Wedding season in Ulaanbaator, throat singing and contortion

It's Saturday and then end of a long week in Ulaanbaator. I've really enjoyed it, not least for good colleagues and lots of interesting conversation about books, travel, religious faiths and Ghengis Khan, the great conqueror who made this country famous and whose influence is still very much central to life in Mongolia.

The Mongolian folk opera, dance and throat singing was wonderful but I still can't fathom throat singing (even in the privacy of my own hotel room!). Along with the Mongolian female contortionist, throat singing was a first, this week.

Ulaanbaatar is a city of contrast. The young people in the streets are very hip, as in most urban spaces and there are lots of new shopping galleries and restaurants where they hang out. There are also many foreigners, including lots of Australians working in the mining industry. Having lunch the other day, I sat next to two West Australians vying for a contract to build a railway line to a mine.

We ( another UN consultant from London and I)  are working on the development of survey tools for a review of supply side issues linked to school dropout in Mongolia, along with two research groups at the National University of Mongolia. The people  in the research group are knowledgeable and active and their turn around times keep us on our toes. They are also lots of fun and that makes each day just a pleasure to go to work.
We've also had s bit of time to explore the city (but not enough) and today we are venturing out to the countryside. More of that later. here are some images of UB.

 Sükhbaatar Square with the Parliament Building and the Opera House.

April 2011

This has been a month of packing bags and reviewing airline schedules. First was a trip to Dili for UNICEF and a project on Out of School Children. Now I'm back here and feverishly writing up firstly a research proposal for further wpork and now a paper of Out of School Children in Timor Leste. It's a good discipline and I really like the colleagues with whom I'm working.

Then it was back to Melbourne via Darwin and Adelaide and a wonderful view of Lak Eyre along the way.

The farm has had some gardening attention (still harvesting loads of tomaties and beans) as has the flat in Melbourne, although the area for work is so much smaller.

This week Michael has been working in Sydney so I went for the ride. It wasa good catch up time with old friends like my family, (David my nephew turns 40 tomorrow!) and old friends (my goddaughter Alexis and her lovely husband Paco home from Mexico and looking for work) and  my old friend amd flatmate Leonie (still amazing us with her work as a chaplain and prison visitor).

We also took inj the new Sydney shops and Annie Liebovitz's images at the Museum of Comtemporary Art at Circular quay.

Then there was the mandatory Sydney Harbour ferry trip late one afternoon. Now it's back to the desk, head down and writing away!