Hillary missed Chelsea but impressed by Mongolian visit

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

This year, for the first time ever, I missed my daughter's first week back at school. While Chelsea was settling into 11th grade, I was at the international women's conference in China and then in Mongolia, visiting a nomadic family that makes its livelihood herding cattle in one of the coldest climates in the world.

As with most teenagers, my daughter was much less concerned by my absence than I was. I couldn't stop thinking about every "first day" since kindergarten, and how her dad and I would make her pose for the ritual picture before driving her to school.

No matter how hard I tried, I could never keep from crying after we dropped her off. There is something about the way the school year, more than any other part of the calendar, marks the passage of time in a child's life -- and a parent's.

When I called home during this trip to find out how school was going, Chelsea told me about her new teachers and how much homework she already had.

But what she really wanted to talk about was my trip. We had traveled to South Asia together earlier this year, and she was disappointed she couldn't join me this time, particularly for my stay in Mongolia.

I told her about the family of herders who hosted me in their "ger" -- a tent-like dwelling of wool blankets attached to wooden poles that can be assembled or disassembled in one hour when the family makes its seasonal moves. Inside were several beds, cupboards, a vat of fermented mare's milk (yes, I tasted it) and a dung-burning stove.

The family has six children, who greeted me wearing the colorful vests and hats that are traditional in Mongolia. Every fall and winter, the parents and two youngest children migrate to southern pastures with the family's herds. The older children live with their grandparents in a nearby town so they can attend school. They return to the "ger" during February and March to help their parents at the height of the animal birthing season and then go back to school for April and May.

Although I only spent two hours at the "ger", and I don't speak a word of Mongolian, I couldn't mistake the love and commitment of the family members I met. The children's faces radiated with beauty. It was a beauty I saw many more times during my stay, which made it heartbreaking to think of the difficult circumstances endured by so many Mongolian children.

For nearly a century, their country was a Soviet satellite. Then, in 1990, Mongolia freed itself from the tyranny of communism and became democratic without bloodshed or violence. Today, it has more than one political party, an independent court system and laws that respect human rights and private property. Mongolia's doors are open to free enterprise and foreign investment.

Unfortunately, the road to democracy has not been completely smooth. The country has struggled with severe economic challenges, and many public schools have begun charging fees. Many families cannot afford to enroll their children, more children are dropping out of school and illiteracy is on the rise.

To make matters worse, President Ochirbat told me the schools still use Soviet textbooks -- simply because they cannot afford new ones. For all the suffering the Mongolians have been through to achieve democracy, their children cannot read in school about their own unique history or leaders like Genghis Khan, whose name was banned during the communist regime.

At the Center for Street Children in Ulan Bator, the nation's capital, I met youngsters who had been living in heating ducts and old railroad cars because their families could not afford to support or care for them. I talked to the center's doctor, who works to cure contagious skin diseases easily treated in the United States -- but not in Mongolia, where medical resources remain scarce.

But I also saw the promise of Mongolia when I visited elected officials committed to democracy, students at the National University and women doctors, teachers and lawyers all struggling to move their country forward.

Over decades, our nation spent trillions of dollars to fight Soviet communism. We won that Cold War. Now we have another challenge: to strengthen emerging democracies around the world, especially nations like Mongolia that are trying so hard to emulate American ideals.

Too often we forget the struggles other people go through for the privileges we take for granted. As our children head back to school this fall, I hope they will take advantage of the opportunities they have to pursue an education. I know I will spend a lot of time thinking about children I met in Mongolia and what education means for them and their nation.

-- Creators Syndicate