Slow Sunday - 18th October
on Sarah in Mongolia (Mongolia), 20/Oct/2009 08:26, 34 days ago
We had a slow start on Sunday before heading out to the shops to get some necessities with one of the current vols. It was strange because as Mongolia is a Buddhist/Shamanist country they don’t observe the same traditions we do, including things like shops closing or having limited opening hours on a Sunday. This was a bonus for us as it meant we could get the bits and pieces we needed before the hectic week of ICT (In country training) started.Our first stop was the mobile phone shop to get connected! I was very lucky that my phone worked with a Mongolian sim card. Some of the others weren’t so lucky and they had to buy new phones, but the cost of a new Nokia phone was around 7 pounds, so it wasn’t too bad.In my manic packing frenzy in the days before I left the UK I managed to forget to bring a hair brush with me. So I survived for the first few days with a pair of hair straighteners but by Sunday I was sick and tired of looking like I had been pulled through a hedge backwards! Luckily one of the vols took us to the market which was insane but which did stock both hair brushes and hair driers so I am now looking a little more put together.As it was Sol’s birthday we then headed to Los Bandidos a Mexican/Indian restaurant around the corner from our guest house with some of the other volunteers. It was a really nice dinner if a little expensive on a volunteer salary – 8 quid for curry, rice and naans when your salary is about 2 quid a week. Itwas worth it as it was delicious. It was also really nice to get to chat to the other vols about their work and experiences in Mongolia and about my intake’s backgrounds.