What a busy week!

All continues to go well in Mongolia. I'm glad that I've settled in well. Must be something to do with the fact that I'm being kept busy - I don't have much time to mooch around and get depressed, and as I've also got things to do it's easier to convince myself that I'm doing something useful. This week was particularly packed. My week of work and play included:

VSO conferences - This week has been full of VSO conferences. All the different VSO volunteers came to Ulaanbaatar (about 60% are based elsewhere), and were joined by the VSO office staff and the many representatives of the partner organisations that VSO works with. The future direction of VSO and the challenges faced by volunteers and their employers were both discussed. Also, all the different programme areas were reviewed (VSO Mongolia works in four main programme areas - health, education, secure livelihoods and national volunteering - my area!). I was privileged enough to be the volunteer representative for the national volunteering programme area review. I got to see both the planning and presentation stages of this review, and so got a unique inside view of how VSO formulates its future programme strategy, and how it presents this information to its partners and volunteers.

Trip to Hustai Park - On Saturday I made the very bumpy trip to Hustai Park, a national park about 100 kilometres from Ulaanbaatar. It was a great day! We left in a very old Russian jeep, which whilst not being very comfortable, was just the thing for the dirt tracks outside the capital city (getting around Mongolia is a long process, as tarmac only seems to exist in Ulaanbaatar). After 3 hours we arrived at our destination, and began our search for wildlife. Our primary aim was to spot some Przewalski horses, the only wild horses left in the world (the only horses not to have been bred by man for man made purposes - as a result they have 26 chromosomes, as opposed to the standard 24). After a short drive through the park we spotted something in the distance... What luck, a group of 10 horses! They were very beautiful.

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After spending an hour with the horses, we made our way through the outskirts of the park. Whilst I thought the main highlight of the trip had already come, I was happily mistaken. We can across a group of herders who were taking their livestock to the abattoirs in Ulaanbaatar. Four people were transporting over 1000 yaks and 500 sheep - what a sight! Not only that, but they had two camels with them, to help with the transportation of their belongings. My first chance to be up-close with camels! They are beautiful creatures, their faces full of expression - the photo here being a prime example! It was good to talk with the herders (we had a guide with us to help with translation). It turned out they had travelled from the Gobi region, so had been transporting their herd for 5 weeks already. It's difficult to imagine having to transport things over such a long distance, but this is everyday life for many Mongolians. Anyway, you can see some photos of the trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/schliner/TripToHustaiPark - hope you enjoy them!

The Rugby World Cup Final - Last night (or to be more precise this morning) I and some of the other VSO volunteers stayed up to watch the Big Match - the Rugby World Cup Final, England Vs South Africa. We managed to find out that the match was being broadcast on TV5 Asie (a French international TV station), so went round to a friend's house to watch the game. The pre-match build up was the best bit, as all of us had to stay up until 3am local time for the kick-off. However, I now wish I didn't bother staying up - it was a pretty awful game in my opinion! Anyway, at least I had some fellow English people to commiserate with, and the South African volunteer was very humble in victory...

As you can see, I've managed to fit a lot in. However, I'm now feeling pretty exhausted. Early night for me tonight! Best wishes,

Robert

The road goes on...

Wow - two months down! The time seems to be flying at the moment, which I suppose is a good sign. I'm being kept quite busy at work, which suits me just fine (makes me feel like I'm being useful and stops me moping around). Outside of work, I've managed to make some friends, so have a good group of people to relax with. My flat's pretty sorted now, having even managed to get a toilet seat for our bathroom - luxury! So, what have I been up to the last seven days? Well, whilst this week was a bit more packed, I managed to fit in two more visits to different network member organisations.

The first trip was to DEMO, the Democracy Education Centre. DEMO does lots of interesting work, focusing on three main areas - to promote democratic ideals amongst secondary school children, to build the capacity of Mongolian non-governmental organisations, and to provide training to young people involved in politics. It was this final area that really caught my imagination- DEMO runs sessions for the youth members of all political parties, in the hope that the young people will work together across party lines, and build up long term friendships for each other. This way DEMO hopes that politics will be run with a spirit of cooperation and respect in the future. Perhaps this is something that could be replicated in the UK?

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On Wednesday I went to the Second Hospital, and after 10 minutes stumbled across what I was looking for - the Mongolian Blood Donors Association's headquarters. I say 'stumbled' because the headquarters are little more than a small room. After talking with the director, it became apparent that the association is in need of some assistance. They don't have a permanent office space, they only have one staff member (the director, who incidentally volunteers her time - there is no money available to pay for her salary) and don't have a computer. Despite all these problems the association does fantastic stuff! They manage to encourage people in the many different regions of Mongolia to donate their blood, which is no easy feat considering the land area that has to be covered (Mongolia is the largest landlocked country in the world). Whilst the need for blood is not always met, the work of the National Blood Donors Association has saved many lives. During the same visit I was privileged to meet some of the more experienced blood donors, who had interesting stories to tell. I felt very lucky to shake hands with Mongolia's oldest blood donor (who can be seen in the photo below, second from the right).

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October the 11th was the National Day for the Blind, so I made the trip up to the Trade Union Centre to see what was going on (and to also view the assistance that some National AIDS Foundation volunteers were offering to the event). I had a great time. The main bulk of the day was focused raising awareness about blind people, and giving the general public advice on how to care for their sight. The hall was packed with stalls, many of which had blind people showcasing some of the work they do (the majority worked in the field of handicrafts or food production). However, the stall that really caught my attention was the one run by the Association of Blind Masseurs. Whilst it was a slight abuse of my work time, my host for the day insisted that I have not one, but two massages! I tell you what - the masseurs were fantastic! However, the Mongolian style of massage is very strong and forceful. At one point the masseur grabbed hold of my neck and in one swift motion pushed it to the other side of my body. CRACK! I had never heard such a sound, or thought that my body could produce it! Feeling very relaxed I then went to see a concert organised by blind performers. I was very impressed - the singers were fantastic, and the piano players also deserve a mention. All in all the day was great, one of the best I've had in Mongolia so far. Work can be tough sometimes...

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That's me signing off until next weekend. Hope you all have a good week ahead, take care of yourselves,

sas

Robert

A first glimpse of Mongolian winter...

Woke up this morning and looked outside my window… snow! My first glimpse of snow in Mongolia. I guess that’s it, winter is going to set in soon. Luckily enough my wardrobe is well stocked with jumpers, hats and gloves, so the cold temperatures don’t seem as daunting as they once were (thanks to all of you who donated to my winter clothing fund!). I was very excited by the snow, but was soon brought down to earth by my flatmate Jon. He’s from a cold part of Canada and so is used to it all – he was very blasé!

Trips to different Mongolian organisations – this week I had the pleasure of going to visit four more of the network member organisations (see last week’s entry for more details). First up was Dayartugs (which literally means “it’s perfect”). Dayartugs are a very small, newly established NGO, which aims to promote volunteerism amongst Mongolian young people. Dayartugs is working on many projects, despite the fact that they only have three staff members, all of which work voluntarily. Second was the Liberal Women’s Brain Pool, an organisation set up after the fall of communism to promote women’s ideas. Whilst some of the work that the organisation deals with is linked specifically to helping women (especially in the field of political participation), the organisation was keen to point out the many other areas that it has worked on. I was very impressed by the mobile library scheme that they have set up, designed to improve literacy in rural areas.

Thursday’s visit was to the Ethics and Motherland Association. I got the chance to talk to their passionate director, Ulaankhuu, who explained to me the association’s mission – to promote respect for Mongolia and to build a sense of community amongst young people (things that have been damaged in the years since the fall of communism). Last but not least was a trip to see Service for Peace. Service for Peace are an international organisation that use local volunteers to do community projects. The volunteers believe that a peaceful society can be built if everyone works together for the good of all. All the organisations are doing fantastic things, despite facing financial constraints – I’m very impressed with Mongolian organisations so far!

Visit to school’s anniversary concert – I’ve made friends with a Mongolian student and was lucky enough to be taken out to Ulaanbaatar’s very grand wrestling palace. Unfortunately I was not there to see wrestling, but on the other hand I got to see something that not many other foreigners would see – the Number 16 School’s 65th Anniversary celebrations! What an extravaganza it was. The wrestling stadium was packed with cheering young people, all proud to celebrate their school’s history. Different classes took charge of different stages of the evening (and even the teachers joined in at the end), so there were a real variety of events. We were treated to gymnastic performances, dances and songs. It was a great event, and left a big impression on me – not many young people in the UK would have such pride in their school, and not many schools would dare attempt such a grandiose occasion (even for their 100th birthday!).

That’s it for another week. Just before I sign off I’d like to say thanks for everyone’s comments left on the blog, and any emails you’ve been sending me. It always cheers me up to receive comments/news from all of you (even if I don’t reply straight away!). Best wishes to everyone,

Robert

Job + House = Sorted!

I’ve properly starting to settle in – I’ve now moved into my new house and have had my first week in my work placement. It’s been a pretty tiring week, but fun at the same time.

The House – Last Friday I made the big move from the temporary accommodation of the Chinngis Guest House to my new appartment. I’m still pretty central, just a 20 minute walk from the parliament square. I’m sharing the flat with two other VSO volunteers, Jude and Jon. They’re both from Canada, and are both friendly! The accommodation is very nice – we’ve got comfortable rooms and a largish living room. We’ve even got a washing machine! The only annoyance is that my appartment is on the very top of the tower block, on the ninth floor. Very handily there is a lift, but it only works from 7am until 10:30pm. Thus, every time I stay out late I’ll have a nice but of exercise waiting for me on my return! I’ll be living in this place for the rest of my stay in Mongolia.

The Job – That’s right, I’ve now left the cocoon of VSO’s induction training and have entered the world of work! Tie and shirt in hand, I walked into my office for the first day in the job… Just in case you don’t know, I’ll be spending the next 11 months working for the Mongolian National Volunteer Network. The network is a collection of organisations, all of which involve Mongolian volunteers in their activities. While much is still to be finalised, my role will be twofold: to help the network work more effectively, and meet the needs of the different member organisations as they arise. There are 21 groups that have taken up membership with the network. I’ve already met 3 of them this week (the Mongolian Youth Federation, the Mongolian Red Cross and the Mongolian Scouts) and over the coming weeks I’ll be visiting the rest of the network members.

Visit to Darkhan – on Tuesday I made the trip up to Mongolia’s second city, Darkhan. This trip was in aid of another aspect of my work – to support volunteering schemes that my fellow VSO volunteers set up. Amar (my line-manager) thought that it would be a good idea to view two such volunteer projects first-hand. Thus I headed up to Darkhan to see the work of two volunteers, Glen and Alain, who are really doing fantastic things. Glen has successfully created a scheme in which local volunteers deliver health education to local communities, thus taking pressure off the already overstretched doctors. Alain, on the other hand, has managed to encourage local English teachers to give free lessons to underprivileged children in isolated areas. Not only was it great to see these projects, but it was also lovely to visit Darkhan – a real contrast to Ulaanbaatar. For a start, the city was clean and quiet. Drivers even stopped at zebra crossings! As I’m not really used to the big city lifestyle I think I might be popping into Darkhan every now and again…

Going deeper into Mongolian culture...

Apologies about the slight time delay on this latest update, but I've been living with a Mongolian family for the last three days (away from such modern things as the internet). It was a great experience, I felt I got a real taste of what life was like for a Mongolian family. However, this taste was somehow reduced by my limited grasp of the local language. Whilst my Mongolian is improving I can only really speak at people, and find it very difficult to understand what people are saying to me. Thus, to avoid having a monologue for 72 hours, I relied heavily on the very nice grandson of the family, Bud (who spoke perfect English). Through him I got to learn a lot about the life of the family. In particular, it was great to have chats with the grandfather of the family, Baatar, who used to be one of the top officials in the North of Mongolia. I asked him many questions about the past and present. It was particularly interesting to hear his thoughts on Western society - a society doomed to failure according to him (Westerners are fixated on making money and too reliant on finite resources). Whilst the homestay is now over I hope to stay in touch with Baatar and the rest of the family.

Prior to the home stay I was busy doing lots of things in the centre of Ulaanbaatar. Here's this week's top three:

The Winter Palace - Last Thursday we were taken to the Winter residence of the previous religious leader of Mongolia, the Bogd Khan. The place was beautiful - the buildings are exquisitely designed, and the contents even more so. Every room was filled with Mongolian art and a variety of jewel encrusted clothing. However, it was quite modest for a palace, with the living quarters being quite small. The most unusual thing about the palace is that it is located in the middle of an industrial district. It was quite strange to have a palace surrounded by building sites, but such is life in the ever changing city of Ulaanbaatar!

My first run-in with the police! - Ok, not so dramatic as I make it sound, but nevertheless quite noteworthy! After a hard week of training all of us volunteers went to one of Ulaanbaatar's main nightclubs, "Strings". We were having a great time, dancing away to the live band that was playing. The Mongolians were looking starry eyed as they watched me display my dancing talents on the dance floor(!). Suddenly, the power was cut and the band had to go off stage. We went back to our table, disappointed but waiting for the power to come back on. After a while we thought we go to order some more drinks from the bar. However, the barmen didn't want to serve us drinks... It was at this point that we noticed the police standing by the main entrance. After talking to some of the locals (who could speak English), we gathered that the police were enacting an old law that forbade places to open after midnight. However, I say "old law" because it is so rarely enforced - otherwise all of Ulaanbaatar's nightclubs wouldn't exist. After sitting around for a few minutes we saw the management "coming to an agreement with the police". The police left and everything resumed as normal. Interesting to see how things work here...

Visit to the Lotus School for Street Children - A trip for all the new volunteers. We were taken to a school on the outskirts of the city, not far from the airport. The school specialises on giving the many street children who live in Mongolia's capital a basic education. It was a really heartwarming trip. Watching all the children being cared for, and viewing their enthusiasm to learn (and their curiosity at seeing a bunch of foreigners come to visit) really touched me. As you can see from the photo I made a friend! The school is looking for males to get involved in the school's activities (all the staff are female - the boys don't have any real male role models), so I'm thinking of giving up a Saturday here and there. I might run a football class for some of the boys, would be good fun I think!

I'll write some more this weekend, for now though lots of love to you all,

Robert

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

Settling in...

Phew! I’ve completed the second week and am now enjoying the weekend, having a well-deserved rest. The language classes have continued at the same pace, but it’s gradually becoming more satisfying – I’m starting to see some results from my hard studying. However, all work and no play make volunteers dull people, so on Tuesday all 11 of us partied the night away. Fellow volunteer Jon let it slip that it was his birthday, so a celebration was definitely due. It was great to let our hair down for a while, and little did we know what good singers we all were! Other highlights include:

The “Black Market” – the largest market in Mongolia, which despite its name is perfectly legal. A group of us went to visit it on Saturday. The market takes place on the outskirts of the city, but the long walk was worth it. It was massive! We spent a good two hours walking around it and probably only saw half of the stalls. The whole area was packed with people which made for an exciting but also mildly uncomfortable atmosphere - Mongolians don't seem to mind pushing people around! Amongst all the people(!) one could find almost everything you could possibly want. However I was attracted to the more unusual items - traditional Mongolian furniture, every type of cloth under the sun and very impressive, sturdy-looking boots. I'll probably purchase some of these when the weather starts to turn a bit colder...

Diplomatic Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia’s capital city has everything one expects in a capital city, but as the place is quite small everything is very compact. It seems like almost every street has an embassy on it! Looking at the embassies situated here it’s easy to see hints of the nation’s communist history. Of particular note are the massive Russian Embassy and the similarly large North Korean and Cuban Embassies. However, we don’t just have embassies in Ulaanbaatar. I was lucky enough to be present in the city during the state visit of the Bulgarian President. Whilst the president was being driven around lots of police were about and all the main roads were stopped. It’s about the only time I’ve seen Mongolian drivers obey the rules of the road – they’re pretty crazy drivers!

Visit to a “ger” Catholic Church – last Sunday I, together with my fellow Filipino volunteer Jeka went into one of the ger districts (the less-affluent parts of the city where everyone lives in ger tents). We had heard that masses were held in one of the gers in that area. After a bit of searching around we finally found the ger church in question. It was very beautiful and completely different to any church that I had seen before. We arrived just in time for Mass, and sat down next to the somewhat surprised Mongolian congregation (I don’t think they get many visitors in their church, let alone visitors from other countries). The Mass itself was in Mongolian, but the Filipino priest (seeing that a couple of foreigners were in the congregation) very kindly did a short homily in English for us. He also introduced us to the congregation – everyone was very welcoming. After Mass we stayed for tea and biscuits, which made me feel right at home! Next Sunday I’ll be going to the big Catholic Cathedral for Mass, but I’ll definitely want to come back to this smaller church in the future.

Ok, that’s it for this week. Thanks to everyone who has emailed me or left comments on my previous blog entry - it’s great to hear from you all. I hope all’s well and that those of you going back to work/study after the summer break don’t find it too difficult! Best wishes,

Robert