Myagmargarig is 10 years old and lives with his sisters, parents, cousins and grandfather in a sparsely decorated house in Selenge province, Mongolia.
It’s another chilly morning as Myagmargarig’s grandfather Orgodol puts more wood into the stove to heat up the house. At 8:35, Myagmargarig gets up from the mattress on the floor that he shares with his cousin Temuujin. He wraps up the bed sheets, neatly puts them in the wardrobe and dresses quickly.
There is no bathroom or sink in the house. Instead, a big bucket sits by the front door to keep water for hand washing. Myagmargarig pours water on his hands to clean his face.
Myagmargarig’s mother Ariunjargal usually prepares his breakfast. But today she has had to take his little sisters to the doctor in a hurry as they had a high fever the night before. So Myagmargarig cuts a few slices of bread and butter and boils herbal tea.
He grabs his backpack and checks it contains his favourite pen, the one he plans to use to write to his sponsors in Australia.
He’s still working on his handwriting, so his grandfather Orgodol has been writing the letters for him, but now that his handwriting is improving, he wants to write the next letter himself.
World Vision Mongolia has built a dormitory near Myagmargarig’s school in cooperation with the local municipality. “It’s a great investment,” said Gantsetseg Dolgorsuren, the school principal. The dormitory is open to students from rural areas, who cannot attend school regularly due to the distance from their homes.
Myagmargarig is in 4th grade and there are 24 children in his class. He studies Mongolian, mathematics, physical education and science. Today in one of his classes he’s playing chess. He has three wins and two defeats.
After class, it’s time for lunch. A new law has been introduced recently, and now all school children receive lunch at school, paid for by the state. Myagmargarig has a bun and tea.
At 5pm Myagmargarig’s mother prepares dinner with the help of his grandfather. She and her husband grow and sell vegetables for income. When they first moved in together their vegetable crop failed. “We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have the technical skills for planting,” she says. That’s when they turned to World Vision Mongolia’s Selenge Area Development Program, which organised training programs on how to grow vegetables. “This is how we learned to plant all the vegetables we have now,” she says.
At 5.30pm Myagmargarig finishes school and joins his cousins and grandfather to collect wood to burn in the stove. After a quick hand wash and a snack, he begins his homework. His sisters’ fever has improved, and they disturb his studies with constant questioning. Yet Myagmargarig still completes his assignment before dinner.