Sep 01 2007
Work and play
I’ve closed out my second week of work and it’s been pretty interesting. Right now, as I’m cooling my heels a bit, I’ve been getting familiar with what the UNFPA does here by doing english language editing on their latest technical reports and project things. They’re doing a lot of neat things, and I’ve been jotting ideas down as I progress (in Freemind, no less) for when I meet with people next week about my impressions and ideas about future work.
I’m also working on a brochure for the general public about UNFPA, and I’ve done some looking at the website about suggested things to update. Overall getting my feet wet. I also got to go to a nice party/dinner with UN that had some cuban-style food (mmm…pork stuffed with zillions of cloves of garlic…). We have an all-staff meeting next week, and I expect I’ll need to say something, so I’ll likely work on a bit of dazzling Mongolian. Or at least say I like fruit…
The potluck with other PCVs last weekend was also entertaining and with great food - including an awesome somtam using virtually none of the traditional ingredients but tasted very similar to it. A few pictures from the potluck have been uploaded to my pictures online.
I seem to have overcome my biscuit curse too - my sister and maybe Melissa (and certainly Bonnie) know about it - the despair I endure from biscuits that come out of the oven with the taste and consistency of hockey pucks. So far here I’m 3 for 3 in successful, moderately fluffy biscuits.
It’s starting to get vaguely cooler here - according to Google weather, on Monday this week it was snowing in Khovd. My main project this weekend is to drink lots of coffee, maybe procure a jelly donut or two, and buy a frying pan at the black market. Oh, and find my cell phone charger. That really perplexes me…but I’ve been losing all sorts of things lately despite having only about 2 places to put things (which is fine! really!).
Other than that, not much news - next week may be more exciting - maybe I’ll get in a fight or something, or save children from a burning building…
September 4th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Perhaps the biscuit curse has been appeased by your Mongolian adventure-doings. Or maybe it only applied in the US.
It’s also entirely possible that the biscuit curse got held up at customs, and will be arriving six months later, tattered, irate, and desperately wanting a cigarette. If your biscuits explode within the next year or so, you know why.