A tough week at work...

The last week has been a tough one. I didn’t really achieve much at work, and as my primary reason for being here in Mongolia is to help out, I felt a bit useless! However, I’m starting a three-week work assignment at Tolgoit NGO, a volunteering organization out in the Western ger tent district of the city. Not only do they seem very organized, bit they’re a friendly bunch too! It’s also good to be a bit more down-to-earth, working with volunteers on the ground in one of the poorest districts of the city (you can see the street by Tolgoit's office in the photo above). I’ll tell you more about my work experience as the weeks go by... But what else have I been up to?

Graffiti Madness – the Alliance Francaise had organised for a French graffiti artist to come to Ulaanbaatar. As such things are pretty rare here, this was something that I couldn’t miss out on. My friends and I made our way to Metropolis Nightclub on Wednesday night, and saw some pretty impressive things. The artist started off doing graffiti style photos. He took shots of people and then set the camera to a lower shutter speed and used different colour torches to make graffiti style imprints onto the final photo. The results were impressive! The artist also did graffiti on the walls of the club, and on people’s bodies – check out my new tattoo (don’t worry Mama, it’s temporary!):
Trip to Wrestling Palace – quite why I’ve waited until now to make the trip to the wrestling palace is a mystery, but I’m glad that I finally made the trip to see some Mongolian wrestling. It was quite a spectacle – the wrestling itself was not so exciting, and dragged on for hours, but the traditions on display were fascinating. The day’s event was launched by a stirring rendition of the national anthem, played by an army band. Then came some Buddhist chanting, led by three Buddhist monks. After that, great masses of wrestlers came onto the floor, and started parading their hats and doing a dance around the referees. Once this was completed the wrestling began, although to the untrained eye it seemed like a free-for-all! Wrestlers would fight each other until one had managed to force the other to the round – your opponent’s knees or elbows must hit the floor in order for you to win. The victor would do a quick eagle dance (flapping their arms like eagles) and then collect some chocolates from the Buddhist monks on hand. They would then throw the chocolates into the crowd (who would frantically try to catch them, as eating a winning wrestler’s chocolate is considered good luck). Unfortunately I was seated on the other side of the stadium to the Buddhist monks, so did not manage to increase my luck levels at this sitting. After the throwing of the chocolates, the wrestler would almost immediately take another wrestler on. This onslaught lasts for over 5 hours, until only one wrestler is left, although I must admit I left after 2 and a half hours!

Church building – I’ve been going to a church in the 3rd district for some time now, as I feel the community is much closer-knit than that at the cathedral (where there are more foreigners, and the church is so big that it often dwarfs the relatively small congregation that turns up on Sundays). Another drawing point is that the 3rd district church is held in a ger tent, which certainly makes the whole Sunday Mass experience that little bit more unique. Despite this unique selling point, the locals have the crazy idea of wanting to build a new permanent structure (understandable I suppose, as if you’re Mongolian the novelty of ger tents is comparatively smaller!). After months of wrangling with the local authorities, the Good Shepard Parish have finally got approval to build a church on their site. There’s now a flurry of activity, as everyone is excited to build “their new church”. This Sunday we cleared the site of the old ger tents, and the coming weeks ahead will see further work take place. It was really nice to lend a hand, as not only did I feel like I was doing something exciting and worthwhile, but it was also great to do some physical exercise (working in an office environment has some limitations). I look forward to lending a further hand in the months ahead.

As always, I’m thinking of you all and hope that you’re well. Take care of yourselves, best wishes,

Robert