A very American week!

It was an interesting week this week as an American supporter of MEA who is extremely well respected, was visiting for the week. Not only did that mean that there was lots more communication in English (always appreciated!) but she involved me in a number of meetings and training sessions so I got out of the office for a bit. On Tuesday it was the Mongolian University of Education where she gave a presentation on her research in Kyrgyzstan and compared it to the Mongolian system. It was incredibly useful to learn a little about education, as I am not from an education background, but also to here some more about the Mongolian education system. I also got to meet some of the teacher trainees and translators and I felt like a bit of a celebrity as they all wanted to practice their English on me and sit beside me!! Luckily my work colleagues reclaimed me!

In work we have a cooking rota, so every three weeks each person cooks for the other 15 people in the office. This is to save on the cost of eating out and it is a nice idea although some of the dishes aren't to my taste and mutton day in and day out is a little repetitive! But on Wednesday it was my turn. They laughed when I pulled out 5kg of potatoes but in actual fact they ate them all! Every 5 mintues someone would stick their head in and check on how I was doing and luckily the receptionist was very good and helped me cut up the mutton and peel the masses of potatoes and carrots. There were a few too many potatoes but it went down well and every one was very impressed and passed their compliments to my mother!!

On Thursday we had Mongolian Independence day which is a day off here, and it also coincided with American Thanksgiving. I was invited by one of the American VSO's to come to his house for thanksgiving and as the Northern Irish girl I was given the task of mashed potatoes and I volunteered some extra stuffing. It was a massive palaver as the potatoes wouldnt boil, there had to be enough for 12 people (and being a Shannon descendant I had to make sure there was enough times 3!) but I got there in the end and everyone enjoyed the dinner. It was a really nice meal and great to spend some time celebrating traditions from a different country.

Unfortunately we were back to work on Friday but the whole day at MEA was a training session. Again it was great to have the American there as she was giving the presentation and the powerpoint was in English so it was much easier for me to follow and I didnt feel like I was putting everyone out by asking them to translate for me! It was also a very interesting topic - evaluating projects and research methods, and she used MEA and other Mongolian education projects as her examples so I got more knowledge about the Mongolian education system. The major bonus of these training sessions is the food that is laid on for us - it is catered and there was chicken and beef and lots and lots of cake!! Although Mongolian cake is very sugary and the icing is more like shaving foam, it is not bad once you scrape off some of the foam!! We also went out for drinks after work to say farewell to our American colleague which was nice, but the bar was very smoky!

I had a quiet weekend in as I was pretty tired and I am now set for next week!

Terelj Pictures

From one extreme to the other!

The last week in work has been picking up a little with some translation work to be done, my first English classes (which went very well) and some more research into Fundraising and Marketing in Mongolia. I am still trying to get a handle on what exactly they want from me so we shall see.

It was a quiet week socially which was quite nice as I was able to just chill. We got internet put into the apartment on Tuesday – not wireless as promised but still it is nice to have internet in the apartment, especially as the work internet is pretty tempermental. It also means I now have the time to upload pictures so I got a few up on facebook over the week.

We had heard it was going to be a relatively warm weekend (-6 during the day and -20 ish at night) so Jane and I decided to organise a weekend outing somewhere. We eventually decided upon Terelj, the national park about 60 km from Ulaanbaatar which is easily accessible by public transport and a Jane’s Mongolian friend, Zaya, wanted to come with us – which ended up being a god send!

So Sarah and I met Jane and Zaya at the flower shop on Saturday where we bought sleeping bags and supplies. Sarah and I being good VSO’s who had listened to the security briefing, had each brought masses of stuff just in case there was a freak snowstorm, someone broke an arm, our bus broke down and we were stranded or any other such emergency! Zaya and Jane on the other hand had tiny bags with them! Once we had loaded ourselves down with water and food supplies we headed to Cafe Amsterdam for some lunch before heading to the bus. Sarah and I got a few stares with our massive bags but we got seats and had a fairly chilled journey for an hour to Terelj. It was enlivened by a Mongolian boarding the bus with a full skinned sheep in a bag and a massive sack of flour, and then him and his child proceeded to sit on the sheep!

We arrived at Terelj at about 6pm and it was starting to get dark. We hadn’t organised accommodation in advance so we starting walking down the road to the ger camps. The first one was too expensive (although why they were charging such high rates when most of their gers were empty I have no idea!). At the second ger camp Sarah and I (as the ones who most looked like foreigners) were left at the gate and the other two managed to negotiate a much better rate for the night. It was dark at this stage and the temperature was dropping so we hurried into our ger for the evening and got the fire going. It took a while to heat up but while it was warming we got the food on the fire and gradually stripped off the layers. Once we started adding the coal it got roasting inside the ger, you would have sworn we were in a different continent with the massive amount of heat. Of course we were boiling when we went to bed and within about 2 hours the fire was out and it was freezing. And this began the saga of the night, someone would wake up freezing every couple of hours and have to roll out of their blankets into the freezing ger and try to relight the fire. Sarah and I were very glad of our extra thick sleeping bags at this stage!

I was woken by the guard coming in to relight our fire in the morning and after enjoying the warmth of the ger I was up by about 9am. As the other slept on I ventured to the “bathroom” at the end of the field we were staying in and was amazed by the beauty of the place we were staying at. The light was perfect, the snow was sparkling and there was not a sound to be heard. It was fabulous. I quickly got dressed in all my gear and headed for a walk, just enjoying the peace and tranquillity which is hard to find in UB (and the fresh air!).

When I returned from my walk the ger was lovely and toasty and we discovered that the guard had a dog with puppies! They must have been just a few weeks old and they were absolutely adorable. Unfortunately as dogs are not allowed inside it is unlikely that they will survive the cold winter.

We walked from our ger to turtle rock, which was about an hour and a half walk, with our fingers crossed that there would be horses to rent there. All the local horses had been released a few days ago as they are every winter as Mongolians tend not to ride once the snow falls and stays. Luckily for us we found a guy who was able to bring us a couple of horses (or rather small ponies!) and I was a little dubious because they were so small, but Sarah pointed out that they could carry full size Mongolian men so on we got. They didn’t seem to have any problem carrying us and we set off on a loop up towards the monastery and back round to turtle rock. It was a similar route to the one we took the last time we were there, but it was completely different from horse back and the scenery was stunning with its dusting of snow and the absolute stillness. Mongolian horses are fairly stubborn and only respond to particular commands (in some of our horses cases a man with a bit of rope riding up behind it!) and so there were a number of cases where Jane and Sarah ended up just standing in place unable to move their horses, it was quite funny! Mongolians are not known for the comfort of their saddles and even though we avoided the wooden saddles the leather ones were not that much better! We were pretty sore after 2 hours of riding and were quite relieved to make it back to our ger in one piece and to get the fire going again for lunch.

As we had just over an hour until we had to leave for the bus and so Sarah, Jane and I decided to head up to the crest of the hill for a bit of a last minute walk. It was a bit of a slog with our sore muscles but as the sun was setting the light was hitting the opposite hills and they were just beautiful.

Our journey home was one of those journeys that never ends. I had somehow pulled something in my knee but it wasn’t too painful and we were heading home so I thought nothing of it. However as the bus was leaving at 6 and we were meeting it on the road we left a little before six with all our gear and decided to walk in the direction the bus was going rather than towards the bus as it would pick us up on the side of the road. This was not our best plan. It was getting dark, it was getting cold and we just kept walking, waiting to see the bus. I was very sore and the others were getting cold. It was over an hour before the bus picked us up. We were so excited to get on the bus, but as the schools were starting back today the bus was absolutely jammed and we had backpacks on so we were crammed in, standing up for the 40 minute journey with children throwing up, poking us and generally annoying the rest of the bus. We eventually reached our stop where we transferred to a mini bus, which in a stroke of luck drove down close to our apartment so we were able to jump out. I have never been so happy to see my apartment, my bed and some clean sheets and after some hot chocolate me and my aching muscles were off to bed!

Started work!

This week was the start of work, for better or worse this is what I am actually here to do and what I have been looking forward to since January when I got accepted for VSO. The experience of ICT, language training and the social side is all great, but it is the work that is the reason I am here and it was terrifying and exciting to be finally at that stage.

The organisation I am working for are the Mongolian Education Alliance, an education NGO working in Mongolia to improve the quality of teaching, access to schools for all children and to promote inclusive education. From the information I have so far they are doing a lot of good work.

The week was pretty slow to be honest, but that was to be expected as it was induction week and There was nothing really concrete for me to do at this stage. However having met with my counterpart, with all the other senior members of staff who I will be working with and all the program directors I have more of an idea of what it is they want me to help them with and how I can help them to move forwards. A lot of my time this week, when there was internet, was spent researching the different projects MEA is working on and working on the possibilities for future work that they mentioned to me.

One of the things I am most excited about doing is helping with the English language debating club. There is a Mongolian one as well which I am excited about too, but at the English one I will understand what is going on, and be able to help the kids with their debating. There is talk of organising a national english debating tournament which I am excited about and I am working on securing a good prize for the winning team.

Another thing I am going to be working on is the internship programme for high school student which they are piloting this year. There is no such thing as work experience for students either at high school or at university level, I dont even think there is careers guidance! I got so much out of internships and careers work done by my school that I want to give this opportunity to other students.
And there is marketing a magazine for 2-6 year olds, staff development workshops, English classes, staff birthday parties(!!), fundraising for rural libraries, helping with a young teachers training programme and teaching teachers about the differences between the Mongolian and the UK teaching system. In actual fact I am going to be busy this year and there is a lot I can get involved in, and a lot I do want to get involved in!

So the work side of things is starting to fall into place. I am very lucky that my colleagues, although they dont all speak English, are extremely welcoming and open. So much so that on Tuesday night we had happy hour to welcome me to MEA! This started with two bottles of wine and a cake. As a few of us were about to leave we were forcibly told to sit back down and have some vodka! Thus the circle of doom began. Shots of vodka were consumed with great gusto and every so often someone would leave without saying goodbye, and the first 2 times I was confused as to why and then 10 minutes later they would return with more vodka. The process of the circle of doom is everyone is poured a glass of vodka and you go round the circle and drink one at a time. This continues until all the vodka is gone and then another bottle is opened. There is no way of refusing politely, in fact no way of refusing at all, it is literally poured down your throat!

So 4 bottles later we eventually were driven home. I was a little worse for wear as Sarah will attest to, but I was up and back in work at 9am. No-one else arrived in until 10 and there were some sore heads about! I was warned in ICT not to drink off against Mongolians, but apparently I have a better stomach that these Mongolians!

The outside work social life has been continuing as well now I have my voice back. On Monday I visited Mike to chat about fundraising in Mongolia and I was sidetracked into a bar for Maria's birthday and ended up spending a nice evening there. On Thursday we had a movie night in the volunteer room and we watched Michael Clayton and Ice Age 3. And last night I was at a pizza party held by someone I didn't know, invited by someone I had met at a party 2 weeks earlier, and I knew most of the crowd there, and it was a great night of pizza making and craic! There is a fantastic social scene here in UB especially between the ex pats now there is a ban on public places after 9pm!

The plans for the weekend are to keep things pretty quiet, do the shopping and the washing and a bit of cleaning, and prepare some English lessons :(

Vol Comm and Moving In

I am all recovered from my brush with the cold, and will be getting the flu shot this week to avoid getting that!

On Friday night we had the volunteer committee meeting where we feed back to the programme office any issues that are bothering us. It was an interesting meeting that didnt get too heated and afterwards we headed out for food and drink. It was great to catch up with some of the vols from further afield and to hear what everyone was up to at their placements. A few of us then headed on to Steve and Belinda's ridiculously posh place which is absolutely amazing! Unfortunately at this stage my voice decided it was going and I ended up rasping away for the evening. I completely lost my voice on Saturday and ended up missing the weekends social activities because I couldn't speak!

However I was up for moving into our new apartment. On Saturday Sarah and I moved into the apartment we had finally decided upon - the first one we saw about 10 days earlier! As luck would have it as we were moving in we ran into one of the Americans from the party the week before and we discovered we are living in the apartment beside his, so it is nice to have an English speaking neighbour. We got moved in, settled in and had a quiet night watching the 4 English channels on our TV!

On Sunday I did laundry. This is such a simple process in the UK - separate colours and put in machine. Leave for 90 minutes, swap loads and put the wet stuff in drier. 90 minutes later it is clean and dry. Not so in Mongolia. We are lucky because we do have a twin tub, and so we are not handwashing for the year but it is still an all day task to wash 3 loads of laundry. I hadn't done much laundry in 6 weeks so I was definitely due washing. First step fill the first tub with water and soap, secondly add half a load of clothes and leave for 15 minutes to churn. Next empty the water from the tub. Now the tub is not connected to the mains water so this at first involved buckets until I made the decision to relocate the washing machine to inside the bath which made life easier. Once it is empty rinse the clothes. Then but the clothes into the spinner 2/3 items at a time. Spin for 3-5 minutes until most of the water is gone. This leaves you with a pile of wet laundry that then has to dry on a rack overnight. Repeat 6 times!

Of course because I had no drier this meant I spent Sunday sitting around the apartment in my summer clothes as everything else was wet! I had also managed to pick up some cleaning supplies and food so most of the pots needed washed as did the glasses and the like so in between washes I spent the weekend cleaning.

Apologies!!

Sorry for the delay in posting but I have been a little unwell this week so getting to VSO with my laptop was more trouble than it was worth! I am on the mend now, although still a little croaky.

Language School week 2

Unfortunately it has been a very quiet week as all of us except Sarah ended up getting sick. I missed 2.5 days of language school and am only just getting back on top of things now. However there were a few bits and pieces I made it out to.

On Wednesday we had our employers workshop. The employers had been in a meeting with VSO all day in a workshop discussing them having volunteers and the expectations VSO has of them. We then joined them at 4pm to discuss cultural differences and have one on one conversations with our employers. It was at my office again so everyone got a chance to see my plush office again!

It did all feel a bit strange at first walking in to this room and being matched up to your employers. I had met mine before which made things easier. The cultural difficulties thing was interesting as we split into groups to discuss the problems we thought the partners might have with volunteers, and us with them and how we could deal with them. The common threads were language, cultural differences and workplace structure. It was an interesting exercise I hope for both parties.

Then it was on to the individual meeting, which for me was very short as they have an induction plan and my first week will be an introduction to the organisation and what my role will be. It looks like a great organisation and I am excited to get started, although equally I am terrified

I did visit the doctor on Thursday and got some meds which have me feeling much better now I can keep food and water down!

Host Visit

Today we went on our host family stays. Following a quick stop at the corner store on the way to pick up some chocolates we went to meet our host families. I was staying with a teacher from the Bridge school, her husband who used to be a pilot and is now an inspector and their two children aged 13 and 18. They were incredibly nice and so welcoming to me. I had my first bus ride in Mongolia which was crazy, packed and insane. When I arrived we watched some judo as the Chinngis Khan judo World Cup was on in Ulaanbaatar and then we started making hoshur – meat pancakes. It was a fascinating process and they included me in all of it. The husband and wife worked together as a team in cooking and preparing food, it was really interesting to see the interactions. They let me roll out the pastry, and even do the footery pastry folding bit which I was rubbish at and they had done around 30 in the time it took me to do 1!! Crazy! They were really delicious especially straight from the fat!
Also the husband was very involved in the child raising and he was very hands on with the kids. This is a cultural thing as I have seen many men carrying children and looking after children in a very hands on way.

After we had had lunch my language teacher, Oka, came around and helped to translate and also my host mothers sister, Nara, who spoke no English. They had a great conversation while I sat and listened and tried to follow something that was going on. Every so often Oka would speak in English and tell me the context of the conversation, such as they had found her a husband, and then I could follow a bit of what was going on. They were going to visit another teacher who was sick in hospital so they made Buuz (Meat dumplings) and Milky salty tea to take to her. So I then got to be involved in the buuz making process which was similar to hoshur in that I was able to do the most basic task – rolling them and dipping the bottoms in oil. This time they didn’t even let me do the footery pastry bit! Lol! I did get to try and left over ones and they were also very good, but Hoshur is definitely better!
So the women left for the hospital and I was left with the husband watching judo. So we sat on the sofa for a couple of hours watching judo in Mongolian! Luckily I used to do judo so I could follow a little of what was going on. I did nearly fall asleep as I was absolutely exhausted but I stayed awake.

When the mother returned and the children woke up from a nap they were a bit stuck with what to do with me. So after dinner of meat, potato and carrot soup they got out the children's games, cards and sheep knuckles! Apparently these things transcend all languages and so I got trounced by the whole family at a variety of Mongolian games. It was a fantastic evening and I really enjoyed it. They sent me to bed at 9.30 and told me not to get up until 10am! They must have thought I was exhausted! I was and I had a great sleep.

On Sunday After I woke up a little early but didn’t dare get up before 10am! So I read a little bit of my book before getting up. When I did venture out of my room they placed about a ton of food in front of me. It started with biscuits and bread, then they cooked 6 eggs, 3 fried, 3 in an omelette and fried 6 slices of ham and half a plate of potatoes and they put them all in front of me! I assumed this was for everyone so after one egg and one slice of ham I put my fork down. They kept saying eat, eat, eat and I discovered all the food was for me. They kept saying how tall I was and therefore I must need more food! I was absolutely stuffed.

So after 2 hours of TV watching – Mongolian movie, Up and a little of Benjamin Button, more food appeared. It was now lunch time! So they gave me two plates full of tsuivan, traditional Mongolian noodles! I was absolutely stuffed.

In between all the food there was milky salty tea which wasn’t too bad, but I had to swap to black tea because I couldn’t take any more fullness! It was crazy!
Then after lunch we moved back to judo and playing Mongolian chequers which is crazy but I worked out after a few goes and the father played me at proper chess which he tried to let me win and I couldn’t even see that so he gave up! Lol! I was able to draw a game of chequers with the little girl though which was a triumph.
Then they started taking pictures so I started as well and we then exchanged presents, I gave them chocolates and some coins from the UK and Ireland, and they gave me an address book in English and a Mongolian song and dance CD! It was quite funny.

It was nearly time to leave so after yet more Judo me and the mother left and got a mini bus which must have had around 35 people in it, all on top of each other. I have watched these contraptions all week and wondered how they get so many people in apparently it is just strength of will, just shove them in and sit on top of each other!

And so back to the guest house, shared space and living on top of each other. It has been interesting to swap stories about host family experiences.

Language school

And so to Language school! Our course is known as the survival course and we were more concerned about surviving the course than learning to survive in Mongolia.
The school bus picked us up at 8.20 outside the guest house every day. We then had group lessons in the morning, lunch provided by the language school and one on one conversation lessons in the afternoon until 3.30. We still had meetings in the afternoon at VSO.
I didnt struggle too much as I had listened to the language CD before I came to Mongolia, others hadnt had the time, and I also took advantage of the girls in our hostel who speak fluent Mongolian to practice on! The poor girls must be sick of us all!
It is interesting having a vague idea of the alphabet and being able to read some of the signs on the buildings. It is also a good way to practice. At least the pronunciation of Mongolian words is ok once you know the sounds. There are however many vowel tones and phrases and it is pretty tough!

The evenings involved dinners out including hamburgers at the Budweiser pub, movie night
On Tuesday we were straight to the British Embassy (3.30) for a talk on the security and political situation in Mongolia. It was a really interesting talk and I was really interested in the political situation, the riots and everything. However it was a bit of an overlap with a previous session and we were pretty tired from the language school. Unfortunately Sarah and I had to leave early to make it to VSO for 4.30pm to look at an apartment. We were a little late but we did get to see the apartment. It was quite nice with modern and new furnishings

On wednesday I had a day off language school. Instead I had an Education Network meeting with the other VSO education volunteers. In the morning we were going to be based at my employers building so I was trying to make sure I looked nice. However as I went to dry my hair the power went off! It was also preety cold so I couldn’t spend the day with wet hair. So I shoved everything into my bag and ran down to VSO, about 20 minutes away and dried my hair there. The other vols did laugh at me but I did not freeze to death!

My employer, MEA, have a lovely office, really good facilities and warm! I was introduced to everyone and I cannot remember any names, but they all seem really, really nice and I am excited to be working there. The morning started with an introduction by each of the volunteers of their placement and what they were doing, I was selected to go first just to introduce myself! Everyone seems to be doing interesting things, but they are all very education focussed – teachers and teacher trainers, whereas I am not from an education background and didn’t understand a lot of the terminology.

Next was an introduction to MEA which was really interesting and very beneficial for me to hear before I start there! However they are already doing lots of fantastic stuff, I am not really sure what they need me for! I am going to try and meet with my boss who gave the talk (in English!) and see what exactly the role is.
There was then a talk on pre-school education in Mongolia which was interesting, but a bit too technical for me!

Then it was too the vegetarian food which I didn’t really like, but the conversation was good! This is a really great group of people.

In the afternoon we went back to VSO and had a few discussions on different issues faced by education volunteers and I was not really sure of what was going on, but it sounds like there are some issues with placement objectives and gauging how much achievement there has been.

On Friday we headed to the Steppe Inne, the bar at the British Embassy which is the only one currently open after 9pm. Because of swine flu all restaurants, bars, clubs etc have to be closed by 9pm! It is crazy. Because the embassy is British soil they can stay open later but still it only opens til 9.30. The government have also closed all the primary and secondary schools for 2 weeks to allow for cleaning and to prevent the spread of H1N1. It is insane because all the parents send their children to kindergarten instead because they have no babysitters. SO there is lots of germ sharing going on. To get to the British Embassy Sarah and I took a taxi on our own! We flagged down a car and jumped in – taxi Mongolian style. He didn’t quite understand my directions but I had my cheat sheet and through directions and hand signals.

After the bar we managed to get into a restaurant about 8.30 and were not kicked out until 9.15 or so, but it must be incredibly difficult for bars and clubs to close at 9pm. But it was decent Indian naan that I had, the others enjoyed their Indian food. There was then another taxi ride where my directions got better. In fact both taxi men were lovely, neither were taxi companies but both very easy to deal with and direct so hopefully taxi rides will not be too much of a trial. We then arrived at an ex-pat party full of Americans, British, Austrialians and non-Mongolians! It was a great party and I met some really nice people including an American who had spent some time in Northern Ireland so it was nice to talk some Northern Irish politics. Stefan was good enough to walk me home at 12.30 as we had an early start the next day.