I didn’t go to work on Thursday. I watched an episode of Gossip Girl in the morning and that was it. I couldn’t move. I didn’t get out of the house the entire day. I didn’t get out of my pyjamas, which is about my favourite thing ever. None of our bosses are at work so no one is even going at the moment. I have a lot of work to do but I couldn’t be bothered. If I don’t get it done in time, I don’t get it done.
I did make somewhat use of myself on Thursday though. I cooked a brownie cake – that was really yummy, a spaghetti bolognaise sauce and a Korean curry. The curry was much nicer than the spag bol, so it’s all gone already.
I managed to get myself to the gym on Friday morning and then on to work, albeit by 11am. I didn’t do much. My project proposal has hit a wall because I don’t have time to do raw data research, or to create a budget – which means I sit there and stare at it, trying to make it better without doing the things that will take too long (this proposal is something that you could write a PhD on, or have a team of 3 people working all year round developing the concepts for it).
My presentations are boring. I have one and a half up my sleeve so I don’t have to write one on Monday. But they’re boring. That’s how Mongolians like it though – lots of text on the slides, no pictures, no interaction. Just facts.
The Deputy Finance Minister came in to our office. We’re located in the Ministry of Finance because our project works directly with the Mongolian Government finance bodies to lend and give money to Mongolian people. He speaks perfect English and is very friendly and charismatic (unusual in Mongolia). He was going around to all offices to make sure everyone knew about giving blood. There was a blood donation bank up on the 8th floor.
My heart started pounding so bad. In Australia, I’m that annoying person that makes everyone give blood. I organise blood donation days at work, I try to give blood every three months and take at least one person with me. I don’t like doing it . I have really shitty, often non-existent veins which means I usually get poked at least twice with that epic needle in order to find some blood. And even then, they’re so skinny that sometimes once it’s in, the blood doesn’t flow because the needle had sucked on to the side of my vein, not allowing blood flow.
So I know I should have given blood, but the thought of doing it in Mongolia make me queasy. Everyone was so willingly heading up to give blood. No one tried to make me. I went up to check out the setup – if it set me at ease, then sure, I’d do it. There was nothing wrong with how they had it set up. I guess you’re ruined for good though when you’ve given blood somewhere like Australia where everything is private, sterile and comfortable.
People kept piling in to the conference room. They had a set up of tables that you went to, one by one. Once you filled out your form, you waited in a line of about 20 people for your turn. A doctor takes your blood pressure and assesses your sheet of questions like – do you have the Australian Antigen (which I later found out is just Hepatitis B, and whether you’ve had the vaccination or not), have you had sex with a prostitute, do you take drugs – all that stuff.
Your blood pressure and information sheet determines how much blood you give. Some people only want to give 100ml. My friend gave 350ml. I’m sure in Australia we give 470ml, but I guess our setup is a bit different.
From the doctor you move along to the finger pricking man. I hate that part the most. There’s no chair for you to sit on. He just sits on the chair, cuts open your finger with a disposable cutter (without changing his gloves between people) then gets this fat needle to draw the blood and put it in little containers. He does some tests – not sure what, and you move on to give blood.
There were two chairs (as in, normal desk chairs) and two nurses for giving blood. It would have taken all day just to get through the 20 people I saw. Mongolians are happy waiting in line. There’s no way I’d do that. You sit on the chair and the nurse gets out her needle. I didn’t see gloves change here either. The blood bags were all sterile, but I couldn’t see where the needles were coming from. I assume they were sterile but sterile is a relative term. The needle is attached to the blood bag, which is sitting 1m lower on a small chair with a set of kitchen scales. The blood bag sits on the scales, gravitationally filling with blood and occasionally being measured for weight. I don’t know how that worked – denser blood couldn’t be assumed as 1gram=1millilitre, but the doctor figures out your blood giving in millilitres.
Anyway. That’s it. Once you’re done they wrap up your arm and off you go. There’s no resting, or tea drinking afterwards. Swoosh bang, see you later.
I’m getting very lazy. I got home at about 4:30pm and watched some tv on my laptop. And that was it really. A lady came around to look at my sewing machine. She told me it’s too expensive (I’m selling my $500 setup for $250; I’ve used it three times). She said she can get the same machine for $120 on Amazon. I told her if she can get it that cheap TO MONGOLIA, go for it. I chose to get my machine IN Mongolia because we LIVE in Mongolia, it’s easier and cheaper to buy products already available rather than having to organise delivery – and then pay the tax that they’re likely to dodge you on just because you’re foreign (IF you get it at all). All these stupid things – she said she’s going to Belgium next week and will see if she can buy a machine and then bring it on the plane back
She doesn’t even know how to sew. Nothing. I had to show her how to thread the machine, how to press the foot, why to finish off edges….. There are SO many reasons why she shouldn’t get a machine outside of Mongolia. But good luck to her. She’ll let me know next week if she wants to buy mine. There’s no way I was selling it to her for any less than $250. For less than that, I’d rather find an organisation or person that would use the machine til its death and appreciate it because it has helped them make money.
Today is the AFL grandfinal and whilst I couldn’t give a shit about AFL, I’m happy to go to the expat party in town. It should be fun! I was going to find out who’s in the grandfinal and dress wearing whatever colours I have for one of the teams but I couldn’t be bothered.
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