Skip to main content

How many kids in one car?





In 1990's one of my memorable Lunar New Year holiday occured and I never forget the day. Traditioanlly we visited our oldest parent or grandparent than start visiting other relatives families. It usually takes at least 3 days and we still have more families to visit. Our aunts and uncles expect us to visit and when we arrive they steam dumplings and prepare big table. When the guest leave the host family gives gift to every one. Children and adults all get something.

One problem was many families did not have cars. During the day we use public bus and walk on the street. Sometimes all my cousins and their parents walk together for 1-2 miles or 2-3 kilometers to next families. Big groups of people walking on the street. Kids are happy because they get lots of candies and cash as gift from every family they visit.

One time one my uncle bought an old Russian car and he was only car owner among our relatives. After the last visit to one of our relatives it was late night and there were no bus. So, we crammed in a little car. It was smaller than Toyota Corolla. As I remember we were 13 of us and even one person set by the driver and the door couldn't be closed. We safely drove and arrived at our home and the Russian car was tough enough to carry us.

This video is from the far west of Mongolia, the Russian Jeep picks up children form local nomadic families to take them to the vilage kinder garden. Guess how many kids can fit in this car?

When the economy is getting better there are more people owning car. Right after Soviet regime collapsed we were becoming able to own a car and the first people started owning car was big deal and it was luxury life style. Ulaanbaatar street did not have many cars and accedents were rare. Last 30 years the people started buying cars and it became ordinary for people to have a car. Now almost every family has a vehicle and new problem arised. The traffic is horrible in the capital city and every person drives car and no place to park. In the video from many years ago we picked up many children in 1 car and delivered them to the kindergarden. Now in the cities every child taken by a car and the kinder garden area is fully jammed with cars. Lots of people suggest idea of having public transportation and stop using too many cars. Is that possible?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gratitude and Entrepreneurship

In the bible Jesus healed 10 men with lepers. The unhealable ill of that time till death. But he cured them all. They all went happily but only one returned to Jesus and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thank. Jesus said where are other nine and he was disappointed. Why is gratitude important? Let’s think about it. Well could we reflect upon our lives as individuals. We will soon discover much to prompt our personal gratitude. Can we think about how grateful we are for our mother, father, teachers, and friends? All it starts from what they have done to your life. Thing of every detail and big and small things. Observe your feeling to come. How does it relate to entrepreneurship? The pursuit of opportunities is the essence of entrepreneurship. We define an opportunity as a future state that is both desirable and achievable. We also make a distinction among ideas, possibilities, and opportunities. The process of identifying and exploiting entrepreneurial opportun...

What did I learn?

I was taking the entrepreneur course from the BYUI online and realized the entrepreneur class is more about thinking and reflecting on what is other entrepreneurs did. I realized we learn from other and some people think this is cat copy. But there are some differences. The world is not made out of nothing, Science approved the matters make things and not possible build something from emptiness. So, we learn from resources and build things on the principles. If I had a lecture like Randy Pausch did as his last lecture, I would share more optimistic things and regrets that never started earlier things. I will encourage students to try something new and start as early as possible. Learning as not merely reading or setting behind a desk in classroom. It is more about exploring, traveling, meeting new people and trying it out. Entrepreneurship is not running a business rather creating something new and keep working on until to build something and make it run. It should benefit not onl...

Modern Mongolia

Some may think Mongolia is endless steppe and Gobi Desert and men on horse galloping. That is true only in some parts of Mongolia. One third of the population is nomadic and almost half of the population is living in the capital city Ulaanbaatar. The city is a mix of ancient Buddhist temple, soviete period block buildings and modern architecture. This is central hub of all the country for trade and supply. The railway comes from Russia to all the way to China. Highways connected all the 21 provinces nowodays. Ulaanbaatar has the only international airport and becomes the central spot for tourists around the world. The heavy traffic and sky scrapers in down town surrounded by ger district and mountains is the main image of the city. Shangri-La, Best Western Permium and other chain hotels provide comfortable hotel stay while some ger camps offer unique stay outside of town. If the visitor reluctant to eat local food can choose western meal restaurants Bluefin, California, Nazk...