the community with programs and a smile and making friends.”

In the second session of the afternoon, I turned the class over to one professor who was having problems (her words) public relations for the opera, which was coming from Austria- Don Giovanni. I made suggestion and she said, “Are you sure that this will work?”, and I had to answer, “No, there are no certainties with an art project but each “no” means a closer time to be a “yes”. For the latest action, I ask each professor to give me a tentative budget. The professor from the Ballet House took over the last portion of the workshop. She kept on saying, “I cannot ask him for money.” I told her, “If you do not ask, then you will not get what you need.”

We rested for a time, went to bed again at 10:30, after eating at the Silk Road. Getting there was made complicated since the cabbie took us on a “joy ride” around Ulaanbaatar. It was a restaurant very near the Brau Haus. But we were not upset since the whole taxi ride around town costed $1.20 (we know it was too much since the ride home was a normal $.30).

Day thirteen: October 7, 2004

Arose a 5:00 to a silent apartment. The only sound is the ticking of the clock. No sounds penetrate the Communist-built concrete. It is functional piece of architecture, elegant for Ulaanbaatar and upscale, but far below the middle class standards in the States. But we did not come here for luxury (although this might be viewed by many Mongolians with that term); we came to do a job in education and free enterprise.

It is interesting to see how our relationship with the two ladies who translate has changed. We took time at the end of yesterday’s last session to sit and chat about nothing. They are now relaxed that we have accomplished half of what I came to do. It was like an athletic team sitting together to enjoy a hard-earned victory. At one point in yesterday’s session when I turned the meeting over to one Mongolian who had problems with the upcoming opera, Don Giovanni, I have my translator, Munhktuul, and Anne had hers, Tsi Tsi.

In our after-workshop chat, Tsi Tsi told Anne that Mongolians have a saying, “When steel is placed beside gold and they work together, all is yellow.” Anne asked me later with a smile, “Which one of us is the gold?” I told her, “It depends on the moment in a day.”

Today will wrap up the workshop sessions with the students and faculty. It will conclude with fund raising and grant writing. It will be interesting. The hardest concept that I had yesterday to get across was: “If you do not ask for help, it will not come. And if you are turned down, you are not any worse condition than you find yourself now.” Anne commented to me, “It is easy for you since you think of asking for a cause not yourself. For many, it is asking from themselves, not a cause. I have trouble separating myself from the cause. You do not. Mongolian has no history of asking from the point of view of need for a greater cause. With Chinggis Khaan, they plundered but never asked.” I know that she is right but for this country of young people to grow they need to ask for help for Mongolia. That will be the thrust for today.

Lastly, tonight, I will have the opening of my exhibition. I have already told the participants in my workshops that it is a public relations event, much more than an art event. Openings always are that. I will give the prints of children’s art from the gift from the Texas Commission on the Arts. It will be wonderful if we can expand this to all US embassies in the world. I will work with Deborah Dobbins and the State Department to accomplish this when I return. They are already sold on the idea because they see the good that it has done in Georgia and Mongolia. Anne will stay home this morning to do the laundry since a young lady from the university is coming to help. I will get my photographs printed before walking to the University.

With nothing to do except prepare for the Fulbright work in the Mongolian artistic community (arts council, university, league of Mongolian artists, Institute of Fine Arts,  Institute of Culture, museum association, museum study students, arts managers of NGOs and artists), I watch all the television shows to relax. What strikes me is how much American television insulates its citizens from the world. It is as if the rest of the world does not exist. Here, in Mongolia, I feel that I am receiving information about the whole world, not just a selected nationalistic point of view. President Bush is the product of this near-sighted point of vision. Let me give just one example from BBC World: it is a story that I never heard on American television about Laos and the people who have fled the repressive regime to the jungle, starvation and being hunted like beasts. One businessman took some pictures of five teenagers who were sent out from a campsite in the jungle to find food for the starving mothers, fathers and children. They were four girls, age 12 to 15, and one 13 year old boy. They were caught by the government patrol. The girls were raped, the boy beaten and shot in head. All were killed and one girl was dismembered. I watched aftermath of this atrocity during breakfast, as did everyone with television in Asia. The film was smuggled out to show the world what is done in Laos. The best that can happen to these hunted people is to get to a camp in Thailand, then be given a visa for America. I was proud to see that our government did care and was helping at the end of this journey. What bothers me is that we are wasting our resources on a war in Iraq all for the wrong reasons while we could be helping these people who are dying in the jungles of Laos. I have no problem with getting rid of the “bad guys” like Hussein but it is the cause of war rather than using our power to negate these people. They are there the world over. Single out one like Hussein for 200 million dollars (and counting) and we cannot help in Laos, the Sudan, etc. So I watch ABC Asia Pacific, BBC World, CCTV (China Central TV). They are all in English. They are all telling people about the news worldwide. I can get six or seven English speaking stations on my television, in our third floor apartment, in the capital city of Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar. What I get from this Fulbright experience is so much more than what I give.

Day fourteen: October 8, 2004

Last night, we had the formal presentation of the Texas Commission on the Arts children’s art prints to the US Embassy and the opening of the exhibition. We had to move up the timing for the presentation because Mongolians do not stay around long for openings (interesting!). I talked to artists and some professors from the University, played with the children who were brought and explained the starting viewpoints of the four kind of painted images that I brought. The two young ladies who translate for me brought a gift: a Mongolian miniature quiver and an arrow. I have been telling them to try “First you shoot the arrows and then paint the targets” in arts management. Obviously, they got the point. I was most happy with this small token of their understanding. We decided to come back to the apartment, rather than go to dinner. We got back at 8:15.

Last night, I slept for a time in the chair, exhausted, and went to the bed with Anne at 11:30 (waking briefly). I got up at 6:00 a.m. to a cool apartment (OK for now) since they have turned off the heating system. We walked to the French Bakery and brought back bread plus some goodies for later.

At 10:40, we were picked up and taken to the national museum. This has been the pattern for our stay but we never know what will happen next (although there is a printed schedule which is changed all the time). This morning we were supposed to be taken to Mongolian Artists Association (called off as well as the lunch that we looking forward to since we wanted to meet more artists).

In the afternoon, I lectured on seeing in the 20^th and 21^st century for the Institute of Fine Arts (who will take us to a monetary museum outside of Ulaanbaatar tomorrow). One of the tools that I have brought is two sets of slides: 1) tribal arts and their influence on modern art and 2) a visual essay on how the artist sees in the late 20^th century (with some images of my work: commissioned works and the new painting that is now at the Zanazabar Museum of Fine Arts). I will use one set or the other depending on the situation (I used the slides on seeing). We first met the Rector of the Institute of Fine Arts, Ljhagva Bumandorj (a painter who showed us his studio and recent paintings before the grant tour of two buildings where the Institute does its teaching). We played the game again. Anne and I sat on one side; the Rector, the administrator and one faculty member (a foreigner who had worked there for five years) sat on the other. The Rector told the history, established in 1945 (2005 will be there 60^th year), stated surviving now without government money and having a clear picture of who they are, what they should teach and how to teach it. The tour proved him right. The only thing that I saw was that they had not moved into the 21^st century with their thinking but they had a firm hold on the first half of the 20^th century. To help them make this jump of thought, I am taking with me a listing of the rules that I live by as an artist:

Rules for Those Who Almost Never Follow

1. When breaking new ground, listen to everyone but follow no one. The problem of being a cultural leader is that you must set your own path with little or no help from others.

2. When in doubt, circle the wagons. In the history of settlers in America, when they were attacked or had problems that they could not solve they circled the covered wagons and looked out upon a hostile world. It is the same with any problem. You start with self and move out to the universe.

3. Luck comes to those who are prepared. You never know what you might need so it is best to prepared multiple ways to solve or approach anything.

4. If they give you lined paper, write (but across the lines if they do not tell you differently). Leaders are rebels who push the rules of a society and yet somehow stay within some guidelines or rewrite the rules for what the guidelines are.

5. Walking on new ground, tread softly at first and hold the hand of a friendly, experienced partner. Even though the path that you might take as a leader is new, there are those who have walked other paths who can help with small hints of how to trend.

6. Stop and watch the grass grow. You might learn something. Leaders tend to see the world from a satellite point of view. It is important to stop this at times to see from a close up point of view.

7. First you shoot the arrows and then you paint the targets. You cannot miss. Try an idea and see if it works. If it does, build something around it: a system, a product, a nation, an idea or an image.

8. When walking in the unknown, any path will do. You can begin in the middle, work backwards or forwards. If you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there. A cultural leader must embrace risk as a way of life. Creative thinking is not a linear process.

9. For a creative human being, it is just as important to forget as to remember. When building a new house, it is important to forget the frustrations of building the first one, without losing that data somewhere.

10.  Leave the door open since the future is sometimes the past. When creating something new, many cultural leaders go to the past for inspiration but not the immediate past: for instance, when thinking about 2003, go to the 1960s.

11.  May the beauty we love be what we do. If you do not create what you love, the outcome will be something that you or others cannot live with. Also remember that creating truth is beauty.

12. When you say, “My door is always open,” remember that you can go out as well as

inviting others to come in. When making a major change in what system is used or the outward appearance of the old system, go out and talk with those most closely effected.

13. When you are in a foreign place, remember that you are the foreigner. Also

keep in mind that anything or anyone or anyplace outside yourself is a foreign land.

14. When you are playing marbles with someone and you win all their marbles, give

back so that you have someone to play with tomorrow. This is a lesson learned from a capitalist with a conscience who made millions in business but always gave back to his world and community.

15. When steel is placed beside gold, all becomes yellow. This is a saying in Mongolia

that deals with two strong personalities in a marriage but it can apply to many situations.

I lectured with an interpretor for an hour and a half. I got a standing ovation so I must have done something right. Many artists, faculty and invited Mongolian artists, came up and asked me questions when it was over. This continued right out into the grounds where the students, faculty and artists surrounded us and kept conversation going, only interrupted with my signing autographs. I will never get used to that. It happened in Georgia also. Anyway, the Rector came up, told me about the international celebration that is planned for November of 2005 and asks me if I would come as a representative artist from America. I told him that I would talk to the Fulbright people about it. He said that he would do some thing from here. Then the television crew came and I interviewed for fifteen minutes. That is the second one that I have given (the other was last night at the opening).

We got home at 6:00, had dinner across the street at Century Restaurant (they are beginning to know us since they open the door for us on entering and leaving), got home at 7:30 and spent the evening resting. At 12:00 we finally crashed again and went to our flat surface called a “bed”. Our bed at home will feel so good on our return in eight days.

Day fifteen: October 9, 2004

Slept until 4:45 and both of us got up to work and read. One reason for the early raising each day is to stretch my back (hurting and stiff from the hard bed). Today at 10:30, we walked to the University where Rector Bumandorj and others will take us to visit Manzushir Museum Monastery in the Central aimag. We will also visit an artist’s studio, a craftsman’s ger and a tourist complex of gers.

We drove south and came Manzushir Monetary, walked halfway up the mountain with over thousand children (they ran up the mountain and we walked slowly but we made it) to the ruins of the old monastery and through the new museum which showed what the whole mountain was at one time when it was covered with temples. The Russians destroyed the temple in 1913 and this pilgrimage of children (mostly children) and adults is a constant reminder of what they did to Mongolia. Earlier in the week, we visited the National State Museum where they showed the tools of torture that the Chinese used against the Mongolian people. These two examples are a reminder of what was done to the history of Mongolia. The people here know what freedom has cost them throughout their history. On walking down, I looked around at the children calling out to us, saying “Hi” and “Bye” and “My name is….” These children are learning English because this culture knows at this point in history that English is the money language. Mongolia is a nation that is 65% under the age of 35.

This trip to the monastery was after we visited the studio of a fine Mongolian artist. We bought two small watercolors (not very expensive but something that would help this artist). He will come to Ulaanbaatar on Monday and meet me and the American Ambassador at the Fine Arts Museum to walk through my exhibit. The Ambassador wants to talk to me since she is also from Texas.

Coming home, Anne and I were privileged to be taken to the Bogdo Khaan Complex where Chinggis Khaan’s camp was reproduced. We loved it and both of us remarked that we felt a little the Khaan. We drank tea instead of fermented calf’s milk (since we had not eaten any lunch). After a marvelous seven hour day, traveling to an artist’s studio, an historical monastery and a replica of Chinggis Khaan’s camp with a major ger in the center, we came home at 5:00, getting ready to have dinner.    

Tonight we will rest as we will tomorrow. Next week is our last in Mongolia, working with the museum association, the University and artists to wrap up what I came here to do: give free thinking individuals a chance to think about some new ideas, to help the arts council and the University to envision an image of the future so that they could plan the present, and to work with students, faculty and artists on images and ideas that would expand their vistas. From what I have heard back from these groups, it has been a success, but only a beginning.

As I look at this special day, after a great meal at the Romance Restaurant, finding out that I left my Visa card someplace and getting it back at the Century Restaurant (where we ate last night), what lingers in my mind is “custom” and how it shapes a society. It is not the government or their legislation or their laws. It is the customs of the ordinary people in their daily life. As we left the city, we stopped at a pile of rocks with two dead trees sticking up, wrapped in blue clothe. The Rector said that we had to circle the mound three times, picking up three stones and throwing one onto the pile after each circle. “This is what we all do when going into the country,” the Rector said. “It is our honoring the sky and the earth.”

In the artist’s studio, he offered us Vodka in small glasses but first he went outside with one glass, dipping his ring finger into the vodka and flipping it to the winds, then dipping again and touching the forehead (Honoring nature again and the mind). This ritual is repeated indoors but now to the statue of Buddha. Then we toast each other, art, color, our countries and love.

On the mountain at the monastery, small children came to the ancient stones, bowed their heads to the stones, laughing before and after this honoring of the past. This was not scripted by teachers or parents or governments. It was a game they had just made up on the spur of the moment from what they had learned in their studies of Buddhism.

All three of these simple acts make Mongolia something special. It is the freest place that I have visited in the world (poor but free). I suspect that it is the nomad tradition. If you move your place of residence four times a year, own little except relationships with others, the land and the sky, then it is hard for anyone to take things away from you (and maybe that is what finally defeated the Chinese and the Russians). You cannot defeat people who put little or no worth in objects of ownership. 

We got home at 7:30 and went to bed at 11:30. Tomorrow is a free day with no commitments with others. We need it.

Day sixteen: October 10, 2004

This will be a day of rest and bringing many things together to think about and plan. I got up at 5:00 am.

This will be a day for observations and some working conclusions. I am impressed with the advances that Mongolia has made with its citizenry in the spirit of freedom. In Georgia, our only recent comparison in the world, there was a lingering shadow of the Soviet way of thinking, use of structure and wish (although denied) to return to the Communist comfort of being taken care of in your basic needs. Here in Mongolia Communism is not dead but it is transformed. It is a political party which can be voted into and out of office. It is what France or Italy has with its Socialist political parties. We, as Americans, cannot use a term and expect it to stay the same the world over. The idea of “communism” that was used and feared in the McCarthy era is not the same as the political party of communism in the world today. Sometimes the communists win an election; sometimes they don’t and are moved out of power. It is democracy in its best fashion.

You can see it in the faces of the people. They smile a lot. They sing when together at a restaurant. They plan for the future (and call that future “Mongolian”). They work with children to remember the abuses of the past at the hand of the Chinese and Russian Communists. They create a room in the national museum where all citizens can see the instruments of torture in the past from outside conquerors.  Georgia was filled with unchanged former Communists who now called themselves by another political name. So has Mongolia. The difference is in the degree of attitude. Georgia has a history of fighting the “outside occupying force” (as does Mongolia). The difference is that Mongolia was always free (even when they were occupied). Their strength is in their nomadic tradition and life style. I come back to the idea that “you cannot use the threat of taking away the basic objects of living if an individual and society does not respect those objects”. As more and more people move to the cities (from “the country” as the Mongolian call the outside way of life), this will change to a degree. We saw this driving on the road. Close to Ulaanbaatar the road was filled with oversize billboards which sold objects of comfort. As we passed them, my companions said, “Soon we will leave all this and only have the land and the sky.” They were right. After the last gas station and paved road, there were no large signs. It was the “old West of America”. You saw men on horseback, tending herds, or children, men and women collecting wood for the stove. The finest restaurant that we entered was in a ger that could be taken down and assembled anywhere on the plains. Tradition gives each nomadic Mongolian a right to a place to put up his ger but he does not own the land. He uses the land and then moved on. There are lessons for the 21^st century here in Mongolia. I think of Bush’s constant use of “fear of the terrorist” as a political tool to stay in power in the USA. This would not have worked with the “hippie revolution” of the 1960s. I know because I was one of them at that time.  It would not work here either. It may not work in America. People are interested in their safety; yes, but they are interested in their freedom also. America is not America without freedom. There is a spirit of freedom here in Mongolia that the world can learn something important and move spirit-free into this century. We saw it at the monastery on the mountain side with thousands of children; we see it on the streets; and we see it with the students. They learn English because they can use it to better their lives but they would learn Chinese if it was the “language of money” for the world. Laughter and a smile are the norm. Enjoyment of each moment is normal. Sartre would have loved this land where existentialism is a fact of life.

That is not saying that the outside world with its materialistic approach to life is rejected. It is not. One can see Fuji, Microsoft, Mercedes Benz, Coca Cola, etc. everywhere but that is a fact of modern life. What the Mongolians are doing is putting it all into a context (a mindset) of nomadic tradition and life style. Every office at the university has a computer. Every student has access to a computer. On almost all the street corners, there is an internet café. One can find French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Irish, American, Chinese, and any other nation’s food everywhere. It is not the exception but the rule in Ulaanbaatar, but there is a Mongolian restaurant also on every corner. Freedom means choice. At one time, Chinggis Khaan went out from this land and conquered the known world from Korea to Poland but he never owned what he conquered. He plundered the outside world for the betterment of Mongolia. That is still the way of thinking. Use it but do not own it or allow it to own you.

We went back to bed at 6:00 and rose at 7:30. For us, this was a good night’s sleep and we remarked to each other, “How will we adjust to time when we return to Texas?”

Last time that we returned from Beijing, we did not feel jet lag in the way that we did when we arrived in Ulaanbaatar. We will see.

At noon, we went to the Internet Café to read 31 messages that had piled up. It was easy getting rid of the political notices, holding off some inquiries about purchases from the collection and putting aside the McLennan Community College emails about department business. Of the 31, only 8 needed immediate answers. Then I sent off the second addition to this journal. It has become more than just the recording of what I am doing. It is now a journey through what I observe and think.

Afterwards we walked to the Pizza House and had interesting pizza for lunch, went home and rested for the afternoon (the first time since coming to Ulaanbaatar that we have had that freedom), ate at the French Restaurant and watched television until 12:30 (not feeling tired enough to go to bed early).

Day seventeen: October 11, 2004

It was the television shows that I remembered as I awoke at 4:00 a.m. (with my computer stating that it is 3:09 p.m. in Texas). We have heard all week on CCTV (Central China TV) that for the last two years there had been an interchange of cultures with France. In 2003, it was China in France with over 300 Chinese cultural events taking place in Paris and other cities. This year, it is France in China; kicking off the year with a visit from the French president (plus fifty French businessmen who got one billion dollars in contracts while they were here) and several important events. At the Beijing National Museum, they opened the Design of France exhibition of cars, jewelry and other contemporary design innovations from French artists and designers. At the National Museum of Fine Arts, an important Impressionist exhibition opened with masterpieces of that genre from Monet, Renior, Sisley, Pisarro, etc. A new French Cultural Center opened in Beijing where the Chinese could see exhibitions of French life and culture. Lastly, last night in Tiananmen Square, the French musician Jean Michel Jarre gave a spectacular three hours performance of his new music (a cross between “new age” and classical) with over 250 Chinese musicians helping his four-person, technologically-equipped group play music of the stars. On stage were nine shapes (cones, cubes and cylinders) which changed color and reflected moving images from Chinese and French life. There was a laser show that extended from an electronic piano which Jarre played in space. That concert took two hours without a commercial break (that were no commercials during the whole time of the concert). After the final applause and bows, sharing the stage with the Chinese key performers, Jarre got into the sidecar of a motorcycle, rode through cheering crowds through the Square, down the street and pulled up to another gathering and started a second concert (less in the classical tradition but a rock concert for another younger cheering crowd). It was spectacular and impressive. Anne and I in the 1960s went to Vancouver, Canada to see a concert and light show but it was small and intimate. This was on a grand scale which matched the architecture of what had been called “the Chinese Red Square” in Mao’s time in power. If this event by Jarre was staged to impress the Chinese and the world, it did all that and more. It was three hours of “wow”! I would never have seen this in the States. I would never have understood the diplomatic use of culture by watching American television in Waco, Texas. We are isolated and insulated against world news and events. We are the major player in shaping world events and yet the people of our democracy do not know the true nature of the world or comprehend the naïve mindset of our isolation.

After the CCTV broadcast, still not tired enough to go to bed, I watched BBC World until 12:30. It was a talk show on current British and Australian elections and events but still forced to discuss American politics. The editor of Newsweek in London said an interesting thing. He said, “If Bush ran for any office in Europe, he would receive almost no votes. He is that distrusted, hated and, of course, not understood.” The question that Europeans ask is: “How could America squander all the good will and genuine sympathy after 9/11?” The answer of this four-person panel was “Bush and his clever but ignorant advisors.”  At least, they remarked “Nixon and Reagan surround themselves with brilliant advisers.” America for a time after 9/11 awoke from a long insulated sleep where the rest of the world was concerned. Now, we seem to be in a fear-filled sleep again, shutting ourselves off from the world. Bush does not have the talents or patience to negotiate alliances with our traditional friends and allies (with the exception of Blair in England, who is losing power because of his connection to Bush). It is sad to see from afar. I find in Mongolia a love for America and Americans but a distrust of the Bush administration. I am accepted but my government is not. How can we have fallen this far so fast? Maybe it is better not to have a free day here for me. I see too much. I think too much. It is now after 5:00 a.m. and I will go back to bed for a time. I have a full day ahead (got up at 7:30).

Last night, while watching the two television shows, I ran across a Mongolian television show with a familiar face- mine. The interview and workshop that I did on public relations and fund raising was fully covered in pictures and commentary (which I could not follow since it was in Mongolian but understood). This week will be leadership for the faculty and curriculum development for arts management. I will walk up to the University at 9:30 to prepare for the 10:00 lecture.

We arrived at the office at 9:35, sat and discussed what might happen that morning until 11:00. When it became obvious that nothing was going to happen this morning, we left, going to the State Department Store, returned home and then went to the Red Ger to meet two artists. Our new artist friends invited us to an opening at 4:00 at the Union of Mongolian Artists gallery. At 2:00, we sat in the arts management office for over an hour and discussed ideas for a change in the curriculum. It was easier to come up with ideas than I expected. It is fifty years of teaching and directing art programs. I attacked the problem simply: what will arts managers need when they get out of school and what will they not need (which is now in the curriculum). Basically, an arts manager needs: 1) money, 2) human resource skills, 3) knowledge (in art or culture) (something so that others respect your knowledge), 4) leadership and management methods (style) and 5) technology. After dinner across the street at the Century Restaurant, I worked on taking apart the curriculum that the University now has and updating it to the 21^st century. It is a combination between academic classes and internships/apprentices out in the community for arts organizations. We will crash at 11:30 again.

Day Eighteen: October 12, 2004

I slept late for me, 6:00 a.m. and worked on a final version of the curriculum. As I told the Dean, it took me six months to get to this point in time in Georgia and even then I had to go outside the structure of the academy there to set up a plan for curriculum change in educating artists. Here they are open to anything which 1) fits into what they already want and 2) is logical and works practically. The Dean and I worked from 10:00 to 12:00 on making minor changes to the curriculum plan that I came up with in the last two days. We discussed our political roles for the 3:30 session with the faculty: I would lay out the broad philosophy and practical changes to the curriculum (basically taking it from an academic tradition to a work place agenda). I increased the computer classes, added fund raising and grant writing, created a new creation called Managing Cultural Trend, combined a couple of courses to make World History of Culture and the Arts, set up a Website Building and Internet Research course, created one called Responsibilities of Ethics and Leadership, but still kept 26 courses that were already on the books (with minor changes to all of them). It was fun. I was playing in a field that I knew well and had lived professionally. Lastly, I doubled the hours for internships. At the 3:30 meeting, we did our dog and pony show to an appreciative audience of arts management faculty. It sold and the Dean was happy. What Scott had told me at the Embassy had really helped: “What the Mongolians want is to be told what to do and then they will make it their own.” He was right. At the end of session, we had little speeches about what a good thing the changes were, then a short break, and finally vodka and chocolates were passed around to celebrate our collaboration and the return of a faculty member from an international conference in Kazistan. I had to drain one half cup and then I refused any more. It was offered to me by the right hand with the left hand holding the elbow (a sign of respect and great admiration). All the candy and vodka was passed to the left (the way that the sun moves in the sky). When it was over, there were smiles all around.

Tonight I will write up the five new courses and a content statement for the whole curriculum which will be presented next month to the Scientific Council of the University for approval. Also my vision statement will be presented then. It will be the last writing that I need to do before leaving (but I thought the same thing about this week when I was told that all I had to do was consulting).

For me who does not drink much anymore, two beers at meals and a vodka to celebrate the conclusion of a curriculum meeting is more than enough. The vodka was a part of sealing the deal on the curriculum so it was necessary; the other two were just because I love dark Mongolian beer to relax.

I will write until 11:00 and finish in the middle of the night (as has been my pattern of thinking).

Day Nineteen: October 13, 2004

Got up at 3:00 a.m. (must have still had the typing of the final material on my mind since I lost an hour of work last night since the computer has been acting strangely of late). I completed all the last minute writing of the curriculum materials. I have written at least ten major programs, grants and other materials in the last 19 days. It is time to go home and consult by email with the University here. I will try to return in 2005 but for now my work here is over. I am please: they are pleased; we are pleased. It has been a successful stay in Mongolia. I was able to do in three weeks what it took over a year in Georgia to complete. The difference was the mindset of the people that I was working with. In Georgia, I was working with rigid, closed minds that had not left the Soviet mindset of power control and no changes; here I work with open, free minds where they are anxious and excited about change and improvements. I could not have done what I did in this short time if the people I was working with were not professional in their approach and totally open to new ideas and approaches. This is a true democracy (even when the communist political party is voted into office). The remnants of the time of occupation by the Russians really did not affect the Mongolian. As they say themselves, “We live as nomads, all on the inside, and no one can take that away from us.” No one did and it shows in their approach to ideas, life and modern thinking.

I will turn in my written completion of the curriculum this morning. The other faculty members are working on their individual sections of the master plan and next month it will be presented. When I return in a year, I can see, maybe, how well it is working. It is an innovative curriculum that hinges upon the practical solutions to academics: that is, working in the community as well as taking classes and having the professionals in the field come into the University to add their expertise. The next stage of this curriculum change will be to set up cooperative programs for students and faculty outside the boundaries of Mongolia.

Went back to bed at 5:30 and slept until 7:30. It is interesting: breakfast is about the same as we have at home in Texas: banana, apple and some kind of bread or cake; and dinner has gotten to the place where it too is standard but not the same as back home: a dark Chinggis beer (when I can find it, water if I can’t), tomato soup (which has been different in every restaurant), and some kind of beef or chicken. Lunch can be anything but I have tried to find dumplings and tomato soup (dumplings are only in the Mongolian restaurants; tomato soup everywhere). Food here is as varied and interesting as in other national capitals. Mongolian pizza is mostly bread and cheese with little as toppings. There is not thin pizza. You can find, though, good food but it takes some hunting. I will try to call Scott Weinhold at the Embassy this morning to set up a meeting since I have not gotten a call from the University. This afternoon I meet with the last group that wants my input: the Museum Association of Mongolia. It is phenomenal how many groups that I have had real contact in depth while here for three weeks: Mongolian University of Culture and Arts, Institute of Culture, Institute of Fine Arts, Arts Council of Mongolia, Mongolian Artists Union, Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar, Research Institute for Arts Management, and now the museum professionals.

I met with Dean Bayaraa briefly and set up a meeting with the Rector before going to the Museum Association. We sat again across the table but first the Rector came onto my side and shook my hand with both of his (a symbol of honor). He told me that he had heard from the students and faculty that my stay was beneficial and useful. I thanked him and told him that it was all possible because of the openness of his staff and the students. We slipped into our political mode for a time. At last, he asked me to return now that we have become friends as well as partners in an effort to improve the University. Then he told Anne and me about the Mongolian custom of sharing snuff bottles when two friends meet. At last he presented me with my own special snuff bottle and Anne hers. He and the Dean showed us the ritual of exchanging and sniffing bottles.

We were taken to the Museum of the Theater (whose director was the chairman of the Museum Association). There, I talked to the directors of ten Ulaanbaatar museums. They have no idea where to start in changing the system. In two days, I have no time to work with them. Why the organizers decided that the ten national museums should wait until the end of my stay is beyond me? I have over thirty years directing museums and it could have been a help in their setting up a board, volunteers, friends of the museum, grant writing and other things that are easy for me but a mountain to climb for them.

We got home at little after 5:00 and decided to make do with what we have here. We went to bed at 11:30 again.

Day twenty: October 14, 2004

We did something that we have not done since coming to Ulaanbaatar. We slept until 6:15. I think that it had to do with my completing all my work on the curriculum yesterday. Today, I will go over the three essays that I wrote for the Dean, so that she is ready to present the final curriculum changes to the University committee who will approve it.

This morning Anne and I will go to Fuji with the last roll of film to be developed and then walk to the University. After our work session, we will take the three ladies who have been our hosts and partners out to lunch.

At 10:00, the Dean and me got together to discuss what I had written as additions to the curriculum changes. Mostly, though, we talked of strategies in how to get the changes passed by the total University faculty. At the end of morning, the other two ladies wanted to go to El Toro, instead of the Russian restaurant so that is where we went. I know what Tex-Mex is but I was interested in trying Mongol-Mex. When we got there, El Toro was defined by the Mongolian management as “a steak house” therefore the ladies ate steak. It was a good wrap up for the give of us.

In the afternoon, we took down the exhibition and packed it for shipment home. All the cardboard backing had been taken down with the works still taped to them when we got to the Red Ger Gallery. The ladies helped me take off the tape and some of the works got torn which I will repair when I get back to the States. Anne and me roll them up in two rolls and put them in the boxes to carry on the airplane.  It took an hour and then we walked home, relaxed for a half hour, walked down to Fuji to pick up film, stopped at the bank to change money and the internet café to send off our last report before leaving.

In the evening, we ate out again at the Century Restaurant across the street, relaxed, did some further packing and watched the international television, finally retiring at 11:30.

On the tube, what impresses me the most is Chinese modernization: in business, the arts, international politics, culture, communication and all aspects of life. I watched modern dance from Beijing and it was as up to date as anything that is happening in New York or Paris. There is a blending of the ancient traditions and new ideas without seeing a seam between them. It is another young country in terms of the age of most of its people. The same impression was presented yesterday when I spoke to the new museum association. Most of the museum directors are young. Also, watching Chinese television, it is interesting that they have a news station in English, Spanish, Chinese (of course), French, German, and are planning others to open in the near future. George Orwell’s Brave New World is here in Asia.

Day twenty-two: October 15, 2004

Again, we slept through the night and awoke at 5:00 a.m. (my back cannot stand the hard but bumpy bed more than six to seven hours). In the morning, we prepared for the day (I reviewed the notes that I will need for my speech to the Ulaanbaatar Rotary club), getting anxious now to be on the road home. Although it has been wonderful to do all this work (which needs done so that this society can move more quickly toward stability for its arts and education), it is time to go home and enjoy that experience again.

At 10:00, I met with two museum studies professors and discussed our collaborating after I leave. With all the people that I have made further commitments to, I will be busy in this coming year.

At 11:00, we met one last time with a small group of the faculty to go over the curriculum and the attachments made up by me and other faculty members. The process is: 1) the faculty will meet again on November 6^th to discuss the final form for the curriculum changes and 2)Dean Bayaraa will present it to the Science and Arts University Committee who will examine, criticize and then give final approval to the changes. Dean Bayaraa and I discussed strategies on how to win over the artists and scientists on that committee. I don’t know if it is a good thing for me but it is a help to her that I am savvy about the politics of art. I suggested that she frame the curriculum changes in terms of: 1) a shift to real life art and culture problems (increase in the internship credit hours), 2) a recognition that the world’s language of business is two-fold: English and computer, and 3) reminding them that we took 26 of the original course as the base for the changes (only adding six or seven new courses) (this should placate those who question any changes because of their conservatism). The meeting with the faculty became an official wrap-up for all of us. We drank some wine, told some stories about what we hoped would happen in the future and promised to meet again. The ex-Dean suggested that Anne and me come back each year until three years from now (so that we could celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary). It is an idea. Certainly, I will attempt to make it back a year from now for the 60^th anniversary of the Institute of Fine Arts (since I have been already asked to come).

At 12:45, I walked to the Kheurr Building, the seven-story, white building behind our apartment, and spoke to the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar on the subject of Creative Leadership and passed out a written list of “Rules for those who almost never follow”. It is the second time that I have visited this newly-created Rotary Club (two-years old) of twenty-five members who speak English. It went well and one businessman asked if I would meet and talk with him tomorrow for tea at 11:00. I said, “Yes, but all I have is an hour to spare.” Also I got some commitments that the members would contact Dean Bayaraa at the University to help the students with management training (since as I told them “the arts are a business”).

At 2:00, we met the young teacher from the Institute of Culture (who teaches museum studies) and went with her and her thirty students to the Palace Museum. It is an ancient monastery and museum of the Bogd Khan. We were taken around and shown the magnificent silk and woven tapestries of the Summer Palace. They asked me two things on leaving: 1) would I be a consultant on museum studies for their faculty and students and 2) could their students join Anne and me in visiting the modern museum tomorrow.

At 7:00, we had our farewell dinner, hosted by the Mongolian University of Culture and Arts (the Vice Rector, Dean Bayaraa, Tuul, Tse Tse, Anne and me), where we toasted the success of the stay with half-filled glasses of vodka (I also had a Russian beer at the Ukrainian restaurant) (it is interesting that at home, I drink maybe one glass of wine or a beer once a month but here, instead of water when eating out at a restaurant, I drink beer), the accomplishments that were jointly realized, and our collective hope of further collaborations in the future. Later, we went home, packed some more and I crash at 9:25 while Anne stays up until 11:30 (the time that she takes her last medicine for the day).  The apartment has worked out well but we have not really lived here that much in our hectic three weeks. We live at the computer before the television, eating, talking and relaxing in this one room. The walls are a soft blue, the furniture is semi-comfortable, the cabinets are interesting (not built very well or functional), but it is a room with a view of construction on two building being built behind us. Since we are on the third floor, it is always too hot so we open the windows to balance the temperature (it does not totally work but is necessary). Anne is perspiring most of the time (which is something that she never does). I have fewer problems with that. I just do not work around the apartment as much as she does (except at this computer).

Day twenty-three and twenty-four: October 16-17, 2004

Got up at 2:30, wrote some more, went back to bed at 4:00 and rested until 7:00. At 10:00, I went down to the State Department Store to buy vodka and a couple of cans of Chinggis Beer to take home as presents. At 11:00, I met the young man who is the director of a musical organization to talk a little about structure and their problems. Anne and me had lunch near the apartment and went to the modern museum at 2:00, after dropping off the last load of film to Fuji. No students were waiting for us so we walked through the silent galleries without interruption. The first floor was very traditional and not very good quality all on the whole but the second floor was worth the trip. It had traditional and contemporary works of high quality. As soon as the Soviets were pushed out, the arts blossomed and ideas about modern art grew. The ingenuity of the Mongolians to make do with less was apparent on the second floor. They know that high or low humidity will damage works of art through time so at each break in a wall there were two plastic, square containers of water so that the evaporating droplets gave the paintings the moisture that they need. I will email the director (the one that I met at the Museum Association meeting on Friday) about some ideas about how to make the galleries more interesting and bring in more people in. In the long gallery with traditional painting, they do have temperature as well as humidity control.

Later, since this is fly-home day, we pack, relax, have a light dinner, meet the Embassy driver and the two English professors from the University at 10:15 and drive to the airport to leave on Korean Airlines.

It has been a full work session since we arrived (only one free day in the 24). It looks like (if we believe what we have heard from our newly-made friends at the university, the arts council, museum association and artists) we will come back for short visits to do more work but longer sessions are not really needed (except if I am given more contacts with outside arts organizations or teaching time at the Institute of Fine Arts, or an expanded role with galleries, museums, artists and the Art Council). It is interesting that the whole curriculum changes that I proposed (and the faculty enthusiastically accepted as what is needed) are something on paper in my briefcase at this point and not a mindset that is accepted fully. For an arts manager to learn his or her craft, they must go out into the community and work with the professionals who shape culture and the arts. If it is worked out that I come back for two or three weeks in November of 2005, we will see if the changes become reality or just a plan on paper that will happen but later. From the emails that are promised, I know that I will be informed long before that date.

We flew out at 12:20 a.m. and slept a little on the flight to Seoul (the first stop before flying to Tokyo, then San Francisco and finally Houston). After an eighteen-hour flight (and ten hours in layovers), we arrived in Texas on the same day that we left (arrival at 4:40 p.m., tired but happy to be home again). In Waco, I will reflect on the adventure, the work in Mongolia and write up a final report and impressions with some conclusions.