“No, the government is not here in the desert. It is in the other part of the country. It is behind
the Altai Mountains.”
“Then why are you and all other villagers here? Why do you leave your country?”
“We didn’t choose to leave. We didn’t want to. We were force to come and settle here.”
Hervoice was shaking.
“What happened?
“The government doesn’t want to care about us and put money on us. Therefore, they kicked
us out of the country and settled us here.” She finally bursted into tears.
“What an irresponsible government!”
I finished my cup of tea, asked them to take care of themselves and waved goodbye. I returned
to the tent and the tour guide was still in his dreams. I lied down and slept.
The next morning, I awoke to a loud noise. I climbed out of the tent and was surprised to see a
group of men, each wearing a yellow helmet, going one by one into a hole. I approached them and
asked them what they were going. “ Mining” was their answer. Mining? Why do they mine here?
“Don’t you know that there are gold underground here in Gobi Desert?” asked the tour guide
who suddenly appeared.
“It is the first time that I heard of it,” I said.
It was the time that the floor began to shake.
“What... what’s happening?” I asked.
“I have no idea. An earthquake?” said the tour guide who was frightened too.
“The... the miners down in the hole are screaming for help!” I shouted.
But the tour guide did not take any action. He was not as scared as me. He did not run to the
hole and ask “is everyone okay?’. He just stood there.
“Help! Help!” Shaking voices could still be heard.
The tour guide still did not move a finger.
I could not wait anymore. I ran to the hole and asked if they were alright. At the same time
the shaking came to an end.
I searched for my phone in my bag and called the government of the country and asked them
to send people to save the workers. But the result was frustrating. The government refused to
listen to my call as soon as they knew that I was asking them to save the citizens. I pressed the
call button countless of times but for every single time, no one listened to my call.
“You should have expected the results.”
I turned around and knew that it was the tour guide who said the words.
“What... what do you mean?”
“You should have noticed that there are some strange things happening in this desert.”
“Yes, I do. First is the green area. There should not be any green plants in such a hot desert
except catus. But there are tropical plants like palm trees and banana trees here. Isn’t it strange?
Also, the frog that I saw should not be live. It belongs to the tropical area. In my opinion, the trees
are not grown here. They were only cut in tropical area and were replanted here. The frog was
also brought here and it can’t adapt to the climate here and therefore died.”
The tour guide smiled. “ Quite smart. Anymore?”
“Yes. The villages over there also caught my attention. The families there were very poor and
were given up government. When I was on the helicopter, I noticed that the country was divided into
two parts and there were some villages in the desert. But then you told me there was no one lving
