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Published: September 20th 2010
The road ahead
On the road to Darkhan. Very typical landscape.When I created this entry a couple of weeks ago and entitled it 'the simple life', I was naively unaware as to just how simple life would be! And as to the 'centre of the universe' comment, two lovely VSO volunteers, Robin and Sally, from the UK had been living here for two years and this is how they repeatedly described Darkhan to me (and also repeated it in the book about the city they were so generous to give to me as a welcoming gift for me and a parting gift from them)!
After a drive of around 4 hours from UB, the driver was extremely safety conscious and drove very slowly about which I will never complain, I arrived on the afternoon of Wednesday 8 September and was accompanied by Bishrel from VSO. We met my counterpart, Navchaa, the deputy director of the Darkhan Health Department, Tsengel, and my temporary interpreter, Tsugu (who gave birth to a baby boy last week!), and I was immediately escorted to my new home.
The first part of my simple life is my apartment. I was disappointed when I arrived, simply because the apartment was not up to the standard of
Is anyone else concerned?
Hay trucks always seem just a little overloaded here! the apartments in UB in which VSO volunteers live. The bathroom and toilet are very tired, for example, and the rest of the place just needs a little brightening up - on which I have now started - cherry doona cover and sheets, photos from home on the fridge....etc, etc. The apartment is furnished but I was so pleased I had raided the VSO cupboard in UB before I left as the 2 knives, 2 forks, 2 desert spoons, 2 teaspoons and a small vegetable knife constitute my entire cutlery collection and the 2 mugs I took serve as tea cups and wine glasses! I have also purchased 2 dinner plates and a frypan to complement the 2 bowls, 1 side plate and 2 saucepans I was provided. Cleaning my apartment will be very simple. Yep, there is no vacuum cleaner and no mop so cleaning the floors and large rugs will be a matter of sweeping then scrubbing - manually, on hands and knees! Yikes!
Another quaint thing about my apartment is the electricity. There is a meter inside my apartment and a remote tag! It is a laborious job to buy electricity. Wander over to the 16
Ahhh...the countryside
Blue sky, a few white fluffy clouds, rolling hills.....ain't life grand! storey building (tallest in town and that is how it is known) and hand over the remote tag and indicate how much you want to pay for to the salesperson from the electricity company. Then take a receipt to the bank, next door, pay the amount, and return to the electricity company with the receipt. They then hand over the charged up remote and then I get to go home and point it at the meter and 'click'. Magic - I have more electricity charged up on the meter!
And hot water? Well, the description on my placement outline was hot water most of the time. It had better improve over the next 11 months to get over the 50% mark because of the 12 days I have been here, I have had hot water for 4!
On the up side, I have a small television set which is now tuned into BBC World News full time, a stove/oven and a brand new twin-tub washing machine! You should have seen the expression on my face when the landlord told me it was new and she didn't know how to use it so I should work it out! As
I said to my mother a few days later, the last time I saw a twin tub, I was about 5 years of age. Anyway, I have now used it successfully, and provided you don't count the litres of water I manage to spill on the bathroom floor each load, we are getting along just fine.
As I am on the first floor in my apartment complex, I am also slowly getting used to the noise of my bagh (as each group of apartments in an area is known). There are lots of young families, plenty of students and the frequent smashing of vodka bottles as ambient noise.
The second part of my simple life is the workplace. Consider your first day of work in a new town for a new company. What would you expect? As I have spent quite some time working on induction programs, both formally and informally, I know I have high expectations. On the plus side, I was given an office immediately but that is about where good practice ceased. I have to bring everything myself except a desk and a chair! My interpreter does not have a computer, I am using my
Here I Come!
The southern entrance to Darkhan laptop and my personal internet account, there is no such thing as a stationary cupboard or an office kitchen from which to get water - hot or cold! So we have requested a few items in addition to the computer, including a kettle - and we will wait patiently(!?!) for their arrival.
As you can imagine, my interpreter, Altai, is not happy with arrangements and we are both struggling to find enough to do whilst waiting for both equipment and some direction from my counterpart who was AWOL 3 days last week. Actually, we now know she was in UB for two of those days but she failed to mention this to me!
As I have shared with many of you, one of my personal goals for this placement is to improve my patience. Well, the test has already begun!
One of the work meetings I have attended which is worth mentioning occurred last Monday. Starting just before 10 am, each of the sections/wards of the local hospital had to present the first draft of their 2010-2015 Strategic Plan to the senior managers of the Darkhan Department of Health. It was interesting for many reasons including the
struggle my interpreter had with the medical terminology translation whilst trying to pay attention to the multiple voices speaking at once. There was the usual mobile phone chatter and lots of interjections over the top of each other, many of which sounded aggressive to my ears but, according to my interpreter, were not. It is fair to say, I wanted to jump right in and suggest they should all be given a standardised template to work from to ensure they had the complete picture in the right format......but I held my tongue. It is too early to offer advice and I am still not sure just how involved I am going to be in the production and implementation of this document anyway.
Getting around Darkhan is easy. Taxis cost 350₮ and mini-vans 250₮ each person, each trip. So I get a cab from home in New Darkhan to work in Old Darkhan and back each day for well under A$1. It is a little tight-fitting in the cabs and mini-vans at times, but I keep reminding myself that it is a very cheap ride!
I spent Sunday morning of my first weekend here in Darkhan wandering the local
hills. It gave me great perspective as to where I lived, where the local supermarket is, the post office, etc and I saw some interesting sights like driving instruction. In Darkhan, it appears you go to a designated local paddock with a few witches' hats and have your instructor stand in the paddock yelling instructions at you. Very interesting.
Oh....and the panorama at the top of this entry was one of the ovoos I visited during my first walk. At that ovoo, I was approached by a young herder on his horse. After exchanging greetings, he was most disappointed with my advice that I do not speak Mongolian. As an attempt to request money from me was therefore out of the question, he and his horse simply rested at the ovoo overlooking the goat herd he tended below.
This weekend was wonderful. Beth, one of the new UB volunteers, came up to Darkhan as my first visitor. We had a lovely day Saturday wandering around Old and New Darkhan and trying out ‘The Loving Hut’ vegetarian restaurant (which was cheap and good!). We also caught up with Sandrina (VSO) and Levi (Peace Corps) from the nearby village of
Walking - And where I live, New Darkhan
Great vantage point from yet another ovoo Khutul who were in town for a bit of shopping. Beth and I spent Sunday morning wandering the local hills for 2 hours, visiting more ovoos, seeing plenty of herders and their goats, sheep and cattle AND seeing some edelweiss! You don’t have to know me too well to have figured out what tune has been racing around my head ever since!
Each day there is something new to see, hear, touch, taste or smell in this beautiful country. So in my next entry, whenever that may be, I will focus on shopping, food, weather and my daily work and home life in Darkhan. I hope to also share some observations about the public and private heath care system in Mongolia as well as some more interesting observations about Mongolia. Speaking of which.......
* Mongolians do not like cats because they serve no purpose.
* Mongolians do like dogs and unfortunately there are sooooo many strays in packs around Darkhan. However, the dogs here have no more road sense than anywhere else in the world and I have already seen some very sad sights. And, at least in UB, there is a regular cull to keep numbers under
The theatre
Just a block from where I live in New Darkhan. Let's hope I find something to attend. control. 😞
* I should not have been surprised when a man dressed in a Mongolian deel (traditional dress) arrived at the hospital on his horse, tied up the little darling to a pole, and can inside to seek treatment.
* There are also plenty of guys out on the roads with their horse and carts - very much like I saw in Egypt.
* In keeping with the animal theme, I have twice seen a herd of cattle munching on the grass in the middle of the main roundabout at the Old Darkhan/New Darkhan crossing. Why not I say? And, despite the resistance of some motorists to slow down for them, the cattle manage to walk off the roundabout successfully without incident.
Until my next entry, please all take care and send plenty of comments, messages and emails as I really enjoy hearing from each and every one of you.
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meg
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Keep the tales coming. I love living vicariously through your trials and tribulations of life in the developing world! Perhaps tweezers onto the glass lightfitting fragments in the meantime til you find a vacuum cleaner?! The monuments are fascinating in a country which is clearly surviving on basics. Mental note - must visit ... but not in winter when you don't have warm (let alone hot) water.