Easter Celebrations
on Sarah in Mongolia (Mongolia), 07/Apr/2010 13:42, 34 days ago
This week was the first week of me being properly part time at both MEA and CMTU. Of course it was a busy week as it started with an 8 hour training on fundraising for CMTU. This was not my cleverest idea! Anyone who has ever had to talk for 8 hours straight will understand that you are not only sick of the sound of your own voice but so is everyone else! It was an exhausting day but apparently they found it useful which is what is important. My poor counterpart who was my interpreter was also exhausted so when my boss sugested another training the following week we both said no!!Aside from that I have finally had some proposal success! From my second month here I have been working with a particular organisation to get some funding from them. Its a UK based organisation with a great Mongolian girl working here. It is finally all coming together and they have provisionally said they will fund our book ger project! As a fundraiser it feels good to have actually achieved some funding! We are also through to the second round of a competition for 100,000 GBP - down from 193 to 40 applicants so fingers crossed!I had a good weekend for the most part. I found a group having a Good Friday church service so I headed over and it was a lovely service, just what I needed. However on the way back I somehow managed to lose my purse. Im really annoyed with myself that I let it happen - I think I have been here almost 6 months and had just gotten complacent. I have lost the cash but got the rest of it back (for a "finders fee") which is a relief but of course still had to cancel the cards.Aside from that I had debate club again on Saturday and as we were having a speech competition we decided to have a social afternoon with snacks and a DVD. I brought the DVD - Amazing Grace and it was a good afternoon, even if they may not have understood the whole movie!! The kids are improving, so hopefully with a few more weeks we can teach them how to make arguments and how to think critically. After debate club I had dinner out at a great local restaurant with great steaks with another volunteer.Easter Sunday was a great day as I completed my lent without chocolate and got stuck into the easter eggs sent from home! Never has a mini creme egg tasted so good! Another expat had an Easter Brunch which was amazing! She had made enough food to feed a small army including Quiche and Apple pies from scratch as well as painted eggs and lots of cheese. It was a really nice lunch and a good group of people so a nice way to spend Easter Sunday, but it obviously didn't compare to Easter Sunday at home! Biggest difference was unexpected - no flowers in church! Of course everything is still frozen here and there are no flowers, but I still expected them to be there!It looks like there might not be any more weekend expeditions for a while as we are in for some yucky Spring weather coming through. Contrary to our mistaken belief that we had survived the worst weather in Mongolia, Spring is worse! Sand storms, winds, unpredictable weather and of course the floods as UB has no drainage. Looks like it is about to arrive!Also during Spring time it is warm enough to stand outside all day so the protests and demonstrations start. Most of them are peaceful but occasionally they bring out the riot police! My new work place is right beside Sukhbaatar square where they all protest which gives me a nice safe vantage point from which to watch - and my new employers are usually involved!