First impressions.

What a magical place. After arriving in UB and being allocated straight away our accomodation we have been able to settle in really quickly. And the flat we have is great. Everything you could need, with a small market by the road outside.

On Sunday we were taken on a trip to the "country". In fact to Manzushir Monstry. Nothing prepares you for the scenery. No fences, hedges, trees.....none, just green, rolling hills. The dry air makes for very sharp boundaries between the succesive ranges of hills.

On the journey to the monastery, we stopped at a cairn surrounding a pole of blue ribbons. Blue is the Mongolian colour of preference…mine too. The idea is to circle the cairn three times in a clockwise direction for past, present and future, throwing a stone at the end of each circuit and then make a wish. I am sure we did it all wrong, but, hey, we have two years to get it right!!

This handsome fellow is especially for Chris M, Chris F and Dylan. I have to say; their affection for the yak is seriously misplaced. Terrible hygiene, lousy dress sense and bad tempered to boot!


Lunch was taken at a ger camp not far the monastery gate. The facilities were excellent with modern showers and toilets. The guests stay in a traditional ger and the right to roam is not an issue. No fences, no landowners but you would need GPS. The grass covering the low hills is surprisingly sparse and course, the ground being strewn with small rocks. And watch out for the marmot holes, they are everywhere.

Not that we stayed but this made a good photo opportunity.

We have arrived!

Just arrived in UB. Interesting jouney which ended with a clap from the passengers when the T 154 touched down at Ghenkis Khaan airport. What a place. The steppes are so different. Absolutely no hedges or fences and isolated gers on the slopes. Looks magical. Watch this space for pictures.

Five weeks of in-country training starts on Monday but the weekend is ours to recover!!!

Six days and counting!

Today is Saturday.....the Saturday before the Friday we fly from Heathrow. And no tickets yet. Not that I am concerned you understand,.... no, not me!!! And after the terrorist alerts this week at UK airports, we are going to have to re-think our packing policy. No hand luggage. Everything has to be checked in.

But apart from these minor inconveniences we are both really ready to go now. The bungalow was rented out last week and we are now staying this final week on the island with my daughter, Polly, and her fiance, Karim. We are all going out for a posh nosh this evening as a a way of saying thank you for letting us stay at theirs and as a departure celibration.

Roll on Friday!!!!!!

Departure Date

Friday, 18th August.

Gek had a successful VSO assessment day on Tuesday and we are now both set to be volunteers in UB, although the details of Gek's placement have still to be worked out. But the main thing is, we are going to be together!!! How cool is that???

Time is now being spent sorting out our things for storage, getting the bungalow ready to renting, making plans for Gek's training days in Harbourne and visiting friends and relatives before we leave the island. This is so exciting, I cannot begin to put it into words. We have contacted quite a few people we now know are connected in some way with Mongolia and gained a lot of information on accommodation and what things to take and what to buy in country. Thanks to you all, ......you know who you are!!!!!!

Morgan Revisited

Following Gek's tour of Eastern Europe, we have had a hectic week traveling up and down the country doing a general "sort out " of things. One "must do" was to visit the Staffordshire Morgan Car Club centre's gymkanna event in Stoke on Trent.


Janet and I started the Staffs. Mog. Centre 20 years ago this year. I will not be in the country for the official celebrations in September, but the members presented me with an all weather coat and woolly hat with "Morgans over Mongolia" on it!!! Thanks guys, it was really appreciated. Who knows, there may be Mogs. in Mon.


Of course, this was the first meeting between Gek and the Morgan, and although I cannot say it was love at first sight, it did bring a grin to her face. Particularly strongly when Bob kindly let me drive us round the field in his beautiful +8. The smell, engine sound and the feel of the Mog was overwhelming. It all can flooding back, ........How can you love a car so much???

Exhibition

Gek's final year sculpture exhibition went off extremely well. The 7 forms which represented the stages of Gek's life from ending her education at university through the present day and to a perceived but uncertain future, were well received, as the visitors book records!!! Just a couple of photographs from the exhibit.






This is the first form, representing the end of education and socialisation, very ordered and symmetrical,











followed by a walk though to the future, which is glimpsed in the distance. Mid-life crisis is on the left. A very sad, fallen form!











And here IS the future!! Much more flowing and free form, with an acceptance that change and uncertainty are acceptable and desirable.

Getting Closer

Arrangements for Gek and I to go together to Mongolia are progressing really well. There is a possibility that VSO might able to offer Gek a placement in UB, assuming that she passes the assessment day. With Gek's final sculpture exhibition less that a week away, and the possibility of a placement in Mongolia, these are frantic and exciting times. So much to do, so much to think about. And so much has changed and been gained in only 4 weeks. It just does not seem possible.

My Life.

Personal matters

A special person has come into my life. Gek.

What can I say. Since Jenny died in December last year, I have been thrashing around this planet, trying to make sense of it all and searching for a way to open to a get into a new future.......almost any future would have done. And, boy, did I find a way!!!!

First VSO offers me an opportunity to die for.......Mongolia. AND a way to meet and interact with some of the smartest and most pro-active people you are ever likely to find in one room!!! Made up! A true life line.



And, now Gek the sculptress!! A talented artist, Gek is Singaporean and has been studying/practicing sculpting in the UK for the past three years. We have know each other since 1993, but Gek was also a colleague of Jenny's in Singapore during three years we worked there in the early 1980's. We met up again briefly in the new year and, as they say, the rest is history.

Gek is on the cusp of change. She finishes her studies in June this year and is now busy preparing her final pieces for exhibition. We both want to grasp the challenge that VSO offers with both hands and the organisation is currently exploring ways in which we could be together on placement.

Something I omitted to mention:..........in a previous life Gek was a high flying Information Technolgy expert with a special interest in Curriculum Development in higher education!!!!

Self Briefing - 2

Lambeth College

What a couple of days! Absolutely brilliant. Loads of help and support form Len in Construction and Mike in Engineering. The mix of course provision and the physical resources at the college are excellent. It would be very tempting to lift the whole operation to U B!!!! But, I have now a model college from which I can take exemplars for Mongolia. All the staff I met were amazingly enthusiastic and I feel this could be the beginning of an extremely interesting and productive collaboration. The future is looking good!!

What a relief it was to realise that there will no problem using what I know and moving it across from Engineering to Construction. That was major light switching moment. NO PROBLEMO!!! I can do this!!! Just for that alone I owe Lambeth College big time!

Self Briefing - 1

Further Education College Education

I have just spent a great day at Lambeth College with the staff in the Construction Department, a Centre of Excellence for Construction. What a day. Absolutely brilliant. They are all so enthusiastic about their work and eager to help, I was bowled over! The Department is involved with a number of high profile projects in the London and this is something they are justifiably proud of.

The upshot is that from them kindly sharing some of their knowledge and expertise with me, I can see that taking what I know from Engineering across to Construction is going to be anywhere near as big a problem as I first imaged. That is some a relief, I can tell you! There are still clearly big gaps in my knowledge base but the other members of the VSO team assigned to this project are almost certainly going to cover my shortfalls. So, game on as they say. Result!

I am returning to the college tomorrow to visit the Engineering Department on another fact finding mission. Now that I have got back in the saddle, so to speak, after a 5 year absence for the world of work, I am really looking forward returning. I have to thank Len, the Head of the Construction Department for helping with this 'back to work' process. He made me feel as though I hadn't been away and I thank him for that. A brilliant day. Not work at all!!!

London College Visit

Information gathering

I arrived in London to stay with friends on Friday. I love coming "up to town". Ruth and me always do the current exhibitons. Yesterday, Saturday, we did 4!!!!! By far the best was the Modernism and Design exhibition at the V & G. Superb history lesson on the influence of Modernism from the post Russian Revolution period to the present. The visual displays and the links made between art, design and engineering are extremely will presented. The massive influence the Bauhaus group had our lives today was well pointed up. As we wandered around the 10 rooms, I wondered what our world would be like now if they had had computer controlled machine tools which can create free forms and not just flats and circles.

Today, Sunday, I am off to see a friend who has recently come back into my life. She is currently preparing her final year sculpture installation for exhibition and assessment in June. All very exciting and none engineering. But I guess, sort of construction!!!

But, I digress!! VSO. Ruth has arranged a punishing schedule for me to meet both the construction guys and the engineering guys on two separate days. Am I ready to be thrown back into a work situation after so may years out of it?? I will let you know in the next blog.

Paused

Put Back

Would you Adam and Eve it? On Tuesday, Alan, my VSO placement officer, let me know that the Mongolian placement had been put back to August. It was always going to be ambitious to put a new development programme together in three months and I did half expect the start to be delayed. But the best news is that the Mongolian employer has accepted me as a volunteer! How brilliant is that? So, three months....... what to do?

Plan B

The first thought was to go traveling. I have two outstanding invitations to stay with friends in Thailand. That should pass the summer months quite nicely, thank you very much!!! Perhaps I could even fit in a return flight via Ulaanbaatar? Then I did a reality check. That is, I conducted an indepth financial analysis. And of course it wouldn't taxi, never mind fly! So back to the drawing board.

Plan C

A couple of emails later and a much better/feasible plan has emerged. I have managed to arrange a couple of working visits to a University and an FE college which both run courses in construction. This should go some way to plugging my knowledge gap!! Together with an invite to a friend's art exhibition and trips to stay with a couple of mates, that should take me to the middle/end of June. Sorted!!!!

SKWID - In Conclusion.

The Last Word.

Phew!!! Finally,.... home!!! An intense last Saturday morning at H.H., a 150 mile drive to Dorset via daughter Anna's in The Royal Leamington Spa, a 10 o'clock Sunday morning Christening at Blanford Forum Army Base and then the final 150 mile drive home to Wales. Eight straight hours of sleep. That hasn't happened for months!!!!!

As to SKWID, the evening out was brilliant. We booked at the Malabara(?) which was just as well, it is a very popular place. In the true spirit of SKWID, we negotiated via a faciliater who said......"Indian?" THE magic word!!! I guess we had all learnt the lessons of SKWID!!!


To all my fellow SKWIDers and trainers, I would like to say thanks for your company over the week and have a truly excellent time on your placements. You would be very welcome to visit in Ulaanbataar but please do keep in touch. It is going to be fascinating to see how we all get on in such differing placements.

Health and Safety Course.

Result!

What can I say. Scared me into getting all the injections, .........against everything I can!!!!

Skills for Working in Development (SKWID)

Introduction

I am writing this on the last evening of the course. This means, despite a hair raising first two days of information over load, we have survived. Tonight is our one and only free evening........and we are going out for a curry!

The training split into two quite distinct parts.

First evening and Day 2.

The first part of the training is rather heavy on information-giving with some tasks to illustrate the points made and to make natural breaks in the material presented. The most interesting tools for me were, Stakeholder Analysis, Facilitating Techniques, and approaches to help the Participation of ALL the stakeholders. I know, heavy stuff but I found it interesting to relate these approaches to those used in education, or even manufacturing. So much crossover.

Days 3, and the last morning.

Now the fun really started and most people found themselves out of their comfort zones. I certainly did!!!! Lots of roll playing to exercise the techniques and tools received on day 2. The bridge building on the morning of day 3 was great fun. Because of the trainers total commitment to their rolls, the exercise took on a certain reality. You could not help but be pulled into the scenario.

The afternoon saw the first of two identical session, the second being on the last morning. Essentially, you had to facilitate a meeting which you had set up with 3/4 other course participants. The topic, structure and tools used in the meeting were in your gift. In other words, you had to set up a roll play. And in next to no time!!!! No pressure then!!! But it was enormous fun. The idea is to run the exercise again on the last morning with a different topic, structure and tools to see if you can improve on your first attempt.

Day 4

Another great day out of my comfort zone. Playing parts as different stakeholders in roll-plays covering conflict resolution, negotiation and networking. By the end of the first 'play' I was getting more comfortable with the process and it did become good fun. It also dawned on me that I would be feeling this way for real very, very soon!!!! But we were all getting better at spotting when to adopt strategies and techniques to enable us to cope and be more effective.

In Conclusion

Another well put together and delivered training course with the emphasis very much on simulating real situations in which you could try/practice/discuss the effectiveness of different approaches in a safe, non-damaging way.

Disadvantaged and Vulnerable.

Image Polly Whitworth (2005)

This is not right.

Volunteers and Development

Introduction
Before I comment a bit on the training course, a few words about preparing for the weekend. I know students nearly always put a low, low priority on preparing for a new learning experience, but I can tell you, in this instance it would be a BIG, BIG mistake. If you do not want to feel FRAZZLED by Saturday lunch time, go research!!! Seriously!!!!

Main areas for you to look at are,

• HIV and AIDS - get the stats, get the impact, look at ways it is being tackled.
• Have at least an understanding about what the IMF, World Bank, UN, GATT, World Trade organizations and others are and how they relate to each other and development.
• Find out what "Neo-Liberalism" and "Community development" are and how they differ.
• globalization - a commonly used word but what does it mean to different groups of people? Look it up.

Friday Evening
Meet, greet and scene setting. Always a bit of fun. And good to see Bridg, Vanesa and Naomi again from the PFC weekend. Bit of catching up done there. But a major surreal moment was to happen in the bar after the formal session. I was listening to, ok eavesdropping in on, a conversation (as you do) whilst getting the drinks in. Ivory Coast, Ghana, early 1970's. Enter into my life again Liz Hind.......after 37 years!!!! Liz was a colleague of Jenny's at Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, 1969/70. We had not met or even, I suspect, thought about each other for all that time, and yet here we are propping up the same bar in Brum......a bit of a Casablanca moment I think you must agree!!!!! Of all the ..........etc.
Saturday
Big issues all day. The morning sessions tackled how development affects and is affected by power groupings, debt and globalization. This is where good preparation would have paid off. Unfortunately I must still be a student at heart!!!!! And boy did I suffer brain ache!!!
The afternoon and evening started and ended with a game, sandwiching heavier sessions on HIV/AIDS and Community Development. The first game, "The Trading Game" was a lot of fun. It involved representing countries trading in the same manufactured product - USA against Bangladesh. I am sure you get the picture. Bit of advice, be really, really nice to the banker. The end game, and I can tell you it really felt like it by 19:00 hours, involved a mythical country, "Mapunta", and the agencies we had discussed during the day and involved trying to aid development in the country. The game tested whether you had picked up on the main issues. I have to say, very difficult to muster myself for this finale. Never has the pleasures of a bar been so anticipated!
Sunday Morning
Three sessions covering VSO/volunteers and development, followed by advise on how you could increase the impact of your work in the placement and, perhaps, beyond in a wider context. I found the video of the Ghanaian experience from the volunteers and the employers points of view very interesting and revealing. Sunday's sessions were more akin to the the PFC approach and allowed you personalize the information easier.
In Conclusion
Another well structured, informative and testing weekend. And another group of lovely people to meet. BUT DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE HAND!!!!!! Otherwise, the following two days will pass in a blur!

Preparing for placement

I thought it might be useful to creat a log of the things I needed to do before leaving the UK.

• Banking - After chatting to the account manager at Lloyds-TSB, I will be setting up an international account into which I can transfer funds to use while abroad. This account could be in US dollars, EUROs or Sterling depending on the country the placement is in. The advantages seem to be ease of access to funds where ever you are on the planet and there are no charges to use cash machines overseas.
• Renting - I am using an agent to manage renting my bungalow. They charge 10% of the monthly rent but they do accept responsibility for finding tenants and making sure the property is looked after and maintained. The agent works on an average of 10 months rental in 12 months and does charge each time they need to find a new tenant. The fees the agent charges can be set against the taxable rental income. Every little helps!!!!
• Morgages - I have informed the morgage company that the bungalow will be rented. They were quite happy with this as long as I had a professional agent managing the property in my absence. This made the morgage one that covered "renting" for which they made no charge. This also means that I can set the morgage repayments against tax as well as any repairs the property might need including replacing wornout items such as washing m/c's etc.
• Attorney - W H Smiths sell a do-it-yourself kit, £17, covering a General Power of Attorney and a Living Will. They also do other similar documents, such as ordinary wills,etc. This will be useful if I have forgotten to do anything that might require my signiture/permission after I have left the UK .
• Medical - Medical and dental checks are manditory before the placement begins as are injections against common ailments. Not my favorite part of the process I have to say!!!
• Car - I have decided to sell the car. Using the Power of Attorney, my daughter can do the deal after I have left. Over the 2 years it would depreciate so much anyway, and the cash could be useful!!!

Selection

Having been accepted as a volunteer by VSO, I took part in the Preparation For Change weekend at Harborne Hall , Birmingham. And what a great weekend it was. The event was geared to checking whether either you or VSO had made a mistake in thinking you could be a volunteer!!!!! It worked. The workshops, case studies and roll plays pulled no punches and I really felt that my resolve had been tested. I still very much want to go out as a volunteer.

I spent some time in the resource centre following up on my possible placement in Mongolia. Apart from the 'standard' books covering the different countries, it was fascinating to read the volunteer accounts of experiences, as well as the VSO briefing sheets. A gold mine for any traveller!!!!

A unexpected benefit from the weekend was meeting and spending time with so many bright and positive people. It was a joy.