Freedom. That was the one word which described why Tunga's father thought democracy was a good thing for Mongolia, even though it required a very painful transition process including hundreds of thousands of people living in unemployment for decades. It's easy for me to forget that freedom is something that not everyone in the world enjoys, not something that every citizen is born having.
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| "A New Place" in Mongolian Script |
Throughout the community fund experience, it has become apparent again and again that Mongolia's future is in the hands of its everyday citizens. As Americans, we are here as friends and advisors, but we are not the visionaries, the deciders or the ones who will choose what Mongolia will do with that future.
One of the best things I have done, as a friend and as a Volunteer in my community, is listen. I listen to my friends and colleagues about their past, their future, their hopes and their dreams. After hours and hours of listening, one of the questions I was recently asked and really took me off my feet was, "What do you think we should do?" They - their family, their community, their country. I told them I thought we should try our best, together, each of us, to make this country what they dream it can and should be. It starts today, goes until tomorrow and never ends. Every day we have a choice to live in the world we have and create the world that we want. The world as it is and the world as it should be. Together we can get there and we are getting closer every day.
