Celebrating Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations in Mongolia began last Wednesday (21st Dec) with an AYAD intake 32 Christmas dinner and Kris Kingle. Ben cooked up a delicious spaghetti bolognese, my first since arriving in Mongolia, and we exchanged our KK gifts. Jessie made some amazing Christmas crackers/bon bons for the table, in which she enclosed caramello koalas and Mongolian camel key rings for us all!

The following evening we had our big AYAD Christmas dinner, including volunteers from intake 30, 31 and 32 (us). Our in-country management team made a lovely speech about how much they enjoy working with us. For us, we're so lucky to have a pair of such dedicated and caring people looking after us!

The night was filled with great food (spinach and feta salad, lentil salad, salmon steak and panna cotta) and great company. We played a few games too, including limbo, celebrity heads and decorating someone as a Christmas tree (I was a part of the winning time of the latter. For this we won a bottle of Mongolia's famous Chenghis vodka). We even got a visit from Santa himself. I received a couple of large parcels (thank you to my family and Luke) that I saved to open up on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve we all went to the Mongolian National ballet performance of the Nutcracker. It was the first time I had been to any professional ballet performance, so I thought it was good, although I did get lost in the storyline, particularly in the second Act. Afterwards we had everyone at Grandma's Flat (our apartment) for some delicious mulled wine.

On Christmas Day my housemates and I shared the morning together opening our gifts and eating a yummy big breakfast. Presents included an amazing Christmas banner (pictured below) from my niece Alle that she made herself, and some special homemade infused vodka (also pictured below) from my housemate Jess.

In the afternoon we shared a big Christmas dinner with around 30-40 other volunteers and expats living in Mongolia. Each of us brought along a dish to share: from rum balls to Chinese pork; from roast beef with jus to bok choy salad; from Tasmanian cheese to homemade Christmas fruitcake (both from the same volunteer who recently returned to UB from a brief visit home). Yum!

One of my favourite parts of the evening was when we sat around and sang Christmas carols together.

French-Mongolian Cheese Farm

Many of you are aware of my love for cheese. My siblings continues to make fun of me for choosing to visit the Cheese Factory (Cheese World) in Allansford as one of our weekend family activities when we were growing up. So when the opportunity to visit a French-Mongolian cheese farm about one hour and a half drive from UB here in Mongolia, I couldn't resist!

Before the bus trip (approximately -20 to -25 degrees)

The Mongolian country-side (view from the bus window)

The business specialises in making many types of French cheese. It was started by a French man who has been living in UB for a few years with his Mongolian wife. He and his family and friends made us a delicious lunch of cheese, cheese and more cheese in the form of fondu and melted cheese on baked potatoes.

I ended up taking home a small wheel of brie and a large portion of this one on the bottom-right. I'm hoping to get some of their goats cheese and cream that they didn't have the factory but can buy in UB (cream like we know it is particularly difficult to find in Mongolia).

The landscape by which the factory is surrounded is absolutely beautiful. The recent snowfall and the blue skies for the day made it even more amazing.

Ice Slips and Knitting 101

I have a new favourite pastime (thanks to one of my housemates for her excellent teaching skills and patience): knitting! I'm thinking of it as a good exercise to help heal my left arm that I hurt over a week ago.

It happened last Thursday on the way home from work via several supermarkets (you have to go to at least two or three stores to do all your grocery shopping, and then still you can't find all you want). I was crossing a road and slipped on a large patch of ice in front of a car. Usually I'm pretty cautious with this as it's a common problem for pedestrians on the UB footpaths and roads (especially for the unprepared foreigner). On this occasion though I think I was trying to hurry across the poorly lit road in front of several cars and didn’t notice the ice. This is the way you have to cross the road here: you must step out in front of cars, forcing the drivers to give way. They won't stop otherwise. So I slipped and fell, putting out my arm so as to appear to land, somewhat graciously, in the middle of the road. Luckily one of my housemates was there to signal to the driver of the large 4WD that I was almost underneath their bonnet when they attempted to continue to drive in my direction.

This is how it is on the roads in UB – drivers behind the wheels of massive cars and vans, following barely any formal road rules (if such exist) and instead make their way through the streets, beeping their horns, as if everyone is in it for themselves. Somehow though, it does seem to work for them and from what I’ve seen, there are very few accidents. As I write this now I hear car horns blaring. Most likely because they’ve been double-parked (usually by someone who intends to park there for more than just a few minutes), or they simply wish to switch lanes.

As I couldn't quite straighten my arm or bend it properly, I went to the SOS clinic the following day. After a couple of x-rays I was relieved to find out that there were no broken bones, just a sprained elbow. So I've been wearing it in a sling since (pictured here with my new dress purchased from UB's black market).

Being left-handed, I’ve had a lot of trouble restraining myself from using my left arm, especially when it comes to food, brushing my teeth, typing, playing my ukelele, and my what seem to be my favourite activities to do at home: washing the dishes and now, knitting. For now I'm trying to master the basic knitting techniques, and once I've graduate from my housemate's knitting 101 course I'll begin to knit something of value!

November in UB

The opening night of an art exhibition.

The artwork focused on calligraphy of the traditional Mongolian written script.

The opening night of the French-German Film Festival.
The film was called 'The Two Horses of Genghis Khan'

Felting workshop

My Assignment

I officially began my Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) assignment this week by starting full-time work at the Mongolian Government’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Agency.

The SME Agency is a government agency that was established by the Mongolian Parliament in 2008. It aims to promote the sustainable growth and development of Mongolian SMEs through policy and regulation.

The Agency consists of four divisions with 25 employees, as well as five SME centres from which SMEs can gain business information and advice. I have a supervisor, Suvdaa, who speaks really good English, as well as four counterparts, half of whom speak English really well also. They have been really friendly and welcoming, taking me out to lunch every day since I began. There is also a lovely Japanese man of around 65 who’s here as an advisor on a two year contract. So I’m pretty lucky that I can speak English, Japanese and Mongolian (although very little of the latter) in the office!

My AYAD role at the Agency will be as a Business Projects Officer. When I applied there was a list of desired outcomes for the assignment, although it seems that these are going to change as priorities for the Agency and for the Government continually change. I don’t mind at all about that, I’m happy to be working on such a good cause with great people, who are passionate about improving the prospects for SMEs in Mongolia. This ultimately ties in to the Millennium Development Goal #1, which is to help reduce poverty.

In general, I will be assisting in project planning, particularly for upcoming events such as the Made in Mongolia exhibition that is held annually in January before the Lunar New Year. These events are opportunities for small businesses in Mongolia, such as those in handicrafts, to showcase their products. Skills in this area are supposedly lacking because of the abovementioned reason: priorities alter, which means work tasks frequently change also, and therefore it is difficult to plan for something that may not even happen.

It also sounds like I will be involved in policy development through research, from which I will assist in writing and submitting papers and reports. Some main issues that the Agency wants to deal with are:

• Advising SMEs about networking avenues through which they can then sell their product (markets, fairs, shops, etc.)
• Advising SMEs about the loan system and what sorts of loans are available to them depending on their structure, number of employees, etc.

Since I began last week (half days as I had language lessons in the mornings) it has been quiet in the office as a lot of the staff has been involved in rural trips for the monitoring and evaluation process of low-interest loans that the Agency provided to SMEs across the country. It has been good for me as I’ve been concentrating on learning about the Agency and its work, as well as the SME sector and rural and industrial development in Mongolia. I also got the chance to go the 90th anniversary event of cooperatives in Mongolia (even though it was all in Mongolian and I didn't understand any of the presentations..).

I have always been passionate about development, and I feel that this experience will definitely heighten this interest, especially in terms of community planning and development for rural and regional areas.

And one last thing – I have my own set of business cards for the Agency! This is definitely a sign that I have been fully accepted into the organisation!

A day in the Mongolian countryside

This past week has been pretty busy but very productive. I’ve settled in to my new apartment, shopped for groceries and household goods at several markets and supermarkets spread around UB (it’s impossible to get all your shopping at one place here), and began language classes for three hours a day. It was also filled with lots of social events - on Tuesday we went to another group of AYADs apartment to watch the Melbourne Cup and on Thursday night a big group of us went out for dinner and to see a Mongolian band called Altan Urag. I really loved this. The band consists of six members, playing mostly traditional Mongolian instruments (including the horse-headed fiddle) but play a cross between of punk/rock/folk. They’re also pretty famous and have played at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Unfortunately though sets in Mongolia last for just 15-20 minutes so after just four songs the band was packing up to go home…

After such a busy week, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend yesterday (Saturday) than to go out in to the countryside of Mongolia for some fresh air, beautiful views and lovely company. Our in-country management team organised for a group of us AYADs to visit a traditional nomadic Mongolian three-generation family.

On the drive there we stopped by the roadside where a Mongolian man had a couple of eagles. In western Mongolia, eagles are trained since birth as hunters to catch marmots, rabbits and small foxes. This has been a Mongolian Kazakh tradition for centuries. These particular eagles that we saw had had their wings clipped however, so it was possible for any person to have the eagle sit on their forearm and upon which the bird would balance while the person lifted their arm up and down. A few of the AYADs did just that (I couldn’t bring myself to go near those claws after a few too many bird swoops at home).

The drive to and from the family’s ger (literally meaning ‘home’, the ger is the traditional Mongolian tent, called a yurt in English) was absolutely stunning. We even got to see a group of camels with two humps, along with many goats, sheep, cows and of course, Mongolian horses.

Upon arrival at the family’s ger we were greeted by the elders through hugs and instead of kisses, sniffs on both cheek. We then went into the mother and father’s ger, entering in to the left hand side of the door. We were given a cup of white tea that instead of sugar, is flavoured by a few pinches of salt. I thought it actually tasted quite nice.

There were also some snacks for us to try that were kind of like bits of hard donuts.

We had brought along food to made a hor hog, the real traditional Mongolian barbeque. The father of the family was responsible for cooking this (not that different to an Australian BBQ) so while it was being prepared we were told to take a walk and a look around their beautiful property. During this time we also visited the elders ger, which was actually a traditional Kazakh ger. They were really lovely and even let us try on a traditional Kazakh outfit. The hat I’m wearing is actually made out of fox feet!

A few hours later we all sat down in the ger (around 25 o f us) to enjoy the meal. The meat of the hor hog was mutton, and we had cooked some vegetables and made salads to go with it. It was delicious. By the time we had all finished our meals it was getting late so we had to say our goodbyes.

On our way home back to UB we stopped at the big Chinggis (Genghis) Khan statue, which shows Chinggis riding a horse. According to legend, this is where Chinggis had found a golden whip. The statue is 40 metres high and apparently you can climb up to the head of the horse. Unfortunately it was getting quite dark (not to mention FREEZING cold!) so we’re hoping to go back again in the daytime.