Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Week 1 of VSO Assignment.

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.