Final Farewells

As I'm soon going to leave to Mongolia, I have spent the last few weeks trying my best to say proper goodbyes to my friends and colleagues. Whilst there are too many to mention (I was very lucky to have made many friends!), here are a few of the fun things I got up to:

Dinner parties in my apartment - Despite being out of practice at cooking (its easy to be lazy when eating out is almost as cheap as cooking for yourself), I still managed to cook a meal for the staff of VSO Mongolia, and then followed that up with a meal for my good friends at Amnesty International Mongolia. It was my very small way of saying thank you to some of the most special people I had met in Mongolia. I've been supported very well by the VSO Mongolia staff, who have always done their best to help me out with work and life problems during my stay in Ulaanbaatar. It was good to meet the staff in an out of the work context, as we could all relax and have a nice chat. The evening with the Amnesty staff was also fun - they are all good friends to me, and some of my best memories are linked to the things that I have done with them.

Singing the night away with the Mongolian Youth Federation - The Mongolian Youth Federation was my first place of work during my time here, and the staff there are a great bunch of people. We arranged for a farewell night out, and they suggested going to a karaoke bar. I was just planning a quiet evening in a pub, but the karaoke idea turned out to be a masterstroke! We had a great time, and it was fun singing along to the traditional Mongolian tunes that I had learnt during my time here. The vodka bottles were passed round, which helped the singing flow that much easier from our mouths. A fab night out, and a great way to say goodbye. As I was leaving the staff gave me a framed photo board, full of memories of the work that I had done with them. I'll hang it on my bedroom wall when I return home.

Goodbye Blood Donors Association - Mandakh and the veteran donors have been incredibly welcoming to me. Aside from giving me and my dad a day we'll never forget (see the visit to the shaman at http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/2008/06/comings-and-goings.html), they have constantly shown an interest in me and always want to show me different sides to Mongolian life. Before my departure I was invited to Madakh's house, and she prepared a feast for all of us. Her husband Sosorbaram proudly showed off his allotment patches, and then brought us the fresh produce which we eat. Needless to say the vodka followed and we all had a good time. The donors then wrapped up the evening by doing an awards ceremony. They gave me lots of gifts, the best of which was a medal for the service that I had given the Blood Donors Association. My first ever medal! I was very touched. The kindness of this generation of people was really heartwarming.

Au revoir flatmates - perhaps the most important people during my time in Mongolia, Jude and Tugi have helped keep me sane. They patiently listened to when I had to get something off of my chest, and were there to give me a hand if I could do with some help or just needed a friend. Jude was a great inspiration, always doing something cool, and Tugi was a great listener and very kind. I'll particularly miss Jude's huumii singing and Tugi's endless laughing! We went out for one last time to the nearby mountain Zaisan, and just relaxed. I wish we had spent more time doing stuff with each other outside of the house, but we always seemed to have other things to do. But anyway, it was great to have this chance to say goodbye. I'll miss them both a lot!

Farewell Mongolian friends - I had many little goodbyes with various friends of the course of my final two weeks in Mongolia. Highlights included a trip to the museums of Ulaanbaatar with Gerelee and Mandakhai, a fantastic night out with Solongo and Tsoogoo and a short trip to the countryside with Tuya and the congregation of the Good Shepard Parish. I also met up with the GX volunteers and had a pint in "Dave's Place", the English Bar. To top this all off, Gana organised a trip into the countryside. I went with her and some other Mongolian friends to camp by a beautiful river just to the east of the capital. It was lovely to have one final taste of the countryside, and to have a "Mongolian-style" holiday.

Finally I eat marmot - yes, the one thing I still had to tick off my list! My friend Chuka had heard that this was something I wanted to do, and so very kindly invited me to his countryside house for a taste. It was quite nice - salty and fatty, but with a delicious taste. Hot stones are pushed into the marmot so that the meat is cooked from the inside. The Mongolians love marmot meat, but it is increasingly difficult to get. After we finished the meal lots of Chuka's friends turned up and we had a party, which lasted the whole night through. No one could speak English, but it was still a lot of fun!

Night out with the VSO volunteers - I could not leave without saying goodbye to the VSO volunteers who have been my support network for the last 12 months. Whenever work or life in Mongolia got too tough, it was always comforting to talk to people who were going through similar experiences. It was also nice to be able to talk to fluent English speakers every now and again too! I was very lucky with the group of volunteers in Mongolia, the vast majority of which were kind and knew how to have a good time. Anyway, I got all the Ulaanbaatar-based volunteers to go out for one last goodbye meal. I felt it was time to go full circle, so I forced everyone to go to the Dura restaurant/bar that every volunteer has their introductory training sessions in. Despite protests about the choice of venue(!), a good number of people turned out, which was very nice. Whilst saying goodbye to the volunteers was sad, I'm pretty sure that I'll meet up with some of them in the future. Many were British citizens or were planning to pass through London at some stage. Fingers crossed we can have a reunion soon...

Lots of good memories! As I said before, I have been very lucky. Many of the Mongolians that I have met have been very welcoming, and I am happy to be able to add some really nice people to my list of friends. I hope I keep in touch with all of them - fingers crossed it won't be too long until I meet some of them again soon...

Robert