By Annette

It had been raining quite a lot the night before yesterday, and when I came to the orphanage the whole street children's department and the rehabilitation center had been flooded, some of the walls damaged. The roof had been repaired recently, but apparently something had gone slightly wrong.

In the evening I was invited to little Emudjin's birthday party - she turned four. Emudjin is Sayo's daughter. We ate huge amounts of delicious food, all prepared by Sayo, including fresh Mongolian river fish, caught by her father. This was the first time ever I had fish in Mongolia. Most Mongolians don't like fish at all, and it can be slightly risky to order it in restaurants (if it at all is on the menu). In this country of meat-eaters the conservation of fresh fish and its preparation are far from obvious things. But Sayo is the exception to the rule!!

Emudjin says that she wants to be a singer, and her lung capacity is promising :-)

I wanted to take the bus home, but I waited for over half an hour, it didn't come, it was getting late. I decided to risk one of the microbuses after having made sure it went in the direction I wanted to go. The last time I was on a microbus we were 17 people on board, as you may recall from an earlier blog. Last night we were at least 21, I'm not sure I even saw everyone on board. 

By Annette

Prayer wheels and delighted monks

This afternoon I visited Gandan monastery again (see also blog Yellow water) with some of the other volunteers.

It was the third time I went there, but the first time I was asked to pay an entrance fee. I suppose they only ask foreign-looking people to pay. Buddhists who come to practice their religion surely enter for free.

There were quite a few people, some tourists but mainly Mongolians, but in spite of the many visitors the atmosphere was just as peaceful and relaxing as the last time I was there.

We ventured into a building a little to the side, and there we were welcomed by monks who seemed quite delighted to be the subject of attention from a group of ladies.

Ulaanbaatar is dusty, it's not a green city, it really can't be with an average annual temperature below zero (it's the coldest capital in the world) and the very dry climate. However, brave efforts are being made to create some green (small) spaces that perhaps remain dusty but at least they are green!

By Annette

Birthday celebration

Yesterday a birthday was celebrated, and not just anyone's - it was Buddha's birthday. The festivities, known here as the candle festival, took place last night in the National Stadium, where people gathered to send hot-air balloons into the air. It indeed looked spectacular when hundreds of balloons left the ground, lighting up the night sky as stars.

We had brought five balloons. The first four refused to take off, and when we came to the fifth one we had run out of matches.

Here the full moon just comes out from behind some light clouds.

 By Annette

Have you seen the movie "Mongol"? Then you have already heard music by Altan Urag, who wrote and performed some of the most suggestive parts of the soundtrack. Altan Urag combine traditional Mongolian music, played on traditional instruments, and throat singing with modern style in a way that I find absolutely fascinating.

I happened to hear that they are performing in UB at present, but it wasn't easy to find out when & where. Finally Zulaa called someone who knew, so yesterday I could listen to them in the Mongolians Pub! Great!!

To have a taste of what their music is like, you can check out this video clip (this was one of the songs they played yesterday): Altan Urag: Hoh Tolboton.
Their website: Altan Urag

Pictures from last night:

Medicine Volunteer of Projects Abroad Mongolia, Shawn Steckle Daniel donated amount of money to “Street Children’s Care Center”, the Metropolitan Police Department  which is indescribably marvellous. We are really thankful for his charity. His donation money will be spent on maintenance and repair of the Orphanage and Detention Centre for street and homeless children.  This contribution will bring bright changes in the living condition of the Mongolian street and homeless children. Thank him for your support for the Mongolian children’s future.   We wish such a person in the world increase more and more in the future.

Today Dream Team England and Dream Team Mongolia had parallel activities to raise funds for the summer camp for children from poor areas in UB that is planned for mid-June. Here in Mongolia we were supposed to walk from Sukhbaatar Square in central UB to the Zaisan monument, but plans were changed and we stopped mid-way, in the Children's Park. 

Participants were Mongolian English students and volunteers and staff from Projects Abroad. 

Bolormaa and myself gave a short talk to explain what Dream Discovery Academy and the Dream Teams are all about, namely to help children in orphanages and poor areas get self-esteem and create dreams that can be realised (see links to the right for more information).

After the short speeches, Zulaa and Bolormaa organised some games to promote communication between the two language communities - Mongolians are very eager to practice their English and ask all sorts of questions, about hobbies, favourite seasons, age, favourite animals etc etc.

Our apartment block entrance door looks like a door to a safe, in fact all apartment block doors that I have seen here are very safe-looking. They are also always open. But when I came home the other day the door was closed! I tried to pull it open - it didn't move. I looked at my two keys, but there was no key hole to put any of them in (I hadn't noticed the absence of a key hole before). I felt slightly desperate. There aren't that many apartments here and this was in the middle of the morning, a time when not so many people leave or come back. I thought that Odnoo was out, but I rang her and she was at home! Saved! She then told me that there actually is a code lock (the little knobs that you can perhaps see are the keys to press). If the code lock works is of course another matter.

In Xanadu

Last night I happened to end up in Xanadu (cf Andreas' comment on blog "Surroundings"). It's an art gallery in central UB but sometimes also becomes the stage for those who want to experience what it's like to sing in a mike in front of an audience. It's the energetic John - whom you may remember from UB -40 - who organises these open mike events. It was supposed to start at 7.30 pm, but when I arrived with Odnoo and a Swiss friend at 8 pm the room was more or less empty and there was no sign at all of any music event. Nothing to worry about, though, we're in Mongolia and things aren't always that exact. Just a little later things started to happen and people arrived, and more people arrived, and they smoked, oh did they smoke! (and there seemed to be no ventilation), and even more people arrived. People were a little slow to sign up for performing, but with John's encouragement there was soon a queue of brave singers wanting to try out their artistic talents.

Please, artists, forgive me, but what I remember most from this night out is how to order a beer that hasn't been chilled in Mongolian. This has nothing to do with the quality of your performance, dear artists, not at all! It's just that I'm so used to making linguistic observations that I can't stop myself.

Open mike with Mongolian backdrop.

John