Second Day at the Office

The first pic above was taken at the Global International Office in downtown Ulan Bator.  The young man on my left is Matt Hagler who hails from northern Florida and who has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Mongolia for two years.  He is now employed by GI as an assistant interpreting documents and correcting the grammar and spelling of English versions of Mongolian documents.  He has a cast on his left foot and when I inquired about this, he explained that he fell into a manhole last week.  The manhole was covered but when he stepped on it, it flipped and he fell in, spraining and/or breaking his ankle.

For those following last year's blog, you know that during the winter, manholes are uncovered because they are stolen for the copper in them and the poor crawl into these underground tunnels for the steam warmth of these places.  So in a month or so when the temp gets down to well below zero F, there is a sea of people living undr the city until spring.  I was told sometime ago to always look down when traversing the city so as to avoid falling into these holes.  Because of Matt's experience, I will also not put a foot on a closed manhole. He speaks fluent Mongolian and is preparing to take the LSAT and return to the States for law school. 

The second pic is a shot of the exterior of the GI office.  The office is on the third floor of the bldg. located in the rear.  The standing water is a leftover from a rain of several days ago.  There is no drainage system for the city so rain just accumulates and streets are swollen with water for days.  Consequently, mud is everywhere and there is no landscaping except around monuments or hotels.

For example, I show you in the third pic the entrance to my apt.  where only weeds grow around the building.  I live behind the green door on the third floor.  As before there are no elevators but I can climb three floors with ease.  You can see that the parking lot in front is composed of asphalt which was laid last night.  I have no street address and the building is just one of many that are squeezed into a back area of this section of the city.  The good news is that I can walk to the office and to all the grocery and department stores, and hotel.

For tonight the office arranged for me to attend a floor show at the River Sound Bar near the Blue Sky Hotel where a  Mongolian fellow will sing Frank Sinatra songs for a cover charge.  We shall see.

Also, hats off to my former partner from McHale days, Don Buttrey, who gave me dinner money for a number of first class meals at the top restaurants.  Thank you Don.  I intend to use some of  this money tonight before the Sinatra show, probably at one of the spots within the Blue Sky Hotel where Chinese, Korean and American businessmen reside.  And so it goes...