Half-Way there!

I’ve reached a big milestone – six months in Mongolia! It’s quite an achievement I think, so I’m giving myself a pat on the back. Getting through the harsh winter was a bit of a struggle at times, as was the initial settling in period. However, the weather has recently become a lot warmer, so in that respect life is a lot easier (for instance, walking for pleasure is now a possibility). I’ve also made some nice Mongolian friends, and have got to form some good relationships with my fellow volunteers.

Before I update you on what I’ve been doing I must first apologise. I’m sorry for the delay in posting this blog entry, but I’m in a busy period of work at the moment. All will be revealed below…

Volunteers’ Forum – Last Saturday was the first ever meeting of Mongolia’s Volunteers’ Forum (please insert fanfare). Over 40 volunteers from a large variety of organisations got together to discuss how they could work more closely together. We looked at how the Volunteer Forum should work, and what kind of things it should work on in the future.

The creation of a volunteers’ forum is something that I’ve been working on for the past month. I thought that it was strange that whilst there is a network for Mongolian volunteer-involving organisations, there was no body actually representing volunteers themselves (the Network just deals with the staff of organisations). Whilst it remains to be seen if this forum will be sustainable, the initial signs are promising. The turnout was good, and the participants seemed enthusiastic. Keep your fingers crossed!

Network Meeting – It’s been a while since the last meeting of the Network of Mongolian Volunteer Organisations that I work for (see http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/2007/11/november-9th-network-meeting.html). Thus, this coming Friday and Saturday we’re organising a huge, 2 day-long meeting! Friday morning the participants will all get on a specially laid on bus which will take them to UB2 tourist camp, situated in the mountain range outside of Ulaanbaatar. Things on the agenda include the introduction of new resources that the Network has been working on, and a discussion on how more men can be encouraged to become volunteers (about 90% of volunteers are women). We’ll also have some social time, so that the members of the Network can get to know each other a bit better. As we’re asking people to stay for two days, the meeting had better be good!

I’ll report back on this meeting in the next entry, but for now I send you my best wishes. I hope that all is going well for all of you and that you’re having fun. Take care of yourselves,

Robert