Rayso's Visit

 Whilst on a six months study assignment at Aston University, Rayso came to visit us just before her return home to the Philippines. It was lovely to spend time with our VSO friend, a bit of  catching up to do.

These two young men we met as youngsters at the  Lotus Children's Centre in Ulaanbaatar in 2007, on the left Uganaa and right Gantuluk.  Picture from Alice, found on Facebook.

Gantuluk, the dancer,

Uganaa the joker.  From a  home for UB street children to serving in the Mongolian police force. Amazing

Lotus Memories

Put together by Alice, one of the Singaporean girls seen in the photos who stay with the Lotus children in thier summer camp. As Alice says,  a life changing experience.

Lotus Project 2010

You may remember that a group of us was raising money to take some of the Lotus children on a short holiday. Well, this happened last month when Alice and Mary-Ann went to UB.

Uuganaa, sitting on the horse, is certainly growing up. Good to see him looking happy.

The lad 3 years ago. Talented dancer and horse man. A very bright lad.
For more pics follow link http://www.lotuschild2010.blogspot.com/.

Memories.

Two years since we left Mongolia by train, crossing Gobi  Desert  to Beijing.

Lotus Fund Raising

Our stall at the Red Dot Museum MAAD Art Fair.  The fair is held at the beginning of each month to help promote individuals artistic endeavours.

'Four Singaporeans and an Englishman'  are raising funds for the Lotus Children's Centre in Ulaanbaatar through the sale of paintings, photographs, magnet coasters and other stuff.  Over the two days we managed to take 1,400 SGD.  So, a big thanks to all the familly members and friends who turned up to support Lotus.  A great result.  We will be at the Red Dot again on the weekend 5/6th December.  If you cannot make it to MAAD and wish to help Lotus, please visit our blog at http://www.lotuschild2010.blogspot.com/.

Lotus Children's Centre.

A small group of young Singaporean women have been to Lotus during the Summer months, 2007 and 2008. They want to return next year, 2010, with enough money to take a group of the teenagers to China. The girls will fund their own costs entirely. The idea, suggested by Didi the Director seen in the Tube Video, is to broaden the participants horizons by showing them another environment. (Also click here for pictures from last winter)

Together we have created a blog for the project. If you would like to help, please visit our blog at http://lotuschild2010.blogspot.com/ . Thanks..

Tale of two Trains.

Ulaanbataar station 7:30am readying for the off,


and thirty hours later, arrive in Beijing.

Find me a Singaporean

A Singaporean film crew came to UB to follow Yee Ling around for a couple of days. Yee Ling is between Gek and the shows presenter, Belinda Lee, opposite Reno. Great Sunday lunch too!!! The TV production team has a brief to find interesting Singaporeans in all parts of the world. Countries where Singaporeans wash up include Iceland. Unbelievable!!! You would think Mongolia was far enough off the Singapore radar!!!!

Leaving the Project

I am into the last two weeks of my VSO placement, construction skills course curriculum design targeting trainees from the unemployed in UB. So a couple of parting photos. Above shows John Larsen, our international consultant from Australia on a site visit with Selenge. John has given great support to the project on his month long visits.

The project has so far trained over 450 young adults in various basic construction skills . Our target is 2100 trained construction workers by the end of the project. All the training courses include three months on the job training.

30% of the trainees are young women which in any other country would be remarkable, but here in Mongolia it is the norm for men and women to be involved in all types of work. The gender balance issue in the project's terms of reference was in fact a non issue!!!

Construction Exhibition - UB March 2008

The major Construction Exhibition in Mongolia.

I was even interviewed for the Tele!!

The main business was to recruit trainees to our courses and the interest construction companies in on the job training. A very busy 4 days. Our fliers flew off the stand!!!!!

Trolley bus off the wire.

4-002 escaped the wires. Not sure why 002 was on builders square but it must have raised a few eyebrows of passersby.

Trip to Erdnet

On the way to Erdnet to visit Lotus's children's shelter, we called in at another Lotus project at Hotol. Lotus are opening a youth cafe there and some of the older Lotus kids are helping to decorate the place.

At Erdnet, Gek got the children involved in some craft work making cards and coloured felt work.

An Asian diner has just opened in Erdnet. Alagappan cooked us up so delicious grub, including roti prata for Gek. Totally made her day.

Lotus Craft Work Exhibition.

The craft room was used to show off the craft work done by the children over the last 6 months.

A special display was set aside for the work of the special needs kids. Around 50 invited guests visited the exhibition and were treated to a concert of dancing and singing performed by the children.

Lotus Children and Mongolian Dance.

They are at it again!!!

Woman's Day

International Woman’s is big in Mongolia. The men make a special effort and those on the Lotus Staff were no exception. Cake, sweets, fruit and a little beery brandy as a treat.

Followed by entertainment by the kids.

After the show, Gek and I went to the opera. Madam Butterfly. Amazing. Japanese setting, Mongolian singers, singing in Italian enjoyed by Russians, English, Singaporeans………..and lords knows who else!!!!

After such an unusual day, we ended it by having an Indian meal with our new friend, Renee who has roots in Hong Kong!! Go figure!!

Education Exhibition

The ministry of Education held an awareness raising fair on Sukhbaatar square, with orchestra

A couple of yaks,

And our very own recruitment stand complete with Bysaa. Beautiful sunny spring day.

Camels in Mongolia

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of eastern Asia. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the dromedary which has one.^[1]
Nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million Bactrian camels alive today are domesticated, but in October 2002 the estimated 950 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were placed on the critically endangered species list.^[2]

Arts in Mongolia - Bielgee

The "Bielgee" dance, or dance of the body, is particular to the people of western Mongolia. It is performed to the music of Mongolian national musical instruments, such as the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and the yochin (similar to the xylophone.) Bielgee is traditionally performed on the rather limited space before the hearth, so the dancers make practically no use of their feet. Instead, the dancers principally use only the upper part of their bodies, and through their rhythmic movements express various aspects of their identities, such as sex, tribe, and ethic group.

Bielgee is a descriptive dance, actually a pantomime,with the dancer acting several scenes from everyday life of herders, such as milking the cow, cooking, hunting, etc. Originally, Bielgee was improvised, although the themes were set. Only much later did it become strictly regimented compositionally, with a firmly established sequence of scenes. Also, over time, Bielgee was performed in a variety of locations, including festivals in herders' tents, ceremonies by local dignitaries, and monasteries.

Sports in Mongolia - Horse Racing

A mad 15/20 km cross country dash. Horses die and boy jockeys get hurt. But very manly!!!