Mining Day

Ahhhhhhhhhh Shit. I don’t want to be an aid worker. I want to be a miner. Today I even justified it by saying to myself that mining is like aid work. Everybody NEEDS mining to some degree. Even the hippiest hippy you’ll ever find will ride a push bike made or metal and drink from pipes made of metal and consume recycled paper that was made using metal machinery. So mining is necessary. And therefore it’s like aid work because lots of people don’t want to be a miner because it’s ‘wrong’ and so those that DO mine, are doing a good deed?

It’s okay, it made total sense to me this morning. I understand that it’s probably total bullshit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above: at the Chojin Lama Temple Museum book launch

I went to work for an hour. I emailed a lady that is going to help me with my seed database. She is very friendly and useful. I left to attend the book launch at my friend’s work. It was all in Mongolian and she spoke which was cool. In English. She spoke a little English bit. And then I had lunch at Millie’s cafe that was very busy and had to listen to a Yank yell at the very busy waiter for his tea because he wanted his cup of tea. And didn’t want his bottle of water she brought out because it was wrong (it was a standard bottle of bottled water).

And then I went to the mining conference. (see above) Oh wow. A very very very nice man in Mongolia from Austrade helped me in to the exhibition by organising a ticket for me. It’s expensive to go but they had a stall which meant they had tickets. I just borrowed it to get in and then gave it back. It was so nice of him. And SO great. I was floating around in heaven. People gave me free stuff. A pedometer, books, pens…… all the standard stuff. And people talked to me – about interesting things. And the companies are all doing very interesting things. I walked around and around. I was stopped by a Sandvik guy who was interested in me because I was telling my Mongolian friend about how overshots work (he had them on display – they are what you send down the hole to bring your core back up to the surface after you’ve drilled it). We talked for about an hour. He had a mini functioning drill set up so my friend learnt a lot and so did I. It was just really nice to see the gear and talk to someone about how it works and…………. it was great.

And now I have three bags full of stuff to read.

I sent a text message to the Austrade guy to thank him for helping me – it was sneaky and he didn’t have to do it at all. I was then invited to the dinner. Oh YES I want to go to the dinner! I eventually left the conference set up after about three rounds of the joint and a while sitting and reading my stuff. I took some photos on the way home and stopped by a totally random display of ‘Military Police’ on motorbikes. There were about 25 of them in red and white uniforms and they were performing stunts on their motorbikes. Like the V8 cars that do laps and fancy things in between each other in the middle of a showground. They were all of Indian descent. What the hell! It was really cool to watch – and lots of people stopped by to check it out. But – ?!?!?!?! Why? Only in Mongolia!

So I went home and did my hair in an up-do and put some pearls on to make me look a bit fancier. And then I went to the dinner. And met some amazing people. Freaking amazing. Managing Directors, CEO’s, Country Managers…. And they had such COOL things to talk about. Like converting coal to diesel in situ or in open pits with no byproducts. And drinking rice that is fermented with spit and left in the jungle for 5 years with a dead woman’s bone in it. No one cared that my name wasn’t actually ‘Natalie’ as per my name card. And everyone was so friendly! There were about 150 people there and about 10 women I’d say. I was the youngest in the room by far (okay, maybe by a couple of years). Both of which probably helped me. That plus I was ushered around by my newly made friends! (The boss of CAT in Mongolia that makes $350mil/year; the manager of a geo consulting company that offered me a job; the owner/manager of a big recruitment company in Australia who appreciated my straightforwardness; the blonde, curly haired Kazakh lady who will be my friend when she moves here soon; the managing director of a really exciting Australian exploration company)

Everyone just walked around the room and interrupted each others conversations and chatted like they knew each other for years. Most people admired the fact I’m here as a volunteer for a whole year and only going home once (I thought once was a lot!). They think I’m brave and stuff. “Why are you doing that job when you could have stayed in mining” was a common question. I made up very moral sounding answers. When I’m on a roll I think I could probably charm the socks off a donkey. The guy I admired probably the most told me that I should learn Mongolian because <insert long story about ex-employee of his that is now very wealthy>. And Mongolia is the ‘last frontier’ (true by all accounts'), which means it’s basically an amazing career handed to you on a platter. I told him that I am too lazy to learn Mongolian and that I can’t afford it. That’s when he said that I am a very straightforward person. That’s also when I wanted to swallow my fist. TELLING A POTENTIAL EMPLOYER THAT YOU’RE LAZY IS A STUPID IDEA. But that’s when he said that he admires bluntness and he attributes that to the success of his company – because he told annoying people to f-off and only took the good jobs with the good people with good morals. He said in the short term it set him back but in the long term it made him more successful.

I can tell you right here and now I was telling the truth: I am too lazy to learn Mongolian and I will not do it. I have considered it, and know how lucrative it would be. And what a good career move it would be. But there’s a buttload of reasons why I don’t want to and they start with too lazy and end with ‘I don’t want to live in Mongolia, I want a beautiful life in Australia’. And then there’s all the: I can make enough money with what I’ve got now, I would rather spend that study time studying something I love and it’s a bloody hard language to learn.

I have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow which is basically sinful in Mongolia. I have to play soccer. I can’t play soccer. Luckily I can get in the way and the rules are similar to hockey (I think). It’s midnight and I doubt I’ll sleep. I want to email all these wonderful people and say THANK you VERY MUCH. I think the excitement is threefold because I just got to spend all day looking/talking mining AND English AND Australian.

I get excited pretty easily anyway. So what I did was write down the things I remembered about each person and I have kept their business cards. And on Monday after reflection time I will email the people I think I should email and thank them, or whatever I decide to do. This way I decrease the likelihood of me sounding like an over excited little puppy. I already wore a bow in my hair today. IDIOT. Why did I do that?