Mongolia has an abundance of space. I always knew this part. I never really thought about the ramifications of that level of abundance until I met a young man driving a local Uber. Qualifier here: almost all men are young at my age. He had traveled from Mongolia to work, and live, in Chicagoland.
I’ve always been rather nosy as I am fascinated by my fellow humans. So many stories: adventures, tragedies, comedies, and love stories surround us at any moment that it’s difficult not to tune in. We passed the time, it was a bit of a ride, talking about what had brought each of us to the Chicago area and where we had previously lived. He listened with attentive patience as I talked about my favorite past lives and work. But then he told me something that I would never had guessed. His family had paid to send him the United States, and was paying him to live and work near Chicago because there was a good-sized community of resident Mongolians in the area and he was there to find a wife.
He told me that finding a spouse in most of Mongolia is quite an ordeal as the people are quite spread out and stay in family groups. They’re very careful about not marrying too closely within family. So other than a few opportunities to meet with other groups, many traveled outside of the areas where their family lived when looking to start a family of their own. He had been in Chicagoland for over three years, I believe, when I met him and was still looking. It was more cost effective, in his parents’ eyes, to have him in Chicago. He was driving Uber because he felt that he owed his parents much more than they were giving him. He was saving his earnings as a gift to his parents when he returned home.
I hope he found the one. The generosity of sharing his story with me is something I will treasure. Oh the tales journeys lived!
The Generosity Project 
Leave a comment