Ruthy in Mongolia
11th Aug 2009Time to come home Well I wanted to write about July and then write another blog just before I was due home but I just logged in today to learn that actually my account runs out today! So this will be my final blog I think! I will extend it for free so it's still online but after 2 years of on off volunteering I don't have the £30 to pay to keep this blog going to such an extent! I don't mean that to sound so woe me! I've loved my volunteering experienced and gained immense amounts personally and professionally but I am... skint! So what has the last month entailed for me and what is the next month likely to bring? Since I last had a chance to write I have moved! I was given about a weeks notice and was a bit stressed because I didn't know where I would move to but as with all these things they work out great in the end. I have my own apartment now that isn't too far from work and quite central. My landlady is the lady I was staying with when I got the news about Paul way back in September 2007. I thought it was quite fitting really that I've moved so much since being here that I continue in that way until the very end! And for my landlady to be one of the first Mongolian's I got to know and my first experience of how beautifully generous and caring Mongolians are, it also seems nice to be leaving with her again so prominent in my life. Her and her family are so lovely. I also feel like it will be great to have my own place before leaving so I can try to reflect on the last few years and prepare to return to the UK. I've heard volunteers say that they always focus on the leaving/ going to the country where they will volunteer. They never think about how it will impact on them to leave the country they've volunteered in and go home. I've done a lot of thinking about this, maybe I can already sense it will be hard to leave my life here behind. However, I keep reminding myself not to expect that I will struggle! maybe I'll come home and everything will just come together.... maybe! Our summer camp also came to an end this last month and we said goodbye to another group of eight UK volunteers that worked really hard. I also said goodbye to my mum who had been working really hard on an art project at the camp that hopes to help empower the kids and promote the work we do to try and support these children. The art project is split between individual paintings and one large mosaic that all the children worked on. The theme for the project was decided on by the children and is called 'our world.' I'm playing around with ideas of extending this project to a global education project and extending it to some groups of young people in Derby. So maybe groups can do the similar art projects under the title 'our world.' I thought it might make for some interesting comparisons between the young people's perception of their world in Mongolia and those of young people in Derby. Like in Mongolia I'd hope to hold an exhibition of the work in the UK too. The exhibition is fast becoming me biggest project at the moment. I'm heavily reliant on the kindness of others for a venue and covering the costs for an opening night and presenting the work. However, hopefully my networking and work over the last two years will pay off, it'll all come together and we'll have a successful exhibition that the kids get a lot out of, that shows our organisation for being the great organisation it is and that educates people about the lives of vulnerable children in Mongolia. I guess I'll have to update you on that when I see you next, hopefully not in the too distant future. My replacement volunteer arrives on Saturday 15th August. I'm really excited to meet him and start the handover. I already wrote him a 14 page handover report, poor boy! I want the handover to be informative and as smooth as possible as much for him but also my colleagues. It must be unsettling for their work and themselves to have volunteers coming and going all the time. They are a bit nervous about working with a boy because their last volunteers have always been girls but I've reassured them I think he'll make a great volunteer and they'll get lots out of it. Firstly, he knows English grammar so he'll probably do a much better job of teaching English than I ever could! I've started preparing for coming home. The VSO leavers pack recommends you start 6 months before you depart! Ha! That was never going to happen but every now and then I get a glimpse that despite the stress I might actually (fingers crossed) be on top of everything and have a few spare days towards the end where I can just chill. Oh yeah, I didn't say! I'm returning to the UK 6th September! There's many practical things to consider: tax, a home, work, do I get a car, how long will dad support me financially before he loses it?! I also start to get really sad at even the slightest thought of leaving Mongolia! I watched a Mongolian film the other day. it was dubbed in German but I cried anyway! It had lots of panning shots of the beautiful Mongolian countryside, nomadic herders and children playing. I thought, 'I'll watch this in the UK and be reminded of Mongolia's beauty and the gorgeous, caring Mongolian people' and then I cried! But the thing that overrides all of that and forces me to look forward not back is that I will see the people I care for again soon, people who have supported me in so many ways during my time away and for that I cannot adequately express my thanks. I hope you do know though how much I appreciate your continued love and support and that we've stayed in contact. Thanks!!!!!!!!! See you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!
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