May 2009 Archives

May 17 – May 24, 2009

Wow, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been here a week already.  I am already speaking some Mongolia so I feel a lot better mentally.  Physically, my body is still adjusting to the time change, extremely high altitude, and terrible pollution.  It feels like I’m chewing the air at times.   The temperature has fluxuated considerably, from freezing to about 90F. 

Day 1: Sunday.

My first day in UB (which is what the locals call Ulaanbaatar), George, a retired American from New Jersey, was kind enough to take me on a walking tour so that I could orient myself and see where all the major landmarks and shops were. 

We ate lunch with Hugh, a volunteer from Scotland, near the humongous Russian Embassy complex at a Malaysian / Thai vegetarian restaurant called Banana Mali.  Then we went to the VSO office so I could go the vol room (volunteer room) where we can use the internet, check out books or just hang out and relax.   One of VSO’s goals is to reduce HIV infection, so the volunteers made sure to show me the condom stash – a cookie tin labelled “tasty treats.”  Perfect packaging, I thought.   I met Vickie, an Armenian / Lebanese woman who has been living in Ireland.  Typical volunteer - an international citizen.  We all walked around and went to the State Department Store where I found out that bathrooms don’t have toilet paper so George and Vickie suggested that I buy and carry around at all times a bag of wet wipes and tissues or toilet paper. I also checked out the market to see what other necessities they had.  George and many others have told me that if I see an imported product at a shop, I should buy it right away before the supply runs out.  Apparently, continuity of product supply is a big problem.

Then we went to the Stupa Café, a great little café located at a Buddhist center that offers meditation on Wednesday nights.  We ran into Brian, a volunteer from the UK.   I later went to an Indian / Mexican restaurant for dinner with George, Hugh, and Aki, a Dutch volunteer who helps run the guesthouse where I’m staying.  We all thought of our travels and all agreed that we had never seen an Indian /Mexican restaurant anywhere else in the world. 

Day 2: Monday in Ulaanbaatar

Monday morning I woke up to find another volunteer from India at the guesthouse.  Navamani is a physiotherapist from South India, although she has been living in Delhi for a few years.  She is going to work for the Association for Parents of Disabled Children.

We both had to get up to catch a bus at 8 am that would take us to the Bridge International School where we would start two weeks of Mongolian lessons.  Poor Navamani arrived around midnight then had to wake up early for school!

School was an interesting experience.  The majority of the students are religious missionaries, mostly Catholic.  They’re from Cameroon, Korea, the Philippines and Austria.  Then there are other Christian missionaries from Canada and the US.  Finally, there’s a group of Korean volunteers who explained their service as the “Korean Peace Corps.”  One girl asked me if I’d chosen Mongolia or had to accept the assignment.  I gathered that she’s finding Mongolia a bit tough. 

Navamani and I are the only students in our class so we learn at a faster pace than larger classes.  We also get tired faster.  The Mongolian alphabet has 38 letters, 36 are identical to the Russian alphabet and 2 are unique.  The first day our teacher made us go outside to practice our first greetings on some elementary school children and construction workers.  After class we rode the same bus but were told by Andre, the Cameroonian Catholic missionary, that the driver probably wouldn’t drop us off at the same spot in front of School #5, so he told us to get off at his stop where he would lead us to our place.  When we got off there was a big commotion from the driver and some other students but we just stayed with Andre.  He has such a pure, honest quality to his character that I knew that we could trust him.  So he walked with us through the dusty, hot city and helped us dodge cars (pedestrians don’t have the right of way).  He showed us where he lived but then continued on, a long way, to our stop.  Then he returned to his place.  Very kind gesture on his part.  I’m finding that the foreigners really trust each other and help each other out here.  It’s a very good feeling.  As the Japanese would say, kimochi ga ii desu.

We ate at the Ananda Café, a vegetarian restaurant run by the Lotus Children’s Center, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), that also runs the Lotus Guesthouse where we’re staying.  We get to eat lunch for free everyday.  VSO supports the guesthouse and children’s center, so they pay for our lunch there everyday.  

In the afternoon, Navamani and I had to go to the VSO office for In Country Training (ICT) where the country director spoke to us. We met the national staff, as well.  One of them asked us about the bus.  Apparently, the school called VSO to tell them we’d gotten off at the wrong stop.  Someone’s looking out for us. 

Today we went to a country briefing on culture at the Gender Center.  One of the staff told us we were going to take a taxi.  We walked outside the VSO building to a main street and she raised her hand.  Two young guys in a Hyundai stopped, she asked how much for a kilometer and we got it.  Basically, in Mongolia, everyone with a car operates as a taxi to earn extra money.  n the way to work, during lunch, on the way home, etc. In fact, people stop for us all the time, asking where we want to go.  It is very strange but quite convenient.   I have yet to use one on my own.  Today we just learned all the words and phrases for using a taxi or bus.

Before hunkering down for the evening, I ventured out to the little market in front of the guesthouse, the dilguur, and bought a bottle of juice.  I was a little nervous because I didn’t know how to say “how much?” and hadn’t yet memorized all of the numbers I’d learned earlier in the day.  No worries.  The shopkeeper just held up 8 fingers to indicate 800 tugrugs.  I paid for the juice/soda and left.  Long day.

Day 3: Wednesday in Ulaanbaatar

I woke up at 5:20 am again today without an alarm.  Breakfast at the guesthouse is plain white bread, jam, hazelnut spread, and tea.  Fortunately, I bought eggs so I’ve been boiling them.  And I’ve been taking my Univera supplements that my sister gave me.  I’ve been taking Ageless Xtra for my daily dose of fruits and vegetables, aloe vera for good intestines, and RegeniCare to lubricate the joints.  I must say that I’m feeling pretty good.  I will have to become a daily user for life.

A group of Aussies and Europeans showed up at the guesthouse.  The Irish guy, like so many Europeans, assumed I was a stupid American who doesn’t travel or speak languages so he asked me if this was the first time I’d left the USA.   Another British guy that morning gave me a good show by walking back and forth between his room and the bathroom wearing just his tight red boxer shorts.  Navamani would have fainted. 

Days 3 and 4: Wednesday and Thursday in Ulaanbaatar

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty similar.  We woke up early, around 5:30, prepared breakfast, studied a little and walked to the bus stop.  The teachers, we have two who alternate teaching days, have been teaching us many things that aren’t in the textbook because they think we’re good students.   They both speak English and can explain grammar, although it’s not the main focus of the Survival Course.  It’s great to be forming sentences.  They say I have good pronunciation but I find it rather difficult. I guess I’m just really hard on myself and impatient.  I want to become fluent quickly.  These things take time…

The best part of Wednesday and Thursday was that I met with my programme officer, Erke, and talked with him about my project and my position.  I am very excited about starting work in the cashmere and wool industry.  The project objective is:  “To increase the domestic value of livestock production by providing better marketing opportunities and services to raw material producers and processors, establishing three grading laboratories and building marketing and design capacity of the producers and processors.”  

“Expected results of the project are:

·         300 herders and traders trained in basic market principles by international volunteers

·         100 traders at soum level have increased skills in the grading and sorting of fine and semi fine quality fibres by Foundation for Development of Wool & Cashmere Enterprises (FDWCE) NGO trainers

·         3 grading laboratories established and being used by herders and traders to certify the quality of their fibre

·         10 herders and traders trained in laboratory use and maintenance by the FDWCE experts

·         3 marketing contract development workshops attended by herders, traders and processors implemented at soum level

·         5 cashmere and wool processors trained in marketing skills and are actively assessing the market for new designs of cashmere products.”

I won’t bore you with more details. 

The assignment will only be 9 months, which is very short, so I’ll have to work extra hard.  Since I don’t have a direct employer other than VSO, I will be an official consultant to the World Bank, given that they’re funding the project.  That’ll give me a leg up on landing my next job, I’m sure.

Erke said that I will get my own one-bedroom apartment in Arvaikheer, Ovorhangai province.  I don’t have to share with anyone else.  I’ll go to Arvaikheer on June 6^th, after VSO’s summer conference.   Can’t wait.

A group of Aussie ladies arrived at the guesthouse.  Three of them are sisters and one is a friend.  Along with their local Rotary Club back in Australia, they’ve been helping out the Lotus Children’s Center for about 10 or 11 years.   They’re here now for 2 weeks volunteering.  They’re very friendly and talkative.  However, when I mentioned that I was having difficulty remembering the numbers but that Navamani seemed to have them down, one of them said that she probably had the advantage because she had already had to learn English.  In other words, the lady was assuming that I was having a hard time because Mongolian was my first foreign language.  I get those kinds of comments from most Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders. I didn’t ask the ladies if they spoke any languages other than their native tongue.

Day 5: Friday in Ulaanbaatar

Today I went to school again with Navamani.  I’m getting to know the other students who are really extremely kind and helpful.  I talk a lot with André, the Cameroonian, Christine and Eric, the two Americans from Wisconsin, and a Canadian guy from Nova Scotia whose name I can’t remember or was never told.  They’ve told us about the good markets and even where you can get pretty good pizza, according to North American standards. 

There are a few girls who work at the guesthouse who helped us study tonight. That really helped a lot.   However, their accents are different from our teacher’s. 

Later in the day Navamani met with Brian to talk about the upcoming summer conference and other volunteer issues.  Since Brian is assigned to work at Mercy Corps, we talked about my assignment with the textile project.  Mercy Corps is very involved in the same field so I will need to meet with people there.  That should be a good contact for this assignment and in the future.

Day 6:  Saturday at the Ger Camp outside Ulaanbaatar

Doug, our country director, invited us out to a Ger Camp near the old Manshirkid Monastery.  He’d originally planned to take us out to Terelj, another camp, but wanted to join a bunch of volunteers who’d already organized a trip to Manshirkid.  Navamani and I rode in Doug’s SUV with his wife, their two kids, and George, my compatriot.  The ride was less than an hour, I think, as the monastery is very close to UB is nestled at the base of some mountains.  There is no road through the mountains so the road goes way around.  I think that must have something to do with the Buddhist belief that the ground is sacred and shouldn’t be torn up needlessly.  In fact, traditional shoes point up so that they don’t dig into the earth. 

A ger is a traditional tent that is built on a wooden foundation with many wooden rods for support, covered in wool felt and canvas.  More felt layers are used in winter than in summer.  Our ger had 5 beds and a stove in the middle.  I was the lucky person who got stuck lighting the fire at night and in the morning.  Thankfully, another volunteer from the UK, Chris, had a lighter and helped me out at night.  He got so drunk and even took a header down the stairs Saturday night that he couldn’t remember helping me light the fire when I mentioned it on Sunday morning.  Despite the fact that his forehead was cut up and he was in pain, he hiked 8 hours and 15 km back to Ulaanbaatar with three others to traverse the mountain and visit some sacred sights.  He’s a trooper.

At the camp, we had a lot of fun.  A group of us hiked up the mountain we were camped on.  I was huffing and puffing and had to stop a few times to catch my breath.  The altitude is really high for someone coming from near sea level.  Also, to be frank, I have been a bit of a couch potato the last year, much to my chagrin.  So I didn’t hike all the way to the summit with the others but took my time and made it past the steepest section then waited around for the others to return.  I found a walking stick that I used on the way down.   Doug’s wife, Sarah, also found one and used it.  We zigzagged our way down, downhill ski style.

I’m hoping that I can get into better shape in the coming months so that I can hike up more mountains.  There are also some long distance races in the country.  I read in the UB Post that there is a 75 km and 100 km race up in the north soon.  I won’t be doing those.  However, I think that I will try to train for the 20 km/ half marathon race coming up in September.  That’s a good distance for me. 

Sunday, we came home around noon, napped, showered and read books.  That's it.

LAX – PEK CA 984 and PEK – ULN CA 901. 

It’s 6:28 am in Beijing, China where I’m sitting at The Lucky Shamrock Café in this incredible airport – an architectural wonder.   I can’t believe that I actually managed to fly out of LAX at all.  Trying to wrap up my life in the U.S. and pack for a year in Mongolia wasn’t an easy task.  Everything was pretty much in limbo for a few months until I got the final acceptance from the Mongolian Foreign Affairs Office just last Wednesday, a mere 7 days ago.  Then I had to wait for my visa to be approved, processed and sent back to me before leaving.  So I missed the May 15^th arrival date but just by a hair. 

I will start by thanking everyone who helped make this adventure a reality.  First, CUSO-VSO for having accepted me as a volunteer (with pay) and for being a fantastic organization.  They covered medical exams, vaccinations, airfare, training (wonderful training by the way), and future support, I’m sure.  Special thanks to my advisor, Sarah Pentlow, and Gesa Harmston, visa and travel coordinator.

Let me not forget those who wrote recommendation letters for me:  Michele Ots, my former boss from UNDP Cambodia – and a friend whom I haven’t seen in ages, sadly;  Anne Maria Tafoya, a friend and former LA County inmate… I mean co-worker; and Debbie Franklin, a friend and city councilmember in Banning.

Next, my sister, Nancy, and her family for having housed and fed me for a few months.  It was good to live in Seattle for a while and to see Nancy’s life.  I think I could have been pretty content there had I landed a job.  I tried to start doing freelance work but since it was in a city where I’m not known, it would have taken much longer to work out.  I’d like to thank Finnegan “The Finnster” for getting me hooked on Sesame Street and for playing all those imaginary games with me.  I have to thank Elijah Bear for teaching me some sign language and for all that cuddling.  I apologize to Elijah for spending so much time everyday putting him through the paces to stand and walk.  I’m no physical therapist.   I have to thank Doug for setting up this website and for fixing my computer after Finnegan messed it up.    My sister, Nancy, deserves a gold star for providing endless tech support and for loading me down with 27 lbs of Univera nutritional supplement provisions.  She was worried that a vegetarian like me would suffer in a meat-centric Mongolia.  I am already suffering… from carrying around 27 extra pounds of luggage!

My Madre, Teresa, and stepfather, Mike, deserve thanks for housing me for a few months as well. My mom later provided excellent mail delivery of thinks like checks and my passport.  Oh, and she drove an hour to pick up a year’s supply of my preferred allergy meds from Kaiser right before I left.  That’ll help.

My brother, Robert, and his girlfriend, Roseanne, deserve thanks for letting me stay with them for about 2 months, up until I left last night.  Unfortunately, I am highly allergic to their cigarette smoke, so I couldn’t socialize too much in the living room, preferring the less smoky back room.  I hope they understood.  I have been suffering so much from allergies, which led to bronchitis, sinusitis and otitis.  Not fun.

Terry, for being a fun, adventurous spirit who is always game for an adventure, even on the spur of the moment.  He’s the friend who’s been left to deal with terrible tasks such as putting my remaining belongings in storage and looking after my car.  Oh, and I’m grateful that he accompanied me to the airport so that I could hand him over my car.  Of course, I made him wait around too to see if China Air would allow me to check those big bags too.  I was prepared to start sorting through everything, pulling out the unnecessary objects for Terry to cart back to my storage unit.  They were 2 kilos under the limit. No need to show everyone at LAX my dirty laundry.

The flight from LAX to Beijing was twelve and a half hours.  It’s a great setup.  You leave at 1:40 am, sleep a full night, then wake up for breakfast and land in the morning at 5:20 and in China.   The interesting part was on the tarmac before exiting the plane.  We were told to all sit still to wait for a Chinese agent to board.  He was a health officer, wearing gloves and a mask, carrying a Star Trek-like gun.  He pointed it at each passenger’s forehead to read their temperature!  It was totally freaky.  I was too warm and sweating a bit so I was a little nervous when he came around.  But we all passed.  I told the passenger next to me that I have had terrible allergic reactions lately and have been coughing, so I was really glad I didn’t cough.  He confessed that he too has allergies and sneezes a lot, so he was relieved to have controlled himself.  What a relief for us both.

Since having taken hard hits with the avian influenza and SARS, the Chinese are very vigilant.  Many airport employees are wearing masks.  All the immigration agents are wearing them. At the immigration checkpoints, there are heat-sensing cameras to detect people with high temperatures.  There are signs everywhere to walk slowly.  We even had to fill out a health questionnaire directly related to the swine flu.  What cities and countries have you visited in the past 2 weeks?  Have you had contact with anyone with influenza?  Do you have any of the following symptoms?  Coughing, sore throat, sneezing, fever, headache, diarrhea, or vomiting.  It says that they will take legal action against anyone who lies on the form.  So I truthfully checked the coughing box then made special notes that my doctor cleared me to travel.  I managed to stifle a few coughs while walking through immigration and security. 

Status update.  As I arrived at Gate E01 around 7:08 am to board flight CA 901 to Ulaanbaatar, I was asked to go open one of my suitcases that had been pulled from the mass.  Apparently, I had packed a suspicious looking metal object.  I knew exactly what it was when I saw the x-ray they showed me.  That flask of Canadian maple syrup I purchased in Ottawa specifically for this trip!!  Fortunately, the Chinese allowed me to keep it.  I was sure it would go confiscated just as my cough syrup was by a masked man in security wearing surgical gloves.   

Eight hours later.  3:30 pm Beijing time.  I feel like Tom Hanks in “The Terminal” who spends hours pushing around luggage carts and wandering the terminals of his airport.  It has been sweltering.  I was dripping sweat earlier this morning because the air conditioning was not turned on until about 9 am.  Fortunately, I was given back my checked bag that has my clothes and toiletries in it so I was able to give myself a wet wipe bath and change into clean clothes. I felt super dry on the inside and sticky on the outside.  Despite having brushed my teeth three times and rinsed my sinuses out twice, I still felt gross.  At least I managed to find some reasonably cool spots to sit in at times.  The lounge/ hotel area where Air China took us to wait in so stuffy and extremely hot that I can’t stay in there too long.  They’ve fed us breakfast and lunch so I’ve gone in for those meals but have had to leave to walk around and cool down. 

I did manage to bond with two friendly Mongolians: Bill, a young guy returning from studying in Malaysia for a few years, and Buu, a guy who’s lived in Ireland for five years and is just going home for vacation.  We talked about Mongolian food, culture and language.  We went through my guide book and they helped me pronounce words from my phrase book too.  We talked about foreign films, vampire films, and James Bond films.  If you want to know anything about product placement in films, Buu is your guy.  He knows what car James Bond drives in every scene of every movie.  He can tell you what brand of whiskey people are drinking in American movies.  He wonders why actors in old films drank Johnny Walker but in new films they drink Jack Daniels. Or is it vice versa? The three of us have exchanged email addresses and categorized ourselves under the title: Flight CA 901, Terminal 3. 

Two hours later.  The revised 7 pm departure date was changed to 8 pm.   At 5:50 pm now. Argggggghhhhhh!!!!!  I just finished my third meal here.  I told the others that I hope we aren’t all eating breakfast together tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately, Buu thinks that the flight will be scrapped altogether because there are too few passengers.  

Arrived.  The flight finally took off at 8 pm.  Apparently, the wind in Ulaanbaatar is so bad that flights are often postponed until the evening after the wind dies down a bit.  There was a lot of turbulence but we arrived at around 11:00 pm Ulaanbaatar time, 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles.   I somehow lost Saturday somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I hope to recover that day, maybe when I finish my assignment.

I sure hope that I receive my passport and visa back from the Mongolian Embassy by Monday.  Otherwise, CUSO-VSO will have to postpone my travel to Ulaanbaatar.  I am a little nervous.  Of course, there are also tons of details to take care of here before leaving.  I feel so unprepared. 

I keep thinking that I won't have enough room for all of my necessities.  And how do I fit even a few winter garments into one suitcase?  It gets to -50C/F there. Another volunteer advised me to bring plenty of warm clothes.  But how many parkas and thick sweaters does a Southern Californian have or need?  And since I'll be paid a low local wage while I'm there, I won't have money to buy much.  I'm hoping my 2 wool coats and an overabundance of fat reserves will suffice.

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I returned from Canada.  It took that long for my left arm to heal after I fell on it extremely hard.  Between the bad arm, horrendous allergy problems, and getting jabbed regularly for vaccinations, I have felt like the walking wounded.  Good news is that my blood test results were great - negative for a myriad of horrible illnesses.  I wasn't worried about having any major disease or STD but it is reassuring to be 100% certain. The Mongolia government requires HIV and TB testing so I know they won't reject me for health reasons.

The Skills for Working in Development (SKWID) training was a mindblower.  Four long days of learning and applying the participatory approach to working.  Since I fell down on Saturday morning, the second day, I kind of faded in and out regularly.  Couldn't be helped.  I did okay with my faciliations until the final one, where I partnered with Alastair, a Briton who's been living in Canada forever.  We had worked something out beforehand than he changed it when we started.  Unfortunately, I was unable to be flexible and keep up with him. (I'll blame it on my arm pain.)  I could see myself crashing and burning in front of everyone.  Horrible.  The funny part was that the more I withdrew and the quieter I got, the more he talked and took control, and vice versa.  We had to laugh about it in the end.  Alastair was surprised he got his certificate of completion, given our horrible final performance.  But as Mike the facilitator said, sometimes you just miss the boat. 

The group was small, there were only 8 of us and 4 of us had attended the previous four-day Preparing for Change training.  Steffen, a Canadian anthropologist, Judy and Stephen, a married couple destined for Cameroon, and me.  The other 4 were pretty interesting: Melanie, a nurse from San Francisco, Pauline, a Quebecoise, Sarah, an environmentalist working for the Canadian government, and Alastair, a retired Briton who's lived in Canada forever. He also had already volunteered for a year in Bangladesh.

The group was great because we went out to eat together every night then went to the Mayflower pub afterwards.  We had a lot of laughs and mighty interesting conversations about Komodo dragons, marmots cooked from the inside out, and various maladies that have occurred to some of us in various countries.   I definitely enjoyed myself more during my 2 weeks in Canada with such like-minded individuals.  I really felt extremely happy.

So I have been back in SoCal for a month, working on filling out tons of paperwork, getting all kinds of medical tests and vaccinations, and trying to get a criminal background check without doing the Livescan fingerprinting process.  That was impossible.  Finally, CUSO-VSO accepted a county court records search for me.  Hallelujah!  So once I go to the dentist, I'll be set.

I wrote to a volunteer who's in Araikhveer, the town where I'll be stationed.  He works with a water project there.  He said that nobody speaks English there so that I should really study the Mongolian language.  How much can I learn in less than 2 weeks?  I guess I'll have to buy language software.  Nareej also told me that the place is extremely boring so I should bring plenty of movies.  Hmmm... In addition, he's vegetarian too, and is having a hard time.  Hello hardship, I say.