Pondering the future...

This week I have been mostly pondering the future. What should I do when I return to the UK? I'm applying for various things, but the question of what my "end goal" should be is very much in my mind. I know I'm still young, but I still feel like I should be working towards something. It's frustrating to not have a clear idea of what I should do with my life, so I'm trying to take some time out in the evenings just to sit and think. Hopefully I'll get some inspiration soon! Anyway, I've got my Dad visiting me next Thursday, so perhaps he can help. Anyway - yes, my Dad is coming!!! I'll fill you in on his trip in a future blog entry...

Introvirus hits Mongolia! People are wondering around with masks covering their faces, and public buildings have all their door handles covered with cloths. This can only mean one thing - Mongolia is currently under attack from a horrible virus! The virus is quite dangerous for small children, so primary schools are currently shut down (much to the delight of the pupils!). The net affect of this is that both the elderly and small children are nowhere to be seen – grandparents have the task of keeping their grandchildren occupied during this period of “quarantine”. For the past week non-essential public facilities have been closed down, so the cinema and internet cafes have been out-of-action. Things are starting to return to normal now, but it was quite interesting to see how the nation reacted to this outbreak.

Hash House Harriers – Last Tuesday I went on my first “hash”, which was quite an experience. For the uninitiated, the Hash House Harriers are group of people who go for walks and drinks in the countryside (the HHH have groups all over the world). As they themselves claim, it’s “a drinking club for people with a walking problem”! The “H3” is very much for ex-pats, but still quite fun! We went for a “hash”/walk around the mountains outside of the city, and then finished off with a few beers by our minibus. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience – I thought that the people would be snobby and not very welcoming towards Mongolians. I was proved wrong much to my delight. It was great to relax in the countryside and get out of the metropolis; I plan to take part in future “hashes” in the coming weeks.

Random observations about Mongolia – I thought I’d write some of these down over the weeks ahead, just in case I forget them. Number 1: Mongolians hate the Chinese! Hate is a strong word, and generalizing Mongolians is often not wise, but in this case the previous statement is true. 99% of people would openly say that they dislike the Chinese, and would be sad if their family members married a Chinese person. Mongolians blame most things on the Chinese (for example last January’s vodka poisoning scare – see http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/2008/01/its-very-cold.html), and are very negative about Chinese products. This negativity is due to historical factors (years of being occupied and badly treated) and recent developments (Chinese people are taking Mongolian jobs). It never ceases to surprise me how open the Mongolians are about this – people will openly say that they would never marry a Chinese person and that they hate the Chinese (this includes very liberal people working in NGOs!). During my previous visit to Sukhbaatar City a six year old girl said that she hated Chinese people – I was particularly shocked, as she was so young and had never met a Chinese person before. A group called “Hoch Mongol” has been known to attack Chinese people and shave the hair off of any Mongolian women who are seen mixing with Chinese men. I guess I’m lucky not to be Chinese…

Lots of love to you all,

Robert

Birthday in Mongolia!

Yes, on Wednesday the 14^th of May it was my birthday! I’ve got to say that it was a bit sad to be away from all my friends and family, but the volunteer community still gave me a good time. We met up at Ulaanbaatar’s one-and-only Kyrgyzstan restaurant (I’ve been wanting to go there for some time – when else will I have the chance to eat food from Kyrgyzstan?!), and had lots of nice food and beer. It was great to have lots of the volunteers around, everyone was in good spirits. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the waiter at our table, he was such a friendly guy. After serving us food he turned to DJing, playing a variety of tunes at our request! We stayed in the restaurant for 3 hours, just sitting and chatting – a mark of a good evening.

Working at the Mongolian Blood Donors Association – My three weeks at Tolgoit NGO have passed, so I’m now working at the Blood Donors Association. It’s a different experience as the Association is staffed by two elderly volunteers. They are a real inspiration – people using a large amount of their free time for the good of society, expecting no financial reward in return. The two people are very nice, but it is a challenge to communicate with them – one of them speaks incredibly fast, whilst the other is partially deaf. My Mongolian’s ok, but this is a real test! One of my tasks is to teach them a little bit of English, but I have had to start from scratch, starting with the Latin alphabet. Most young people can use the Latin alphabet already (it’s the way they communicate by email and SMS), but the older population is not so familiar with it. I’ve got another week and a half with this organization, wish me luck!

English language lessons for volunteers/parishioners – last Saturday I started giving English language lessons out at my local parish (the Sain Honichin / Good Shepard Parish). Participants include members of the parish and volunteers from the organisations I work with. Turnout for the first set of lessons was good – over 30 people turned up. I’m enjoying my foray into the world of English language teaching, although I’m not sure I’d want to do it as my main job. Anyway, it’s good fun, and a really easy way for me to “give something back” to the local people.

Three months to go and I come back home. I had better start planning what to do with my remaining 10 days of holiday. I hope you are all well, lots of love to you all,

Robert

Chilling out in the Gobi

Trip to Sainshand – Way back in October of last year I made the trip to the Gobi (please see http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/2007/10/adventures-in-gobi.html). I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity to go back, but as a group of VSO volunteers were planning a quick weekend break I thought I should take the opportunity to revisit the region. With economy seats on the train being $5 each way (for what is a huge 10-hour journey), it’s still pretty affordable to travel about on volunteer wages. As this second trip was a lot more relaxed, I managed to see a lot of the local places of interest. Stop #1 was to the Energy Centre, a Buddhist shrine in the middle of the desert. It’s here that Mongolians believe you can collect energy from the sun’s rays. You can see a photo of the centre below:

Next up was a trip to the local Buddhist monastery. It was interesting to see the lives of Buddhists monks living in a quite isolated spot. The monastery was once full of monks, but it suffered badly during the Stalinist purges (during which many Buddhists were killed). After our first day of travelling we made our way back to the local town and our place of residence. We were all sleeping on a living room floor belonging to a very enterprising Mongolian family. This was a novel experience, as there were 18 people packed into what was quite a small room! Most of us managed to get some sleep, despite the various snorers in the room… The second day was a lot less frantic – we went at a leisurely pace around Sainshand town centre, and visited a couple of local cafes. It was great to be able to relax in the hot sun, and get away from all the noise of Ulaanbaatar. I really like my trips outside of the capital, I guess I’m more of a small town boy than a city boy!

Talk at the Mongolian National University (MUIS) – the university invited Amnesty International to run a lecture about the work that it does, and the staff of AI Mongolia kindly asked me to take part. I introduced the international element of the organisation, and also talked a bit about what it is like to be a student member of Amnesty in the UK. It was funny to be in a lecture hall again, but this time having the vantage point of a lecturer. The session went well, and was most notable for the contributions of one student member of Amnesty. She gave a quick talk on her own family’s experience of child trafficking – her own cousin was kidnapped and is still yet to be found (the last sighting of the girl was in Beijing). It is one thing reading about child trafficking, but to meet someone who is personally affected by it makes it seem more real. I hope that her cousin is found soon.

Language school puts on a show – Erdenes is a friend of mine who is a teacher at a local language school. She invited me to see some of her students perform in their end of year concert. It was great to see children perform short plays and sing songs in different languages. The school specialises in teaching English, Japanese and Chinese, and we were treated to different showcases from each language. It was really sweet to see little children play different parts in plays – my personal favourite was the rendition of Goldilocks and the three bears (“this bowl is just right”).

I send you all lots of energy from the Gobi Desert’s Energy Centre. Look after yourselves and have a good rest of the week,

Robert