MANY OF YOU WILL NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT THE MANY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL SITES OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS.

I PLAN TO SHARE WITH YOU PHOTOS I HAVE TAKEN OF THEM AS WELL AS PHOTOS I HAVE TAKEN OF SPECIAL MEETING LOCATIONS THAT I HAVE VISITED.





Friday 28 July 2017

JUL 28, 17 .. BACK IN MONGOLIA ..

I was on-my-way to return here to Mongolia last November 25th, 2016. On that Friday, I fell in the Dubai International Airport and broke my hip. 

I returned to the United States for hip replacement surgery. After a little over 6-months of recovery from the surgery, I flew to Hong Kong on July 6th and North to Mongolia on July 20th. 

It is wonderful to be back here in the Mongolian Capital City of Ulaanbaatar where I first visited on July 15th, 2015. 

I decided that a selection of photos, showing just a few of the meeting rooms and locations at which I have attended meetings here in Mongolia, as well as other miscellaneous photos associated therewith, would be a worthwhile memory refresher for you and well worth publishing. 


Here we go.


Sukhbaatar, Mongolia, is a small city in the far North on the border with Russia.




















ULAANBAATAR is the Capital City of Mongolia.












THIS, is going to any length to make a meeting!







I spoke at an all day seminar in Choir, Mongolia. 


The drive from Ulaanbaatar down and back was a little over 3-hours each way.






To paraphrase the Statler Brothers song, "Counting flowers on the wall" .. 

Don't tell me .. There's nothing to see! .. Out here on the open road in Mongolia.




Of course! There are rest stops.




One does not want, nor does one need, 'car trouble' out on the open road in Mongolia.



Our host was ..

 Humility : Realizing how far, and the effort it took, for my audience to come and hear me. Some drove down from Ulaanbaatar. 

Some rode small, motor bikes, from 100-kilometers away.








I'd say the average age of the participants, most of them 'working class adults', was about 55-years.


As I began my talk, as I looked out at them all, I thought to myself, "If I was age 29-years they would dismiss me and wouldn't hear one thing that I would say."

The lady that organized the one-day-seminar heard me talk in Ulaanbaatar so she pretty much knew that I could handle myself and her constituents.

One needs their very best 'A' game with an audience such as this.

It was about a 5-hour session (11am-1pm, 2pm-5pm) with a lunch break.


Questions were many and varied, open, honest and piercingly to-the-point. They wanted answers they could understand and put-to-use.


"In the Mongolian language, the word alcoholic is a very bad, negative and demeaning word. I don't want to use such a word to describe myself. What should I do?"

"Don't even use the word alcoholic! Just say that you want to stop drinking, AA is helping you and leave it at that."

I loved the warmth of the late afternoon sun returning to Ulaanbaatar.






Ulaanbaatar! You sure look good to me!



Sign me off as one of the very luckiest human beings on this planet.

1 comment:

  1. Having been with you in Mongolia last year, this post brings back wonderful memories of the remarkable people there. I am happy for you that you are able to be back there once again to carry the message of recovery. My regards to Mongolia! Patti

    ReplyDelete