Naadam

From 10-12 July was the Naadam festival – which centres around the three 'manly' sports of archery, horse riding and wrestling. In UB each sport is held at a different venue. A group of us went out to the horse racing venue on the Saturday and camped overnight. We camped on a hill overlooking the course.

In the evening there was a string of horses on the brow of the hill standing in silhouette – truly beautiful.

The horse racing the next day was pure chaos. There was a line of stands on one side of the track by the finish line. In front of this was a line of police officers, who (at this point!) were extremely friendly, chatting with the crowd and taking photos for people. As the finish approached, it got busier and busier, people climbing over each-other to get a view. I was concerned that I would pulled off the stand or it would tip over. After the race, part of the crowd rushed the course to touch the winning and fast horses. This is when the police turned – anyone who crossed that line were asking for it!!! Before the race we saw them carrying what we thought were torches – which made no sense at all. After the race we discovered that they were not torches – they were tazars, and they enjoyed using them!

My parents arrived the next day on the trans-Siberian railway. I took them to the trainers’ Naadam (a mini festival for those working during the weekend and unable to enjoy the festival). The horse-racing, archery and wrestling were all in the same place. It was a much more relaxed and enjoyable affair.

Wrestling

Dad trying archery

Mum building a ger

Dudes on horses

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.guinness

Floods and Snow - A Fine Day In May!

Thursday night saw the first proper rain of 2009 in Mongolia. It bucketed down / heavens opened / rained cate and dogs / p*ssed down / etc. Despite my love of the continual Mongolian blue skies and sunshine, the rain actually made a nice change.

I woke on Friday morning to snow (and I thought winter had left us ages ago).

Looking out my kitchen window I could see that road (pavement, playground, school....) was flooded.

My short walk to work was to turned into an assault course, followed by wading across the road when we realised that we couldn't walk around the flooded road.

First, getting out of the apartment: luckily some good soul had put some broken breeze-blocks down as stepping stones. Next: climb over the small wall next to the building entrance and walk across the 'garden' (patch of mud), up onto the steps of the entrance to an art shop next door and onto the pavement. Then: with the road and pavement ahead flooded, walk carefully along the raised curb (and make it quick before the car comes).

And then we found that the only way across was for me to take my shoes and socks off, roll up my trousers and carry the girlfriend!

The Mongolian attitude to rain is a polar opposite to the British. As people arrived in the office, everyone was in a great mood, enjoying the rain and not really minding the flooded roads, soggy shoes, and leaking roofs.

A nice change, I guess, but can I have my blue skies back now please?

The Cold!!!!

I'm looking forward to Wednesday - it'll be a warm day. -10*! I might even ditch the thermals.


I'm pleased with the way I have adapted to the cold. I certainly benefited from coming in the summer and getting used to the weather gradually. A volunteer came to Mongolia in November from the Philipines, +30* straight to -10*. That must be a shock. The middle of last week saw two very cold days, both with a "high" of around -25* during the day. On Wednesday though, it was the wind that really stung. I was walking through UB for a meeting, and the icy wind got up and tore straight through me, making my eyes water (which worried me as I was afraid the tears would freeze!).


There are two things which bug me about the winter:

1) My glasses steam up EVERY time I go inside, even if I've only been outside for a few minutes. I can't see a thing. At first I used to wipe them, but now I can no longer be bothered, so I stay blind for a few minutes while they clear. They clear from the centre of the lenses outwards so have tunnel vision for a few moments before they clear completely.



2) Sweeping the pavements. When it snows, the street-sweepers are sent out early the next day to sweep the snow from the pavements. This results in a nice looking clean pavement, fresh with a thin layer of ice caused by the sweeping, ready to catch out unsuspecting people like me. Luckily I have only fallen over once (amusing the locals no-end), but have had countless near misses.

The worst place has to be Sukhbaatar Square. When they were planning the Square, the conversation must have gone along these lines:

"So, it's below freezing for 6 months of the year, covered in ice and snow, and really slippy at the best of times. What surface shall we use? Any ideas?"

"How about marble?"

"Brilliant! We'll use marble!"

Marble covered in ice is just an accident waiting to happen. And happen a lot.




For the pavements which are not swept there is a thick layer of compressed snow which for the most part is fairly sure underfoot. However, the kids like to slide along the ice - so there is a narrow icy trail down the middle of the pavement to be avoided. If I've learnt anything in Mongolia, it's how to judge icy surfaces!!


Maybe the ladies here have the right idea - high heels! They never seem to slip or fall. I guess the heels just dig right in. I might have to give it a try!!


On Sunday I went to Zaisan with some other volunteers. Zaisan is in the south of UB, only ten minutes by bus. There are mountains and the river. The river now is completely frozen, which still seems strange to me. People drive right onto the river, park up and play on the ice. There is a game where they devide into two teams and slide a stone to eachother, making sure the stone rests by the feet of the other team, moving further apart after each go until one team starts to miss.






I plan to go the ice festival in Khovsgol at the end of February, which I am excited about. A massive frozen lake. It should be good fun. Each day is filled with blue skies and sunshine - I haven't seen rain in months (yay!!). Despite the cold, I prefer the weather here to UK weather any day. (Although, -30* is taking the mickey a little bit!!)

More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.guinness/

Christmas In Mongolia

Christmas itself is not celebrated in Mongolia, but they do like their decorations (even if they do say 'Merry Christmas'). Sukhbaatar Square has a huge Christmas tree with a red star (some people just can't let go). The whole season is referred to a New Year and both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are holidays.

The 22nd, 23rd and 24th of December were taken with training - which was a relief as work had been frustratingly slow recently. We were training doctors and nurses who work with the health volunteers, trying to raise their awareness of volunteering, health promotion and the role of the volunteer. Each day something else went wrong, including:

Day 1: We could not show a presentation because of viruses, we only started with seven particpants, lunch didn't come until 2.30....

Day 2: No electricity (not great for powerpoint presentations and showing DVDs)

Day 3: Like training teenagers! You're meant to be adults for goodness sake. Aarghhh.

The training was held in the ger district, and boy, is it smoggy. Two of the days I decided to walk the venue. You can see where the ger district begins as the visibility drops considerably. By the time I reached the training venue, I reaked of smoke, and the effects of breathing in the smog made the first glass of water taste purely of smoke. It has to be said that there is something eerily beautiful about the sun rising through the smog, the smoke from a ger waving through an orange haze.

The walk was also cold! (the colder the smoggier, as families burn more and more in their gers). The problem is the cheeks - wrapping a scarf around you face does little as your breath freezes in the scarf and you're soon holding ice to your face. I am pleased with the way I have adapted to the cold. It's certainly preferably to clouds and drizzle! The dry days, clear blue skies (not accounting for smog!) and sunshine really do make a difference.

Christmas itself was fairly quiet, a roast chicken (no chance of a turkey!) and a party with other volunteers in the evening. The highlight was quite possibly mozerella (amazing!) served by an Italian guy in a pig mask (just disturbing!).

More photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.guinness

One Week in Ulaanbaatar

I have been here in Mongolia for a week already. The first week has been consumed with In-Country-Training and exploring Ulaanbaatar.

In an effort to slip seamlessly into the traditional Mongolian lifestyle, my first week has included a meals at Indian restaurant and Malaysian restaurants, a drink at the British Embassy bar (the ‘Steppe-Inn’ – geddit?!? - a useful place to know as it’s the only place to get a pint when alcohol is banned, as during the recent riots) and a pub quiz at Dave’s Bar (yes, it is run by a bloke called Dave).



On our second day we went to Terelj, out in the countryside. It is famous for turtle rock, which really does resemble a turtle. We had a true Mongolian barbeque and marvelled at the countryside, beautiful hills in a vast landscape.



UB is a dusty concrete city, with a run down ‘better-days’ feel to it – but not at all threatening. There seems to be a pragmatic approach to life, where aesthetics (in terms of buildings and urban landscape) is of little importance. The city is relatively small, surrounded by sprawling ger districts that stretch to the slopes of the hills and mountains that encircle the city. It still has a vast feel to it, with large main roads and wide pavements, yet you can easily cover one end of the city to the other by foot in a short space of time.

The Thursday before I arrived, a Mongolian won their first ever Olympic gold medal (in Judo). Apparently the celebrations were great, with the president giving a karaoke rendition of the national anthem in the main square while completely sozzled. They have just picked up another in boxing, so hopefully tonight will be just as raucous, and I can experience Mongolian celebrations.

The traffic here stops for nothing and no-one. Pedestrian crossings serve no purpose except to serve as gathering points for people to cross the road en-masse. Safety in numbers. The key when crossing is avoid the British dithering technique (one foot forward: ‘I’m going’, foot back: ‘oh, he might not stop’) and put the head down and march – they will go around you. I can also confirm that in those ‘Oops, I miss-judged the traffic’ moments, the buses at least, will actually (and eventually) stop – but only after being entirely satisfied that they have delivered a brown-trouser moment.

I have heard a theory that drivers still have a ‘herder’s mentality’, thinking they are still on a horse and another (more plausible) reason that they drive like they would on country roads/dust tracks.

By far the safest method is the tried and trusted international road-crossing technique - to latch onto locals who look like they know what they’re doing and walk in time with them (preferable standing the other side of the on-coming traffic!). It’s got me through the first week unscathed!

We (8 new volunteers – four English and four from the Philippines) are currently going through In-Country-Training with VSO. One week down, two to go.

The training includes language lessons at the Bridge School every morning – which is going slowly – I thought I was doing quite well until two (happy-)drunks decided to have a conversation with me on the bus yesterday and I couldn’t remember a word. All part of the experience, I guess! My slight concern is that I will be working out of the VSO programme office where everyone speaks perfect English (and me being lazy I’ll probably just end up talking in English), rather than being at a placement where you have to use the language to communicate with colleagues. Luckily VSO will refund continued language lessons after the training – which I intend to do.

The rest of the training includes a country briefing, safety and medical issues, talks on the programme areas VSO work on here and other general info.

Predictably the main focus of the safety and medical briefing covered the cold winters. -40 C is going to be interesting! The snow in the city is very fine and the country director referred to it ‘diamond dust’. Sounds amazing.

My main concern is the manholes. The covers have all been removed for either/or/both: To be sold for scrap metal, or (more seriously) to create access for homeless people who live down there. It seems hard to believe, but while waiting around for other volunteers a man just lowered himself into one, saying hello to us as though walking through his front door. The heating in the apartment blocks in the city is controlled centrally (it is turned on and off at set dates in October and March) and the pipes pass under the manholes – so people live down there to stay warm. Mongolia is no place to live on the streets in winter. To keep in some of the warmth, the holes are often covered in cardboard, and when covered in ice and snow are apparently impossible to spot. The winters will be fun!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Mongolian Women Farmers’ Association (a local project supported by a VSO volunteer) in Bayankhoshuu – one of the peri-urban ger districts in UB. They provide training to people on how to grow their own vegetables. The training is timed for the right times for growing – they will have a session on preparing soil and people will go home and prepare the soil, and come back a week later for the next session. The plot they have is beautiful, full of sunflowers and vegetables, right in the middle of the ger district. It was an inspiring visit.

I am itching to start work (first day – Monday 8th September) and really get immersed in the lifestyle and culture. The trip to the Mongolian Women Farmers’ Association has really enthused me about being here, being involved with VSO and working with local projects. Roll on the next two years!