A year in Mongolia

back in the UK

2011-03-15T14:44:00.001Z

so - its been a while, I left mongolia on 4th December 2010. I spent two weeks making my way from London to Lockerbie. two days after I returned I was walking through shoreditch when I was stopped by three young men, clearly in high spirits. we got chatting and they invited me to come for a drink with me. Thats how I ended up drinking tequila in a strip bar at 3pm.......

Since then life has been random and exciting, annoying but with moments of spleandor.

I had a wonderful christmas and new year with my family in scotland, lots of food, sledging and funtimes doting on newest addition to te family, Sampson the wonderbaby.

I was at a lose end, lifewise, and I decided that a good enough avenue to coast down was moving to Liverpool to be near some of my oldest friends, So I moved....as in, I got in my car and drove down not knowing what to expect, having never ever been to liverpool before.

I am homeless, unemployed, bt happy enough. POverty is paralysing me, but I am staying with my friends, dancing in their performing troupe sometimes, and drinking cheap tea at hppie cafe's while I job hunt on my laptop.

My last ride – frozen eyelashes, looking cool and fake babies......

2010-11-29T08:35:00.000Z

Since I have been in Mongolia I have slowly but surely embraced horse riding. It is something I was so looking forward to doing, I love horses, and have felt a yearning to ride for a long time. Even as a small child I was fascinated by horses, and was actually kind of ‘in love’ with Pegasus – whom I felt was the ethereal embodiment of perfection, and with whom I felt a kind of affinity. (One might infer from this that I feel that I myself am an embodiment of perfection and this is not an erroneous assumption to make, but that’s a whole other story.)

Since I have always been confident and competent, and generally been good at new things I have tried, I felt pretty sure that I would take to horse riding very well, I am calm and intuitive, which I thought were good complimentary qualities to confidence and competence when it came to horse riding.

Unfortunately, it turns out that I am also full of shit, and that a horse is not something like a game or a skill that one can master by being clever, it’s a great big unpredictable beast with its own agenda and it doesn’t care how clever you are, it’ll do its own damn thing thank you very much, and it doesn’t care if it hurts you, or annoys you, or frightens you. Uh oh........

So – I blogged about my first riding experience in Mongolia a while back, in June, and you would have thought that would put me off, but another thing I am is tenacious....and so I kept taking every chance I could to go riding (and spent all my money in the process, oopsie) and made sure I went with people who were more experienced than me, and who cared about me, so I felt safe and secure in developing my own riding confidence.

And it paid off, as now I am so comfortable on a horse, and I am so sad that I will not be able to ride anymore, but my last ride was so amazing, that I feel like that will in some way assuage the pain of this loss.

We went off to steppe riders, me, Natalie, elide and Evelyn. When I looked at the weather online that morning it said -24c, which before living in Mongolia would have freaked me out – now it’s like, ‘only -24, no worries’. (Lower than -30 however, begins to get painful). When we arrived at the camp, we were all struck by the beauty and wonder of the snowy steppe. Miles of white, we felt swamped by the lack of horizon, the sky was white, the ground was white, it was like that scene in the matrix when they first ‘plug in’.

A cup of coffee in the ger and getting our chaps on, was all the time we wasted before heading t’ward the horses, short, stocky, furry creatures. Natalie is a very experienced rider, and I always feel more confident riding with her, she and I mounted first and raced off ahead.

One of the things I hate most, up there with carrying heavy things and adults speaking in baby voices, is waiting around aimlessly, so I was so grateful to just follow Nat, who was also obviously itching to get on out there.

It was just amazing, a little disconcerting at times, as the marmot holes were hidden by snow, so the horses often tripped, the first few times this was quite alarming, but I realised that I just had to – you guessed it, man up and deal widdit. Whenever it happened I still couldn’t help but gasp, but I didn’t feel the knot of panic I did the first few times. It’s not that I am a fraidy cat, I just really don’t like to be in pain, or, sooo much worse, to lose face.

Luckily the last time I came off a horse it was because I decided to jump ship, and managed an impressive stunt roll (cool). I didn’t fancy my chances of maintaining my dignity, or the use of my limbs, if I was thrown unexpectedly off a stumbling animal (not cool). And I looked so awesome galloping through the snowy steppe, in my (fake) Ray Bans with my hair billowing out behind me in the wind, cig in my lips like cool hand Luke, with all the poise and swagger of a seasoned cowboy but with the smouldering looks of a young gypsy girl.....that I couldn’t bear the thought of that perfect image being ruined by being my being killed or seriously injured.

As it turned out, I had no need to even worry, as I didn’t fall, in fact I won a race that Natalie started (and which I didn’t even want to be part of at first, as I was still preoccupied with the whole horse tripping over thing) but turned out my horse responded with more oomph to Natalie and the other guy’s shouts of “chuuu” than their own horses did – so all I had to do was sit tight and even managed to say, nonchalantly, as I thundered past them, “eat my snow dust, suckers”.

I had layered up so thoroughly in preparation for a sub zero trek, I wasn’t prepared for how warm I got riding. Luckily I had decided not to wear a helmet, so I could take off my hat and scarf with ease, and shoved them up my jumper. Which made a bump, which one of the Mongolian guys who was riding with us, Baysaa, decided was my ‘baby’. It was so funny, this light-hearted flirting, our feet touched as our horses passed, so I reached to touch his hand to dispel the bad luck, but he held on to my hand, and said in Mongolian, lets ride and hold hands, so I said Za, ok. And we rode for a little way together, holding hands and him singing a folk song for me. Then my scarf began to fall out of my jumper and he offered to put it inside his Deel, whence upon it became his ‘baby’.

We rode for maybe only 2 and a half, 3 hours, but it seemed a long long time, walking, trotting or galloping through all this white. It was snowing at first, small soft flakes that froze on my eyelashes and eyebrows and made me look a little like story book pictures of Jack Frost (the supernatural being, not the television detective) with my pointy nose and wild eyes. Then the snow stopped and the sky cleared and the beautiful blue contrasted the wondrous white so sharply it was breath taking. Sometimes the snow was so deep it went up almost to the horse’s thighs and it had a hard crust that made a satisfying crunch as the horses clopped through it.

By the time we got back to camp though, my feet were completely frozen, despite tights, thermal socks and legwarmers; they had gone totally numb below the knee. This is quite a weird feeling, I managed to get off the horse ok but walking down the hill to the Ger was like some kind of semi out of body experience....the top half of me was moving, but it just didn’t really know how this was happening.

Aaah, the warm ger, and the mutton stew, and the rice and the chilli sauce, and the stove and the chattering and then we wrap back up and head for the car and for UB and I leave the steppe behind me forever, and I feel sad, but my favourite Mongolian folk song is on the radio, the one Baysaa was singing for me, and I hum along and decide I will buy a CD for when I come back to UK and paint my mothers living room.....and that song will always remind me of this perfect day, so it isn’t lost, and even if I can’t ride anymore, as it’s so expensive in the UK, and I would have to relearn the whole thing with English horses (plus they are so much bigger so much further to fall so much more cool to lose...) I will always have this memory, like a snow globe in my own mind.

Nakedness, Mitts 'n' Gritts, and Muugii gets her bum out....

2010-11-29T08:30:00.000Z

My colleagues wanted to do something special for me in my last week, and decided that a trip to the ‘саун’ was in order. So after work one day last week, Muugii, Soyol, Nurze and I all went for our special treat......I was told the саун was like a sauna, but I was still unsure what to expect (this being Mongolia afterall..) but the ladies were so lovely about it all that I decided I would just go along with whatever – which is generally the flow I have gone with though all my time here, drawing the line only at downing vodka shots at lunch time.

The саун turned out to be a communal bathing/pampering centre. And it was soooooo nice. We arrived and after some negotiations had been made by my colleagues with the staff our significantly bulky outdoor gear was taken from us. Through a door, we were led, into a kind of antechamber with lockers for clothes, we undressed - and they quickly noticed the tattoo on my shoulder that says ‘Mongolia’ in traditional Mongolian script. I had been anticipating some comments, and had had maybe a little trepidation as to how they would take this gesture.....but they seemed to really like it, and seemed genuinely pleased that I loved Mongolia so much I would have it inked onto my body!

It became clear quite quickly that Muugii had elected herself to be in charge of me, and once we were all towelled up she ushered me into a shower wet room. It was a slightly odd set up, an L shaped room, in the shorter part, three showers, with some nice shampoo and body wash, in the longer part, two ‘bed/table’s covered in Clingfilm, past these, the steam room.

There were a couple of other ladies pottering around, naked, and two or three ‘attendants’ (for want of a better word). We four all showered and washed our hair together, having deposited our towels at the door. Muugii, Soyol and Nurze made no bones about checking out my naked body. In fact, Muugii, who had obviously initially been trying to play it cool, gave up on any attempt at feigning disinterest and indicated that I should lift up my arms and turn around for them. They chattered and giggled and pointed at my waist and bottom, admiringly. Mongolian women, it seems, in general, do not really ‘go in’ at the waist, and they tend to have sweet little sloping bottoms, rather than a big round booty like what I got. I think they found my skin tone interesting too. Luckily I am no prude and they were so obviously just genuinely curious and unabashedly pleased with the opportunity to see a naked white girl that I didn’t mind at all, and in fact had my own natural curiosity, only I was a lot more subtle in how I went about making my observations!

Once the ‘inspection’ had finished, and our hair was washed, we took turns to sit in little stools, on the little sheet of plastic we had each been given for “underrr yourrr bum!” and an attendant gave each of us a perfunctory head massage while she put some kind of thick conditioner in our hair, which was then covered with a shower cap.

At this point we were ready to go to sit in the steam room, a tiny little cubicle with four seats, it was so funny, as the steam was coming out of a tube underneath Muugii’s seat, and much hilarity followed as we gestured and intimated that Muugii’s bottom was in fact the actual source of the steam; “thank you Muugii!” I understood in Mongolian and I just laughed along with them.

From the steam room we went back and forward form the showers a few times, and then took turns to lie on a plastic covered table and be exfoliated by a girl with mitts and grits. I don’t think I have even washed myself so thoroughly! I felt a bit like a child, and a bit like a princess. And actually a bit like an object, but not necessarily in a bad way. There was something sort of competently mechanical about the detached methodical manner in which I was scrubbed that was actually quite reassuring – and removed even the chance of self consciousness.

There is something very nice about communal bathing I think. My friends and I have often washed together, nothing remotely erotic or weird about it, just companionable and relaxed. A group of women can really unwind and indulge in the peculiarities of their gender; vanity, comparison, gossip, co-operation (you wash my back I will wash yours) etc, when bathing together.

After the scrub I was steered back to the shower, and it was indicated that I should wash off the hair treatment. As I was about to turn around to do this however, I felt a hand on my shoulder gently push me back the other way, and I realised the scrub girl with the mitt was washing my back. Now that's what I cal service.

When we were all as clean as clean could be, we reclaimed our towels and left the wet room. In the next room, a row of lovely big fat soft massage beds beckoned invitingly. As I made myself comfortable, I was brought a cup of green tea and once I had finished and was putting my cup down, an attendant came silently up behind me and whispered that I should lie down on my front. And thence began a lovely relaxing wonderful massage. I have had two or three massages in Mongolia, and all of them have been incredibly painful, and being a qualified masseuse myself, I have even been a bit concerned about some of the quite frankly brutal techniques they have used. But this particular one was lovely, although I realised how horribly knotty and tense and tender my shoulders have become here.

All too soon it was time to turn over, and one by one my hands were picked up, massaged, and then painted with hot paraffin wax which quickly cooled and hardened slightly, and my hands wrapped in plastic for the duration of the facial treatment, which consisted of mainly massage, but then a facemask was applied and then we were left for 20 minutes, sooo relaxed and comfortable, I nearly fell asleep, I think one or two people there actually did, as there was the gentle sound of snoring coming from somewhere, but I was so floaty and floppy I didn’t really register, perhaps I did fall asleep....

I was so sorry when it was all over, but I felt so good, so chilled, so CLEAN! But once Muugii mentioned dinner I realised that I was also very hungry. We walked a short distance to a Chinese restaurant, where I let them order, saying, truthfully, that I would eat anything at all on the menu. It was a lovely meal, and even though they kept forgetting to include me in the conversation, I was very content, and Muggii did make a real effort to express things to me in English.

By the time we finished our meal we were the last people in the restaurant, which was a very god thing as it turned out.....

Muugii had undone the clasp of her skirt as she ate, to ease the pressure on her full stomach. However, she then forgot she had done this, and so when she stood up to leave the table her skirt fell down around her ankles, causing her to screech and grab for it, as the rest of us all exploded into hysterics at this fantastically slapstick vision; when someone doesnt have enough hands to cover their front and behind and retrieve their fallen garment all at the same time, the resulting manic flapping is always hilarious, and inevitably leads to the entire debacle lasting a few more comical seconds.

So, relaxed and clean and well fed, and superbly entertained, I flicked through my dictionary (tired of repeating “goy bain” – this is lovely) for a new way of expressing my pleasure and gratitude, and found it, бүрэн төгс ‘completely perfect’.

Which was exactly how I felt my evening had been.

my farewell quiz, two mongolian babies and vodka for lunch

2010-11-29T04:03:00.000Z

Aaah, life in UB, the pace never lets up, the madness never subsides, the pavements are slippery icy, the stray dogs have gone all fluffy, which gives them a cute appearance that belies their true rabid mentality.

So I had my 'leaving do' on thursday, as friday was a public holiday. I decided to do a pub quiz, as 1, I love the quiz, 2, my leaving do from the UK was a pub quiz so there's some cosmic symettry in there, and 3, I dont like just getting a bunch of people into a pub to just stand around drinking - I like a 'point' to a party.

Anyway, it was a great success, it was so sweet, the guys who wrote the quiz made the first round answers all start with a letter of my name, an accrostick, i think it is called. Anyway, it was a really fun evening, even though my team didnt win! Which I blame on the fact that as it was my 'do' everyone wanted to buy me a drink, so I wasnt perhps quite as clear headed as I usually am for the quiz.........

Friday was the holiday, but I had arranged to meet my colleagues to go and visit our previous colleague who left in july to have twins. I have been in Mongolia for ten months, and so why I thought, when they said, "lets meet at 12" that any one would actually be there at 12, I dont know, must be the innate brittish nurse time keeper in me.

So I slip and slide my way to meet them at the hospital, texting my friend to complain that I am too tired for this, I go over a particularly slippery bit of pavement (er, why, in a place that is covered in ice for 6 months of the year would you make most of the pavements smooth as marble???? its tantamount to premeditated assault I tell you.) I scream - my legs come out from under me - my phone goes flying into a snow drift - some teenagers laugh at me - and my arm smacks into a random bt of metal. Nice.

So I get to the hospital, 12:00. I wait. I wait. I wait. 12:40 one of my colleagues arrives and we go up to the office where I messa round on the internet. eventually, over the course of the next 40 mins or so others arrive and much faffing and flapping ensues. We then go to the supermarket where they spend 20 minutes deciding what nappies to buy.........have you ever been hungover in a supermarket in a gaggle of about 15 mongolian women who are all talking fast and loud and shrill and non stop? Dont try it, you wont like it, trust me on this.

So then we get a taxi, I am put in the front, there is no seat belt, there is ice on the road, we are going v fast. I stop counting the near misses and remind myself that squeezing my eyes shut will only make my wrinkles worse, so just man up and deal widdit.

Get to Tserma's house, and it v nice, in the ger district, very sweetly decorated and furnished. we sit on low stools around a low table, filled with dishes of food, I am sitting between motherly Nurze, who very sweetly finds me the peices of meat that are өхгуи (have no fat) and Muugii, who speaks a little english, and every now and again thinks to try and include me by telling me a little of what the conversations are about, and who has my back when the milk tea comes out telling our hosts I dont drink milk as I am allergic. (this is my ploy to avoid dodgy dairy in asia without causing offence).

I am more interested in the twin baby girls, sooooooooo cute, and little and fat and mongolian. I didnt bring my camera! So I only have my own memories, but they were cute. I think there was just me and this one other youngish nurse, who didnt have children, so we were the broody ones, and she was being a right baby hogger, much to my chagrin.

My heart sank when the vodka was brought out, as even though i will drink it with ice and tonic, shooting it, is pretty much the exact opposite of my bag. Every time we toasted I just touched it to my lips in a show of cameraderie, and each time Tserma's husband would top it up a little more, even though I adnt actually drunk any. Muugii was telling me, katereeen, when you drink, must *knock back action* - I just laughed and pretended not to understand.... and then the red wine came out.

One thng I have found hard in Monoglia i the winter, is not how cold it is outside, -20 and below is fine with me, I actually enjoy it, for short periods at a time... what is most difficult is how freakin hot it is INSIDE. heating balsting away, and no ventilation, this is one of my all time worse combinations (people doing baby voices and keeping me waiting is another, fruit in savoury dishes another, and the wearing of green and red is one of the most heinous, but all that is by the by).

Anyway, so this room is like a furnace, airless and full of chattering women, who seem to be getting shriller by the second, and all they say to me is drrrink drrink! So I smile and sip at my wine, and gaze at the babies, and try to remember what I know about heat exhaustion, and wonder how long we will be here for, and when the baby hogger will let me have a hold of the cuter twin, and whether its just my ovaries being sneaky, or whether it really would be a great idea to have a baby of my own, and why did I forget my camera, and will being this hot damage my internal organs........and so on until suddenly we are all traipsing out, much hugging and smelling, into the blessed blessed cold, and a breath of fresh coal smog.

We get taxi's and I am inthe front again but this time I have my colleagues 6 year old son on my lap, which for me is great, he falls asleep and I get to cuddle him for ages. We have to change taxi's in the middle of the journey though as one begins to fall apart as we drive along the frozen roads.

I will miss the freedom of taxi's here, you flag one so easily, you can put as many people as you like in there, "tin of fish" my mongolian friend calls it (sardines).

I will miss the cute kids.

I will miss the lovely hospitality, and the kindness and thoughtfulnes.

I will NOT MISS VODKA FOR LUNCH!!!!!!!!

root canal, domesticity, and I forgot the other thing

2010-11-16T02:47:00.000Z

So - I went to the dentist..........

I had been given the telephone number of a Korean dentist, who spoke perfect english, and who was very suave and charming. I almost found myself fawning. Almost.

He Xrayed my tooth (as has been done several times before, by every dentist I go to telling them about the pain. As a healthcare professional, I recognise very well the look on the face that accompanies their glance at my Xray, it says "you're faking/imagining/hawking for drugs). Of course there was nothing to see, tho my friend Yadma who had come to hold my hand said she saw the Xray and I had very beautiful inner teeth. So it wasnt all bad.

Anyway, he says, no cracks, no holes, but a very very deep filling. In fact, its more filling than tooth. (in my head at this point I see Alec Guiness as Obi Wan Kenobi's ghost telling Luke about Darth Vader, "he's more machine than man now" in that fabulous singysongy voice that I put on to make my sister laugh so hard she cant breathe). ANYWAY - upshot is he wants to drill it out, and refill. I am carried along by the suave, and by trying not to laugh at the alec guiness thing, and so i dont even look to see if the needles are clean, oops.

So he injects me, and i numb up, and he drills and i dont like it, but its more painless than any dentist i ever saw in the UK (every time I go to the dentist in the Uk I need to take a "time out" - seriously, I dont know what is wrong with me, I just hate having a strange man's fingers filling my mouth and sticking thing in it that hurt). He puts in a temp filling, and says, if the pain continues, come back on tuesday and he will do root canal.

At these words my world goes into slow motion, like in the movies, I say "what" in a voice that sounds like I left half my palate at home,more like "ghuhut" and i watch his lips as he says again

"rooooooooooot caaanaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllll"

I dont even know what it is, but it sounds so heinous that the muscle under my eye is twtching, but my britishness is irrepressible - "LOVELY!" i profess brightly, "how wonderful. When can we do it, tuesday? Splendid, I cant wait, awfully jolly of you to fit me in, what, i say, wont that be a gas. well, orf i go, back in a couple of days. toodle pip."

Suddenly I am bertie wooster, and suddenly my world has collapsed. I cant have root canal, i will die. probably, maybe, highly likely at the very least. I cant NOT do anything because i will die, probably. So I stop trying to make a decision and just curse my rotten luck and my even more rottener crappy teeth, and my maxillo facial neural pathways, if it wasnt for them all would be fine and I wouldnt feel like something with claws was burrowing into my jaw using my tooth nerve as a hand rail.

So - thats today, five hours til root canal. I feel kind of sick, although (v naughty I know, shhh dont tell the BMA) a friend of mine has given me a little something designed to help hysterical housewives, so I am planning to pop this little blue about 30 mins before drill commencement and I hope this will subdue me somewhat.

It is -15 outside, I have strted wearing thermals, I forgot that I actually like them, mine, like all of my clothes, are skin tight - and I feel snug and serene in them, its like a full body hug from silk and lambs wool (no messing about with viscose darling).

I actually want it to get colder now. I wont have long to wait, its getting into the -20s at night now.

righto - I have heard tell of an american in the hospital, and I am going forth to investigate.

bayarte

What -15 feels like. And how I am a walking cliche.

2010-11-12T02:18:00.000Z

Aaah, winter is upon us, the ice is creeping over the pavements like a subtle spill of slippery slidiness. The temperature is into the double figures of minusness. The snow falls are frequent tho not prolonged.

The snow is nice, tiny mini flakes, cascading from the everpresent sky coming to gently dance upon my eye lashes like so many baby ballerina butterflies brushing my cheeks with soft coldness that is a sweet remedy to the razor sharp wind that boxes my ears and stings my nostrils.

my toes are cold, but all else is fine, i pull my thick tights up high to my middle and wear my wool mix skirt often so i feel like a character in a story set in a girls boarding school in yorkshire circa 1905.

The air is changeable, sometimes so full of coal smog that I become instead a character form a Dickens novel, living in London in the 19th century and wracked with consumption.

my tooth aches, it woke me ast night frm a dream about going camping and forgetting my sleeping bag and being in a bad mood and walking with andrew and carping on about it then narrowly avoiding being hit by a car and andrew laughing at my misfortune, then awake, and pain.

So I am going to go to the dentist. We shall see how this goes. I am pretty hardcore in almost every way, I do martial arts, I have tattoos, I ride horses, I climb rocks and trees and anything with footholds that looks like it has somehting fun at the top of it, I have laid out dead bodies, I have restrained mad men, I have seen some things, and yet - and yet, how utterly banal that I am incapable of dealing with a trip to the dentist.

How embarrassingly NORMAL.

I shall of course report on the events of the visit as and when.

The sleep deprivation and resulting caffeine overdose is to blame for the jerken sprangling of this post.

the pub quiz is dead, long live the pub quiz

2010-11-05T07:18:00.000Z

its true, the pub quiz is no more. Sad times.

In the last month I have been busy busy. I have been involved in designing a trianing day for the interpreters, as vso state they cant offer a very high salary to interpreters, so they cant get such a high standard of interpreters. So we decided to make a group to try and maximise the efficacy of interpreters, by providing creative training to help them work to their full potential.

It went very very well, and all the interpreters gave very good feedback, so that was a buzz. Short lived as it turned out as things went sour when the volunteers, interpreters and vso staff had a big tangle about how and how much the interpreters get paid.

anyway, I have also been going to the theatre as much as possible, went to see the russian ballet do Romeo and Juliet, which was absolutley stunning, exquisite. I have also been to see two Mongolain Ballets, which are great, wonderful costumes and a really interesting interpretation of ballet. Next I am going to see 'La Boheme' and the magic flute.

Once a week a group of us have a film night, where I come over to Nicks at 6pm and start cooking a vegge pasta dish, others arrive and we watch obscure films and discuss them with hilarity.

I went the other day to see a performance done by a group of expats, a theatre group who put on "the fantasticks", it was hilarious, tho perhaps not always intentionally.....

work ticks along nicely, now instead of the nurses coming to me, I now go to the departments, and give informal lessons on the wards, and everyone seems much happier with this arrangement.

anyway - i am being muchly distracted by poeple talking to me....so now just going to post a load of photos from charleine's visit. these are her photos, and I think they are wonderful, she is an artist and her website is http://www.charleineb.com/

coloured garages in Erdenet

me and uya in erdenet

hiking up the hill in erdenet

funland in erdenet

the black market - felt for gers

horse skulls in erdenet

bed factory security guards ger

lunch with the twins, I dont look so impressed but I was just tired, I actually love mongolian food...

horrid tricksy horse

the view from Zaisan

pollution defence

fabric stall at teh market

monument at erdenet

my beauties

lady and her ger

the main square in erdenet

more photos as and when I collate them.

The post-apocalyptic Fun Fair and the curious incident of the peace corps in the night time

2010-10-22T04:18:00.000+01:00

za za za, I am trying to collate my brain cells to write a 15 minute lesson on Cardiac Surgery Nursing, which is hard, as that is realy just 7minutes of me talking, taking interpretation into account, and what on earth can one say in 7 minutes?

So, I am defering this task, to upload the photos I took in the fun fair in UB. It is so funny, it is set in the "childrens park" which was closed until the 1st of september. It has a collection of rides of dubious safety, and is part building site. Being there felt like being in some strange dream, but a couple of the rides were really fun.

The big wheel is not working, and I dont think I would have gone on it even if it was. Health and Safety is not a concern for mongolians..... It is generally not a huge concern for me, but being in a metal contrption that is help together by elastic bands and scotch tape was a step too far even for me.

Oh, I went to party the other day, and it was ok, but strange to see so many new faces, and missing my old pals, and realsing suddenly that I am one of the veterans now! I was just leaving when a scrummage occurred, one of the hosts had discovered a pair of amorous peace corps in her bedroom, and was throwing them out of the party, I had to restrain myself from chanting "jerry jerry jerry" as the americaness of it all was utterly hilarious.

Today the office is quiet, which is so nice, and my colleagues seem to have remembered who I am and what I am doing here. Yesterday I gave a breif (30mins) talk on the Nursing Process and Holistic, evidence based Nursing Practice, to the entire nursing staff, about 250 people. It actually went really well, and I was especially impressed with Zolo. I only saw a handful of people asleep in the audience, and they clapped at the end, and today my colleagues were very nice about it, and want me to do one every two weeks! Yaanaa.

So I will probably stop doing my Chingeltei lectures, and focus on the hospital for now, I think I may be bailing out of Mongolia soon, earlier than planned.....so I want to make sure I leave with a whole lot of information collated efficiently for the hospital, so the nurses can access it after I have gone home.

sigh.

the night train, the hypnoscreen and three dramatic characters

2010-10-20T03:51:00.000+01:00

Hi - so, wow, I didnt realise it had been a whole month since the last post. Since then, I have had my friend C staying - visiting from Paris for 2 weeks. her first couple of days I had to work, and let her sleep off ehr jet lag, and in the evenings we ate beef stew and drank red wine and created the perfect itinerary for her stay.

We decided to take advantage of how long she was here for to do a kind of minibreak. We decided to spend three days in Erdenet, which is proudly touted as Mongolia's Third Largest City. Mongolia only has three cities. I have a Mongolian friend here in UB who's family live in Erdenet, and she was going ot be visiting that weekend too, so we were very excited, and were not disappointed.

We travelled up on the night train, as this was the cheapest form of transport, and meant we didnt waste a whole day travelling. It was cool, the same soviet train as I went to Selenge in. I didnt sleep much, as I was engrossed in my book, and also kept awake by the snoring and farting of my fellow passengers, but I was very restful, on the top bunk, being rocked by the train. There was a seatbelt that I tried to strap myself in with, but in true Mongolian style, it of course didnt work, so I was mildly concerned that I could be thrown out of my little nest, especially since stopping suddnly is quite a strong mongolian trait....

However, we arrived in Erdenet unscathed, but pretty sleepy, we got poked and prodded out of bed about half an hour before we stopped, but the surly train attentant. One thing I will NOT miss form Mongolia is the constant prodding. Please do not touch me, I am British.

We stood looking bewildered for a while, as the train statoin is outside the city, but deflected the "taxi!" calls, and opted intead to get on a bus we saw. I asked people on it if it went to erdenet, and they said yes, but seemed very bemused. I thought it was just because they didnt see so many foreigners, but soon relaised that all the passengers of the bus were young women who were dressed very similarly....and then the bus stopped at a school nd everyone got off - a haa.

Uya rang and told us to get a taxi to her family home, where her sisters would look after us. This we did and soon found ourselves drinking sudete (salty milk tea) and talking about Justin Beiber (the girls were 17, very cute, very sweet, but with questionable music taste).

After a hearty lunch of boiled mutton spine, me and C passed out the sofa's, both having mad dreams. We were so done in that that evening we just found a hotel, and hung out eating bread and cheese and chatting til we fell asleep.

next day we met up with Uya, and went with her to visit her parents bed factory. It was so cute. A higgldy piggldy collection of ramshackle buildings, with a security guard living on site, in a ger, which we went into too. Unfortunately, I had neglected to charge my camera battery, so after taking the one picture above, which is C and N at the apartment, my camera went byebye, and I am waiting for C to put hers up online so I ca steal them for le blogge.

So we watched the menfolk building wooden bed frames, very nice workmanship, and the then to another building, to see women putting the mattresses together, first compiling a plethora of springs, then upholstering them.

It was interesting to see how they worked, quiet, serious, the place seemed an unorganised mess, but there was also a strong sense of process about it.

After the factory we headed to the black market, which was nicer than the one in UB by a huge long shot. the stuff was much better quality, there were much less people, who were much less pushy, and the atmosphere was super chilled, rather than frenetically tense. I bought a bag and a pair of plimsolls,

after more wandering and a visit to the 'funfair' where we took a ride ont he big wheel, which was very big, and had no security features, so quite terrifying, C and I went to get a pizza while Uya went to have family time. then we met up again at a bar later that night, and went on to a night club. the club was seemingly quite fancy, the light show was the usual seizure inducing dazzlefest, and the music was the usual cringy R&B, and the clientelle were actually a lot less pretentious than the UB lot. Nice place, I thought, til I went to the toilet.... two squat holes, with swinging doors were the unisex loos. one of the doors had a big panel missing, the other didnt shut properly, or lock. nice. People were barging in and out constantly, smoking heavily, and chatting loudly, and the space was tiny, but my bladder was protesting, so I squeezed my way through the puffing gibbering crowd, and went for the squat. I could hold the door shut while I peed, but as soon as I let go to pull up me bricks, the door was flung open, by a girl who had seen me go in there, seen my hand holding the door shut, yet who still thought it would be ok to walk in and trample over me.

This is another thing I will never understand, the mongolian delusion that two solid objects can occupy the same space at the same time.

Anyway, the club was fun, we danced, and were 'chatted up' by a group of giggly young men (never understand giggly men, it is all wrong in my opinion, and freaks me out - are you a 9 year old girl or are you a MAN?)

The next day me and C were up early ish to go for a wee hike in the hills, which was ace, the fresh air, the views, and then we were invited into a ger by a very sweet lady called muugii, who offered us aruul, and spoke to us in the broken english she had taught herself from a book, she had a hilarious little booklet called "american idioms" which contained some funny little colloquialisms.

back to the flat for salty tea and watchig "dance your ass off" which even dubbed in mongolian is probbly the BEST reality show I ever saw, fatties dancing to lose weight, performing, getting judged, getting weighed and crying. aaah, bliss.

We had a slap up korean meal before finding a car to drive us back to UB. The drive back was long and a bit scary at times. Mongolians drive as if they really truly do want to kill themselves, their passengers, and everyone else on the road. We have been told never to be driven at night, and I was a bit nervous as after it got dark at around 8pm it got pretty hairy. We passed a big accident as well, which added ot the fretfulness. But we made it back in one peice, and spent the rest of the week exploring UB, museus, markets, monuments, the fun fair in UB, aving a dinner party, doing the pub quiz (and losing, and the pub has closed down, so what am i going ot do now?!?!), going to the cinema, and the theatre to see a mongolain opera called "three dramatic characters" which was ace, such a spectacle. Didnt think much of most of the singing, but the costumes were amazing, and the last scenes was a wedding party, which had dancing and wrestling, a wonderful show.

We went out on C's last night to kareoke, well, we werent going to go, but we got convinced, and were so glad we went. Loads of people were there, a big ex-pat crowd for the leaving do of an AYAD, and we were all singing awy happily. then there was a power cut, and the music stopped, but we were undeterred, and all kept singing, in the dark, all together, which was so funny and happy.

Not so funny and happy when we had to get up at 4.30am after getting to bed at 3am, to put C on her plane!

So, now life is back to kind of normal, back at work, back to living alone again. We had the interpreters training, that I helped design, and we got very god feedback from that, and our training materials are going to be duplicated and used in other areas, so that is nice.

I had to cancel my Chingeltei lecture today as a doctor at the hospital wants to hang out with me this afternoon, so i am a little nervous about that, as they alwasy seem to misunderstand my role, and start asking me diagnostic questions, which I cant answer, so then they lok disappointed and I die a little inside.

Photos to follow in next post.

Oh yeah, the hypnoscreen - did I ever mention it before? Its a huge screen in the centre of town that shows adverts and stuff, and showed the world cup matches when it was on. it freaks me out a bit, especially the other day I walked past it at dusk, and the light it emitted was so eerie and hypnotic.

it is getting colder here, down to -12 at night, but still around 8 or 9 during the day, and super hot inside as the government has turned the heating on.

so back to hypo/hyperthermia seesaw. What FUN!

dancing geese, daylight robbery, and falling off a horse

2010-09-19T10:35:00.000+01:00

Soooo, whats been happening.......

Well, UB has been the usual crazy noisy dust bucket it always is, thought the weather has been nice still, slowly dropping, during the day it was still sunny in the 20's, but every evening got that bit colder. Its coats and proper shoes time now. But what a scorching summer, I am almost looking forward to the chill, though I must remember to set aside an extra ten minutes for getting dressed in the morning.

So last weekend I went to the CIRCUS! It was a much anticipated event, there was a buzz about it in the city. Mongolians LOVE spectacle, pomp and ceremony, and it was hard no tot get caught up in the excitement as we took our places in line, clutching our tickets, which were not cheap at 8000₮ but came gaudily decorated with photos of the many wonders that were in store for us, acrobats, clowns (eurgh), bears and - er - geese.....

Our glee was soon quashed though; the main doors of the circus opened, and we braced ourselves for a forward surge as people pushed to get in and get seats, but none came, some mongolian was being spoken at the front, and the crowd visibly sagged and began to disperse. what??

Luckily one of our mongolian colleagues was in the queue, and had spotted us, she came over to tll us that since the animals for the circus had been detained at the border, the show was being postponed.... yeah, so, thats several hours by car away, yet you let us all stand around until 5 minutes before the show was due to start, for what? hoping for a miracle?

Anyway, our tickets were good for the next day, so 24 hours later there we were agian and this time it was the real deal. And what a show. First there was a gang of acrobats in the most bizarre costumes doing crazy tricks with a jump rope, then hula girls, contortionists, dancing geese - yes, DANCING GEESE! They were amazing, my new crush (shh, dont tell camels). Then trapeze artists, and then some truly terrifying stunts done by young men, seesaws and sticks, cant explain it, but it gave me conniptions. Then a strong man, who my word, was STRONG. All this was interspersed with clowns who I wont talk about as I dont agree with clowns.

Then, the finale....the moment I later felt deeply ashamed of looking forward to so much....the bears. It was awful. the poor poor bears. I had got so excited at teh thought of seeing a real one in real life, that I spared no thought for the reality of the situation. It was just painful to watch. There were three bears, and their fear, distaste, discomfort and sheer despair were palpable. the mongolians whooped and cheered, waving their glow sticks with wild abandon, us westerners sat aghast, hands over mouths, horrified at what we were witnessing.

Anyway, I wont go on about it, suffice it to say that I am now a campaigner for getting performing bears banned.

So, the next day was a scorcher, and I was strolling through town in my floaty dress, one last time to wear it. Now, I am usually hyper alert about my belonings, I cant afford ot lose anything, and I am deeply attached to my things, however, while crossing a busy road, my attention was more on not getting run over than it was about guarding my bag, and having just been to a shop, stupidly, my wallet was at the top of the bag, well, not for long it wasnt, as a little artful dodger went and nicked it. I felt him do it, but as I turned around and grabbed him he made a hulabaloo, in hindsigh I realise this was to distract me form the fact that he was swiftly passing my wallet to his colleague, twisty, so no matter how much I shouted at him and shook him and pinched him that was it, my wallet, and all the money I had - gone.

So that fair took the wind out of my sails I tell you. I was heading for an energy crash anyway, and have spent the last week being ill, flopping around incapable of doing anyhting but feel sorry for myself. In the midst of the misery was a ray of light in the form of a skype with home, meeting my newest nephew for the first time, a gorgeous scrumptious, beautiful baby boy, who made me want to stick my face into the internet to eat him all up.

I even missed the quiz, THAT is how ill i was.

So, today is sunday, and I was convinced by friends to come along on a horseriding trip, country air to blow away the bug. It was good, bu u u u t ... i was given the most psychotic horse, and the most annoying saddle and stirrups.

the stirrups were tied together under the horse, so i had no ease of movement, and right form the get go I could feel that this horse was mental. He bolted almost as soon as we set off. Now, I am cool with galloping, since my first foray with riding here I have done a lot more and got very confident on a horse, so I wasnt worried, until I realsied that the horse was not runnin gfor pleasure or exercise, it was properly bolting. I also realised that my feet had become stuck in the stirrups, so if he tried ot throw me I was in deep trouble....and I ALSO realised that he didnt care how hard I pulle don the reins, he was not stopping, and he didnt seem to be looking where he was going, so one trip on a marmot hole or loose stone, of which there are multitudes, and I was going to be cut into a rather easy two peice jigsaw....

Through divine intervention or runnign out of puff, he finally came to a halt, and cursing I began to try to free my feet. I managed ot get one out, but it had been stuck so tight, and I had such little leeway, that as i pulle dit out, the final release resulted in a kick back into the horses side, which sent him off again - oh f*ck.

That time was ok too, as he got distracted by a water hole, and I was able ot gently free my other foot. The rest of the gang caught up, and I complained to the horse man, who undid the rope that had been tying my stirrups together, and, as it turned out, pre-emptively saving my life.

So, after that it was much more comfortable, and my horse seemed content to walk with the herd, which was really cool, being on the steppe, in the sunshine, with a cool breeze in my hair, atop a horse, amid many horses, this is how I love to ride.

Closer to home, with the camp in sight, horsie stopped to graze, and I saw this as my chance to put my jacket back on, having taken it off earlier while we were in the midday sun. I was moving as gently as possible, and seriously, I have made far more jerky or sudden movements on a horse before, but this one must have sensed I wasnt hodling on properly, and took his chance to bolt again. And this time he threw me. It is a funny feeling, realising you are about ot fall off a horse that is galloping - for a split second I considered making the effort to stay on, but to be honest by now I was sick of this recalcitrant beast, and was glad of the excuse to jump ship.

So jump/fall I did, like, according to eyewitnesses, a stunt woman (curtsy). horse streaking of into the distance, I was glad I wasnt still on it. Up I bounced, lit a rollie, and reassured my fellow riders of my physical integrity.

The horse man brought the horse back, and back I got on it, and this time kept him on a tight rein and led him back to the tether. But that was me, knackered, and pissed off. So after a hearty lunch in the chill wind, I wasnt reeeeally up for another ride, but I got a different horse, which was nuts in a different way, and had a wee trot for a bit, but my heart wasnt in it, so when th horse decided it had had enough, I didnt argue.

So, here I sit, bruised, thinking of having a beer this evening and then going home for an early night with one of the movies I downloaded. Bayarte.

four meetings and a party

2010-09-09T07:15:00.000+01:00

I am meeting'ed out man. New VSO vols have arrived, and in addition to the ICT working group meeting, the VolCom meeting, and the Health Programme meeting (5 hours long, starting at 9am on a saturday - WTF!!) I also had an Interpreters Wrking Group meeting.

We also had a big party to welcome the new volunteers, to what I assure them wil be the most random year of their life, if they make it out alive, and to network with other people in UB.

I cant be bothered to go into it, and bore you with the details, but the Health Programme meeting was really good, and very positive, I was very vocal and attentive, despite the meeting being help the morning after the party, and at parties I tend to dance til 4am, and this one was no exception....

Anyway, the interpreters meeting was also very good, I had a hard time with Zolo at teh beginning, as neither of us knew how to manage the dyamic of volunteer and interpreter, so we learned things the hard way, and I was determined to make sure other people didnt have to. So I am designing a couple of trianing tools, and have roped Zolo into helping me.

I am starting my proper lectures again tomorrow, after a summer of paperwork, audits and holidays. I am actually looking forward ot getting bakc into it - especially since getting the translations of my evaluation forms from my las tlot, which included such heartwarming statements as

"After the lessons I organised group training twice. The nurses were very interested. It is good if Catherine continues her lessons."

"I have got new information"

"The lessons were interesting, I learned many things that I did not know. Thank you Catherine. Thank you Zolo"

woo hoo - I dont need to crawl home a snivelling failure after all. Something is getting through, and now I am more experienced and imprvingin my teaching, and Zolo is pretty much an expert now on all things nursey, and I have got some kudos in the hospital, things can only get better - right?!?!!

anyway, more importantly than development work - I have a big spot on my cheek, and very dry skin. This is not acceptable, face masks are making some difference, but with all the dust and crap in the air, I am fighting a losing battle, and now I actually look my real age, its pretty tragic. Face creams here are stupidly expensive, so I am giving myself inner monologue therapy about getting wrinkles, and how not to have a nervous breakdown about it.....

Most of my pub quiz team has now gone, or quit (you know who you are.....I dont care if you found my competetive approach unnerving.....no one likes a quitter!) so I am gradually rebuilding it, and I think we may emerge a stronger crew.....we have representatives of mongolia, canada, america, and europe. We have a range of ages and experiences, and I think tonight we are in with a chance of winning, although while it used to be JAG American, and Patio who were our main rivals, the new vso's have formed a formidable team aswell, so it will be a tense battle tonight.

Wish me luck!

a candlelit quiz, galloping through the steppe, and the best breakfast ever.

2010-08-30T07:51:00.000+01:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a right old time of it. The days after the music festival I took very easy, as I was so tired after the excitement of having Kate to visit, and staying up late so much. I went with my good friend (now sadly departed, back tot he USA, sad face) to see "Salt" - I think my discernment about films is eroding out here, I just love going to the cinema so much that even this utter drivel I was entertained by, it was a fun watch, but ultimately frivolous, convoluted, and ridiculous. Sorry Angelina, but I dont rate you one bit as an actress.

Anyway, so for the following week I was just staying in, eating healthy, going to bed early and generally being very quiet. Went to the pub quiz on thursday and lost at the TIE BREAKER! Such a disappointment.

I even had a quiet weekend! Although on the sunday I went to play scrabble and have dinner with my elderly friend George, and then I went off to the airport to meet the new VSO vols.

Then from Monday things got fun again..... My friend Naomi came over from JApan where she lives, and we had a really fun week together, all the phots that illustrate this fun time were taken by her. I have given up on my camera.

So, she arrived on the monday evening, and as part of her travel package, she had a free night in the Byangol hotel, so we decided to sneak me in too. She arived on Monday evening, and we went for a slap up meal and cocktails before trundling home to chat until we fell asleep. The next morning I was so super excited to go and have a BUFFET BREAKFAST. Surely one of the most amazing things imaginable. OK, so breakfast is my favourite meal, taking time over breakfast, and eating a lot for breakfast is totally my bag. I also like a varied breakfast. I was in seventh heaven. Omlette, sausage, rice, fruit, rolls, jam, chilli sauce, mushrooms, coffee, juice, stir fried vegetables, ham, cheese, I had it all.

the week was spent wandering round the city, looking at museums, markets, finding authentic mongolian cuisine and me making my debut as co-presenter on "strolling through the decades", a radio show that was sadly cancelled last week, helping film for voice box tv, the english language tv show shown on mongolian national television (which i have been on 3 times now, ahem). We then spent the weekend at a riding camp in the countryside, galloping through the rolling steppe, stopping for a bowl of yoghurt in an old lady's ger, chasing the cows when they tried ot eat her washing, eating hearty grub and watching marmots bounce around. All of this activity is now documented below in picture form.....

in the museum, we later saw one of these birds on the steppe!

owls in the museum, they make me think of me and my sister when we were young.

a display ger in a shopping centre....

me standing atmospherically by window in shopping centre

Some modern/traditional mongolians

Zolo and I running to lunch through thte rainGerUs riding through the steppe!Me "filming" (nb, this consisted of pressing a button.sleeping in the ger, i am not a "morning person"..my living room...me the radio star, video killed me....

inside old lady's gernewly wedsfilming from a different angle..ger campmy kitchen you can see a couple of my students this time!laundry munching cooscanteen we often go for lunch intuftel, one of my favourite mongolian meals

the old lady in the ger

Sorry the photos are all out of order, it was an absolute nightmare trying to upload them, for some reason.

Anyway, Naomi left at 4am on the mondya morning, and i had ot go back to work - then my other friends came back from their travels in Urhangei, for some hastily put together supper, as I had to dash out for a leaving do.

We managed to have a quiet night in watching "Rachel getting married" which we took great pleasure in making fun of pretty much all the over inflated characters. But all agreed that even thought the characters and actors were pretty wack, the film itself was well made and told an interesting story.

Weds another leaving do. Thursday the PUB QUIZ, the last one for my dear friend Michelle (she who has recently returned to the USA). It was a special one, as there was a power cut, so we did the quiz in candle light. very atmospheric. And then we WON! Such a glorious victory.

This weekend, I went with two friends to Terelj, just to hang out in the countryside. I got sunburned, and climbed some rocks. I also got an early night, but was not impressed to be woken early early but kids playing football, kicking the ball against the side of our ger.

It is getting cold at nights now, and despite the warmish weather, we all know that Winter is on its way. I have got so much new stuff for my flat, what with all these people leaving and donating stuf they cant/dont want to take with them, but because of the incessant leaving do's and welcome parties i am barely in my flat!

So - as August ends, I look forward to a quieter September, although I have a friend coming for 2 weeks at the end of september, so who knows when I shall manage to catch up on my beauty sleep.....

Thats not James, its James!

2010-08-09T04:47:00.000+01:00

Wowee, what a week. I had some days off as I had friend come to visit me from the UK for a week. I had to work some of it and as she is also a nurse she came to see me "in action". Here are a couple of photos, from my lecture at Chingeltei FGP, and me in my training room at the hospital, looking very much like a GEEK!

When I wasnt having to work, I managed to take my friend out to the countryside, where she took some great photos, which I have shamelessly stolen.

This is an Airag stall, Airag s the fermented mare's milk. A big bowl of it cost 2000₮ and we shared it, passing the bowl around, sipping and grimacing. Airag is hard to describe, it is like tangy liquid yoghurt, it tastes kind of furry, a bit like desicated coconut, only sharp and also like sour milk....it is an aquired taste to say the least. To me it tastes a bit "wrong" but I still wanted to drink it....

More camels, because, let face it, you cant have too many pictures of camels, they are the most wondrous beasts imaginable.

LOOK at it! Its like a donkey only better! I love them!

dude with a bird, he said it was just four months old....not sure how accurate that is, but it is definately a young;un.

me climbing up a rock

katie and I atop rock

mongoliaaaaaaa

birdie flying

Gollum? No - me squeezing through a crevice!

So, that was the trip to the country, it was really nice, although I did have to chuck a hissy fit that morning, seems to be happening more and more, I think it is jsut the hormones..?! Or maybe I really am just a bit of a highly strung madam.

Katie also took some good shots of the area where I live,

sleeping tramp

Ger district

me by my apartment block

So - that was Katies visit in a nutshell, walking, talking, eating, drinking, riding various animals, etc.

The day she left, I went to a music festival in the countryside, with my friends. It was ace, at firt the weather was so nice, and the setting was stunning,

There was just one stage, a few food vans and a beer van, and about 400 people we guessed. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and the music was on the whole pretty good.

(spot the crusty)

It is quite funny, the mongolians, when watching a band, do not dance. They stand solemnly still watching intently. It was just us foreigners that were bopping away.

So, we drank beer and ate kebabs and danced and wandered and sat and talked and laughed, and watched the "Mongolian Choppers", the neo nazi's, on big motorbikes, dressed in full nazi regalia. It would have been scary if it wasnt so ridiculous. Plus they were jut not threatening, when it started raining we were all crammed in a tent together, and the nazi's were fine, they mostly just pretended not to see us, but then there was one drunk and a skunk one who came and shook our hands!

I heard people talking about the fact that there was going to be a British act playing, and then I heard someone saying that James was playing. Now, there is a band called 'James' and I got well excited thinking it was them, but when I looked up to the stage I saw this guy James up there. I exclaimed, "thats not James, its JAMES!" to the hilarity of my companions.

So, that was the festie, by about 9pm we had kind of had enough, and then it started POURING with rain, as it has been doing quite often lately.

We commandeered a bus to take us back to UB, a bedraggled but cheerful crew

oh, yeah, so I have been complaining about the intense heat, but I take it all back now it is getting chilly....and keeps raining..........

Ok, enough for now, this week I will be working on more lectures, and proposals for measures to improve patient safety, and stuff. New VSO's arrive over the weekend, then my other friend is coming from Japan to visit, so there will be another long absence and then another photo-filled post, so watch this space.

men at work

2010-07-29T03:05:00.001+01:00

wotcha.

This week I have been mostly sweating. I know I say it a lot but it is SO HOT here, and the humidity has just been hoiked up, so even more rancid. I am sweating from my eyeballs. The gross factor has skyrocketed, and I was already pretty gross to begin with

I havent done anything of interest, this is just a rambling post to fill time while I wait for Zolo to show up, so we can carry on with our ward visits.

So, I finished my 'initial programme' of training - this was, to recap for you, a series of lectures, discussions, demonstrations and assignments on five fundamental aspects of nursing,

1, the nursing process (assessment, diagnosis, planning, implemetation and evaluation)
2, Infection Control (basic microbiology, the spread of infections, the effective use of personal protective equipment, and how to deal with exposure to infection, eg, sharps injury.)
3, The physiology, prevention and treatment of pressure damage.
4, Safe moving and handling practices
5, Good practice for nursing patients with a disability

I then did three sessions of basic nursing knowledge, Vital signs, how and why we measure them, and the clinical implications of abnormal readings. Coronary Heart Disease, phsysiology, signs and symptoms of an impending heart attack. Respiratory physiology and common diseases of the respiratory tract, including TB, Pneumonia and acute Bronchitis, emphysema and Asthma.

I have also covered Wound Assessment and wound care and nursing documentation.

I have also started researching the WHO's (the world health organisation, not the band) recommendations for improving patient safety, and have written a proposal for the introduction of patient ID bands.

Anyway, so now lessons are off for the summer, thank goodness, trying to teach when you have sweat in your eyes and you can feel your feet literally swimming in your shoes is NOT FUN. Although I have still been doing my Chingeltei lectures - more on the latest debacle there later.

So I have taken to ambling around the wards asking my students how they have been implementing and sharing the information I gave them. In ICU they have totally taken on board the pressure area care stuff, and I nearly cried with joy when I saw how consciensiously they were applying all that I had taught.

In the Cardiac Surgery ward, the moving and handling techniques have been adopted, and appreciated.

It is such a buzz - especially since in a lot of the lessons they all just kinda sat there staring at me, falling asleep, or chtting on their mobiles. Although as I said before, I did notice a definate shift after a while and they became more attentive.

Yesterday, after a comedy of errors, in which I forgot what day it was, lost my memory stick and threw one of my epic hissy fits, I had a lecture at the Chingeltei health centre. It was on Diabetes, and it started off very well. However, Zolo began to lose concentration after a while, and then my computer collapsed, and then I pulled the plug accidentally on the projector, couldnt access the english version of the lecture, so I tried to illustrate Ketoacidosis through the medium of contemporary dance, realised I couldnt remember exactly what it actually was, realised the next slide was hyperosmolarity and decided to quit while I was behind and while Z was still at least something resembling conscious.

Went home and had a lovely evening as I have had, for the past two nights, a couple staying with me. they are friends of friends, but now I have adopted them as they are so lush. I made a big beef curry, and we sat around my plastic table having some beers and indepth chats about life, love, the universe, party anecdotes and Mongolia.

* I have just been handed, by my colleague, a chocolate biscuit thingey, which was quite nice, and says on the front "It has been prepared with care with naturalness, freshness and lasting superior taste in mind".*

Oh, this is spiralling into another bohemoth post, but I have to add my photos, I saw these mongolian men painting a building the other day, and I loved the visual, so I want to share it. I had to zoom in, so the picture quality isnt great, but it reminds me of this puzzle I used ot have as a child which was of men at work. Also I just remembered I went for a walk in the country the other day, and climbed up 666 steps to a monument on top of a hill, and then went to a bizarre little garden in the city, half real half plastic, but pretty pretty. So here are a collection of photos for your delection. Enjoy. Over and out.

buddha park

Buddha

Soldier dude

Zaisan Monument (thts Lenin and Sukhbaatar)

View from the top of the hill

A decorated hill

Centrepiece of the city garden

Mongolian Felt Slippers

Men at Work

Awright dawlin'

City street

City Slicker

(me)

random bits and bobs

2010-07-23T12:44:00.001+01:00

I keep writing blog posts and they get longer and longer, and I still don’t ever say all the things I want to, all the interesting, weird, random things about Mongolia, the Mongolians, life in UB, etc etc.

Reading back over my past posts, I realise I didn’t say anything about the Theatre. I went to see the Ballet there, Swam Lake. It was beautiful. The set was modest but ingeniously expressive. The dancers were, on the whole, very accomplished. There were a couple, most notably one boy who played the court jester, who were a bit unsteady and ungainly..... I wondered if he was perhaps drunk, but his awkward landings and clumsy arm movements were not cringy, in fact they were endearing, as he was still utterly committed to his performance, and seemed to be oblivious to his heavy footedness.

The theatre itself is small but lovely, above is the auditorium, below, the corridors of the theatre...

The chandelier in the main auditorium.

The performance was good, but the Mongolians make an ADHD-esque audience. They talk and move around, and take calls on their mobile....there were a group of young children, perhaps between 5 and 10 years old, all sitting together, without adult supervision, who were just larking around throughout the entire performance. We made like grouchy old ladies and shushed them.

So, that was the theatre, I have been trying ever since to get tickets to the opera or to another ballet.

Restaurants were another thing I wanted to talk about. It is funny, it goes against the restrained and polite British manner, but in Restaurants you are allowed to bellow for the waitress, “zorchoooooo!”, and someone will come scurrying over immediately.

Service is hit and miss, and I still cannot wrap my head around some of the things that happen in restaurants....for example I have gone somewhere, walked in, sat down, the waitress comes over, notepad in hand, I make my order and they look pained, writing it down, they potter off, only to come straight back to say “багуй” (haven’t got) then they shake their head and cross their arms across their chest, the sign for “we’re closed”..... Ok, so why did you let me come in, sit down and order before telling me this?!?

Kate and I went to an “Italian” restaurant the other day, quite a posh one, as K was wanting to treat us. We were seated by a vacant looking young man and then left for ten minutes, we had to go and find him to try and place our order, we both wanted pasta, which we found was “багуй”. SO we went to another little place, that does cheap eats, and we both ordered the same dish of beef and rice. We both got different things, which were not beef or rice. This happens sometimes, we have ordered different things before, and been brought out the same dish each (not what either of us ordered), or one will order something and be brought something different. Most of the time what you get it perfectly nice, so its fine, but sometimes you get something truly weird, like spaghetti with cream and cinnamon....

There is a cheap burger place that we used to go to, that is run by an American Mongolian, but he has not been here for the last few weeks and the place is falling apart. Orders take aaaaaages to come, then they are put on the counter and left – it is tantalising to see the food you have waited so long for, and watch the waitress faffing about doing something else, every now and again she will look over, dispassionately, at the food, waiting to be delivered, and then go back to dusting the door handle or whatever other non-urgent task she is performing. Then you find that the burger is undercooked and the bun is stale. Bad news, we don’t go there anymore.

Sometimes I am left utterly non-plussed by the Mongolian ways.

The other day I mentioned to my over-zealous colleague that I felt run down, and wondered if I was slightly anaemic. He immediately whipped me off to the Korean Hospital for a blood test.

I had to go to the desk and “register” – this consisted of giving my name and date of birth to a girl behind a desk, and receiving in return a card with my name on it. I was sent off to another room where I poked my head in and told someone who was sitting at a desk that I needed a CBC. She typed something into a computer (while a Mongolian man leaned past me, talking roughly at her) and I then had to go back to a different desk to pay. Then I was sent upstairs to have the blood taken.

In the UK we take blood from the vein in the crook of the elbow, here the nurse put a small needle in the vein in the back of my hand and drew the blood through a tube into a container. She was very proficient, but seemed detached. I walked into the room while another patient was having blood taken. Normally (in UK) one would immediately retreat, apologising, but I knew that if I did this then someone else would just push in front of me – this is the Mongol way – so I stayed, neither the nurse nor the patient batted an eyelid.

I had a peek into some of the wards as I walked through the hospital, it is a private hospital, so much more snazzy than the one I work at.

When the boys heard I had been to the hospital they naturally asked what was wrong with me, and I had to say, feebly, that I was just feeling a bit wibbly due to the intense heat. I don’t know if I will ever live this down, every time I now say anything about the heat they ask if I need to go to hospital...or they will feign melodrama, put on a falsetto and say, hand on forehead, “ooh its so hot, maybe I should go and get a blood test”. Very funny.

But I do have to say, the heat is pretty ferocious. It has been in the high 30’s on and off for weeks now, too long outside and I feel like I am being cooked alive. The only reprieve we get is torrential rain every now and again, which is very annoying, but the Mongolians love it. I have a dark tan on my arms and shoulders, and feet, but the rest of me is still pretty pale as I only get the sun walking around town, there is nowhere to go and sunbathe. Although I plan to get out to swim in the river as soon as poss, and try and even up my skin tone as I am one stripy lady at the moment.

SO – there is a little bit more about day to day life. The other day I went to walk around the monastery and then went for a massage – but I am waiting for photos of these little trips, so will talk about them when I can illustrate them.

Work-wise, things are slow. No one seems to care what I am doing! Although my boss came to me the other day and said she had been talking to one of my students, who talked highly of my lessons and was implementing some of the things I had taught, into practice in her department. That was incredibly gratifying to hear. I did think, throughout the course, that the nurses were warming to me, and starting to understand why I was talking about these things, I tried to make what I taught follow a coherent pattern, and link up rationales for certain practices, but I didn’t get much feedback and had begun to get disheartened.

My boss also told me that she wanted me to stay for another year in my post, which was very touching. I don’t think I will do it though, as much as I like my job, I feel there are more things, new challenges, better opportunities, on the horizon. I don’t know what they are or whether I will even recognise them when I see them, but something will happen I am sure of it......

Nadaam pants and horses

2010-07-19T09:58:00.000+01:00

Sooo, I have had a week off work, kind of enforced as my interpreter wanted to go on holiday, and there is not much I can do at work without her....

Over the weekend and mondya and tuesday it was nadaam, the manly sports festival of Mongolia, which was great.

I went out to the countryside with some pals and this is some of the scenes....

the wrestling ring. shame it was such an overcast day

some manly wrestlers.....

before they wrestle thay do a dance which is like an eaggle flying, it is hard not to laugh, as they look like kids pretending to be airoplanes...

can you see the guy at the far right of the pic

oh, and this is a shot from the van we came in, we got so many people in there it was sardine central.

this is a хошоор station, the fried dumplings, I dont really like them sice the food poisioning incident so i ate шорлог instead, a meat kebab which was so yummy, I had prok first, then lamb, and then later realised that eating only meat all day wasnt that great an idea. aah, hindsight.

So, we watched the wrestling, then some horse riding and then just kinda wandered around taking in the atmosphere, everyone was chilled

the mix of modern and traditional was interesting, they went together quite seamlessly i thought, but then I have been here a few months now, and got used to it.

the mongolians go in for al fresco snooker in a big way, there are snooker tables dotted about all over the city, so of course it was only natural they would have some here too..

So - that was my nadaam, a good time.

the rest fo the week was pretty quiet, it was punctuated by the departure of a good friend. The thing with this transient ex-pat life of exile, is that things are constantly changing. I was discussing the other day how life here - and I would imagine in other places as an ex-pat - is like a soap opera. Characters come along, and make an impressiona and then disappear.

I am very sad that J has gone though, probably sadder about it than I would be about anyone else.

We had his leaving do in the poshest bar in UB, a sky lounge with amazing views over the city, we dressed up nice, and pretended to be proper people for the night.

A live band played nineties indie ballads, and a storm raged outside, thunder and lightning punctuating the angst of the evening, a pathetic fallacy.

Then the "disco" and again, the strobe lights on the dance floor were so full on I thought i was going to have a seizure at one point, everyone gradually left as the visual assault was just too much.

The day he left we wandered through the city solomn and aimless, a group of friends soon to be depleted.

Then he left, and we stood in the street watching the taxi pull away.

Anyway, to get over it I went to the countryside again, and this time the weather was absolutley gorgeous.

It was another sardine situation in the van though, and on the way there the door fell off...

welcome to mongolia!

We stayed in a ger camp, sunbathed and trundled. I was bored after a while though, and got moody when we got stranded there, so I think I am going to stay in the city for the next few weeks, just venturing out to the hills a short bus ride away.

I like to get some fresh air, but I feel unplugged from my life support if I am away from the smog and the crowds and the traffic for too long.

I have something in my eye

2010-07-10T07:35:00.000+01:00

With all this dust flying around, I have permanently gritty eyes and it bugs me.

Anyway - life has been pretty quiet lately, just work and home and some meals at my house, and the pub quiz. I was the question master the other day, for the first time, and it was a lot of fun, but hard work to keep the crowd in check!

This weekend it is Nadaam, a big Mongolian festival, in which the three "manly sports" are practised. these are Archery, Horse Riding and Wrestling.

I am keeping keeping away form the big celebrations, as I have heard it is quite overwhelming - crowded, full of pick pockets, hot and stuffy, and expensive. Instead, I am heading out of the city on tuesday with some "in the know" people, to watch a kind of mini nadaam, which I think will be a lot more enjoyable.

So - that will be the NEXT blog post, but for now I thought I would put us some photos that I took today, I just walked along snapping away, so this is a chronicle of my walk into town, starting from my front door....

Street life

2010-06-25T04:01:00.000+01:00

Aaah UB. What a city. Every day brings new curiosities and puzzlements. Just walking around here is an experience in itself.

OK, so we have done roads and traffic, now for somehting more pedestrian.

I mentioned before that there is a lot of building work, road resurfacing and other stuff going on. The streets round where I live have particularly fervent work going on. There are HUGE mounds of earth and HUGE craters all over the place. Nothing is fenced off. Large machines trundle around with wiry Mongolian men climbing on them. Blocks of concrete litter the sidewalk.

(NB, I have not gone american, it is just not possible to call what the walk place at the side of the road a "pavement" at the moment, so sidewalk is more appropriate.)

The other day I was almost hit in the face by a swinging lump of concrete as I circumnavigated a crane. On the corner of the street where LSM lives (his hole has been blocked up! Yana, I will miss him) a group of aimless looking "workmen" constructed and deconstructed a wall three times, before demolishing it and abandoning it. You've heard of shed boat shed, this was rubble wall rubble wall rubble wall rubble. I totally reckon it could be a contender for the Turner Prize.

People on the streets are a fascinatingly diverse crowd. Young mongolians are, for the most part, super trendy and flash. There are the "migga's" as we call them, who dress hip hop, all baggy trousers and basketball vests and bandanas and attitude. There are the emo-like boys, skinny with floppy fringes and an air of quiet angst. There are also the "skin 'eds", neo nazi nationalists, who have shaved heads, wear ripped jeans and bovver boots, and have swastika tattoos and facial piercings. It was quite weird, I was on the bus once and there was a pair of them, textbook image of a couple of BNP punks (only Mongol). And I realised that I was the immigrant here, the minority ethnic group. I had an inkling of what it must have been like to be, for example, an indian living in Peckham in the 1980's or somthing. We (foreigners) have had a subtle fear of the nationalists instilled in us from horror stories and security briefings. I just tried to make myself look invisible, and mentally practiced my more ferocious ju jitsu moves. They pretty much ignored me though.

Then there are the street people, dark red faces and faded brown garb. Then the traditional people, who are still, in this 30+ heat, walking around in their dels and boots. They are wizened and dignified. The men walk with their thumbs stuck in their belts, and wear stetson style hats. The women are bow legged, and remarkably beautiful despite their deeply lined faced. They look about a hundred years old, like witchy women from fairy stories.

The young women are the most eye catching at the moment. In this weather many of them have taken to wearing the tiniest shorts you ever saw. Others wear beautifuly cut summer dresses, and high heels. Others look cute in cropped jeans and snazzy vests.

In the evenings the girls go all out, some of the things they wear look like they came straight out of the wardrobe of an eastern european prostitute. The other day I met a mongolian singer, who was wearing basically lingerie.

In this heat the men pull up their T-shirts, walking around with their rotund bellies exposed, slappng or stroking them as they walk. ewww.

There are some bins on the street, and there are street cleaners, but unfortunately the mongolians are, from what I have observed, terrible litter bugs. There is rubbish everywhere. Samshed vodka bottles are everywhere and also, oddly, playing cards. Playing cards all over town. Like confetti outside a church after a wedding.

Then there are bodies and bones. It is not unusual to see a dead dog in the road, its stiff limbs outstretched, flies covering its mangy flesh. It is also not uncommon to see a dead, or comatose tramp lying on the ground. This is the unsavoury side of the city, and of the mongolians harsh attitude to animals and alcoholics. Random bones are everywhere too, sheep skulls, jaw bones, etc.

In the centre of town, opposite the state department store, there is a huge electronic billboard, that plays adverts all day. It is like something out of Bladerunner.

Up my end of town, because of all the road works, the cars have taken to drving on the sidewalk. Every morning I have to throw myself out of the way of an oncoming land cruiser.

So - disjointed post I know, but thats kind of a reflection of street life here. I was thinking the other day, I am no longer suprised by anythng I see in mongolia. I love the city for its exceptionally high random factor. Its such a tiny little metropolis, but every day it changes in some way, its like a living breathing growing entity, that is a bit mental.

Aaah UB.

When you're in UB

2010-06-21T04:06:00.001+01:00

I always talk abotu what I have done and how I feel and what I think etc, as I am an egomaniac, and that is how I roll. However, I have decided to talk a little about some of the aspects of daily life in UB, to put some of my stories into context, and to give to an insight into the things I encounter in my daily life.

I want to start with the buses and taxi's, and traffic and roads, since they are an inescapable, overwhelming, loud and threatening presence n the city, avoiding being run over is an integral part of my day, and nowhere in UB can you escape the sound of the roads, horns are incessant, INCESSANT.

The city roads are always busy. The main road, Peace avenue, running through the middle from east to west is 6 lanes wide, but is often gridlocked. Up my end of town, a huge section of the road has been taken up to be resurfaced, this has caused huge problems - buses have been rerouted, traffic jams have increased, its a nightmare.

Anyway, the buses....there are several bus lines, run by different companies. The big buses, like this yellow one, cost 300₮ for any journey. They are often crowded, I get a thrill when I get a seat, but often the joy is short lived, as if an elderly person gets on, and wants to sit down, they dont wait for you to offer, they come and hoik you out of your seat. Fair do's I suppose.

The bus conductor is usually a woman, who seems to have almost supernatural balance. The bus jolts and rocks constantly, the hand holds are not fixed, they swing from the ceiling, so with every lean and heave of the bus, all the passengers are rocked or thrown backward and forwards. Sometimes the bus will jerk so violently that everyone is sent hurtling through the bus, landing in a tangled human pile against the front window. When you have a seat, this is cruelly amusing, when you dont have a seat, it is painful and annoying.

However, the conductor, seems impervious to the G force, and can walk around the bus with impunity from centrifugal forces.

She is usually very dour, and struts the length of the bus taking money and issuing tickets. She will poke you in the back to get your attention, and will push you out of the way, if you are in it.

She is fierce and not to be messed with. A few times I have seen the ruddy faced drunk street men try and get on to the bus, they sway and shout and mumble, and just like in London, all the passengers resolutley ignore them. Except conductor woman. Once she has finished collecting the money, she waits for the bus to stop, calls to the driver to open the door, and she pushes them mens right out, usually giving them a good smack upside the head or a kick up the bum as she berates them with shrill ire.

Bus stops are faaaar apart, half a mile or more. When I first moved to the area, I decided that I would walk to the next bus stop - and pretty much walked the entire way to town. Bus stops have a little kiosk at them selling cigarettes and sweets, and mobile phone credit (photos to come soon).

Buses squeal to a halt and doors open, people push and shove to get on or off, sometimes the driver gets bored and starts moving away slowly, several times I have jumped on or off a moving bus, oblivious to the engrish sign above the door:

At the bus stops the other kind of bus - the hated "micro buses" - also stop. These are people carriers, stuffed with people. They are a menace on the road, and when they stop at the bus stop, getting in the way of the real buses, a mongol leans out, spits, and then starts shouting the route, in a really annoying monotone. For me it is "incomprehensible shouting" SPIT "incomprehensible shouting" SPIT, move aside for people to cram in "incomprehensibe shouting" then the big bus wants to get into the bus stop and so beeps his horn long and loud, so the micro bus cheekily beeps back before scooting off, another one hot on its heels, the shouting and spitting to begin again.

I never get the micro bus because, quite frankly, I am 1, disgusted with the conductor person, and 2, I cant understand how they talk so dont know where the bus is going.

What else to say about the bus, hum, sometimes it is so crowded I cant see out of the window, and several times have got of a stop early. There is music playing o the bus, sometimes traditional mongolian warbing ballads, sometimes western pop (mongolians LOVE the Alicia Keys song New York, you hear it at least seven times a day, we all sing along "UB" insteadof New York).

Mongolians have a different concept of personal space than westerners. They have no qualms about holding halds and draping their arms around eachother. Even "tough" looking boys walk down the street in a tender brotherly embrace.

On the bus people will practically sit on top of you, when I have had a seat, I have had people put their bag on my lap, lean onto me, or put their hand on my shoulder to steady themselves. I am pretty ok with it most of the time, I find it hilarious really, and I have enjoyed embracing it, perhaps being a nurse, and having lots of tactile siblings has helped.

The other day an old lady asked me to help her across the road, she took my hand, and we walked hand in hand - she actually seemed reluctant to et go once we got to the other side, and we walked a little way still holding hands before she laughed and patted me, grinning toothlessly.

Taxi's are great here, I dont get them often as my salary wont allow for too much extravagance, but I do love getting them. Every car is a taxi, you just stand at the side o fthe road and hold out your arm, fingers down, making a 'camp' gesture, and within 5 - 10 seconds someone has stopped next to you.

It is important to make a show of checking out the milometer though, as taxi fares are charged at 500₮ per kilometer, but some of them will rip you off somehting chronic if you dont stand up for yourself.

the old cliche clichedly annoys me, the assumption that if you are white you are rich. I rail and rage against the idiotic racism of this assumtion. Anyway - I wont get into it. Just when you get in a taxi, make sure they know you are looking at the milometer. Then when you come to a stop, ask not what the price of the trip is, but how FAR it was. If you know, then dont ask anything, just give them some money and bail.

Oh, and the roads are basically a free for all, I have already described how crossing is perilous, cars will speed up and come for you. There are se traffic lights, but mostly people pay them no heed. At intersections cars and buses all rush to the centre, only to get snarled up for ages, until a policemen comes to untangle them all. If the road is clear, it becomes some kind of whacky race, the other day the bus overtook a car (on a single lane back street) and I once had a very exhilarating taxi ride - I no longer need ot wonder what it woul dbe like to be in a car chase like off of the movies, for this driver was going very fast, weaving in and out of lanes, it was terrifying but also very fun....

Anyway, that is enough for now. Having been here for a few months now, and being quite a laid back go with the flow person, I have adjusted well to this place I think. I tend not to notice or question many of the vagaries of the city. Although even I raised an eyebrow when I saw a naked man bathing in a pond in the centre of town, but I seemed to be the only one to even notice him!

this chicken has really big talons....

2010-06-17T04:19:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I had such a super fun day! I went with my friends who make the TV show here, to the countryside where they were making an episode about the national park, Terelj.

It is about an hours drive from UB, and our friend Ash drove in his very comfortable car. Spirits were high, and there was much laughter and singing. On the way we saw a man at the side of the road, with a big "mad max" style motor buggy, and a HUGE EAGLE! We stopped the car to have a good old gawp, and the guy beckoned us to come and have a closer look. He then let us hold the eagle (for a small fee of course) and then pet it! It was sooo cool, the bird was magnificent, and very docile, and not as heavy as I thought it was going to be....

Whan we got to Terelj, we had lunch first, in a cute little restaurant.

Then Ash and I climbed to the top of Turtle rock, to be filmed, waving and posing, from the ground. As we climbed up and around the rock, we came across a gthering of mongolians having some kind of shmen ritual. there was feathered headresses, coats with bells, and some cool singing. It reminded me that shamans are somehting I havent seen yet properly. I made a mental note to find a shamen in UB and see what they're about.

Scrambling down from the rock a little later, we were met with the news that the guys wanted a to get a shot of riding horses. It is tourist stuff, so you just get a gentle walk on a very docile horse for about ten minutes, for 2,000₮, but it is still quite fun, and you know that the guy with the horse probably doesnt have any other way to make money, so for less than £1, it is fine.

After the horses we walked up to the Buddhist temple, over the rope bridge and up all the steps. I had been here before, but in the cold - it was a very different experience in the blazing sunshine.

The temple caretaker, this nutty old mongolian guy, really took to us. And took advantage of having mongolian english speakers there to ask us some mongolian "riddles". One was

"a man is travelling, he is carrying water in a bag. He visits a Ger, the woman of the ger gives him some milk. he puts the milk into the same bag with the water, yet the water and the milk do not mix. How is this possible?"

Answers on a postcard....it took us ages, we didnt get it right, but I was quite close with my idea.

the other one was hilarious,

"there is a man, he sees another man walking in the distance. He wants to go to him. Why?"

the answer is so mongolian. I'll tell you next week.

While we were talking we saw a hawk soar overhead, we all turned to look, and the caretaker told us that the hawk lived in the temple, we thought it was a mistranslation, but he pointed to the eaves on the front of the temple, and peering behind a big wooden slat, we could make out the hawks chicks, who started squawking and ruffling, so we tip toed away.

Back to the car, and off to find some camels! Afer a stop at the river, to paddle and skim stones and mock J for his pronuncialtion of the word foal (he says it like 'fowl').

The camels were pretty scraggly, but we had a quick go anyway, as I just LOVE camels, and I love riding on them, they remind me of star wars creatures. I cant get enough of them. My next ambition is to meet a camel baby, oh, what bliss that would be...

Then back to UB, singing songs in the car, and then a slap up chinese meal.

What a great day!

Couple more things from the conference

2010-06-14T04:48:00.000+01:00

There are a couple of things I forgot to mention about the conference, the first one, is about finding the snake!!
ONe of the boys found it in his tent, and we all had a good old gawp at it for a while before he took it away, far from the camp site.

Then I just wanted to say a bit more about the train, this is the only photo I could find of me on the train - I was feeling camera shy

THen the fact that apart from at UB, there arent really "stations" as such, just "places that the train stops". this meant that we had quite a distance between the door and the ground getting off -

And getting back on was even harder!

Also, the rope bridge, I have come across more rope bridges in Mongolia than anywhere else, its great, very "temple of doom"

Anyway, so that was what I missed out of the last post (these photos I 'nicked' off someone else, but he'd put them on facebook so I dont think he can sue me for copyright - I hope....).

Now, back in UB, life back to however normal it can be in this city. It is the World Cup, so there is a slightly manic atmosphere, there are tents up for people to watch the football in. Due to the time difference, the games are live at 10pm and 2am here. I am NOT into football so will be avoiding all things WC related.

The last pub quiz used the world cup as a template, the table round was "identify the flag" and embarrassingly, I failed to identify the english flag......hummm....

I hope to go to the countryside on wednesday to take part in another voice box episode, about tourism, I might get to ride a camel again!

I met up with a guy the other day who is doing a very interesting project, travelling the world photographing capital cities. check out his website at http://www.streetsoftheworld.nl/

Oh, and workwise, last week I had the BEST LESSON EVER! I finally have got the hang of writing a proper lesson plan - and we went through the homework I had given them, and everyone participated and came up with some really good answers. I was so pleased, I was buzzing.

Tomorrow the lesson is moving the patient, which I did with another group a while ago, and it went very well then, so I hope to repeat that success....

Slipping standards

2010-06-09T11:01:00.003+01:00

Yes Mother, you are right, I have been using my blog as a way of bitching and moaning, and its boring - I began to think of it like a private diary - I shall try and make it more interesting!

STILL got the head cold, so life is actually a bit difficult, constant discomfort in my face, and slight deafness, but even I am bored of complaining about how under the weather I feel so moving on....

For the last three days I have been staying at a summer camp in the countryside. The whole of VSO mongolia went, staff and volunteers, for a conference, where we confered about vso's work in mongolia, practical and logistical issues, directions, networking, etc etc.

The conferring was fine, but boring to any non vso, so I feel I should talk about two notable things.

1, the weather, it was so hot last week, I packed light clothes for the conference. It was NOT hot at the conference. It was lovely the first day we got there, and we swam in the river. That night however, it began to rain......and rain and rain. We were all sleeping in these wooden cabins, with holes in them......I awoke in the night, with rain pouring into my bed. No fun!

The next day it rained constantly too, but morale was retained, as everyone spent the day cuddled up to eachother for warmth. The family who work in the kitchens there live in a ger on site, which was the only place with a stove, so they said we could go in there to get warm. There were 56 of us - so we took it in turns for groups of around 10 to squeeze in to the ger and dry out a bit.

2, horse riding. I have mentioned before my colleague PF, an alaskan who has three horses out here which he has trained using 'mnatural horsemanship' methods. He brought them to the conference, and when the weather calmed down a bit, he and I, and another girl went for a ride. We were out for about an hour and a half, first walking and taking in the scenery, then PF suggested a "lope". Now, I havent ridden a horse since I was about 6 years old, and back then I was "ponied", as in, someone else help the reins, and I never went faster than a light trot. I have never actually RIDDEN a horse by myself, but I am game for anything, and felt that I was getting the hang of controlling the horse and that me and him were getting on ok, so I said yeah, why not.

So we galloped through the rolling steppe, and it was so amazing. Until my horse - for some reason (PF said it was just overexcited) - bucked.

That was probably the most terrifying experience of my life, but I held on for dear life, and got the horse to chill out and stop. PF said he was impressed. All I could think of was my sore bum, I had gone clean off the saddle, then WHAP back onto it a fair few times. It hurts.

Me and the horse made friends again though, and we even did some more galloping - then walked to a river, where my horse became stuck in some mud and started bucking even more wildly than before as it tried to free itself. WHAP WHAP WHAP! I kept my cool, and kept on the horse, and we got out of that fangle.

here we are having just returned to camp, I was a jellied wreck but kind of pleased with myself for still being alive

The rest of the conference was pretty uneventful, good food, good conversation, a bonfire, a quiz, speeches etc.

We got the train back today, and I am v tired, bed remained wet the whole time, so v v v vcold at night, not a lot of good sleep. but the place was stunning, and the three days were enjoyable, and although i do have a VERY sore bum, it was worth it for the experience, and PF said I was a real trooper, and I am going riding again soon!

Now though, home to my flat, and to my lovely warm dry bed, and a very early night.

Tomorrow I have to organise the whole of friday's session, and next week's chingeltei lecture.

It is raining hard here in UB too, miserable!

Oh, and we got a trian there and back, that was cool, it was exactly like this train I got one time from Riga to Vilnius, in Lithuania. The vso bunch took over a whole carriage and it was fun.

Phew, ok, home to bed now - slaters - hope that was a bit better mama!

Some photos of the place, it was stunning -

the railway station

the conference hall

some horses

some delinquents

a flower

Mongolian flowers are exquisite - it is a little like something out of the imagination of one of the animators on "Avatar" - they are all so lovely. I will take some more photos and show you in another post.

total system collapse

2010-06-02T03:02:00.001+01:00

Uh oh......

When I was 16 I had Glandular Fever. Glandular fever is a bit like cystitis, or 'nam, if you havent experienced it yourself you have no idea of the full horror of it, you cant concieve of the misery it brings.

Now, technically, you can only have GF once, BUT once you have had it, your immune system is never the same again, and you can have "relapses". When I get overtired or run down I begin to get these horrible familiar feelings - weakness, fatigue, low mood, light headedness etc. it is a bit like when you get a certain feeling just before your muscle cramps, or before you fall off something, that hideous split second when you are suddenly aware of what is just about to happen - the "no man's land" after the pont of no return, but before the onset of the horror.
So I got the feelings, and I knew I had pushed myself too far energy-wise. I have had this virus for nearly 2 weeks now but hadnt slowed down my work or fun at all.....stupid girl. So I fell off the edge of health. For me, the WORST thing about this, the thing that I dread more than anything else, is the coldsore that I get when this happens to me. I dont get it on my mouth, that would just be mundane, no I get it in (and crawling out of) my nose, which not only makes me look like an alien is eating my face, it HURTS, it throbs constantly, I am acutley aware of it at al times and I hate it. The other thing is that it is accompanied by a runny nose and you can imagine the logistical (painful) implications of this.

Anyway, thats where I'm at.

yesterday was nice at first, it was "childrens day" a national holiday, and there was also a visit from the chinese president, so the centre of the city was crazymad. I went to a river south of the city for the afternoon, which was very nice

This little group are lovely, we played scrabble and cards, and had a nice picnic. However, after a couple of hours I was getting restless, and needed the loo, so headed over to the pub nearby where some others I knew were. It was nice to see a couple of them, but some members of the group was not my cup of tea.

There is something about some people who work in development, or in english teaching abroad, which I find makes me uncomfortable......one type, is the "save the world" type, earnestly earnest, which is fine, and admirable, but sometimes there is a tinge of desparation about it....

the other type is the "rah rah rah i waaark in development aaarnt i graaaate yaaaaaah" posh SOAS grad with a name like Artemis or Sebastian who are freakishly intelligent but also a pain in the arse. Then there are the "oh so outgoing" ones, the "I'm mad me" bunch, who are so pleased with themselves for working in a foreign country, you can almost see their minds ticking away with the conversations they are going to have when they get back to their own home "yeah, when i was in Mongolia I - whats that, wht was I doing there? Oh I was just teaching disadvantaged kids how to read - nothing special, you know, blah blah blah"

Anyway, this is a bit of a bitchy rant, most of the people I have met along the way are great, and fun and nice and laid back, and I have made some lovely friends that I really enjoy hanging out with and who look after me and make me laugh. Some people are just a bit "meh", and some have given me a bad vibe, and lets just say there were elements of yesterdays afternoon group who gave me the heebie jeebies.

Oh, and what kind of development worker am I? I am the type that is just a free wheeing hippie, that couldnt get a job anywhere else so thought it seemed like a good idea at the time.....I also owed money so leaving the country was a good option, ha ha.

ps and I am on youtube, voicebox, health episode. Dont laugh.

Summer sun, somethin's begun

2010-06-01T04:53:00.001+01:00

Sain bain uu!

Well, I still have the stinking cold but the sun is BLAZING! This weekend was like being on a mediterranean holiday. And, like a true "Brit Abroad" I hung out with the lads and got sunburnt.

I have been reading over my last few blog posts, and it seems like I have just been either partying or battling with mutant mongo viruses, I havent really talked about the fact that aswell as this I have also been working hard! I have a five chapter booklet on the way, covering nursing fundamentals, Infection control, The nursing process, Pressure area care and pressure sore prevention, Caring for the patient with disabilities and pre and post op nursing.

I am still writing lectures madly, and organising translations, which with nursing terms is an arduous process. IN the UK i could say, "this patient has friable skin, Waterlow score of 15 as sacral area macerated due to urinary incontinence" for example, and my colleague would immediately know what I was on about. Here though, not only the language is foreign, but also the concepts, so each word becomes a long explanation. it is a fasconating process, dont get me wrong, I am relishng the challenge, and I find it very satisfying to come up with transferable metaphors and examples. but it does take rather a long time.

I'm going to give my students a test on friday, and also give them homework, they each get a very generalised nursing scenario, and I want them to write a little about what they would do in the situation, or in some of them it is what do they think or feel about a certain set up. I HOPE that this will give me some idea about the prevailing attitudes and modes of practice in the hospital, thereby giving me an insight into the kids of things that I need to address after covering the basics.

I am also trying to design a way of auditing infection control, but it makes my brain ache so I am putting that on hold for now. I am also doing two 2 hour lecture/seminar sessions per month at the Chingeltei Community Health Practice, and have my schedule for that sorted, last week I did Coronary Heart Disease, next is Asthma and Respiratory disorders, then Diabetes, then the health implications of alcohol misuse.

I was on Telly on sunday talking about health and staying healthy, and extolling the benefits of abstaining from alcohol.

I missed seeing myself on TV though as I was in the pub.

Right, off to sunbathe...........yeee haaaa

ok, who pulled the plug on my energy supply...?

2010-05-26T03:42:00.000+01:00

I feel CRAP! Despite two very early nights, healthy supper at 6pm then straight to bed with a movie then sleep, I am utterly drained. I am day dreaming of Boreland, lying on the sofa eating a bacon sandwich, drinking tea, while Kitty sits on my lap as I watch american idol and bitch with gwen about how Kara DioGuardi pronounces "artistry" (she says "ortistry", trust me its funny).

Then letting Gwen convince me to watch Miami Ink as the main guy is quite hot, even though the tattoos are usually gross, and then we might realise that we have a true blood episode recorded on sky plus, and watch that and talk about how its the best show ever.

Then following my mama around the house telling her about all the things I think and feel and dreamed and saw and wondered and wanted and needed and got annoyed by and wished and hoped and liked and didnt like, then we would cook chinese food to perfection and take turns to swig from the sherry bottle in homage to Keith Floyd (god rest him) who wrote a very inspiring book about oriental cuisine.

Sigh........................................................................................................

Now I know how Britney and the rest of them feel. Sigh.

2010-05-25T04:26:00.001+01:00

OK, so before I left the UK, I was interviewed by the Nursing Standard magazine as part of a drive to raise awareness of VSO, as there are not enough nurses applying for posts with VSO.

I was so excited to be featured in the article, and spent a lot of time emailing and talking to both the VSO communications officer, and the nurse correspondent for the magazine. I felt I made a good impression of how I had been feeling the need for a new challenge, and had done my Philosophy Degree to try and move into medical ethics, but that the recession had made it difficult to get a job, so I realised that now would be a perfect time to undertake a placement working in development.

SO, imagine my humiliaton and disappointment when I eventually was emailed a copy of the article.

62 may 12 :: vol 24 no 36 :: 2010 NURSING STANDARD
The charity VSO is looking for nurse volunteers to undertake a Skills for working in development (SKWID) course that has been accredited by the RCN. Nurses who volunteer with VSO – which strives to fight poverty in developing countries – can count the course towards their post-registration education and practice requirements, and clock up 24 hours of accredited learning activity.

Among those who have taken the course is nurse Catherine Dupre, who is training hospital nurses in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Half of the country’s three million population live in the capital, and about 30 per cent is nomadic, although that is changing. Mongolia’s 8,000 nurses are registered, but training is not standardised. Nurses tend to suffer from a lack of public and professional respect.
Ms Dupre’s background is in trauma, public health and community nursing. She has been qualified for five years but remains on pay band 5. After several failed job searches, she decided VSO was an attractive option ‘because it gets things organised’.

She attended SKWID in January. She says: ‘The course was intensive, but there was asupportive and co-operative group dynamic that made it enjoyable.

‘In one activity, we were volunteers coming to build a bridge for a village. We had ten minutes to plan the bridge and another ten minutes to build a scale model using a children’s construction kit. ‘The construction was fine, but when we asked a “villager” what was needed from the bridge, she was more interested in our families and personal lives. In different cultures, being task-orientated is not always appropriate. ‘I now have a stronger awareness of the different priorities of people from other cultures, of negotiation techniques and how they can be applied effectively.’

It is the bit in purple that I object to so strongly, first of all, it is completely unecessary to say I have "been qualified 5 years but remains on pay band 5" like I am incapable of progressing past this, why not just say, Ms Dupre is a Band 5 with some years experience.

Also, saying I thought VSO was an attractive option after several failed job searches, is untrue, unkind, and makes VSO look like a cop out. I did NOT have several failed job searches, what is a "failed job search" anyway? I had two interviews and though I was not successful in either, I was told I was the 2nd choice for one of them, and that the panel was split in the other. There were quite simply, NO jobs going in the NHS because it is such a stupid mess at the moment.

Also, I actually did have a job aswell, as a H1N1 public health nurse before I went away. So there Nursig Standard.

I am so upset, as I was so excited and chuffed that I was to be featured in the magazine, and now I just feel humiliated and frustrated that I am misrepresented in a magazine. I feel like Lyndsay Lohan.

ANYWAY - who cares, I am a million miles away, and I sent an upset email to the magazine, in which I said pretty much exactly what I have said here. So, we will see what comes of that. Perhaps they will do a four page spread, exonerating me........ha ha. Maybe I feel worse because my working life has been - er - akin to a patchwork quilt, but I didnt want my failure to get to band 6 to be portrayed as something negative, I would run away from a 6 faster than a speeding bullet.

I am at work, psyching myself up for my lecture, I'm determined there will be no more 'miss nice girl', I am going to have to be firm and forthright with my new class. Dont answer your mobile in my lesson! If you want to go to sleep, go home! If I ask a question of you, I expect an answer!

I feel so tired today though, despite an early night, I slept so deeply and couldnt wake up this morning. I even dreamed that I was sleeping, and that a camel came and nuzzled its head into me, very sweetly, so I was cuddled up to the camels soft furry face, and having a lovely sleep within a sleep, when my alarm went off. Rats.

I have re-arranged my squat, I mean, flat. I am a lot happier with it now I have made the decision to ignore one whole room. Coping strategies, innit.

Someone send me some golden virginia tobacco and some more coffee. For the love of all thats good, I need COFFEEEEEEEEEE aaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Final word, my surname is not Dupre, it has an accent on the e, which is not hard to do. OK so I cant work out how to do it on this blog (RACISTS!) but the magazine could have done it. grumblegrumble.

Things that go bump in the night

2010-05-23T07:15:00.001+01:00

So, this week has ticked along alright, only had one lecture this week, and have been having my work review, and have designed a whole new teaching agenda for myself - created a proposal, with rationale, which was very well recieved by my colleagues, and the new regime starts next week.

At the end of the meeting, which was attended by my VSO programme manager, talk turned to how I was getting on at work. My colleagues were very happy with me, they said, it seemed that this was more because I am beautiful (their words!) and eat everything that they give me, than that my work was good, but they said I worked very hard, and was always punctual, which was nice to hear, especially since that very morning I had been half an hour late.........

They said that they would "mongolise" me, which to be honest, I think is happening already quite naturally.

On Monday, for lunch at work we had this AMAZING mongolian dish. It is big chunks of meat, on the bone, ribs and the like, cooked in a tightly sealed iron pot, with stones, and potatoes, and some water. The meat becomes incredibly tasty and tender, and the potatoes are lovely, perfectly cooked, melt in the mouth and infused with yummy stock flavour, soooooooooooo gooooooooood.

Before we ate, the stones were removed, and my colleagues picked up a stone each, still very hot, and flipped it from hand to hand for a while before putting it down and pressing their hot (and now greasy) hands agaist their heads, necks and foreheads. The hot stones, they explained, had healing powers, the heat balanced their Qi. So I did it too, and Khulan, who had cystitis, wrapped one of the stones in a piece of cloth and put it down her trousers.

The meal was so lush, the meat was tastier than I have ever tasted, I cant express enough how super wicked and awesome it was. We also had a bottle of wine with it, I love lunch at the office!

I have had a quiet week really, the pub quiz on thursday as usual, which we didnt win, but the quiz master is now enamoured of me, and followed me around after the quiz, until I had to just go home to escape his drunken attention.

Friday I was being filmed for an english language TV show, that is broadcast on the Mongolian National Channel. I was talking about health issues, and the life style choices that young people can make to avoid long term health issues. I am terrible when I have a camera pointed at me, and also had my colleagues sitting watching, and also, the guys who were filming are my mates, who I have a laugh with, so I was just in fits of giggles throughout. We eventually got a good interview, but I will be cringing fit to bust when I see the programme, me, facing camera, earnestly extolling the virtues of eating healthily, staying active, abstaining form smoking and drinking alcohol responsibly. I hate my face and voice on film, and seeing it will probably make me spontaneously combust from sheer horror at what I really look and sound like, eeeuurgh!

That evening I had a chinese dinner with Kate, and a couple of drinks on a veranda bar, quiet early night. Last night we played Monopoly at Dave's (the english pub) which was ace, apart rom the fact that I am such a ethereal hippie I am no good at making money so was out early on, and was just having a little dance for myself while the others wheeled and dealed. We were playing with Tugrugs, to make it "more interesting" so I lost 5,000T, which is what I usually lose at poker, so I wasnt that fussed.

I dont know if I have said before, that there are no coins in Mongolia, only notes, so "small change" is actually a wad worthy of a street drug dealer, this is me with about a tenner in english money.

What went bump in the night, was ME when my bed collapsed underneath me. It was quite a shock let me tell you. The next thing to go bump, the following night, was my downstairs neighbour, banging on my door at 1am because water was coming through her ceiling. Now, for once, it was NOT because I had been retarded whilst doing laundry, it is because there is a leak in the pipes, so I have been trying unsucessfully to get hold of my landlord ever since, and in the mean time have turned off my water. Ho hum.

I am now off to go and get a burger for lunch with Kate, she was partying last night, I was home and in bed soon after midnight. This afternoon I am going to play scrabble with some other VSO's.

Could it really be that I am becoming sensible???

Don't count on it.

Sewer watch

2010-05-19T07:10:00.000+01:00

Little Sewer Man (LSM) was sunbathing this morning! Talking to himself and throwing stones at passing cars. It was the first time I saw the whole of him, usually he is just poking out of the manhole. (I didnt take this photo, and he is not a kid, but you get the general gist).

I think LSM is the single most fascinating human being I have ever met (except I havent really met him.....just gawped at him - today I got closer to him than I have been before, thought he might throw a stone at me, but he just ignored me)

I got in a right state yesterday, when it comes to working, I am a doer, not a report writer, and being asked to write performance reports makes me go a bit mental, I get angry and frustrated because I cant understand the jargon, and when I try and read the guidelines I forget how to read and start freaking out.

BREEEEEATHE..............today I am writing my reflections on practice and plans for change and a proposal for my boss to be discussed at a meeting tomorrow, I will just have to try not to chuck a hissy fit........

my little sewer man

2010-05-17T03:52:00.000+01:00

So, two posts in two days! This is because my computer has decided to work normally again (touch wood) and because i have some more to say. I never really understood blogging before, but now I find it quite therapeutic. Although I also get anxious about making it good. I have too much neurosis for my own good.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is, ITS RAINING!!! I havent seen rain for three months, had a load of snow, had a load of sunshine, had more show, then dust storms, and more sunshine, but yesterday afternoon it POURED down.

I had stayed in saturday night (dont all fall of your chairs at once) and gone out on sunday morning into the 23 degree sunshine, wearing flip flops and a summer dress. Walking to town was like being at the beach, cos of all the sand, but only with a big busy road instead of the sea. sat in the cafe for a couple of hours drinking orange juice and eating Snert (soup, not that great) and when I came out it was tipping it down. So I hoofed it over to Kate's place where she made me a wicked stir fry (I am so lucky, this girl loves to feed me! Her gaff is my sanctuary - for she has a sofa, and even found me soya milk to put in my tea so I would feel better the other day, what a star eh!?).

Poker was off, then on, then it was off again, so I trundled home again later on. To have the WORST nights sleep since I got here. I said before I have been thinking of lots of things, my brain is like some kind of David Lynch film only more surreal and with fewer logical connections. I think I have a slight personality disorder sometimes. Anyway, I dreamed lots of dreams, including one where I was an american middle class parent to two children, we were on a sitcom, and my ten year old son had stolen money to buy designer shoes that were very badly made. I was upset with him less for stealing, than for wearing these shoes that would ruin his feet. I was aghast, and kept feeling the flimsy soles of them shaking my head while he whined that he was sorry, and he needed designer brands so that he could be cool. I was silent, in my dream mind I was wondering how a son of mine could be this kind of person. then some very weird stuff was happening that I cant remember. my daughter in the dream was Karen off of "outnumbered" she was cool. At least I had one cool kid.....

I also dreamed I was stuck in a room with a load of baddies that wanted to shoot me, and that was horrible, woke up sweating and freaked out. My dreams are nuts, they are like virtual reality. Sometimes I cant even tell the difference between them and reality, I have some that leave me emotionally drained, some that leave me elated, some that leave me convinced that reality is a relative term and that I do actually go somewhere else in my sleep.....hmmmm.

Well, anyway, what I wanted to blog about was actually my little sewer man. In Mongolia, there is a great range of wealth, people very rich, to people that are so poor they are hardly people. That is not an exaggeration. Homeless people here live underground in the winter, for the city is heated by national power stations (heating in all buildings is controlled by the state!) and the hot pipes run under the city streets. So most of the manholes are coverless, which makes a walk home in the dark a thrillingly exciting adventure (for thrillingly exciting, read, potentially fatal).

Now the weather is warmer, they are emerging, and there is one guy in particular that I have seen a few times now, he pops up in the mornings, I see him on my way to work sometimes. He looks like a little troll. I am fascinated by him. He is tiny, and has a very strange face, and tiny tiny hands. His gait is peculiar - probably the result of life long malnutrition and stooping in the cramped sewers. He makes my heart flutter as I feel for him and all of them, but he seems quite calm, I looked at him and he just picked up some soil and put it in his mouth. I nodded a gentle greeting, and walked on.

He occupies my thoughts a lot, as I try to evisage what his life has been like, how old he is (he looks about 70, but is probably more like 17).

I met a street kid the other day, who was the sweetest one I have come across, they are generally - and this will sound horrible - repellant little creatures. They are aggressive and persistent, tugging at you calling moneymonymoneymoneymoneymoneyyesyesyesyesyesmoneymoneymoneymoney. But this guy I met the other day just wanted to walk with me and chat, I gathered all the mongolian I could muster, which turned out to be as much as the english that he knew, so we managed to have a suprisingly coherent conversation. We told eachother our names and ages, and talked about music. He could beatbox, and liked to make music on a computer. He was 14 and had no mother or father. I wanted to give him a big hug and take care of him forever, but instead I gave him a "cool" handshake and told him to look after himself.

Today Zolo has abandoned me, the office is very quiet, and I am actually getitng on very nicely with my Infection control booklet. I am hungry though, so off to the wee shop for some fortification.

oh and one more thing I have to say is that the drivers here are actually f**king stupid, the other day I was stuck on the bus for ages, becuase they cant do waiting turns at an intersection, they all drive in at once, and then inch forward, despite the fact that no one can go anywhere, we had been in standstill traffic gridlock for almost ten minutes, when the guy next to us crashed into the bus. What the hell? How dumb do you have to be to be sitting behind a motionless bus for ten minutes then drive into it? Hmm??

Drivers here will also steer towards you and speed up when you are crossing the road, beeping their horns, despite the fact that there are two other lanes for them, and that they were pretty far away when you started crossing, but since they put their foot down and headed straight for you they have to beep to tell you to get the hell out of the way! I have taken to crossing the road with a reckless abandon, if there are no rules, then I will make my own, and my rules are that I cross the road when I want to and you cant run me over because then there will be a traffic jam and everyone will get well pissed off with you and that would be really embarrassing. So there.

sunshine and dust storms and snow (in the same afternoon)

2010-05-16T08:27:00.001+01:00

Hi - its been ages, I know - my computer was broken, all kinds of things were happening, no time, no attention span, etc etc.

So, after my bout of poisoning, I was wary of eating anything that didnt come out of a packet, was soaked in dettol, and had been boiled for at least three days. But after a few days of nibbling buscuits and feeling miserable, I realised that - oh my gosh - I actually felt hungry. Which was good, as Cos and Theo were leaving (boo hoo) and I was going for a meal with them. I had steak and rosemary potatoes, it was goooood.

The rest of the week was quiet, just working, teaching, and doing laundry, as well as nearly flooding the place AGAIN. Yeah, so my computer died on the monday, from a virus, so I was a bit bereft, there is no computer at work, so I was working from VSO which was nice, as it meant I could hang out with some other VSO's.

Thursday was the pub quiz (we came third, poor show!) and the arrival of the "out of towners" for a big VSO meeting.

I didnt attend the meeting as I was at a very lavish ceremony at the hospital, to celebrate the 10 year aniversary of the Nursing Department.

There were many speeches, many many awards given out, and oh, you know when I said about that "photo shoot" where I looked really grumpy, well it turns out it wasnt a photoshoot, it was FILMED and included in a short documentary about the hospital, and there I am , with a face like thunder, oh, and there I am again, at a teaching session, expressing myself with my hands as usual, but the clip that they have it looks as if I am making the "boobs" sign with my hands. Zolo and I were laughing - I couldnt have looked more ridiculous if I tried, luckily I am in it for just those two 1.5 second shots.

I was also interviewed for mongolian national radio, and got very flustered with the interviewer, at one point I think I actually said, "I dont bloody well know!" or words to that effect. I also said that we didnt do anyhting for nurses day in britain, but looking on the NUrsing Times website, I have just seen loads of stuff for nurses day in Britain....oops. Spreading false information to the furthest reaches of the world, thats me.

After the ceremony, in which there was a dance performance aswell, (it was like strictly come dancing, only on some weird kind of acid. Eight couples doing a cool dance to a medley of different styles of music. They were pretty good, but didnt have enough space, so kept standing on eachother, and sometimes the dance called for them to fling out an arm, which nearly always caught someone else in the face - but like true professionals they just carried on regardless).

I went to meet VSO's for a meal, and then dancing. Found a cool club with foreign DJ's so music was pretty good. Kate and I made every guy in there dance with us, even a very taciturn, 6foot7 german guy, who said he wouldnt dance as he didnt like the music, so we asked him what he would dance to, and then went to the DJ to request it, "we have a well boring german dude over there that wont dance" we said, "oh really" said the DJ "I am also german". oopsie. But we got Jeorg dancing in the end.

The police were trying to raid the place at one pont, so they had to turn off the music for a while, but soon the police were bribed to go away and the party resumed.

The rest of the weekend was cool, and life just kind of ticked along, went to a cute little park, but it was snowing, so we went to a cute little cafe instead.

Wednesday the 12th May is International Nurses Day ( I am afraid I had never ever clicked this, bad nurse) as it is the aniversary of Florence Nightingales birth. They go in for it in a big way here, and were planning a big party, so the week at work was kind of a write off, all my lessons were cancelled at the hospital, so me and Zolo were just kind of bumming around, she read the paper and told me what my horoscope said, and we discussed various racist myths the mongolians believe and propagate about the chinese (apparently they eat babies). She also got me up to speed on the crazy love life and vodka fuelled antics of her friends. I swear, I have no need for soap operas or celebrity gossip magazines, Zolo's social life is my gossip manna.

(pssst, I totally didnt mean that about the gossip mags, if anyone wants to send me a copy of the national enquirer I will be well happy - aparently Anjelina Jolie is pregnant again! And apparently Jennifer aniston is going to have a baby with Gerard Butler! And OMG have you seen Heidi Montag lately!!!???)

Anyway, I did mnage to do a lecture on vital signs at Chingeltei, which was really good, and we got a free lunch too, bonus.

That evening was the posh do for nurses day, it was at a hotel, and was one of the fanciest things i have ever been to. My pictures didnt really capture it clearly, but you get the idea...

There were dancers, singers (a woman who had been a big pop star in the 60s and 70s, kind of like a mongolian Lulu, sang) a comedian (I think he was, people kept laughing, I was completely confused), a competition, which was quite alarming for me, not understanding the mongoian preamble. There were some lucky tickets hidden under some of the chairs, this was explained in mongolian, so the first I knew of it was when everyone jumped up at once and tipped their chairs upside down, which, when you are not expecting it, is quite a fright!

There were big bottles of vodka on each table, and we al had a glass of vodka (OMG, when i arived i thought it was water and took a big sip! Oh how they laughed) which we had to toast with - like - every four minutes, stand up chink glasses with everyone at the table and knock it back. Now, I was - for once in my life - very sensible, and every time there was a toast, I merely touched the vodka to my lips. But my colleagues were chucking it down their throats, and soon almost everyone in the room was pretty drunk. this was quite funny.

Also, there was almost no men, so all the nurses were dancing with eachother, and it was a very curious and charming visual to see all these fancy dressed mongolian women walzing with eachother, as an old lady in a full length silver coat belted out asian pop ballads among them on the dance floor........

Then there was a display by two contortionists, as we ate our 3rd course of a 4 course meal, and yet more vodka was imbibed. At about 9pm I tried to leave, but my boss was having none of it, and dragged me onto the dance floor, so I danced for ages, being pulled this way and that by curious drunk mongolians, before I eventually managed to get away, after being kissed and hugged repeatedly by my workmates.

The next day was so funny as they were all very hungover, Khulan couldn't remember much of the evening, and had lost her earrings and necklace. Work was very quiet, and everyone left early. I went to the pub quiz, and WE WON! Our prize was, as well as the money in the pot, 2 pitchers of beer, so we invited some kiwi's at the next table to join us.

Friday I went with Kate and the Sarahs out for fancy cocktails, we got all dressed up, it was really fun, but I wasnt so happy the next day when I could barely move. But the bar we went to was v posh and had great views of the square:

Last night I stayed in and watched this very sedate irish film called "Once" which made me really sad for some reason.

Today I am sittingin the cafe again, my usual sunday haunt, having trundled into town through the sunshine and dust, past the ripped up road, in my flip flops, that the mongolians think are the weirdest thing ever, and my floaty summer dress.

No one seems to be around for socialising, so I am all by myself, which always starts to spin me out after a while. I have been reading this surreal book, and thinking lots of different thoughts.

I love mongolia, but the next place I live has to be realy greeeeeeeen, I miss grass and trees and flowers. I bought myself a couple of plants, and am dallying in sprouting seedlings, but what I really yearn for is Regents park, in the sunshine, on a blanket, with snacks and a couple of bottles of cold cold beer, and some friends, and maybe a frisbee.........Dream on Caffers.

What just happened?

2010-05-02T04:23:00.001+01:00

Well, what a rollercoaster week - I dont even know where to start - ok, so monday was um, i cant remember now, but tuesday I did two talks on woundcare that went really well, I used the same lecture, changed slightly, as I gave in Chingeltei, and included pictures not only of ulcers at various stages of reconstruction or deterioration, but also of all the dressings and equiptment that I would use to dress these wounds, and I went through step by step how I would go about dressing the wound.

I think this was the key to convincing them that I do actually know what I am talking about, and I am coming from a more sophisticated professional background than they realised. So that was good. I finished my teahcing at 2pm, and left work then, as I was having some guests for dinner and had to go shopping. My little dinner party was lovely, a couple of friends came, and I made a chilli con carne, this is the one photo of the evening, and it does look a little like something out of 'withnail and I' or 'The Young Ones', but it was actually really nice, and we laughed through our random and pastic surroundings,

Wednesday I had a lazy morning at work, I was ahead of schedule with my teaching sessions (for once!) and all I had to do was pose for some more ridiculous photos, propaganda! So soviet. I had to pose with a load of nurses who were NOT my students, pretending to be teaching them using a dummy, of a child. It was so farcical, as the photographer barked orders, making us move places around the table like the mad hatters mad mongolian tea party with mad mongolians and me.

I threw myself into the task of play acting, and was making elaborate gestures towards the slightly freaky dummy, saying, in the tone of a lecture, "well, I am not a paediatric nurse, and I dont know what this photo is for, but oh well, look there are his feet, there are his hands, and someone has thoughtfully put him in some rather fetching Y-fronts to preserve his plastic dignity" etc etc, I am afraid I was rather irreverrant....

Then I escaped and went to Chingeltei, to give a lecture on the Clinical and Holistic Management of Acute and Chronic Wounds (wow, get me, I am like, totally a teacher) and it was great, they love me there, what a great audience, I wish that was my full time job. The nurses at the hospital dont know they're born, the community nurses have it so much harder, and they are so much more keen to learn.

Anyway, it was fab, and I have basically been given the gig (one lecture every 2 weeks) for as long as I want it. I have also started talking to this guy about being an enabler, in the summer, for therapeutic riding. He has some horses, whch he has trained and tamed using natural native american horsemanship methods, and in the summer he runs days where people with disabilities come and ride the horses, and I am going to help out! How wicked is that!

SO - having a great week, wednesday I went for dinner with Kate, felt like I hadnt seen her in ages, and we had some great chats, home by 10pm, and thursday working at VSO offices, all fine, all good, got my infection control seminar all finished, but towards the end of the day started feeling abit weird.........

And weirder and weirder, and then was STRUCK DOWN! IN the prime of life, by my first real bout of food poisoning, and it was, I think, the foulest thing that has ever happened to me, only one thing I can think of was fouler, and it is a closey run thing. Oh my lord, I cannot remember a night spent in more complete desolation.

Anyway, due to being bed bound and delerious, I missed the pub quiz, I missed my seminar, I missed the night out to Amrita, the club where there are acrobats and contortionists, I missed the picnic by the river on saturday, I was so miserable.

But then on saturday I felt - enough is enough, I may have blurry eyesight, I may feel faint when I stand up (well, couldnt even get all the way upright ayway), I may be too weak to pull my boots on, but it is sunny outside, and I am lonely, and I am going out. So I tottered into town, and spent a nice, if slightly lightheaded, couple of hours in the cool cafe, and was met by C & T who persuaded me to come with them for a drive.

So I went, figuring that sitting in a car for a couple of hours would be fine, at least I had company. And it was really nice. I even drove the jeep for a bit! Which was so cool, although at first I think I alarmed them by saying - why dont I feel straight on the road, whats wrong - its all wrong - before I realised that I was sitting in the wrong side of the car, and driving on the wrong side of the road (for me) and it was an automatic - which is SO WEIRD to drive, but after a few mins I totally had the hang of it, and even overtook a lorry - wooo hoo.

It was so freeing to be driving along the open road, with the specials booming out of the stereo, passing horses drinking from sun dappled pools, and goats and goat babies all scraggy and cute, and miles of nothingness.........

we stopped to stretch our legs

And then again later to get a cup of tea in the "secret history mongolia camp" cafe. Where we threw ankle bones to divine our fortunes, we each threw three times. Mine came up 1, fortune is on your side 2, dreams will come true 3, the best luck is with you. So I was quite happy with that.

Then we drove back, and the guys nipped into my flat for a quick cup of green tea with crushed cranberry leaves, out of a glass, and then they left, and I crashed out.

This morning I got up bright and early, made a coffee in my new caffetiere (woo hoo!) that made me feel a bit ill, as I have not eaten anyhting more than four biscuits, a handful of peanuts and half a danish pastry since thursday, and toddled down to the cafe. Where I now sit. Oh and the other thing I did - and I blame it on starvation delirium, is give myself a rather drastic hair cut............I reckon I can totally pull it off though, if I just act like I meant to make myself look like a 12th century monk.........

Why Camels are the new Black

2010-04-25T10:18:00.000+01:00

So - I have cheered up a lot since my little dark cloud week. I did my sessions on tuesday, and the nurses were very receptive, they were interested, if a little nonplussed by the documentation session, but they loved the safe moving of the patient session. I had one lovely lady who was "granny" and I was demonstrating how to help Granny get up out of bed, and to walk with Granny. I showed very basic techniques, really just emphasizing the importance of keeping your feet apart, to create a stable base, and keeping your back straight. I showed them how to use the patients limbs as a lever when turning in bed, and demonstrated how to help a patient to fall safely.

So, it was great, I was buzzing. Then I went to a gig in the evening, that was king of a non-event. I was told it started at 6.30pm, so I figured it would be an early night, by 9.30pm when I left, the band had still not showed up. But hey ho, I had a very nice time chatting, and playing consequences.

Wednesday, wow, it was like I'd fallen down the rabbit hole. I think some of the nurses had worked the night shift, only 6 of the 16 turned up, and one was fallign asleep, one was on her mobile, and two of them were having a chat, through my lesson. I was mortified, and had to give a stern telling off, line by interpreted line. I was so pissed off, but I made my remonstration very cam and reasonable, and they were contrite.

I had told my work colleagues that I would be working from the VSO office thursday and friday, as they were holding meetings in the office that were distracting me, and they werent making lunch until 3pm. But I was asked, please come in at 2pm on thrusday to have oyur photo taken. So i came in, stupidly expecting to nip in, get the photo done and nip off out again, I had big plans to go get my hair cut, and then look in on an ill friend. What was I thinking? Of course it didnt play out like that....I was waiting for nearly 3 hours before they got the photoshoot together (I still have no idea what the photos are for, but I do know that I look very grumpy in them....).

Anyway, thursday evening was the pub quiz, which FINALLY my team won. Woooo hoo. But it goes on so late, that I was tired on friday, so worked hard with my interpreter making sessions on pre and post op care, with a bit about the importance of rationales in practice, and on special considerations when caring for the elderly. After wednesday, I am not looking forward to the session....

Anyway, I had a lovely meal out with Kate on friday night, and got an early night, as I was off to the countryside early the next day, with two brits I met at the pub quiz.

They had a mongolian friend who was driving them out and giving them a bit of a tour, so I tagged along for the ride, and what a ride it was!

We were collected by Bat at 10am, in a land cruiser, and immediately offered beer - bit early in the morning for that! Drove to a huge monument, a 40m high steel statue of Chinggis Khan, on a horse, looking frightfully serious, facing China.....

It is massive, and in the middle of nowhere, it is quite expensive to go into the building, and climb up inside Chinggis, but Bat paid for us all,

So this is us standing on the horses head.

It was very cold up there.......

Then we drove further into the countryside, passing what can nly be described as the most random thing I have seen. Ever. Take a look, imagine driving along the mongolian wilderness, lookng out of the window deep in thoughtful reverie, and then suddenly you see.....

Yes, it did give me a bit of a shock!

Further we went, and were taken up a hill to a little Bhuddist monastery, to get to it we had to go over this very very ricketly rope bridge....it was very "indiana jones and the temple of doom"

Up a lot fo steps to the monastery, which was cute. There were buddhist paintings on the surrounding rocks, but my camera was too crap to capture them.

big climb....

Prayer Wheels

After the monastery, we drove towards the Ger parks, but on the way spotted some camels. We were talking about how much we loved the idea of riding a camel, so Bat arranged it for us!! We only got a short ride each, but it was ACE!

this is me on an ACTUAL CAMEL!!

Sooooo cool!

Then we went for luch at a very random restaurant, the food was really good, and Bat paid for it all, despite all our protests, but it looked so incongruous, a very american style restaurant in the middle of the wilderness.....there was a house next to the restaurant, which was maybe even more random than the dinosaurs...

Very odd.

Then we went to find a ger to stay in for the night, and after a walk we settled in for the night with a bit of vodka and a pack of cards. We had to get up at 7am to go horse riding, which was cool, but quite sedate, the Mongolian man took my horses reins, and led me along, so it was more like going on a donkey ride at the beach than horseriding, but the scenery was stunning, and the horse was chilled, so it was a nice ride. we rode up to the road, where the bus met us in impeccably timingake us back to UB. Where I now sit, quite exhausted, as the fire went out in the Ger and it was -5, so not the best sleep....

ooh, this is our ger

from the outside,

aaaaand the inside. it was cute.

Right, my brain is dead, and I need to go to the supermarket, ciao for now lads.xxx

hill walking and the utter futility of everything

2010-04-19T03:22:00.001+01:00

So, I have been desceding into gloom latelty. I think it is just hormonal, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that life really is a pain in the bum.

ANYWAY, in a proactive attempt to get rid of the encroaching depression, I went for a long walk in the hills surrounding UB, it was so nice to get out of the city, and into the fresh air, and to see the stunning views. these are some of the photos I took.

Large golden Bhudda at the south edge of the city

this is UB from a distance

obligatory shadow shot

For some reason I kept expecting to see Lassie bounding along towards me.

making my way up the hill

posing

So - it was really nice to stretch my legs, especially since spent the rest of the weekend working on my lessons and training proposals. Being a teacher is HARD WORK! I suppose I thought that it would all just kind of happen naturally, that I would slip seamlessly into my new role. But I had not anticipated the barriers of language and cultural difference. And how difficult it is to explain concepts, or talk to nurses about nursing care, when they dont have the basic equipment or resources.

I am wishing I had brought over some dressing samples to show them, all they have here for any wound at all, is gauze.

My next session, tomorrow, is on Nursing Documentation and then another one on safe moving and handling of the patient. I am not sure how receptive they will be, as the documentation here is terrible, but they have tried to devlop it, and are very proud of their efforts.

I watched, in horror, as a man wheeled into recovery from theatre, was tipped off the trolley onto the bed. Patients are pulled around like rag dolls, its not out of malice, I think it just doesnt occur to them to be gentle! In the bus or the street, people are very argy bargy, they knock ino you push you out of the way, or sit pretty much right on top of you on the bus.

Anyway, I will sign off there as I feel a doom and gloom coming on. I HOPE that my landlord is coming this evening to help me set up the internet in my flat. Turs out I DID flood the downstairs neighbours by the way, and I am still too scared to turn my straighteners on in case they dont work, so I have really wild hair right now.

why looking where you are going and paying attention to what you are doing are important. A cautionary tale.

2010-04-17T07:17:00.001+01:00

So - this weekend I have kept quite quiet, I got my money sorted eventually. On the monday I was so fed up, I walked the 5 miles to Kates house from my work, and she cooked me a lovely supper, and lent me some money for bus fare home, and some food the next day. However, I managed to get my UK card ratified for use in Mongolia (the guy on the phone was like 'sorry, where did you say you were?', 'outer mongolia', 'really?', 'yep'.)

Then I got an SOS from a stressed Kate, so I was able to repay the mercy mission, and went to hers armed with Vodka tonics, and got my listening ears on. We were very restrained with the VT's, and I still got an early night and was functional the next day at work. Was starting to get frustrated again though, as one of the two computers in the office have disappeared, leaving me nowhere to write my lessons out. So I spent friday working at the VSO office, but still didnt get everything done, so I have come back in today, all pious working on a saturday, and the f***ing printer isnt working, so I dont quite know what to do, so I thought, I will update my blog, as I have been neglecting it so thoughtlessly lately.

So - this morning was a kind of housework and stuff day, I was all organised and was workign my way through my laundry, darks, lights, towels, sheets etc, while also making myself a bacon, cheese and tomato omlette, watching the news on BBC world, and sweeping the floor. This turned out to be taking multitasking a step too far, and I inadvertently left the hose on to fill the twin tub, without turning it off 'drain' function, this led to a disasterous chain of events. The bathroom flooded, water spilled out into the hallway where my ghd straighteners, possibly the most prercious thing i own, were sitting - in my haste to simultaneously rescue them and turn the water off, I managed to smash my knee into the edge of the door frame. As I doubled over I noticed that the plug for the twin tub was swimming in the water, and I think my heart actually stopped beating for a second, I was convinced my time on this earth was up - cut short by a freak domestic electrical mishap. My knee was killing me, and howling and cursing I then realised my omlette was in danger of burning so I hobbled to the kitchen where I managed to smack my face on an open cupboard door.

I felt like i was in an episode of Fawlty Towers, it was utterly ridiculous. However, my ommelette was fine, and so I ate it (off my chopping board as I dont have a plate) while sitting down to watch the news, which was boring, as I felt it best to tackle the flood with a full stomach, and having let my injuries settle a little.

it was kind of good, as it meant I ended up giving the bathroom floor a good scrub. I jsut hope it didnt go through the ceiling of downstairs.....

I have left my straighteners drying on the windowsill, and I will let you all know if they are ok.

What is with the arse slapping guys?!?!

2010-04-17T07:01:00.002+01:00

So - I returned from Darkhan with renewed vigour, ready to take work by the horns again, shake it around and get something going.

Khulan, my boss, was back from Japan, and my interpreter had been paid, and had a good rest. Tempers were restored to the 'genial' setting, and new plans were ripe for picking.

I had a meeting with Khulan, presented my training schedule proposal, and aske dfor what I needed, the hospital policies, and the trianing schedule currently in place. It all went fine, and my first lesson was planned for the following tuesday. YIKES! I had to get writing!

Went out thursday to celebrate being back in UB, by having a HUGE meal at one of the most expensive restaurants in town......

So on friday the energy had kind of dissipated at work....but I still managed to get a lot done. Friday night was a night in Strings, the club with the philipino rock band, i danced til 4am, and spent saturday on Kate's sofa.

I realised that weekend, that I had not been paid either, and had spent my last money on a meal out and dancing. I had exactly 300 tugrugs left, with is about 15p. That was enough for busfare home on saturday night, but on sunday I was rather stuck. I had a tin of sardines, and a bottle of water in my flat. So sunday was a quite hungry day, and early to bed. At least I got my sweeping and laundry done.

I have been getting my bum slapped as I walk down the street, twice by kids, and twice by grown men. It is slightly disconcerting.

Anyway, this week just gone, at work, went well. My training sessions went ok, the first one was a bit of a shambles, but a saved it by turning it into a discussion about the differences between UK and mongolian nursing, and invited them to ask me any questions they wanted. I was kind of expecting questions about illnesses, operations and stuff, but instead they wanted to know what hours UK nurses worked, how much they get paid, and what the uniform is like. Ho hum.

The big trip

2010-04-17T06:50:00.001+01:00

So - monday I went to Darkhan! It is a three and a half hour bus ride away, I was travelling with Ihab, and we made out way to the bus station together. We had a bite to eat, and then boarded the most ornately decorated bus I have ever been in.

For three hours, the view from the bus window was the same, just a vast expanse of empty land. Now and again I saw herds of sheep, goats, cows and horses, unrestrained, grazing - on god knows what, the land is bare - and their herders, Mongolians in full traditional garb, on horseback, keeping their flock in check. Here and there I saw solitary Gers, and thought - what a lonely life.

Darkhan was great, I was so well looked after. Stayed with Robin, who was the best hostess. Her apartment was so nice, I felt very at home, but also slightly like I was in an episode of Doctor Who. Darkhan is very small, and also very random. There is a big statue of Bhudda on a hill, and a large bleak childrens park, with ugly, painted animals, and faded painted paths in the brown dust.

Everywhere is brown dust, everywhere is brown. Some cows drift through the central square. there is no bus, just taxi's that function as buses, the driver stops for everyone who waves and we all pile in and hope we get taken where we want to go.

The hospital is very nice, a lot like mine, and it was so helpful to see how tings worked there, and have a lot fo vitally important input form Robin. On the first night we went out for dinner, me and Ihab, and all the VSO's in Darkhan, of which there are 6. It was a very pleasant meal, I heard more gossip there than I had my whole time in UB.

The second night Robin and I went for supper at the home of Sally, another volunteer. She made us vodka tonics with ice and lemon, and we ate curry, rice and dahl. mmmmmm. I felt even more like I was in an episode of Doctor who.

I was sorry to leave the next day, everyone in Darkhan is so chilled! They walk around smiling! It was actually nice to come back to UB though, as we arrived I instantly felt 'aah, I am back home!' and similar to when I used to coem back to London after a jaunt in the countryside, I actually felt a warm familiarity when I saw all the scowling faces, fought my way through a scrum crowd of shouting people, and took a lungful of black, diseased, heavily polluted air. mmmmm city.

Caffers goes Cafflick

2010-04-17T06:38:00.000+01:00

So, after a fun friday night, saturday was very quiet, I had dinner at Kates, spicy meatballs in tomato sauce with spaghetti..mmmmmmmm. then went home and got an early night as I had to be up for Church the next day, Easter!

I managed ot find the church ok, having been given the head up on its existence by the Philipino VSO's. A little non-descript building sitting apart from the road and the rest of the buildings, it was like the tardis - outside a corrogated iron shack, inside a bright, spacious, beautifully but modestly decorated. The mass was said in Mongolian and in English, and there was a Mongolian choir. I was asked to do the first reading! But since I am quite used to reading in Church I was not fazed.

The mass was lovely, but very long because of being said twice. The only bad thing was this freaky american woman, who got up and sang the single most hideous song I have ever heard in my life. I can hardly bear to think about it, but must recount the full horror for the sake of posterity. She was one of these women who is utterly conservative, frumpy, she was wearing a padded alice band for goodness sake, and the ugliest cardigan that ever lived. She looked like - you know really bad films from the 80's, where there is a really minor character, in a film set in a really backward little place.....she looked like that. ANYWAY, I cant help being horrible about her because of the song, if she hadnt of sung it, I could have ignored her frightful dress sense. So - she stands up, clutching the microphone, with an expression of pained piety, and begins to 'sing' (caterwauling would be a better term for what she did). The song was an abomination. I cant actually bring myself to tell you what it was about, but I came out in hives, got a headache, felt sick and nearly died. it was that bad.

Sooo, then i went to have lunch at Kate's, which was LUSH, beef panang curry with jasmine rice. then I went and skyped with my family, which was LUSH, and then I went to play poker, which wasnt lush as I didnt win. Again.

Putting the 'ace' into Face.

2010-04-17T06:26:00.000+01:00

aaargh, I know - I have been so slack, life goes so fast here and I cant keep up. So, I did my lecture on Wound Assessment at the Chingeltei FGP. It went really well. HAving observed the last one, I had some ideas of how to structure and deliver the information that would keep the interest of the nurses. ONe of these tactics was to include graphic images of leg ulcers in various stages of infection, necrosis, maceration etc. yummy!

I was very pleased with how the session went and I have been asked to come back to do another one.

I was starting to get frustrated at work though, things just werent getting anywhere. My boss went away for two weeks, so my interpreter and I were left floating somewhat, no input or guidance. I was apathetically researching teaching subjects, but my heart wasnt in it as I didnt know yet who I would be teaching, how often, or when I would be starting. My interpreter was getting bored and demoralised, she didnt get paid on time, and when she did it was less than she was expecting, I didnt have enough work for her to do, and the other staff were draggin us willy nilly round the hospital, and trying to get me to practice on patients. It was all getting a bit out of hand, and I was losing the will to live, which was a shame after a good, high energy start.

So I arranged to go and spend some time in Darkhan, with the other VSO nurse trainer, who had been in post for a year, and was getting on very well. With tis trip organised, I could relax and enjoy my weekend. On Friday I attended a meeting at VSO abotu various aspects to do with living and working in Mongolia, various project updates, and general discussion. It was quite a positive meeting, and afterwards some of us went to The Bull, a hotpot restaurant. It was a fun meal, and I was feeling extra happy as I had recieved that day a parcel with an outfit in it for going uot dancing.

After the meal we went to a pub quiz, which was very fun, it was the launch, so there were lots of people (all ex-pats, but never mind) and everyone was in a good mood. After the quiz we headed to a nightclub called Face. Which is hilarous, and pretty cool. They adopted the notto 'more is more' when they put in the disco lights though, it took days for my vision to return to normal! But they played some wicked tunes, and I was a dance floor staple for the night. I even got some admiring attention from Mongolians, one girl pushed my friend out of the way to dance with me!

Felt like I danced all my troubles away.

keep your face out of my office!

2010-03-31T05:12:00.000+01:00

Another thing here, that is weird, is that Mongolians seem to love opening doors and looking in. I sit in the office, working, or having my 11 O'clock snack, or whatever, and every few minutes, someone opens the door, looks in, and then closes the door again. At first I found it a little unsettling, it is constant, I mean literally every to minutes, the door opens, a random pokes their head in and stares for a few moments, then shuts door again. I just ignore them now.

this is where I work

2010-03-29T09:30:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post, I am at work, and I feel so ill. Head pounding, sinuses blocked and sore, eyes fuzzy.... yes, poor me indeed.
So I am just going to show photos of my work, then go home.

this is what I see as I am walking down my street

The Hospital

Making lunch.

My desk, and my interpreter, lovely Zolo.

So - thats it, you can see where I live, where I work and where I hang out on this blog now. The next posts are going to be about various things in UB. Buses, Restarants (PECTOPAH) and Mongolians, and the music I have heard, and the Ballet I went ot see, and the Neurosurgery Department where I tart wrk tomorrow, and the injection class I sat in on, where I watched 13 nursing students inject eachother in the bum wth novocaine, and other things - there is always something utterly random just around the corne here.....and I will tell you all (all 8 of you - come on, if you read it, become a follower, it makes me look more popular) all about it very soon, just as soon as I feel human again and find my brain.

I'm going to be on the telly!!

2010-03-26T08:12:00.000Z

So, there was a house party friday night, where I met this really cool girl, she had broken all her bones in an accident some years prevously, and I was fascinated to hear all about it.

This week at work (phew, getting up to date!) has been quite eventful.... I have been being taken around the hospital, to view the departments. I have a uniform now - it makes me feel a bit mre official, despite the fact that it is more reminiscent of a beauticians outfit than a nurses.....

The hospital is very clean, there are cleaners everywhere scrubbing every inch of the place. However,the resources and facilities are very basic. The beds are scrawny springy contraptions, with mismatched bedding, sagging ominously in the middle. The wards are quite stark, the lack of equiptment is startling. I am shown the "injection room" - the equivalent of our treatment or CSSD room, there is quite literally, nothing in it, aside from a small trolley, with a cute assortment of bottle, and a CARDBOARD sharps bin. The infection control risk assessment health and safety nurse impulses I never knew I had start fizzing and popping.

the nurses look very swish, their uniforms are beautifully laundered (not like mine! I am a disgrace!) and they are wearing high heels and immaculate make up (again, not like me, I look like I got dragged through a hedge backwards!). But I am unable to ascertain what they are actually doiing, they bustle and they hustle and they fustle, but I cant see what is actually happening.

I am taken to see their "poorly patients" and I wantch as they clean and dress a grade two ressure sore. Again, inside my head the "project 2000" in me is screaming "noooooooooo". But I stand mute, and when asked my opinion, givea neutral response, I advise turns and fluids. I begin to concoct a training session on pressure area care in my head as I am taken round other departments.

On the ground floor is outpatients. I am taken to a small kiosk where a woman sits with a very strange apparatus in front of her. It is a huge glass jar, stoppered with a rubber bung, out of which come two rubber tubes. In the jar is what looks like frog spawn. After an elaborately sign languaged inquiry, I am told it is egg white and oxygen, and people are lingin up to buy a cup of it for it's healing properties. I am taken to the front of the queue and given a cup of froth and a spoon. It tastes quite sweet and frothy. I eat it all up and say "mmm".

the rest of my time I spend in the office, it is very peceful and pleasant, and my colleagues cook a meal at lunch time, using a large rice cooker, in which they first cook rice, before setting it aside and frying mutton and vegetables to eat with the rice. It is always very tasty, and at other times there are cakes and bread and tea to have. If we are alone in the office, Z goes to the shop and buys us Mantuu, steamed bread with salami sausage in the middle. Oh I eat well at work!

One day I wake to my alarm, and reach out to press snooze, as usual. Only I dont press snooze, I unwittingly turn it off. When I wake - sleepily thinkng , hmm that seemed like a long five minutes - I find it is 8.05am. I am due at work at 8.20. After staring in disbelief at the time, wasting precious seconds, I leap out of bed, into my clothes, out of the door and into a taxi. Chigeerei! I say, straight ahead! I tell him when to Baruun gar teeshei eegeere (take the right hand turn) and we are soon at teh hospital. I am denied entry to the lift by the very stern lift attendant, so I run up the 5 flights of stairs, falling in to the office at 8.30. On time, but resembing Worzel gummage on a bad day.

I have barely got my breath back when I am told I need a photo for my ID badge, and a camera flashes in my face. oh dear I think, my vanity stinging, that wont be a good photo, but never mind, almost no one will see it.

I become aware of some excitement in the office, and I am pulled down the corridor being told through giggles that I am to "make a drama". I am propelled onto a ward where I am aghast to see a film crew. My instructions are to pretend to discuss a set of notes with another nurse. this I do with aplomb, having done Am Dram before (daaahling). But after they have finished filming my boss comes over and is fiddling with the front of my tunic. I realise my button has been undone, and I have just been filmed with my bra on display. Wonderful. But worse is to come.

We then have to all walk down the corridor together, with my boss nudging me saying "we're like top models" and my interpreter in fits of giggles I give in and start laughing, turning just intime to see tha the camera is still on us. Oh well. I am soon released form "set" and go off with Z to a "physical meditation" session we have been invited to participate in. It is very calming and soothing, we do gentle exercises, it is somewhere between tai chi and yoga and five rhythms hippie movement class. I am feeling relaxed. Until the door opens and the film crew burst in.

So - fame and fortune here I come - I am to be on a TV show, I dont know whichm what channel or when, but I am just waiting for the autograph requests to start.....

Dancing Salsa to a Phillipino rock band singing cheesy pop covers at a mongolian night club

2010-03-26T07:47:00.000Z

So - that week was a bit of a write off, I graduated languge school, and had the worst sore throat I have ever had. SO by friday I was ready to party. four of us went to this club we had heard of called Strings, where there was a resident band. We pid 8,000 MNT (a lot) to get in, and found a table. The music was fun, the band was energetic and E taught me salsa so we danced all night.

I had to move house the next day, and I dont know what time I got to bed, but it was late, and I had to take E along with me to the apartment for moral support. The place was empty and grubby, and the bed made me literally shudder, and I almost cried. However, I pulled myself together, bought some bleach, and some colourful material and I girlified that pace right up. Check it out.

So - settled in to the flat....next step was starting work. I had met my interpreter at a work shop the previous week, we had arranged hat she would meet me at my flat and take me to work, as I had no idea where it was. 5 Minutes before she was due to meet me, she texted me saying she couldnt meet me. Uh Oh. I went out and jumped in a taxi, but couldnt rememeber the mongolian name of my hospital, i could only say hospital, so the taxi driver took me to a hospital....the wrong hospital....I rang my boss and asked her to tell the taxi driver where to go, and I eventually made it to work.

I LOVE my work. I LOVE IT! I am so lucky! I have a lovely desk, in a lovely office, with lovely women. My interpreter, Z, and I spent the week bonding, and I love her too, even though she dropped me in it that first day - its water under the bridge now. I also LOVE my boss, she is amazing. I admire her very much.

That first week, not a lot happened, oh, except for being asked to make a small presentation about what nursing is like in the UK to give to "some nurses". I duly wrote the presentartion, and as I was being hustled along a corridor to give it, asked, um, exactly how many people am I presenting this too....oh, about 250 came the flippant reply, just as we turned into a huge room, with the 250 nurses sitting bored and chattering.

Well, I just had to take it in my stride, walk confidently up to the lectern and tell 'em about myself and nursing in the UK.

By friday I was exhausted, I had not anticipated how draining it is to be trapped in a language bubble, its a struggle every day to understand what is going on and to make myself understood. Although I love Z, she was not so good that first week about interpreting....a rapid conversation would happen in Mongolian, and I would look pleadingly at her throughout, waiting for a scrap of information as to what was going on. "what did they say?" I asked. "oh.....yes." would be the reply. For the first few days "yes" was the answer to every what, why, where and when question. So I arranged an informal meeting with another volunteer and her interpreter, a more mature woman (Z is very young and this is her first job) who has been a health interpreter for several years. I engineered a conversation betwen her and Z about therole of an interpreter, and the particular challenges of working in healthcare.

I also spent most evenings during the week at various social events. This is the week that all the VSO's working in diferent Aimags were leaving, so it was a leaving meal out every night! I was sensible though, and would have no beer and go home early. Mostly.

Priscilla forgets her pants, and other stories

2010-03-26T07:27:00.000Z

Ok ok ok - I know, I havent written for ages, I have been so busy, life's a constant whirl.

A brief account of the last week in the guesthouse, or the big brother house as we all called it. I have language lessons for the last week, and I scored major points by going in when I was ill, and still being great at mongolian. Although I am quite annoyed with the rumour mill at the moment, apparently one of the stories going around about me is that I was top of the class. Booya. Here I am at school on the last day, and getting my certificate.

This week wasnt that exciting as I was struck down with a lurgy, we had been taking i in turns to be ill in the BB house, and this was my week. However there was one nutty night and morning. For some reason the BB house was filled with steam on evening, it was weird, like mist inside. thick mist. then the lights went out. they came on and off again a few times through out the evening, and eventually we decided to call it a night and go to bed, but just then the door burst open and in fell the philipinos, they'd been taken out by some mongolians and had clearly been plied with vodka, they were hilariously drunk, and being very sweet and funny. They eventually let me go to bed, where I fell into a deep sleep, to be woken by shoting and banging. Seems the boyfriend of the girl working at the guesthouse had turned up at 3am, drunk, and with some grievance. they had a loud fight before she eventually hit him over the head and pushed him bodily out of the house.

the next mornig i woke with my throat on fire and my head pounding, I croaked to the others that I couldnt go to school today, and they went off without me. I felel back to sleep and was woken later on by a film crew breaking the door of my bedroom off its hinges.

Oh, and the next day, when we got the school bus, Em came running up saying wait wait, Priscilla forgot her coat! as she climbed onto the bus she added "and her pants!"

Skulls in the street and the Embassy Cat

2010-03-07T07:07:00.000Z

Wow, it has been a whole week since I last wrote, and what a week it has been. Last time I wrote I was reluctant to go to the social evening, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We went to a Hot pot restaurnt, which was a huge place where each table, or set of tables had its own kind of wicker gazebo, and each person had their own wee gas burner and wee saucepan of soup. We then ordered baskets of vegetbles, wonderfully colourful collections of spinach, lettuce, pak choi, a variety of exotic mushrooms, chinese leaf and sweet potato. I went and sat with a group of lads who were ordering beer, as I could tell that was where I would fine my kindred brethren, and sure enough they were funny and irreverant. K and I went to the pub with them afterwards, and I finally felt like myself for a while, sitting in a pub cracking jokes round the table is my bag.

Instead of going to language shcool during the week, we were attending sessions at VSO designed to introduce us to living and working in Mongolia. I must admit I got very frustrated with these sessions, as many of them were - shall we say - superfluous....

However on wednesday I went with a current volunteer to a Community Health Clinic in the north of the city, in a Ger district, which is like some kind of utterly surreal shanty town.....a huge area of gers and hastily constructed minature houses, made of bricks and resembling a playmobile village. The snowy mountains loom impressively behind the blanket of eccentric structures, and the coal smoke that streams from every chimney catches in my throat and makes me cough in a way I cant remember coughing before.

I sit in on a training session, given by an american nurse, to a disparate group of Mongolian Community Nurses. They are a mixed bunch, there are 15 of them, and none looks under 30. They are not smiling, they look tired and indifferent. I introduce myself in Mongolian, and they barely evn look at me. However, they appear atentive to the lecture, and take notes, though no one asks any questions. Most seem to lose interest about half way through, one nods off, and another is staring in a manner which although not hostile, is not friendly.... I begin to worry about my own job, but then I notice that the American Nurse has made a sttement about normal sinus rhythm, which the Mongolian nurses are questioning, there is much talking and gesticulating, and I am reassured that there can indeed be a lively interaction and that they were all listening afterall.

On wednesday evening we had another "social evening", a gatherine of most of the VSO volunteers, as well as those from a German NGO, and an Australian NGO. The event was held at an art galley, and there was a very random buffet, of scotch eggs and mince pies. Yes, Mince pies. K and E and me did a bit of networking, there was an indepth conversation about the Mongolian Cashmere Industry, and we also got persuaded to come to the Mongolian Winter Olympics. We then went with the boys to the pub, were there was much raucousness and laughter, and beer. We then went to an "after party" at an apartment, and that is wen the vodka was brought out, and where my decorum left the building.

Suffice it to say, that the next day, K and I were feeling quite worse for wear, yet we had a 9am start at the VSO office, from where we were taken to visit the UN Medical Centre, where we are to go for medical treatmetn should we need it. There is a security office one must go through first, before entering the compound, and I just find the Mongolian men in their Soviet style uniforms so surreal. They have extremely smart military style jackets, big black boots, and a high fur hat. they look very stern, and some of them have guns.

We met with the UN Doctor and found out that the pollution in UB is 12 times the WHO safe levels, so we are strongly advised to go to the countryside every weekend to clean our lungs. We can also expect mild anaemia while we adapt to living at high altitude. Being short of breath has become as normal as - well, breathing.

After the UN we were taken to the SOS clinic, an incredibly swish private medical centre where we will be treated should we be so unfortunate as to seriously injure ourselves, or become desparately ill. by this time K and I were flaking badly, and becoming very grumpy, so we clamoured loudly for lunch, and off we all trouped to a vegan cafe called The Loving Hut. It is a chain of restaurnts run by a Vietnamese woman who has set herself up as a Guru. In the corner of the cafe was a TV screen, showing, on a loop, this woman preaching to her disciples. Our food was very tasty, and served on heat shaped plates.

Fortified somewhat by this sustenance, our bedraged group were then taken to the British Embassy, to be introduced, or something, I am afraid I fell asleep. We didnt see a lot of the Embassy, from the front door we were led to a sitting room, with large sofa's and arm chairs, and a big painting of the Queen,and randomly, a sleepy cat. For two hours we were told about the political situation in Mongolia, and other stuff that I cant remember, now and again I would look up to see Ihab laughing at my pathetic attempts to stay awake and look attentive.

When we were finally liberated from our edification session, we straggled home. On the way we saw a tramp who had either passed out or died, half on the pavment, half in the road. My first instinct was to go to him, and at least get his head out of the way of passing cars, there were people all around, just ignoring him, and the traffic mercifully swerved to avoid him. I was torn up inside about it, but my companions reassured me that the police would come and pick him up, and that it was better for us not to interfere in any way, being foreign and female.

That evening I turned the guesthouse siting room into a den of iniquity, we pulled the furniture around until we had created a card table, and I taught Ihab and K how to play poker. Then we danced to 90's Reggae and laughed at eachothers increasingly comic bogling.

Friday I had a meeting with my "counterpart" and programme manager, in which I was briefed on my job. I m to work from 8.20am to 4.20pm, and will be sharing an office with up to 5 others. I will have an interpreter from 30hours per week. I am expected to spend the frst month going around the different departments of the Hospital performing a needs assessment, so that I can then create pertinent training sessions. I will deliver these sessions to small groups of nurses in the designated trianing room. I will also give lectures to larger groups of nurses. I said I would also give english lessons, and that these would be open to anyone at all.

That evening K and Ihab and I went to the flat of a current VSO, and had a very nice spaghetti bolognaise. We then wet to join the lads in the pub, and more beer was quaffed. Everyone went off around midnight to a club, but K and I stayed on in the pub talking talking talking until the bar staff very politely informed us that the bar was now closed - looking around us we realised we were the last people there and the staff were startig to put on their coats. We marched home hand in hand, falling into bed around 3am.

Saturday we were soo tired and ropey, ut a trip to a mad cafe called "American Burger and Fries" sorted us out. the burgers are better than I have had anywhere, and the proprieter is an American Mongolian who absolutely loves international volunteers, we get 10% off our bill!!

After this divine lunch, we went to the Cinema, which was an experience! It is very western - gaudy and noisy inside, with arcade games and even a simulator. Inside, taking our seats early to avoid the crush, I found the Mongolian Cinema ettiquette, or lack thereof, absolutley hilarious. They talk, walk around, take calls on their mobiles, and bring their small children along for the ride. We were watchig Wolfman, hollywood pap, that gave me about 12 heart attacks. A small child in the row in fromt of us began wailing an was taken out by its unruffled father.

After the film, K and I were finished, so tired, so we went back to the guesthouse, stopping to get some food in a small MOngolian cafe. portion sizes here are ENOURMOUS. We orderd vegetable noodle stirfry, and were presented with two mounds of food that would have fed five people. As we we leaving, and leaving a lot of our mea, I was feeling guilty for wasting this food, but physically nable to fit any more of it in my stomach, so I was gratified upon chancing to look back as I walked out of the door, to see that a street urchin had slid immediately into my vacated seat and was shovelling my left overs into his mouth with gusto.

Home we finally reached, and heard that one fo the VSO's had slipped on the ice and hurt her shoulder badly. I am looking forward ot when the ice melts.

Right, there is a very noisy french girl in this cafe, who is chain smoking fags and I have written so much I doubt anyone will read this far to see my sign off. Farewell until I have more to say. Oh yeah, the skulls in the title - every here and there I see a skull in the street, an animal skull i hasten to add, perhaps a goat or something. The other day i was walking along when I saw man carrying two cow heads. Literally just carrying two cow heads, by the ears, it was ok - if a bit surreal - to see the front of their faces, but as we passed eachother adjacently, I was greeted with the severed side, blood vessels and muscle tissue, quite gross.

Such sights I see, its never dull. I love this city, despite the daily risk of suffication. Laters xx

a trip to the countryside and other adventures

2010-02-28T09:34:00.009Z

Yesterday we went on our eagerly (huh!) anticipated TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE! The temperature was minus 20 something, and there was an icy wind, same old Mongolian story. We trundled down to the VSO office to get on the same bus we go to school in, in order to be driven out into the countryside.

The drive was long and very bumpy, and looking out of the window was punctuated often by wiping ice off the inside of the window. We had snacks for the journey, and were traveling with VSO people that we hadnt met before, so it was quite a cheery journey, despite the loss of feeling in the toes.

On the way, we stopped to look at a Shamanist Ovoo, like cairn, a pile of rocks with a rag-festooned stick, that we walked around thrice for luck, making a wish at the end of the third circle. I wished that my complexion would be spared the ravages of the weather. I am going to come back to the UK looking 40 years old at this rate.

When we got out of the bus, we were in a little Ger encampment that had one Ger for tourists to hang out in. It was very warm and cosy inside, being heated by a wood burning stove in the middle, the smoke from which went up the chimney. it is tempting to get very close to the stove.....it is even more temptig to touch it....and I melted my socks - but avoided melting my actual feet, thanks be.

In the Ger we were brought boorch and hoshoor, these are meat filled dumplings that are either steamed (boorch) or fried (hoshoor). I must make a note here about the mongolian words i write, the mongolian alphabet is like the russian, and it is impossible to write in english letters what the words sound like.

Anyway, the dumplings were very nice, I have liked all the mongolian food i have eaten so far, but I think that living in the city, I have escaped the truly horrifying dishes - I have heard that in the remote countryside, dinner is a bucket of roughly chopped animal in salty milk, and a diner party is passing the bucket around so that everyone can take it in turns to fish for eyeballs, trotters, tails and other delights.

After lunch I went on a little stroll and had a very nice chat wth a bunch of cows that were eating sticks. here i am

and here are the cows

and here is some scenery what I saw

cool huh.

After our walk we piled into the bus to head home, stopping a few times to ogle a cople of camels (!!! my new favourite animal, they were fab) which we were not able to take photos of unfortunately as the herders with them didnt take to us goggle-eyed foreigners at all. However, I discovered later that one of the girls had managed to sneak a photo through the window of the bus, it is slightly blurred, but check out how lush these Camels are, to ride on a Camel has become my new ultimate ambition.

We also stopped to view a huge boulder named Turtle Rock. Can you tell how it came by this particuar monniker?!

Homeward homeward we headed, tumbling out of the bus at Sukbataar square to hobble back to the guesthouse via the Minimart where we picked up some Mongolian beer, which is very nice. Re-ensconced in our little sanctuary, we sat around chatting and laughing. I was reminde again of the Bg Brother house, especially since we were all paying particular attention to our new arrivals.

Today, sunday, i had a blissful lie in and leisurely morning. I went for a Berlin Burger with K and G, and then wandered of fon my own to the Mongolian National History Museum. It was free entry today in honour of a cultural day of celebration, but the Museum was surprisingly quiet, and I was able to spend over an hour perusing the really very interesting artifacts. From pre-historic finds, cave drawings and burial sites, to the end of the 21st century when Mongolia broke away from Russian influence, the history of Mongolia is artfully covered, and, helpfully, almost all of the information about the exhibits is proveded in english.

One whole floor of the Museum is devoted to the traditionl dress of the different Mongolian ethnic groups, of which there are about 20. They are wonderfully ornate costumes, which I realised looking at them, had been the inspiration for the costumes of Queen Almidala in the hideous travesties of celluloid which were the latest "starwars" movies. I tried to take a picture, but was sternly told "NO" by a very scary Mongolian woman.

I have more to say about this, but my computer keeps freezig up, and i have to go get some groceries and drop my computer at home before heading out again for a VSO social dinner (groooan) where I must be jovial and friendly, which is not really my natural disposition, but it wouldnt be fair on them to be my true grumpy self.

how time flies when you're learning Mongolian

2010-02-24T08:47:00.003Z

It is minus 24 today, so cold that my breath becomes ice crystals on my snood. Indoors however, the heat is as ferocious as a fire ball, and I cannot whip my four tops off quick enough. Today I put into practice my quite brilliant plan of wearing my thermal top OVER my normal top, thereby circumventing the inevitble heat exhaustion that strikes when inside a building, yet still managing to avoid the hypothermia that inevitably accompanies venturing outside. Magic.

I have been going to language classes this week. at 8am my collegues and I trundle out to get our school bus, a minature van, with no seat belts, that ratttles through the city, depositing us at the (minature) Brigde International College, where we split into classes of five to try and learn Mongolian.

Our classroom is teeny, a sis our teacher. We break for a snack of fried rice (Yesssss) or meat dumpling, with a sweet instant coffee. I love school, I love my teacher, and I love being an unashamed swot. I have learned the 35 letter alphabet, and am going ok with my pronunciation. I evn managed to have a stilted conversation with the teacher which went as follows

her: Hello, how are you
me: I am fine, how are you?
her: i am fine, are you a teacher?
me: no I am a student
her: what is your name?
me: my name is catherine
her: do you speak mongolian?
me: a little bit. I am english. Do you speak english
her: a little bit. well, nice talking to you, see you around, bye!
me: bye!

if I could work out how to get the cyrillic on this computer I would have written it in mongolian. Suffice it to say that afterwards she said "mas sain!" which means VERY GOOD.

Our classes finish at 12.30, and after the bus drops us at Sukbataar Square we have the afternoon off. Today Kate and I went to the most expensive restaurant we have found so far, lunch was 10,000 tugruks, which is about £5, and waaaay over our budget. But it was very nice, I had a burger and chips (bad caffers) and a real coffee. Real coffee is very expensive, I am going to have to learn to love the 3in1 instant stuff wich is less than a tenth of the price.

Because of the drop in temperature, the coal smoke pollution has worsened. I cough as soon as I get into the 'fresh air' and I can feel the soot in my mouth like the after-grit of a filling, or the sand you get in your sandwhich on the beach.

The traffic in the city is quite literally mental. Cars weave around oblivious to lanes, trffic signls and pedestrians. Horns beep CONSTANTLY. If I was asked to describe the sound track to UB I would walk to the nearest car and press down on the horn for a few hours. Crossing the road is always fraught with danger, more so when wearing a hat, scarf, snood and hood, which gives one tunnel vision and mutes ones hearing. My life preserving tactic has been to run really fast with my eyes shut, hoping really strongly for the best....this is working fine so far.

we are supposed to be going on a countryside trip on saturday, but the weather is forecast to get even worse, dropping to -26 and snowing, so the trip may be cancelled.

next week we are invited to social evening to meet the staff of the british embassy here, as well as the peace corps, and other NGO's. I forgot to bring fancy shoes, so will be in a lovely dress, red lipstick, and big bovver boots. But I am more worried about my huge spots than I am about altitude sickness, pollution poisoning, road traffic accidents and hypothermia put together.

First days in UB

2010-02-22T14:01:00.001Z

SO! here I am in UB, a city that has to be seen to be believed. Very soviet in appearance, some very battered depressed appartment blocks (one of which will be my new home soon) but yet some absolutley majestic buildings. There is a big road , Peace Avenue (which always makes me think of Neil from The Young Ones), running east to west through the cuty, and in the middle the large central landmark, Sukbataar Square, with the sublimely impressive parliament building, and other stately buldings.

parliament building

i have only been here for two day, and am jet lagged into incapability. I have struggled through today, being nudged awake by my colleague during a meetng, and crashing out at 6pm as soon as we got home, awaking at 9.30pm to come and join the melee out in the sitting room.

'home' at the moment is a guet house north of Peace Av. It is teeny but very cosy and cute. there are ten of us here, all vso volunteers, from the UK, INdia, The Phillipines and Kenya. I am sleeping in the 'traditional room' with three others. we have wooden cot beds, painted bright orange with colourful patterns. I am SO glad I brought my pillows, I am very cofy in my bed, although sleeping in crimson satin sheets has taken a little getting used to. And the bed is actually one inch shorter than I am.

my bed (the messy one)

We have been out and about in the city - and all agree it is a surreal experience. Small colourful shop fronts line the street, but there are no windows into them, so they appear as if cardboard cut outs. Then abrubtly, you will see a big brand shop, like Addidas, North face or Nike.

The super State Department Store is an imposing building of 6 floors, inside it very classy and high end, with - I was shocked to see - an IKEA store, and a huge collectin of playmobil. It has a supermarket on the first floor, which is very well stocked, and I have been spending many Tugruks on snacks here.

state department store

In the city I have seen a range of people, from the young beautiful mongolian women in very snazzy skinny jeans, high heeled boots and shiny tight puffa jackets, to the scruffy drunks with yellow wizened faces, arguing with eachother and if they chance to spot you, calling 'hello hello! money!', to the young boys posing and posturing, playing tinny music off their mobile phones, like POKER FACE!! Is there no where the ga ga hasnt reached? to the mongolians in their traditional dress, a full length Deel, with large fur hats. And the cutest kids I have ever seen.

Tomorrow, my language classes start, and I hope I will begin to emerge from the fug of jet lag, and write somehting a little more coherent.
Oh and the food is LUSH.
Ciao for now.

preparing to depart....

2010-02-11T23:33:00.000Z

I leave for Mongolia next friday........

I will be living in Ulaan Bataar for a year, working for a hospital as a nurse trainer. I am going with VSO, and I don't know at the moment where best on my blog to put the disclaimer, not being technology savvy (I recently came into possession of my very first, and very own laptop computer, I joined skype but managed to reject my first call as I thought it was an internet pop up...and I then spilt coffee all over the lap top, which miraculously survived, but seems to eye me with nervous anticipation every time I use it now...) so I will put it in here for now - I cant remember exactly how it goes, but the gist is that I am volunteering for VSO, but the views expressed in this blog are my own and so if I come across as dodgy, then thats my business not VSO's so dont blame them if I say stupid things....

Um...at this stage there isnt much to write about - so far my preparation has mainly consisted of stock piling thermal underwear, as the temperature will be minus 20 or so when I arrive, I am also stock piling herbal sedative tablets, Valerian, Hops etc, as I am anticipating being overwhelmed and bewildered for the first few weeks. I also anticipate experiencing massive culture shock. One of the reasons I am going is because I really WANT to experience a different culture, and I plan to really try to go with the flow and respect and learn about what goes down out there, but all the same, it is still going to be a shock to the system at first.

I cant wait to meet the people I will be working and living with, and I am looking forward to getting stuck into the job. I want to see the sights, hear the noises and smell the smells of mongolia, but I do hope I will have a nice bed out there with nice pillows because when it comes to where I sleep I am the princess and the pea. Its an unfortunate trait, I ken, but I cant help it, I can put up with almost any discomfort or deprivation except for a lack of pillows. In fact, I am going to bring a couple just in case....

So - there ends my first post.