The universal appeal of LEGO
Posted by MeganL,
On this day of American Thanksgiving, I am grateful for LEGO and Brickset. That got me to thinking about my experiences earlier this year when I had the opportunity to give some children their very first LEGO sets.
One of the benefits of having someone in the family who works internationally is that you get to visit them! Earlier this year my husband and I visited our daughter Christina in Mongolia.
Mongolia is about a remote a place as I would ever expect to visit; so imagine my surprise upon finding a store that sold LEGO within the first 24 hours of landing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital.
The store was closed when we first found it; when we returned later (of course we returned later) I found a decent selection of Friends and City sets but not much else. The prices were around double what I see in the U.S.
As Christina is a teacher, she could only spend time with us on the weekends, so during the week we were left to our own devices. And so we decided during one of the weeks to spend some time trekking across the Gobi Desert. Thanks to Christina, we were able to arrange for a car, plus a local driver and guide (a necessity in getting around Mongolia; as this is not a travel blog, I will leave that story aside). Prior to leaving for Mongolia, we were sent some guidelines on what to do/say/bring. If you want to visit with some nomadic families, we were told, please bring some small toys for the children. The emphasis was on toys, please, and not sweets - perhaps a small car or some colouring books.
Small toys…..hmmm, what could I think of that would fit with that description? Of course, a visit to the LEGO store was in order. 31027 Blue Racer, 31029 Sea Plane, 31040 Desert Racer and 31041 Construction Vehicle were perfect for what I was looking for. I bought as many of them as I could stuff into my backpack and filled in the extra spaces with as many spare polybags as I could find.
As a side note, I have mentioned that my husband is not an AFOL. To give you an idea of how not an AFOL he is, when I mentioned that I was bringing LEGO to Mongolia to give to the nomadic children, his response was: "Why? They won't be able to understand the directions, since they will be in English."
Upon meeting our guide, Bold, in Dalandzadgad, he mentioned that he had arranged some time for us to go to a local market to get some toys for the children we would meet. Bold was quite surprised when we told him we had come prepared, and later asked to see what we had brought. He was unfamiliar with LEGO, but was quite delighted when he saw what they were.
So with our guide and driver we set off through the vast Mongolian steppe. Of course as always, Brickset was there.
For the next several days, we trekked across the steppe and the desert. We stayed in Mongolian gers at night - campsites set up by local families to accommodate tourists.
Our first evening, we found out how delighted Bold was with the LEGO sets. He shyly came to us to ask if we would mind giving our driver, Togtoh, one of the sets. Togtoh had a little boy about six years old. We were more than happy to do so - we actually gave him the choice of the sets we had, and not surprisingly 31040 Desert Racer was the choice for his son.
We had the good fortune of visiting several nomadic families in their gers over the course of our several days, distributing LEGO sets as we went. (We also brought some small presents - not LEGO - for the parents, too). It was extremely rewarding to see faces go from puzzlement to what the sets were, to realization of what they were, and then to building. In each case we gave permission for them to open the sets while we were still there; good manners for them dictated that they should wait until we left. It was probably as much fun for me watching them build as they had building.
In exchange for the sets, we had some wonderful experiences - not only meeting the locals and conversing with them through our guide, but also providing impromptu translation services, petting baby camels, and drinking suutei tsai (camel milk tea).
On our last day in the desert, my husband commented that I had not taken any pictures of the children with their LEGO. I had thought about it but had decided not to as it seemed a little too intrusive being in someone's home and taking pictures. That day we stopped at a tourist ger for lunch (a ger specifically catering to tourists), and so with Bold's encouragement I offered a polybag to the boy who was serving us. He was immediately smitten and proceeded to building right away at a nearby table.
The boy soon had company, as his older sister came over to help with the build. She got her own set, too.
The following week found us in northern Mongolia, close to the Russian border. Brickset made it there, too.
One day we were fortunate enough to come across the reindeer herders. They had just come down from the mountains for the warmer season; that season's baby reindeer had been born just a week or so prior.
They also welcomed us into their home. This time I remembered to take pictures (after getting permission).
We learned they had two boys, so two of my last LEGO sets came out of the backpack. A few minutes later, one of the boys ran in, grabbed the sets and ran outside immediately. I heard a sharp rebuke outside and the boy came back inside, looked at me, said "Thank you" haltingly, and then ran outside again.
A short time later, I came outside to find both boys deeply engrossed in building. I love these pictures as it illustrates the versatility of LEGO: one of the boys is following the directions intently, while the other is building what he can with the pieces at hand.
Nearby their mother was watching. She gave me a broad smile and a thumbs up. We did not know each other's language, but in that moment we did not need to.
The herders set up small stalls to sell handmade mementos to tourists; I spent the next while admiring their crafts and picking up a couple more conventional toys for myself.
While talking with the women (through the help of our guide) all of a sudden we were interrupted by one of the boys, anxious to show his mother what he had just built.
Broad smiles were exchanged all around and the boy dashed off to build the other creations. As we were leaving, I left them with another polybag that looked like it would be a big hit.
We had many wonderful experiences in Mongolia, but my LEGO memories are special.
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48 comments on this article
A wonderful story, and apropos for today. Thanks for sharing with us!
Great article.
I love Lego and always have but with this hobby particularly as an adult buying/collecting/scalping is a huge part of it sometimes instead of the building itself.
Its good to get a reminder every now and then of just how pure and innocent Lego can, be and the joy that can bring.
Thank you for sharing - I can feel the warmth up to here, and I can imagine the big smiles these kids still have after you left. Makes me look very differently at my stash of big not-yet-built sets, too...
Not often I comment on news articles but that story was absolutely fantastic.
inspiring stories there. thumbs up!
I would love to visit Mongolia. Great article.
I do enjoy most of the posts on Brickset, but this would be close to my favourite article ever! Wonderful story!
Awesome Story! Just when I think all Brickset articles fall into the same categories... Really great to read something so unique!
Great article but I have to ask: does your husband has never seen a Lego set instruction?
It was great seeing the wonder of many people seeing what a Lego set is for the first time, makes you realize how fortunate some of us are due to our financial capacity.
Happy holidays.
Excellent article, thanks for sharing the journey with us.
Thanks for sharing your story ?? Great moment reading it.
Awesome article! Must've been quite a trip. :)
Wonderfully written article. I love travel stories and this one also tugged on the heartstrings especially with it being thanksgiving and all. Well done on spreading the Lego love and hope your enjoyed the Camel Milk Tea.
That is beautiful.
What a great article =)
great story, making children happy is a wonderful thing :)
@ dbrown101272
Exactly that!! Traveling and LEGO are my two loves (not counting ofc my family and pets. My family in a broaden sense that is)
What a heartwarming article, thank you MeganL.
very nice article.
That's so awesome. Great pictures, too!
Great story! Thank you!
Very nice article :)
Very good story teller and creative pics! Thanks for sharing. Makes me even more grateful for my Lego!
Lovely story from a mystical place. Thank you.
I enjoyed hearing about your trip! I have neighbours who visit there as part of their nonprofit work, so I tend to prick up my ears when anyone mentions Mongolia these days. Looks like those kids are having a great time with their Lego, too!
Awesome!
Every since I saw the pictures on Flickr that I was curious to read the story behind them.
And it is a great story!
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Awesome story.
Sounds like a wonderful experience. Thank you for sharing the love of Lego with those children. A great building toy, a great thinking toy, and a great sharing toy ;)
Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us here.
Thank you for reminding us what this holiday (and Lego itself) is all about! What a great idea you had and how wonderful that we can share the experience through your pictures and narration!
God bless all of you! Especially your daughter!
Thanks for sharing the story.
Was fun to read the reaction of the kids and other around Lego.
Even in the remote place as Mongolia.
I'm thankful that at 49, I'm not so weighed down by the heaviness of life to not be warmed and spiritually uplifted by such a charming and heartwarming story. Bless you for your generosity and willingness to write about it. I read it aloud to my son and Mother and they were thrilled.
What a wonderful story--thank you for sharing. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
A wonderful report, and a wonderful thing to do! Had tears in my eyes when I saw the pictures of these happy kids! :,)
Lovely, thank you for sharing this story! Wonderful.
Megan, you have a BIG set of red LEGO bricks in your chest! Thanks for sharing :)
Wonderfull story ;-;
Wonderful, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your nice experience and story :)
Is it dusty in here or something? My eyes are watering. Really wonderful article.
This is very touching and well written, thanks for sharing.
Fantastic story. Thanks for telling it.
Lovely story. looks like a fantastic trip!
Its great to add LEGO to your own collection but even better when you are able to give LEGO as a gift to someone else, especially someone who may not have very many (if any) toys to play with.
Thanks for sharing your story, really enjoyed this and brought a large smile to my face for a Monday morning.
It's amazing to see that what might seem small and insignificant to us can mean the world to someone else. Great article and thanks for sharing!
Your story was inspiring. These children remind me of the beautiful American Indian children my wife and I have the privilege of serving here in Alaska. They also seem to share the same gentle nature and hospitality.