June 28th, 2010

More Than 60 Volunteers, Led By Respective Ambassadors, Lay Bricks, Put Up Insulation Materials For Walls And Ceilings

ULAANBAATAR, 28th June 2010: The diplomatic corps were out in force during the first day of Habitat for Humanity Mongolia’s Blue Sky Build. They joined about 100 international volunteers and dozens of local volunteers who arrived bright and early on the build site in Bayanzurkh district. Thirty houses are to be constructed during the Blue Sky Build, with one house completed during an earlier test build. The week-long blitz build also marks the 10th anniversary of Habitat’s presence in Mongolia.

Both the British and the U.S. embassies in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar sent a total of more than 60 volunteers. The 17-member team from the British embassy was led by ambassador Bill Dickson to Mongolia.

According to ambassador Dickson, he was invited to the Blue Sky Build by HFH Mongolia’s national director Charles Jolliffe. “I was going to a conference in London tomorrow so I decided to volunteer today,” said ambassador Dickson. All 17 staff members of the British embassy followed his lead. So it was on a cool Monday morning that the British embassy’s volunteers, who comprised several local staff, enthusiastically cut fiberglass sheets to size and placed the material covered with aluminium foil to act as an insulation layer for the external walls of a house. Some of the volunteers also tried their hand in laying bricks. The British ambassador contributed labor by moving bricks, among other tasks.

Meanwhile, U.S. ambassador to Mongolia, Jonathan Addleton, also worked on the site with his wife Fiona together with more than 40 volunteers comprising U.S. embassy staff and members of the U.S. embassy alumni in Ulaanbaatar. The alumni are Mongolians who studied in the U.S.A. on U.S. government scholarships.

The Addletons’ two teenage sons Iain and Cameron were also volunteering on another house with their cousin John White. Cameron and John were taking part in the Blue Sky Build as part of the community service hours required by their high school and Iain decided to join them.

Ambassador Jonathan Addleton, who is from the U.S. state of Georgia, had a brief encounter with building homes. He said he had volunteered as a student in the early 1970s to build homes for flood-affected people in Pakistan. His wife Fiona though has never built a home in her life. Still, the Addletons worked meticulously to put up insulation layer between the wood frames of the interior walls. They could not volunteer for the rest of the week because of their commitments though their sons and nephew would have a longer stint. However, Fiona Addleton said she would like to return on Friday, the last day of the build, to witness the handover of the houses.

Not only did the U.S. embassy send staff and alumni to contribute their labor, they also raised funds for the build earlier. More than one million tugriks (US$730) was raised through activities such as garage sale and donations for various building materials such as bricks, door and windows to build virtual houses.

A surprise visitor also made her appearance at the build site. Gladys, a three-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever, is also reportedly the first guide dog for the visually impaired in Mongolia. Born and trained in California, the U.S.A., Gladys assists Uyanga Erdenebold, a Mongolian-born Fulbright scholar who studied library and information science at the Louisiana State University. Erdenebold works in the U.S. embassy, coordinating outreach activities for U.S. alumni in Mongolia. According to Erdenebold, the first day of the Blue Sky Build also happened to be the U.S. embassy’s public diplomacy day, a fitting occasion for alumni to engage in an activity which helps Americans and Mongolians to understand one another better. “We are cultural ambassadors between the two countries,” she added. Her relationship with her American guide dog provides an apt illustration. While Gladys can only understand instructions in English, she has recently learned a Mongolian word. “Gladys responds when I say ‘food’ in Mongolian,” Erdenebold smiled.