Mongolia

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Hello Kelly,

Welcome to Expat.com!

I have moved your post on the Mongolia forum.

Thank you for this introduction. Please do not hesitate to ask specific questions here

I wish you good luck in your project.
Christine

Thank you.   I am new and not sure where I had posted.

Hi Christine,

Thank you for moving my post to the correct place! I'm still trying to figure this site out.

Hi Kelly,

I've been living in Mongolia for 3 years now an happy to talk about it.

Cheers,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for replying to my post about Mongolia! Are you currently living in Ulaanbatuur? Are you there for work? How cold are the winters? My partner and I will be in Mongolia in October for about 2-3 weeks, partly for a medical mission and partly for our own research of the land, people, and the logistics of how to get our winter boot project into Mongolia. Do you work with the local people a lot? We would like to employ the local people to help us with our project of modifying ski boot liners and fitting them into rubber overshoes and then distributing them to the poor of Mongolia for the winter. We could do all this outside of Mongolia and just ship them there for distribution but we'd like to have them do it so they could earn a living. We are a non-profit charity organization so we can only pay them their daily wage. Do you think this is feasible, since you've been there for three years and maybe know about the culture and how they do things there?

Thank you,

Kelly Trang

Hi Kelly,

I'm in UB occasionally, but spend most of my time in the Khanbogd Soum - South Gobi.
Winters in the North are bitter cold, -45C is commonly reached in UB, and even colder further North.  In the South, winters are milder - I'm not sure it even hit -30C this winter in Khanbogd.

October will be cold but not bad - above freezing in the day and below at night (probably).

I do work mostly with local people and am in Mongolia for work.

I think employing Mongolians for your project would be great, however you should spend some time learning about Mongolian labor laws if you're going to try it this way.  Employment in Mongolia is generally expected to be permanent.  You may want to look at contracting the work within Mongolia rather than employing people directly if permanent employment is not practical.

Many of Mongolia's poor wear felt boots in the winter.  They are may not be ideal, however they provide good traction and keep feet pretty dry in the extreme cold.  They're not particularly effective in the Spring when snow and ice melt.  I'd be concerned about the poor traction rubber overshoes might provide on the icy sidewalks and streets in the winter and about feet staying wet inside the boots.  You can see basic Mongolian felt winter boots at taobao.pe/product/6989089227/ (although the prices shown there are silly).  In the county, most people wear heavy leather boots with felt liners.

Cheers,

Kevin