Ups and Downs

I’m writing this entry after a fantastic day in the countryside (more of that later). As a result I'm on a bit of a high, so I'll probably be writing in a positive style throughout. However, if I'm being honest this week has been pretty tough. My Grandmother, Elizabeth Slinn, died on Monday. It's been hard to be away from the family at this time, but the other volunteers have been of great support to me. The availability of long distance communication these days has also made things that little bit easier. I’ve also been kept quite busy, which always helps. The language classes at Bridge College continue, and we've also had plenty of talks from a variety of guest speakers.

Talk from the Gender Equality Alliance – On Tuesday we were privileged to be present at a talk given by the director of the Mongolian Gender Equality Alliance. The presenter gave us an overview of what life is like for men and women in Mongolia today. It was interesting to hear that in many ways women fare better in Mongolia than men. The rate of male unemployment is considerably higher than that of females. There are several factors that explain this, notably that men are encouraged to finish their education earlier and are also more likely to be involved in dangerous labour, leaving many with long-term injuries. However, whilst women fare better in more basic employment, men dominate the top jobs, both in business and political spheres. For example, only 6 of the 67 MPs in Mongolia are women. This is a marked decrease from communist times, when quotas were in place to ensure that women held between 35-40% of the seats available.

Trip to the countryside with local ethnologist – one of the best experiences in Mongolia so far! All of us volunteers spent a day with one of Mongolia's best-known ethnologists. We were driven to the countryside outside Ulaanbaatar and were dropped off completely unannounced at a gir in the middle of a mountain range. I think this was an exercise created by the ethnologist, designed to show Mongolian culture up close - he had spent the 40 minute journey explaining to us how all Mongolians are very hospitable and see all land as common. True to form the household invited all 12 of us into their gir and gave us all a cup of Mongolian "milk tea" (a type of salty, fatty tea - see picture below). The family was so welcoming, it was truly heartwarming to see their hospitality.

After having a very nice lunch (fear not, we provided the food!), we had a question and answer session with the ethnologist, with topics ranging from the survival of nomadic culture to the local shamanistic religions that many Mongolians follow. I was particularly interested to hear how the nomads survived during the communist era - I would have expected the local communist authorities to have forced the farming population to collectivise and become more productive. However, the ethnologist explained that this could not happen in Mongolia, mainly because of public sympathy for the nomadic lifestyle and the fact that it would have simply been too difficult for the authorities to track down all the nomads! The subject of shamanistic religions is something I will write about in a future post - we have a talk on Mongolia's religions organised in 2 weeks' time, so I'll be able to give you all a better picture then. After these very interesting discussions we rounded the day off with a walk in the local countryside. I've taken some nice shots of this trip, so if you've got a moment please have a look at my web album (http://picasaweb.google.com/schliner/ThirdWeek).

So what does the new week bring? Well, this coming Monday I’ll find out a bit more about the job I’ll be doing for the next 11 months (working for the Mongolian National Volunteering Network). Whilst I’m enjoying the in-country training it’ll be good to get stuck in to work and start contributing. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you all the ins and outs in my next post. For now though, best wishes,

Robert