Trial talk

Just another hello. A trial blog. Instead of writing, I talked. :)

Worky Work

My desk (where the lady is sitting)

Frustration is imminent.

Not really. It's already here.
- I am not doing anything at work. I was employed for my personality, not my technical knowledge. Which renders me essentially useless
- I still haven't received parcels sent from home and I'm worried they're lost in the mail
- My sheets I spent all day yesterday making are made with a poly-blend material which will make them itchy to sleep on (my fault, but I didn't realise at the markets when I bought the material)
- I want to go somewhere but I just can't do it by myself and it is annoying

Above is a photo of my office. There are 20 people in the office - mostly finance people but there is a group that works in agriculural sustainability. That's the group I'm working in. But no one seems to want/need my help with anything. So I sit at my desk and look pretty. I drink lots of tea. I email people. I attempt to do some reading of journal articles. I attempt to plan some conversational english lessons until I get annoyed that I'm not here to teach conversational english.

I must regularly remind myself that Mongolia wasn't going to be all shits and giggles - and that things happen slowly. I'm not here to do anyTHING in particular, I'm here to immerse myself and hope that at some stage I can help a few people.

Some interesting facts I have forgotten to update you about along the way:
* Whilst in the field, at Tsaagan-Oboo soum centre, one the group member's grandfather died. She was very upset. Mongolians wanted to know the situation - how old he was, whether he was sick, where he was. He was a 90 year old man who had been sick for a while. He passed away and she found out during an interview with a Herder Group. There was no sympathy from any Mongolians. He was old and sick and that's just the circle of life. She handled it well but I tell you what - if that had have been me, I would have been out of there and back home in a flash.

* I tried milk vodka in a ger in Bulgan. It was actually quite drinkable! It tasted like rice wine a little bit

* Mongolian powerpoint presentations are boring. They are entire chunks of text displayed in size 8-10 font. You can't read them but you know that's got the good information in it so you squint for as long as you can manage to get a little bit of information.

* When I asked if it was safe for me to go to the Black Markets alone, I was advised I am a 'fresh fish' and that I would be a target because I am young, pretty and white (I always go with someone else, don't worry)

* My job is much easier to explain if I explain is as an 'internship'

* In presentations, with a room full of worldly people, I am the only 'native' english speaker. Yet we communicate in english and everyone in the room communicates in english. It makes me feel bad but it also makes me extremely grateful to be an english speaker.

Children's Day

Today is Children's Day in Mongolia. It's a public holiday and the city fills with children. They're all hyped up on lollies and presents and they run around playing all day. The square was chock-a-block full of people. Children receive presents (lollies) from all friends, family and work friends of their parents. My work gave all children a whole bag of lollies (as in a woolworths plastic bag; not a little one!). They love their concentrated juice, pringles and Haribo lollies. All the shops have been stocking up for a few weeks, and the shops yesterday were bare.

Green grass! Flowing water! Sunny day in UB

As for other news: yesterday at work was another day of presentations. I also squeezed in a 'hello' to all the aimag coordinators for our project (there are 21 aimags in Mongolia - kind of like provinces I guess). They represent our office and project at a local level. I introduced myself, it was translated and then we left the room to go and play volleyball. Volleyball didn't happen - I had to leave because I got sick of waiting and I had a party to get ready for.

So I bucket bathed (oh man, I am getting SO sick of it!) and then got ready for the party. We arrived late but were the first there. By midnight there were about 40 people - by 3:30am I was walking out the door, a lot drunker than I intended on being. But fun times were had!

The start of the night

Today was spent mostly laying in bed nursing a hangover. Then eating my way through the day. French Bistro downstairs for brunch. Manicure, massage (oh, I know - tough life), more food (Thai this time, but it was terrible), more chats, pizza, more chats and then a walk home.
I've been making this video of my trip to Dornod. Enjoy. xox

The video above has no sound as it was published on YouTube. Please click the link below to watch the video with the sound (it makes it a bit more exciting). It's published on Facebook but you'll be able to see it even if you're not a Facebook member.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150210490108256&comments

A shout out to all the peeps that have been reading my blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m getting ready for a ‘Summer Party’ so I’m wandering around in my swimmers waiting for others to get ready so we can get going. It’s a public holiday tomorrow.

I’m in a good mood, it’s going to be a fun night.

I’m just writing to say HELLO to everyone, and that I wish you were here. So I took photos so you feel like you’re kind of here tonight.

Also, I just want you to know that I love that you read my blog. I don’t want you to read it because you think you have to, but I still like that you read it.

xox

Material

Material!

This morning I had a purpose. There was a reason to get out of bed and go to work. It was a difficult task, having had no weekend to relax on. Nevertheless I got up, got dressed and met the Swiss guys to walk to the student presentation. There were about 20 students from the Mongolian University that researched the same things we were researching last week – herder group stuff. They interviewed 60 groups. That’s a LOT of groups. We interviewed TWO (each, we went in groups – but still!). What an amazing effort.

They presented their findings in a 10mins speech (bad PowerPoint too). What a way to waste all that amazing research. But the general gist of the story is that farmers aren’t keen to receive money from anyone as they think it’s dodgy and they don’t trust anyone. And if they have received grants, they don’t have enough help. And if they haven’t received grants it’s because they don’t know enough about the projects. Basically it was all bad news for the projects. But it was good news in a way. It just means that they have to reinvent themselves and times are changing – no new news really.

Above is a photo of the presentations taking place. They were presented in Mongolian. There was a lady at the front translating and we had earpieces in to hear her on a radio. It was really tricky to concentrate on all the different things, and even then she was a pretty crap interpreter. Nevermind, we got the general idea.

I had three brownies for morning tea. Usually I don’t like brownies but having not eaten much for the past 5 days all the fatty goodness was doing wonders for my tummy. So I fed it.

The students expressed grave concerns for their reputation – having just presented rather negative information (even though it’s just raw data, and exactly what was asked for). They were told their names wouldn’t be used and that we are very grateful for their work. In reality, they basically pissed off potential employers. Which sucks big time because they did such an amazing thing and it’s not their fault that their findings were crap.

The presentations finished early and I was suppose to go back to work but I couldn’t stomach it. Mainly because we were so close to the Black Markets and I desperately wanted material. So I wagged work and got some groceries on my way home and then picked up my friend to go to the markets. Oh my, it was SO much fun. The material is just amazing! There’s a lot of crap but there’s a lot of traditional material that’s just sooooooo beautiful. I got both. See video above for more information!

Gym tonight; it was okay. I’ve lost a lot of my fitness since I haven’t been going every second-ish day in Brisbane. I plan on getting much fitter as of now though. Things are starting to get in to a routine. The trainer at the gym was trying to tell me something today and all I understood was ‘very good’. That’ll do. PLUS there’s a shower at the gym. And it’s HOT. Guess who’s going to the gym tomorrow morning with shampoo, conditioner and a big fat towel!!!!

Clean hair, clear mind

We conducted more interviews yesterday. It was more amazement. The night before we’d spent some time in a group with some strange dynamics. I finally understood the purpose of the mission and I understand why I was a part of it. I also understand what my role can be. There are lots of organisations working towards the same outcomes. The purpose of this particular journey was to compare my workplace with another and find out strengths and weaknesses for the benefit of everyone. I see my role as a intermediary – between my workplace and other organisations with ideas and research.

The interviews yesterday were interesting in a different way. After a night of total comfort we were back in my outer-comfort zone. The herder group we were interviewing work as a collective as per the group we were talking to previously. It is run by one ‘chief’. There are 10 families within the group that work together in times of need, and share the same pasture land. They respect the land in the same way and manage it together. They’re thought ahead. It was amazing. The group was much richer than others we talked to, and it was evident not only in their brand new motorbike and flatscreen tv, but also in their general health. They were actually (some) slightly pudgey. The children had long, shiny healthy hair. They all had clean clothes that were all relatively new. They had a ger full of beds and general utensils.

I think I will write a blog on each interview we conducted – what we learnt, who they were – what their houses were like and things like that. It’ll give you a change to meet these amazing people and it will give them some credit for the amazing life that they live. Just remind me. I’m likely to forget. Making friends and keeping fit keeps me busy at the moment!

Once we finished interviewing these herders we had a massive chat about whether to stay the night or not. We had planned to stay there or not. Staying meant sleeping in the Russian caravan on the floor and eating more mutton (albeit freshly slaughtered for us; way to tug at my heart strings!). Leaving meant a 6hour drive along 350km of the most hideous road you’ve ever seen.

We packed up and left. I donated my sunglasses (RIP Charlie Brown sunnies; I loved you so much I left you behind for someone else to love you more) and my hat (so what if it wasn’t beautiful, it was super practical) to the herder group and we drove. Til midnight. We fought for a room at some random soum centre (towns don’t seem to have names – they do, for foreigners but no one local uses them) and I had a sleep. It cost me 30000tugs which is crazy for that area. Especially for a shitty single bed with no mattress or linen, a bathroom used a smoking room (there was no toilet seat/cover by the morning) and paper thin walls. Having not eaten all day because we were so busy, I cracked into my emergency stock of food.

When I say I haven’t eaten 2minute noodles for 20 years, I really mean it. That shit is nasty and I generally wouldn’t feed it to the dogs. But they’re dry and small and practical. And when you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything. So I boiled water and cooked the noodles as much as I could in a plastic container and I ate them with the can opener of my leatherman. In retrospect it was totally avoidable. For example, I could have gone to bed hungry or I could have not bought them altogether.

I don’t think I quite expressed the horror that was the journey back to the soum centre. I was in the middle seat in the back. I had to blow up my aeroplane pillow to put around my neck. Not to sleep, but as a safety measure as I was worried the flopping around my neck could get serious and I wasn’t keen for a broken neck in that area. And then once I thought of that, I thought that maybe I could break something, and call my insurance and they’d send a helicopter and at least I’d get out of that shit. I’m also not kidding when I considered that being dead would have been more comfortable.

It got pretty real. But then we got to the hotel and I unfolded my shitty, cheap ass sleeping bag with feathers that go up my nose during the night and I slept and had nightmares all night.

And then we had a piece of bread (plain, no drink to wash it down) and did some work. It was SO cool. We’d done all this interviewing and note taking and we were putting them relevant groups so that we could present them and write a report. Oh man, it was awesome.

My dream job: Bossing people around and organising people in a group. Working towards a set of outcomes. Pushing people to learn more and work harder. Extracting information and interpreting it for a different audience. Presenting it. All over the world.

Then we spent MORE time driving back to UB. We got in about 3pm and I boiled three pots of water for a shower. Usually I only boil one. I needed a GOOD bath. The whole process took me an hour. By then it was time for the ballet so I ran out the door having not eaten basically for two days. In Sally history, this is actually unheard of. But, ballet is prioritised over food. It’s one of the few things that would ever be prioritised over food.

And, it was TOTALLY worth it. Wholey shitballs, it was freaking amazing. It was called ‘Tara Choidin’. Tara is a girl who gets sick, dies, goes to hell, makes her way to heaven, comes back alive and then it’s the end. The choreography was amazing. The dancers almost couldn’t handle it.

If if was an eisteddfod, I would say:

Costumes spectacular, setting very impressing. Timing was repulsive and needs some work before you perform again. Use of body stockings is unnecessary and very unprofessional. Choreography was obviously too advanced for some dancers but should be mentioned that it was enlightening to see a fresh performance. Intercultural dance was done effectively but you should never use clunky beads as the audience can hear them as you run. In general you need some touching up and would benefit from practicing without the music. All in all a good performance, I give you a highly recommended but would like to applause your obvious heart and soul that made the performance stunning to watch. Special mention to the orchestra – impeccable.

No pictures this time as there was a lady making sure we didn’t. Last time it was okay.

So my idea for when I have time next is to a. compile a video of some footage I took during the week and b. write a photo story, seeing as you’ve read these blogs sans photos. It will be an epic length blog but I hope it’ll be worth it; there are some great photos and C. write a blog on each family we visited.

Sleeping in my bed tonight.