As an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD), Sally Mayberry drew on her experience on her family’s mixed farm near Mudgee to break the ice.

Pictures of her father’s cows were a talking point for rural people whose lives revolve heavily around livestock.

Although Sally was based in Ulan Bator, her work through the AYAD program with the World Bank’s Sustainable Livelihood project took her across the “vast and amazing” landscape from the steppes to the Gobi Desert.

Because of her farming background, Sally was placed in an agricultural-based position, working to help rural Mongolian people to continue their centuries-old lifestyle in the face of changes including increasing urbanization, the encroachment of mining and challenges to their traditional clan-based system of land ownership.

Although families may have occupied their land for hundreds of years, they hold no formal title, which leads to dispute when others move in.

Sally found an open, independent people, with a culture based around horses, goats, sheep and camels.

Family groups move around their land, or “ger”, with the seasons in a form of rotational grazing.

Temperatures in Mongolia range from -40 in winter to 40 degrees in summer.

“There are very distinct cultural differences, from what they eat to how they live,” Sally said.

To be immersed in another culture was something that I have wanted to do.

“Nothing is wasted. In winter, they eat the older animals, keeping the meat outside.

“In summer, they will only eat dairy products. It is not a country for the lactose intolerant.”

With milk in plentiful supply, the summer diet includes yoghurt, cheese, and dried curd. A slightly alcoholic fermented horse milk called airag is drunk by everyone from babies to old people.

“Sometimes they have so much milk that they bathe in it to relieve eczema,” Sally said.