First day in the office...again

Here in UB I will be working with the Mongolian Red Cross Society (MRCS) Disaster Management (DM) Program Officers Bold and Zolja. I will be working 9-6 M-F. Their main objectives are to get a better understanding of climate change and how they can integrate climate change education into their community based activities. Also they would like to strengthen their Early Warning-Early Action Plan. So that is my job for the next month.

The two DM's ran the workshop that I was at yesterday, and were supposed to return to the city this morning. I show up at the office and guess who is not there. So I went to hang out with the IFRC ladies. I did some reading up on Mongolia, MRCS, IFRC, EWEA. Basically I had a million tabs and windows open on my computer. Solonga T brought her daughter to the office. Actually there was alot of kids in the office today. Went to lunch with the ladies and Bilge. Solongo T was making jokes about Indian people and then talked about the Charlie bit my finger video. It was incredibly random.

The restaurant was right near the Wrestling Palace. Wrestling is Mongolia's national pastime.


Around 3pm Zolja came in with her son and then at 330pm Bold came in. We were supposed to have a meeting but we decided just to do it on Monday. By Monday I should have some more concrete plans. So I did a bit more reading, then Zolja showed me how to use my phone, showed me where the bank was, and then took me to the supermarket. She showed me where things were in the market and I picked up a few things. She is such a sweetheart and I think we are going to get along great.

Here are a couple of photos of the office:
MRCS

DM Office

My desk


Its getting a bit frustrating not speaking the language. All the people in the office can speak English, but they mostly speak Mongolian.

Days are quite long here. The sun rises around 5am (boooo) and sets around 9 pm. I need to do something about the curtains in my room, because I cannot wake up at 5 am everyday.

Oh and Mongolian women are highly talented at walking on the treacherous terrain that is called a road/sidewalk. The rock it out in heels as I stumble along in my flats.

Here are some photos of my hotel: