Free Speech in China!!!

Mike and I’s trip to China was an amazing experience, which I highly recommend for others to experience. It was hard to enter China without some prejudices  about the country. We all know that you can’t access facebook in China, nor could I access my blog, both were blocked. But outside of that what do we really know about China?  We know is it a communist country, but should they be in the same category as countries like Cuba?

I can’t answer all these questions but from my experience the news and press we receive in North America, does not depict the China I visited.  The China I was in, was free.  It is not the fairest country, if you are born rich, it is much easier for you to succeed and if you are poor, the chances of improving yourself socially, are very slim, but in all fairness, you could say this about a lot of countries that are labeled Democracies.

You may ask, why do I say China is a free country, when our whole lives we were told something differently.  Well from my two week stay in China, Mike and I read the newspaper every day and every day, there were articles questioning the government and numerous laws, and there was one article in particular were a man was suing the Chinese government because one of the many city camera’s caught him speeding but it was not the speeding ticket he was fighting over, apparently the photo in which he was caught speeding, he was also caught feeling up a woman in his front seat, and he was suing the government for invading his privacy…LOL… It’s true.  And the newspaper actually said he may have a case, WOW.  Now, if I were to tell you just the story and not tell you what country this was happening in, now be honest, who would have guessed China? Yeah China, the biggest communist and military present country in the world, has a citizen that is suing them for invasion of privacy and on top of that, this man is still alive and it was printed in one of their National newspapers. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still would never wear a ‘Free Tibet’ t-shirt in Tian’anmen Square and expect to get away with it, but seriously, I couldn’t believe the free speech the newspapers had in China.  It was probably one of the biggest and pleasant surprises I had while visiting China. 

More blogs on my trip to China to come later….

-S

Problems come in 3's.......

In the first 6 weeks at site, I’m learning a lot about Mongolia and more importantly, about myself.  I’ve had a couple events here where I nearly lost it and snapped.  Well, I snapped, let’s be honest J And anyone who knows me, knows I’m loud, I talk a lot and I like to complain but I rarely get so upset that I lose it.

I’ve only got angry twice since I’ve been here.  One was about the cold showers, that was the second (Angry#2 I call it), actually both times have come in the last 10 days. My three showers before my angry one were hot, I thought finally the problem is fixed and I got comfortable (Rule #1: Never get comfortable), so when I got into the shower and ice cold water came out, I was caught off guard and I snapped. I literally had a tantrum like a two year old, I was so pissed.  The work schedule can be pretty tough, so I’m usually pretty tired by night time, and I was just getting over a cold, so I snapped, and it was glorious!!! I did feel better after J

A few things started to go south in the last week. The Mongolians do things differently, and I know this sounds arrogant and bullheaded but they do certain things the wrong way.  When I got here, I had to give up my passport so I could get my multi-entry visa and Alien Card (kind of like landed immigrate status in Canada). I know, I broke the major travel rule, never give away your passport but in my defense I didn’t have a choice. Everyone else here got theirs 2 weeks after they arrived, after 4 weeks I started to get worried that mine could be lost. I cannot explain to you how difficult it was to get an answer on where my passport was.  It took over a week to find my passport, it ended up being in a box in the warehouse waiting to be received, but for about 5 days, I didn’t actually know where it was, CRAZY, I flipped out (secretly not actually in front of people), I was so worried, that was angry #1, which was a couple Fridays ago. Next time, I’ll take a few days off work and go get the visa myself, not cause I actually thought people lost my passport but just for peace of mind, I tend to overact with these things.  

Things have not been the same here since, you know how Murphy’s Law works. Every trip I’ve ever taken, one thing must go wrong, In Europe it was my camera, the first one I dropped, second was stolen and the third finished the trip.  With Mongolia, it’s travel stuff, first my passport, then my travel requests form, which I need signed and returned back to me, if I don’t get them signed and returned, I cannot hand in my expenses. The process is suppose to take 3 days, so of course I did it as soon as I got here, again, after three weeks, I started asking when I should be getting them back, they kept saying they are coming, so I waited another week, and nothing. I gave up and resubmitted them. I went around myself and got them all signed by my bosses and handed them over to the right people, only the client signature was needed and send them back to me, again, a week later, no email, no form. So again I went around and asked for them, two days later I got my email and handed in my expense travel forms yesterday, I got here on Aug 5^th, submitted my forms on Aug 7^th, and just submitted my expenses 5 days ago! 

From my previous blog, you can tell I’m not a huge fan of the food, but since every time I complain about something, it gets a lot worst, making what I just complained about look like I was living the life, so I’m not going to complain, simply due to the fear that the complaining Gods will teach me a lesson.

The work is still interesting and I am learning a lot, I guess that is the reason I am here, it’s just all the other stuff that can bring me down at times. Mike called me the other day and said Air Canada may strike on Sept 21^st, and of course I booked him on an Air Canada flight leaving shortly after this date, of course, when it rains, it pours.

-S  - Me with my first Camel!!!

Breaking it in!

So I’ve now been here in Mongolia for three weeks… crazy, how slow time can go :-)

Life in Mongolia, or to be more specific, life in camp, is repetitive. Everyday is almost exactly the same, the only thing that changes is the weather. Camp life is as follows: Wake up, Eat (Breakfast), Work, Eat (Lunch), Work, Gym, Eat (Dinner), Drink, Bed and then the next day as a reward, you do exactly the same thing for 13 days straight. It’s Awesome, really awesome. On top of the 10hr/day, 13 days straight of work, our meals consist of fat with a side of meat, my walls in my dorm room are so thin I can hear my neighbor fart, when the internet is actually working I can get a call home for about 5min till the connection is lost, and if that doesn’t sell you on how unbelievably happy I am, I have not had a hot water shower in three short weeks.

With all this joyous talk aside, and hopefully you have been able to weed out my sarcasm, things here in Mongolia are going well. The best part of this experience is the work (one thing I’d thought I’d never say), everyday I am learning and continually getting reminders of how much stuff I do not know. The flotation cells are going in, I think there are 9 in already. This week I was able to watch them move the Sag Mill Shells and install them, that was pretty cool. I’m learning on how everything is installed. I’ve been impressed on how fast equipment is being installed, everyday I see changes to the plant. Nearly all the concrete has been set. I’m helping my boss with getting the Concentrator Bagging Plant design and construction up and running, we hope to set its foundation by end of September. Two days ago, we had our first frost, so winter is going to come quick and we need all our foundations done as soon as possible or the price will go up 30-40% for winter concrete. I’m putting together a slide show presentation of some of the equipment, I’ll send it out when I am done.

On a side note, I’ve made a few friends here with the Fire Wardens and Paramedics on site, and weekly I get the low down of what’s really going on in this little town I like to call OT (we do have 14,000 people living here). One of the more amusing stories I’ve heard, first I’ll give you a little history about this camp. When I say the food here absolutely sucks, I’m being kind, forget about missing your families, you want out of here after 8weeks so you can get a decent meal. Also, there are several small Mongolian towns about an hour outside camp, yes, there are people who chose to live literally in the middle of nowhere. This Sunday I’ll be visiting one of them. So you can imagine my surprise when I was told that there were six men arrested for trespassing onto the OT camp and this is the kicker, when asked why they were trespassing, they told my buddy, it was for the food, I guess three crappy meals a day is better than none. Only in OT would the locals being trying to get in and the Westerners trying to get out. This story certainly made feel like an ungrateful Westerner Snob, we get a huge uplift in pay for “roughing it out here” and from the locals perspective they feel this is living the life. Definitely puts things in perspective.

Anyways, that’s it for now folks, off to the doctor, I’ve seemed to have come down with a sinus infection, got to love the sandstorms and dust here :-)

-S writing from a Mongolian Ger

The Start...

So far things at site are interesting and going all right, it’s very different here.  Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia is huge, very Russian in style.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the city, they use coal for power, so it was pretty polluted.  The Mongolia language is crazy, very similar to Russian, I can’t understand a thing, I walked around the city for a day and I was a total tourist, I had to go letter by letter to check street names from my map, completely different alphabet.  The city is pretty safe, and becoming more modern.  Loads of construction occurring, and a few really nice designs have been constructed in the last year.

I’ve had two days at site.  Camp is alright, they have a pizzeria, a café, a bar, basketball courts, tennis courts, volleyball courts and two gyms.  My room is right in the heart of the camp, right beside the basketball courts.  I have my own room with shared shower/bathroom facilities, very college residence in style.  The room is fine except for the rock hard bed, I may bring back a comforter, not sure.  I’m in an all girl building, men are not allowed and they have guards at all entrances, so I feel really safe here.  The people at site are very friendly and laid back. Actually I was shocked on how laid back the people are here.  I’m still getting my barrens down, I got lost yesterday trying to find the cafeteria, ended up at a completely different side of camp, but eventually found my way back. Camp is huge, 10km by 8km.  I’ve been told on our Sundays off they have buses come in and we can visit some of the local villages in the area, sounds interesting so I’ll probably do that on my first Sunday off.

The weather here is all over the place, yesterday alone, we had 30+ Celsius (hot), a lightning storm with hard rain, a dust storm with 16m/sec winds, etc…  I’m lucky I brought all different types of clothes.

We are currently having a water shortage, so absolutely no hot water, my shower last night was very cold, I literally showered each limb one by one.  It will be like this for atleast the next 4 weeks, so I better get used to it. In my room they gave me two cases of water, it’s very easy to get dehydrated.

Anyways, that’s it for now,

Sabrina from the middle of nowhere J