Idle hands

I thought I'd take the opportunity this week to tell you all a bit about the regular things I get up to outside of work. Not one for just lazing around at home (at this point members of my family will snigger!), I spend some of my free time learning Mongolian and running English language sessions for Mongolians.

The Mongolian Language Challenge - I'm quite conscious of the fact that getting a firmer grasp of the local language will give me a greater chance to explore Mongolian culture. It'll also allow me to interact more with the lovely Mongolian people! As a result, I'm trying to improve my Mongolian and have a one-to-one language lesson once a week. Whilst progress is slow I'm getting somewhere. It's not as daunting as when I first arrived. At the very least I'm now able to read Cyrillic. Also, my knowledge of food vocabulary is pretty good - I've got my priorities right!

English language sessions - Perhaps the most useful skill I have to offer to Mongolians is my language. Young people here are very keen to practice their English with a native speaker, so I've had requests from three groups to run English language sessions with them. The result is that I now run language club sessions three times a week. These sessions are great fun, as I get to chat about all sorts of topics with Mongolians. Last week I managed to find a video about the previous foot and mouth outbreak in the UK, which I showed to one of my groups. The participants found it quite interesting - many Mongolians are from farming backgrounds, so they could relate to what the British farmers were saying. On a side point, I had a chat with a group about religion, and it turned out that one of the participants was a shamanist. This person then told me about the shaman they regularly visit, and proceeded to show me their shaman's business card. Even shamans have embraced modernisation!

N.B. I should point out that I do a fair amount of meeting up with friends and watching films too! "Lazy Rob" surfaces from time-to-time. On that note, it's time for me to go home and get some sleep! Lots of love to you all,

Robert

Snow everywhere!

The cold weather continues, but what has been quite fun is that we’ve finally had some snow falling, so Ulaanbaatar looks quite beautiful at the moment. People are busy brushing the snow off the streets and monuments, but I happen to think that everything looks a lot prettier with a dusting of snow.

Friends from the North - This week we are lucky enough to be hosting some young people from Buryatia, a neighbouring republic in the Russian Federation. Their ethnicity and culture is very similar to the Mongolians, so they slot quite well into life here. The only difficulty is the language barrier, as I don’t really know any Russian. However, I can pick up the odd word or two with my Polish. They’re here to share experiences with Mongolian youth organisations, and so far the visit is going very well. If all goes to plan a delegation of young people from Mongolia will do a return visit to Lake Baikal in the summer – if that happens I’ll try to tag along too!

Visit to the Lenin Museum – a pretty surreal experience. The Communist Party of Mongolia is still operating (albeit under a different name), and still own a building dedicated to Lenin. You are greeted to the building by a huge statue of the “great man” (about 30 feet tall), which is placed in front of a wall upon which the words “workers of the world unite!” are written in many languages. However, the building is undergoing huge renovation, and much of the old artwork is being disposed of. I asked the staff what will become of all the old propaganda posters, books and statues, and they just said they will be thrown away. This is criminal in my opinion – I’m sure some museum would love to get their hands on this stuff. Anyway, the building will soon be turned into a supermarket. This has to be one of the clearest signs of transition from Communism to Capitalism! I’m sure the old communists are rolling in their graves…

An evening at the ballet – a real experience, as I’ve never been to the ballet before. I’ve got to say that I had a great time. Some friends and I went to see Swan Lake, and whilst I didn’t fully understand the story it was very interesting and enjoyable. The live orchestra was fantastic, and the coordination of the many ballet dancers was amazing to see. I’ve never really had the chance to go to see the ballet in the UK before (mainly because of the ticket prices). Next up may be an opera!

Cold hugs from Mongolia,

Robert

It's very cold!

Pretty crazy eh! It's unlikely I'll ever experience such temperatures again in my life. However, it's not as bad as it sounds (providing one wraps up well). The real shock is when you take your gloves off to write a text message - withing 30 seconds your hands start burning with pain! As a result I've become pretty bad at replying to texts... I'm not complaining though, as it's an interesting experience. If I was to stay in Mongolia permanently it would be a different matter. The real problem is for the Mongolian farmers, as their livestock will suffer during this period of extreme cold. Some will really struggle to keep their animals alive.


The alcohol ban - not only do Mongolians have to put up with the extreme temperatures, but they're currently not allowed to have any alcohol to warm their hearts! This is because 14 people have recently died from drinking poisonous vodka (another 60 people are in hospital with alcohol poisoning). The government was quick to respond, banning the sale of all alcohol. See this BBC article for more info - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7167556.stm, it's not often that Mongolia gets coverage on the BBC. Whilst it seems a bit extreme to ban ALL alcohol (including imports, and non-vodka related drinks), the real positive is that it's forcing many of Mongolia's alcoholics to curb their drinking habits. This is especially good as during most winters drunk people fall asleep outside in the cold and unfortunately never wake up...

Ulaanbaatar's pollution - As temperatures dip, the need for heating increases. This means that the power stations are at full capacity, and the people living in the ger tent houses (which are not connected to the main heating system) are burning lots of coal to keep warm. The result, Ulaanbaatar is one of the most polluted city in the world! It's quite noticeable in the evenings, I'll often be coughing during my walk home from work. Funnily enough, the BBC has another helpful article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6376203.stm

Why all of this talk about pollution, struggling farmers and people dying on the streets Rob? Well, life isn't that easy for Mongolians at the moment. They must be a pretty tough bunch of people to get through this cold patch year in, year out! Lots of love,

Robert

New Year's Resolution: keep on blogging

Happy New Year! I hope 2008 is a great year for all of you, full of success and happiness. The start of the year has been good so far. I spent the New Year period in Ulaanbaatar with some of the Filipino volunteers. Joe kindly hosted a big New Year's Eve party at his house, to which the entire Filipino population of Mongolia was invited (or so it seemed!). It was great, especially as it was a real family occasion - people of all ages were there. We eat so much delicious food, and partied the night away. As the only non-Filipino there I felt very privileged to be part of their celebrations. What else has been going on recently?

Ulaanbaatar during the New Year period – Sukhbaatar Square (Mongolia’s Parliament Square) was the centre of the festivities, and was full of interesting things. There was a giant “New Year’s tree” and many colourful lights hanging from the Square’s flagpoles. However, the thing that really caught my eye was the array of ice sculptures that had been erected. Giant ice pigs were posing for the cameras, and people were sitting down on the Olympics themed ice-podium. One of the sculptures was interactive – an ice slide which people were skidding down. This was great fun! I wish London did something similar!

Eagles! – Some of the people from the west of Mongolia had come to Ulaanbaatar, and brought with them their magnificent eagles. It was really impressive to see the birds up close – I wouldn’t pick a fight with them! They had huge claws and beaks, and when they stretched their wings they looked massive. After seeing the birds I felt a mixture of emotions – it’s quite sad to see these majestic animals kept in captivity, but the very old tradition of using eagles for hunting is really beautiful.

Back to work after the Christmas break - It’s actually not too bad to be back at work (the only pain is having to get out of bed early in the morning!). I’m going to concentrate on three things in the coming couple of months. Perhaps most importantly, I’ll be trying to get funding for the volunteer network I work for, so that in the future they can hire a Mongolian to do the work that I’m currently doing. Aside from that, I'm going to create a resource CD for Mongolian volunteers, full of information on key skills that a good volunteer should have (e.g. how to write a press release, how to run a good group meeting, etc). Finally, I’ll work with my Mongolian colleagues to set up a volunteers’ forum, a group of volunteers who meet regularly to help each other. This forum can also provide a voice to Mongolia’s volunteer community (the network I work for currently only really caters for volunteering organisations, and not really volunteers themselves). All of that should keep me busy…

Best wishes to all of you, have a good start to the year,

Robert

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas time. I hope you and your families have a great time.

Whilst a White Christmas may not happen, it’ll certainly be a very cold Christmas in Ulaanbaatar! There are a few signs of Christmas here (despite the fact that Mongolia is a Buddhist country). Most of the hotels and shopping centres have Christmas trees positioned by their entrances. Some buildings also have colourful lights wrapped around them. However, the locals are keen to point out that these decorations are not for Christmas, but are part of the build up for the New Year celebrations. Indeed, the local TV stations are running what Westerners would call ‘Christmas-themed’ programmes (with the hosts dressed as Father Christmas, sitting in front of log fires), but end the programmes with the message “Happy 31st” flashing across the screen!

As a special Christmas treat, I’m including video clips in this week’s blog entry. Have a look at my moment of fame, making it onto Erdenet regional TV! It’s a clip taken during last month’s visit to Erdenet with Amnesty International (see http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-tour-with-amnesty-international.html for more details). I’m talking about the volunteering efforts that the local schoolchildren were doing in the city. Enjoy!

There's also a short clip of me talking to Darkhan's local TV channel. I'm speaking fluent Mongolia, and seem to have developed a rather feminine voice! (ok, it's Otgo the head of Amnesty Mongolia's volunteer programme who is translating)

As always, lots of love from Ulaanbaatar,

Robert

Phew, International Volunteer Day is done and dusted!

Phew – International Volunteer Day is done and dusted. It was great fun, a real showcase for Mongolia’s volunteer community. As an outsider looking in, I was really impressed with what Mongolia’s volunteers are doing. As International Volunteer Day was a couple of days after my last blog entry, there are a few more events for me to report on…

Ceremony for Chingeltei District’s Health Volunteers – A local health department had trained 19 volunteers to provide health education and basic treatment to the public. On Wednesday it was time to officially unveil the volunteers, so a ceremony was put on to celebrate their achievement. It was very touching to see the volunteers collect their ‘graduation’ certificates. They were all so humble. A really nice touch was that each volunteer was individually introduced to the audience, complete with a list of their likes and dislikes. “This is Bold, 44 years old, who likes going to the movies and eating buuz”! I think this volunteer scheme is a great idea, as the health volunteers free up the overworked doctors, allowing them to work in other areas.

The Grand Finale, a Cocktail Party - on the evening of the 5th many of Mongolia's volunteer community (both staff at volunteering organisations and the volunteers themselves) got together for a celebratory drinks party. However, due to funding difficulties the cocktails were sadly absent! We did however manage to get the head of Mongolia's UN Development Programme to come to speak to us. She delivered the UN Secretary General's message for the volunteering community (everyone listened very attentively). The evening was a success in so much as everyone had a good time, but I hope next year the International Volunteer Day team decide to run a different event (it just seemed a bit of a waste of money, when some of the organisations present would have probably prefered moeny for new office equipment rather than a nice evening of wining and dining).

Amnesty International's supermarket petition - the 10th of December is International Human Rights Day (the UN calendar is crazy, it seems to bunch everything together in December!). To mark this day, Amnesty International's volunteers went out into Ulaanbaatar to do a big petition-signing/fundraising drive. 30 volunteers were sent to 9 of the city's biggest supermarkets and set up stalls. I went along to our local Nomin Supermarket to help out (it was my job to get any foreigners who passed by to sign the petition). I really enjoyed getting back to running a campaign stall, it reminded me of the type of things I used to do when I was at university. Aside from just being there to help out the very kind volunteers, my main highlight was an exchange that I had from a member of the Russian Embassy staff who just happened to be passing through. She was very pleasant, but found it really strange that I would be bothering to campaign about human rights... On a side point, it seems that the only foreigners left in Ulaanbaatar at the moment either work as volunteers, embassy staff or in the mining companies. As temperatures are now averaging -15C a day, tourists are nowhere to be seen!

I hope all of your Christmas preparations are going well. Lots of love from Mongolia,

Robert

International Volunteer Day

There's been a real explosion of activity from the volunteering sector, which can only mean one thing - International Volunteer Day (5th Dec don't you know) is just round the corner! I've had a lot of fun the last couple of days, attending lots of events that have been run by various members of the volunteer network I work for. Here's my top 3:

World AIDS Day Art Exhibition- As some of you may know, the first of December is World AIDS Day. The National AIDS Foundation tried to publicise this to the wider community by running an art exhibition in a gallery not far from Parliament Square. The exhibition showcased the work of the city's students. I was very impressed with the standard and creativity of the various entries. All in all I think the day was a success, especially as a couple of national TV stations showed up.

Concert for the elderly and isolated - A really touching event. On Sunday the organisation Service for Peace ran its now annual cultural festival. The event aimed to provide an evening of enjoyment to many of Ulaanbaatar’s vulnerable and isolated people, and was run by volunteers. During the day 150 volunteers went out into the city's outskirts and gathered approximately 1000 disabled and elderly people, pretty impressive I think. Seeing the smiles on the audience's faces was really a beautiful sight - everyone had a great time.

International Disability Day - the 3rd of December was National Disability Day, so volunteers helped the Wheelchair Users Association celebrate through an event called “My Capital City”. 14 wheelchair-bound people visited various sites around the city (the City Council Office, the Mobicom mobile phone centre, the APU drinks factory and Tengis Movie Theatre). The aim of this was twofold: to illustrate how difficult it is for disabled people to access most buildings in the city, and to give the disabled people a chance to see parts of the city they do not usually get to see.

You can see photos of all these events at http://picasaweb.google.com/schliner/InternationalVolunteerDayEvents. Enjoy!

Tomorrow is International Volunteer Day itself, and we have a couple of things planned then. I'll tell you all about it next week...