leaving party for zoe and maija

it was held at the women farmers' cooperative in the ger district - one of maija's placements

maija saying something about the food

zoe scooping punch from a bucket to a bowl

the place was transformed into a picnic ground

some of the women from maija's placement

zoe with naraa - her counterpart in her placement, biyamba, dean and me

waiting for food

saying goodbyes

maija & zoe


we all arrived in mongolia a year ago. first time to have met each other. yet having to part after a year, we did not know how it was going to be. good people, good friends. how can we not miss each other?

terelj revisited

went to terelj on a saturday with the newly arrived batch of volunteers. there were 3 of us old-timers who joined the group. almost the end of summer, yet it was raining the whole night before our departure, and still was until late morning. david, gek and i walked to the office, through the rain and puddles. we reached the office with half-drenched trousers, which is why when we arrived at the ger camp, david and i had to wear improvised blanket skirts as we hang dried our pants by the fire.

with marielle, a dutch volunteer who just came back for a short-term placement. she is a nurse.

with the new volunteers by the river

two women (leslie and gek)

one hour from UB

the ovoo - buddhist practice is to get 3 pieces of stone, walk around it and throw one as u make a wish. recommended to do it 3 times.

my garden

by my window, i have put several plants which i planted in old bowls and plates. i have taken some soil from a fellow volunteer's placement when i visited their greenhouse somewhere in the ger districts of the city. the plants were courtesy of friends - one former volunteer gave me her geranium, aloe vera and tiger plants when she was leaving mongolia, a volunteer friend for a church organization spared me some mayana cuttings from his workplace, a colleague gave me an aloe vera cutting from his home, and some spider plants i got from my office.

a good friend left with me some stones which i accessorized on my pots and plants. i have added a terra cotta ceramic mug and buddha as a breaker in the cluster.

the plants are very healthy. they face the morning sun. in the winter i water them once or twice a week but now in the summer it is done almost everyday. since i have transferred the geranium in a bigger pot, it has grown bigger and flowered in bloom. i have replanted my mayanas which are now very robust and sturdy.

i have sown some chillis and are now in a basket bowl. the tips i have already plucked for some tinola (chicken stew) cravings. the leaves add great flavor to the stock and to the dish as a whole.

i still have some other plants placed around my flat. i have even put some inside my bathroom. well, it is my home gardening if you can call that.

summer in ulaanbaatar

summer starts in june yet a little after a month has passed when the naadam festival is celebrated, the spring season begins, the mongolians say so. take note, this is mongolia.

i was back in ulaanbaatar in midjune. like snow flakes falling, feather-like flowers of the aspen trees fill the air around the city. it was breezy at times and dusty too. it was getting warmer yet still sometimes chilly in the afternoons and evenings. umbrella stalls were put up here and there - for selling stuff and drinks. tourists have started to swarm around.

the mongolians now wear shorts, jersey pants, short-sleeved shirts - no more jackets! i started sporting my tropical attire as well. i have seen bus drivers who were shirtless. it seemed the summer season was really warm for them.

every now and then there would be no hot water from the taps. water pipes were being replaced everywhere. the portable water heater brought by a friend from the philippines was a great help at these times. good that i have a plastic bucket at home which i thought useless after i have bought it (because i stopped using it to drain the water from my washing machine; now i just dump the machine inside the bath tub and it can drain all the way without worries of flooding my flat and the neighbors downstairs.)

there are more vegetable produce at this time. yet i still am looking forward though to getting some fresh and live fish in the market. the last time i had them was in november of last year.

the days are long now - maybe even too long for me. sunrise before 5 am and sunset about 9:30. there were two nights more than a week ago when it was so terribly warm considering that i have gotten used to the cold and chilly weather here. i had to fan myself to sleep. i also had to put the humidifier on most nights now.

work is not that much these days. these are the 'idle months' . people in the office are mostly on their vacation/summer holiday. same with my participants in my trainings. now i just do updates and revisions plus i assist in some of the translation work my colleagues were doing.

i have not gone very far out of the city. people say this is the best time to see the countryside. well i am about to finish my contract for a year. maybe i will extend. and so i will stay a bit longer and see more of mongolia. who knows?

witnessing mongolia

philippine tv gma7 crew for i-witness, a documentary program came to mongolia to feature the lives of vso filipino volunteers. the 2 guys stayed with me while in ulaanbaatar. the 2 ladies stayed with margie, another filipino volunteer.

we got to play 'pusoy' over borgio-the local beer with 'boy bawang' for nibbles. our guests had a taste of mongolian noodles cooked a la filipino, chili adobo in coconut milk, horse and camel meat menudo and fried chicken in my own 'mang jose' sauce. they got to see some of the local tourist places in ulaanbaatar - sukhbaatar square, zaisan tolgai, an old monastery, the souvenir shops, throat singing and the filipino band in strings - a local resto and bar.

they went to the countryside where their subject volunteers were placed - to darkhan, arvakhir and kharkhorin. quite an enjoyable experience. and an exhausting one according to them.

following is a video clip of the documentary shown on gma7 philippine tv last 13 august 2007:


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