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

Goodbye Tolgoit NGO!

My three-week stint at Tolgoit NGO is nearly at an end, but what have I been up to? Well, part of my time has been spent doing training sessions for the organisation’s volunteers. We’ve also done some work on creating a volunteer operational manual – a list of procedures that the organisation should follow when recruiting and using volunteers. In addition, I’ve done regular English classes for the staff. This has been an enjoyable new adventure for me. I don’t know if I’d want to do it full-time, but the interaction in the classroom, and the progress that the participants have made is great.

Tolgoit itself is an interesting district, a lot more basic than the centre of Ulaanbaatar. 90% of the people live in ger tent houses, and many people have to survive on low incomes. The result – some people are still using horse and cart to transport things around the place. The staff that I work with are really kind, and always have smiles on their faces. None of them speak good English, so I’ve been having to put my Mongolian to the test! I must admit it’ll be sad to leave… However, I won’t miss the 50 minute bus ride every morning!

Sandstorms! – The weather is crazy at the moment! Whilst things are a lot warmer, the day can fluctuate between snow and intense sun in a few hours! Mongolians say that in Springtime it’s possible to see all 4 seasons in one day, and I have to say that I agree with this analysis. Perhaps the strangest (and uncomfortable) thing to deal with are the Springtime sandstorms. Very strong winds strike without warning, spreading dust at high speeds down the city’s streets. The problem is compounded by the fact that Ulaanbaatar doesn’t have much vegetation – dust collects and is not trapped by grass. The result is quite dramatic. I’ve seen cartoon style mini-whirlwinds of dust pass me by on the street, blowing peoples hats of if their unlucky to be caught up in them! Rob’s top tip: keep sunglasses handy, as they provide eyes with a useful protection from the gusts of dust.

Lots of love to you all, take care,

Robert

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

The end of the line...

In the literal sense anyway! Last week I had a trip to Sukhbaatar City, the northern most city on the Mongolian railway. It's a largish city of about 20,000 people, and is 15 kilometres away from the Russian border. I was on a mission to scout out a project that VSO may work with in the future. Sukhbaatar is host to a farming cooperative run by volunteers. The volunteers help the local residents grow vegetables and breed animals as a way of supplementing their income.

This type of initiative is desperately needed in the city, as 50% of the population are unemployed. Going somewhere with a 50% unemployment rate is pretty interesting in its own right, but consider this - 20 years ago, under communism, the city had full employment. Needless to say, the local residents all fondly remember the "good old days", and are finding life in the new capitalist world tough to deal with. Some people have of course done well for themselves, but the fact that their wealth is visible to the rest of the city somehow makes the situation that much harder to bear.

Signs of the past glory of Sukhbaatar are there for all to see. The three (now disused) factories dominate the skyline, and many shops are now boarded-up. In such an atmosphere, it's no surprise that most young people want to leave for Ulaanbaatar as soon as they can. However, whilst I'm painting a picture of doom and gloom, the locals were all very friendly and proud of their city. As usual, Mongolian hospitality came to the fore, and I was force-fed buuz (meat dumplings) until I could eat no more! I cannot forget the surrounding countryside too - it was stunning. A short drive from the city takes you to areas of mountains and lakes, areas which mankind has not altered.

Back in Ulaanbaatar: I've just had a long working week (hence the delay in posting my blog entry - sorry!), so am looking forward to having a break soon. Whilst I was working this Saturday I found time in the evening to go to the Nomin Theatre to see a production of "The Blithe Spirit", performed by the local expat community. Our very own VSO volunteer Sophie was one of the main stars, so it was great to see her perform.

I hope you are all well. Lots of love to all of you, take care of yourselves,

Robert

Happy Easter!

Easter time is here, although you wouldn’t know it! Life goes on as usual, except for the very small Christian community in the city. Most Mongolians have never heard of Easter, and so are quite intrigued when I tell them that this celebration is as important as Christmas. I’m currently gearing up for the upcoming Easter/Holy Week dates. It’s strange to be away from home at this time, as Easter is a big thing for my family. I’ll miss the Easter gathering, and the now annual treasure hunt! However, I’ve got some nice plans of my own, so it’s not too bad. I’ll be joining some of my Filipino friends on Sunday for a big meal and some games. The Filipinos are great fun, I’m very lucky to have been let in to their community!

Beautiful weather – what a difference a month makes. In February the temperatures were hitting -30C. A month later and we’ve managed to enjoy a day with +10C temperatures. It’s difficult to describe what this means to me! It’s now possible to leave the house without having to wear four layers of clothes. I can now do something as simple as answering my mobile phone outside, without my hands burning in pain from the cold. But all of this is nothing compared to the enjoyment I feel from just being able to walk around the city for pleasure! It’s been about 2 or 3 months since I could just comfortably walk around and explore the city – during the cold it was strictly a “get to your destination as quickly as possible” affair. Hooray, I survived the Mongolian winter!

Appearance on the UBS Music Channel – yep, Rob made the big time! On Wednesday I had my first appearance on one of Mongolia’s top-rated music channels, “UBS Music”. Once a week they run a programme in English which focuses on the international music chart. I was asked to appear on this programme as a co-presenter – they must have been desperate. Luckily for me, the programme is pre-recorded and without an audience, so it wasn’t too nerve-racking. By the end of the experience it was actually starting to be quite fun! It looks like I might be a regular feature on this programme, and so will be appearing fortnightly. I’m sure it won’t be long until people start pointing at me on the street (for positive reasons)…

Time for me to sign off, but before I do I just want to wish you and your families a very Happy Easter. Have lots of fun and look after yourselves. Best wishes and a big hug,

Robert