Ruthy in Mongolia
2nd Jul 2009My life... I'm a lucky lady! May was such a busy month and since then things have just been hectic but fun and obviously my previous efforts to keep on top of my blog have failed! However, as the country hots up (we've got 30 today) so has work and pressures but I'm loving it and wouldn't have it any other way! So post the Trans Siberian what have I been up to? On my return to Mongolia on the 21st I went for pizza to celebrate my birthday and lots of friends attended as well as my colleagues and the guys from the train from China! I had pepperoni pizza and it was so delicious, I've developed such a love of pizza here... I wonder if that will remain even once I'm back in the UK? After dinner a few of us went to a Beatles themed bar that opened recently called Let it be. I love this place and haven't been able to find enough excuses to go and hang out there. The manager is Beatles crazy! He's even written a book in Mongolian all about the Beatles. Someone told me that when Mongolia was communist they were not able to access any kind of popular, western music but one of the bands that was getting through on the black market, secretly was the Beatles and that this music became sort of symbolic of their secret resistance to Government control. I couldn't say for sure if that's true but I can say for sure that the manager of let it be bar is obsessed with the Beatles and would just go out of his mind if someone from Liverpool had a drink in his bar, better still if he could go to Liverpool! He looked really disappointed when I told him I was “from North Yorkshire which is near Newcastle.” But from that initial disappointment he has been really friendly, enthusiastic friend! So for my birthday we obviously drank lots of Mongolian beer, a volunteer leaving the following day insisted we drink straight vodka the Mongolian way and then we all sang along to let it be. Unfortunately, Cassie missed out on all this fun because I think the pollution in Beijing had got the better of her and she was feeling poorly :-( Luckily the weekend following my birthday my good friends here had arranged a trip to the countryside. We rented three gers in a place called Manzushir which is where the ruins of a Buddhist temple stand in a beautiful valley where eagles soar above. Lovely company, beautiful setting and inevitably lots of drinking! The VSO country director and his family came to which I was initially concerned about knowing how out of hand Cassie and I can get, never mind the other ten or so volunteers but as it turns out they are a lovely family with vast experience of working overseas and with volunteers so apparently there was nothing we could do to surprise them! You'll have to watch the videos and decide for yourselves! We went for a walk to see the ruins and just as we were returning it started to rain. My friends Rene and Gecca who are from the Philippines had agreed to cook delicious Filipino food so they started cooking and drinking and dancing. Everyone got on so well and I think everyone had a great night. People from such different places: France, Venezuela, India, Philippines, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Australia and America. All different ages, all different backgrounds but brought together for some silly British ladies birthday in a ger in Mongolia! There's cross cultural learning and globalisation for you all squeezed into an iccle ger. The following morning with a slightly achy head to say the least we had to pack up and head back to Ulaanbaatar. In the drunken fun I'd lost my phone so wasn't able to check if our bus was definitely coming to get us and for 30 minutes sat by the roadside started to feel a little concerned. But the weather was beautiful, eagles were soaring directly above us and I was far too entertained by the four friends of mine that had decided to walk back to Ulaanbaatar over the mountains which took them nearly 8 hours. Luckily our bus did arrive with my friend Anya and she first laughed at me for losing my phone and then looked horrified at my friends walking back! The following day the first thing she asked me was if they made it back safely! Maybe we should have had more faith in their navigational skills. Cassie and I continued hanging out, sharing and just enjoying our company but unfortunately my work was calling and I'd occasionally have to go to the office (the day Cassie left I had to go to a VSO Mongolia conference I'd help to organise). Cassie had to be at the airport at maybe 5am so I went with her but then had to leave the city for the conference at 7.30am so rushed home to get a little bit of shut eye. The conference was being held at the summer camp which the organisation I work for runs. The hope is that by hiring the place out as a conference venue we can generate income to pay for the camps costs when the kids are there. I was quite passionate that VSO Mongolia support us in this venture. When I put it forward as an idea I told people that the facilities were basic to try and reduce any 'no one told me there wouldn't be running water' and 'no one told me we'd have to use drop pit toilet' comments. However, what this appeared to do was give some people the idea that they would have a terrible time and would live in squalor for the conferences duration. As a consequence a little sub committee of the actual volunteer committee formed and tense emails flew to and from various people trying to resolve this situation. Luckily we arranged a meeting and people who'd actually been to the camp came out in huge support to balance the negative arguments from people that had never been there. I guess it was my fault for kicking of the debate of the conference venue with negative information rather than just going into the debate selling it for its positives of which there are many. Anyway the issues were discussed and it was agreed that we'd have the conference at the summer camp venue. And I have been told that after the conference those people that caused the furore had to admit that the venue was beautiful and well managed. Apparently I handled their attitudes 'with much good grace and patience.' I just wonder how people get into a situation where they are volunteering with a charity in a developing country where they are (or meant to be) trying to contribute to the fight against poverty and empower people but actually expect to stay in 4* hotels for conferences. I struggle to see how given the choice between private businesses Vs. a partner organisation where the money generated will be used to support vulnerable kids, people or possibly more importantly VSO volunteers chose the business. But I'm using my blog as a sounding board now and that was never my intention but I just continue to be surprised by such views whilst, obviously, acting 'with much good grace and patience' hehe. So the journey to the conference kicked off two hours after I said my farewells to Cassie. I, maybe unsurprisingly, passed out for the first part of the journey when we had a tarmac road. Then I was suddenly woken up with demands of 'Ruth! Which way do we go now?! The driver doesn't know!' And you assume I do? I calmed people by saying it would all be cool we just have to follow the train line (assuming it's the right track which is likely as Mongolia doesn't exactly have a vast rail network). I said lets just head for that mountain there it looks like it could be the right one. The problem I told them would be trying to pick the right valley when we're roughly two hours into the journey. I'd got it wrong the time before and we'd ended up on an illegal logging track which apparently could be dangerous. As a plus though we got to meet a nomadic family and chat to them while we had tea and established how to get on the right road. As it turns out we were only half an hour north of where we needed to be so it wasn't such a disaster but seen as this time we had a conference to crack on with and were already running behind schedule I thought I should try to get the right valley. I picked one, we ran it by a passing truck driver who agreed and ten minutes into the valley I began recognising things and we were on the right road. I love the summer camp site, it's so beautiful. Other volunteers arrived by train and some were camping by the river but I bagged a place in one of our dormitories. Our conference is meant to be volunteer led and the agenda set by volunteers so as a keen attendee of the volunteer committee I'd had a hand in things and was really keen for people to enjoy the venue as it was my partner organisations. However, last year when we had the conference at the same place I had been a BIG stress head and as this could be my last conference and last time to spend time with a lot of the volunteers especially those living in the countryside I wanted to enjoy it. Luckily I have made fabulous friends here and they were keen for me to enjoy it too. They said they'd gage the conference by how I was feeling. If I was down they needed to get everyone happy and active, if I was stressed everyone needed to calm down, if I was tired we'd take a tea break. As it was I was generally happy and engaged for the whole thing so there were no Ruth related conference emergencies! There wasn't a very big youth contingency at this years conference. Something I worry about as I truly do believe the team of volunteers can be seriously lifted in its spirits, provided with a strong development perspective and encouraged to actively participate when youth volunteers are around. I also worry that some ageist attitudes can exist and the more youth volunteers there are the more this can be challenged. Saying that we were few on the ground this year but I think we did a great job anyway. Sessions were run on monitoring and evaluation, how volunteer placements are developed, improving positive communication, in country training (ICT), networking between programme areas and mainstreaming disability. As well as lots of fun team building activities and social activities. One evening each nationality of volunteers had to provide a performance related to their country, we called the cultural evening. We had performances from the Philippines, India, UK, North America, Netherlands and Mongolia. It was great fun, the Brits did a quiz and sang some song that's apparently from Yorkshire but I'd never heard it and I wasn't alone. Must be that generational difference thing at work again! Even though I'm not entirely sure when I'll be home we are still trying to work towards September and even though this date was months off at the time of the conference it forced me to reflect on my learning and experiences to that date. It forced me to look into the future, to start planning for some of the changes that are ahead. It made me realise that this lifestyle both challenging and rewarding will come to an end. New challenges and rewards will no doubt fill that void but it will be different. I made amazing friendships here that have seen me through some tough times, great times and the conference was our opportunity to blow off some steam, celebrate our friendships and make those preparations for saying goodbye: Sophie off to travel in July and then Burundi with Handicap International, Gecca off in August to touch base at the Philippines and then onto Uzbekistan with the United Nations (UN) and many others. Basically though this emotional whirlpool led to lots of drinking and shenanigans! That was May....
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