Here a blog again

The last few days have been quite strange! To not be moving or having an ever changing destination has left me feeling at a loose end. On Saturday night the whole of UlaanBaatar went absolutely mental because they had won 2 gold medals in the olympics, I've never seen a city go bezerk with happiness and it was quite infectious, I was really happy for them as well. On Sunday I went to the 'black market' to buy clothes as I had absolutely nothing to wear! I was donating everything as promised to the rally charity on Monday and I needed clothes. What a market it was as well, its the biggest in Asia, row upon row of everything. I have never been to or seen a market so big and I had soon haggled away all of my money on new everything! The temperature here is dropping daily and on Monday morning I had to go back and buy myself some more fake clothes, a warm coat and a big bag to carry everything. Straight after the market it was off to the charity headquarters to donate everything to them. They are so over the moon with the motorbike and said that it will be the star attraction of the auction and will probably raise 6000 dollars!!! I was so happy with that news and it made all the hardships of the last. Months disappear, it is more than any of the 4x4's that were donated. The chief executive was so happy with the bike and my achievement of making the journey alone he gave me a personal present of a silver coin collection. There are over 80 silver coins in a folder, some dating back to 1704! He said that it was an heirloom and I should pass it down to my children and I certainly will, it was so humbling to receive such a magnificent gift. He then said that we (another team was also at the office) should stay for 'just one beer!' The mechanic returned with beer and a bottle of vodka, one toast turned into two then three and four and before we knew it another bottle appeared! Within an hour or so we were all, chief executive included, completely smashed! We toasted everything from the charity rally, mongolia's gold medals, the motorbike and anything else 4 drunken men could think of! I left the offices staggering with an appointment to be there the next day at lunchtime to visit one of the childrens orphanages that some of the money raised would be donated to. I awoke late the next day, but luckily with no hangover and I made my way to the CDPF charity office for my appointment to go see the children. After a quick shop stop to load up with sweets and goodies for the children we ( me and the other team from yesterdays mad vodka session plus a translator from the CDPF) set off to the orphanage in UlaanBaatar. What we found shocked and saddened us immensely. We entered the orphanage to find that it was run by the police. The kids had been made to line up and it had the feel of a borstal! There were no pictures that the kids had drawn on the wall or anything remotely homely about the place at all. These poor little children looked miserable, there was cctv in every room. The toy room was locked and by the way the toys were set up it looked like the kids were not using it, it seemed set up for show. They had all been placed in front of a television in a hallway and all of the 'staff' were sat in their office watching TV. We knew that a previous team had donated footballs and basketballs a few days earlier for the kids, so we asked if we could go out and play basketball with the kids. We were told that the basketball hoops were unsafe so we couldn't. Me and the other team went outside to the play area to see if we could somehow fix the hoops for the kids only to find that there was nothing wrong with them! We then asked where the balls were for the kids, the 'officers' first reply was that they had been stolen and after further questions they said that they were locked away and the person with the key was on holiday! Our next question was how often do the children get to play outside and we were told one hour a day! Children need to play and one hour a day supervised by a police officer stank of a childrens prison to us! In the end we started playing with the kids by playing catch and rugby with their socks! The change in the kids to be receiving attention and to be played with was astonishing, these poor children were obviously receiving no attention or affection from the staff at all. We went on the asked the translator if we could sit with them and ask them questions. My first question was if they were happy there, most said no. The ones who said yes had obviously had such an abusive home life that anything. was better than what they had in their 'home life' with abusive alcoholic parents. After a few hours the translator wanted to leave because that place upset her, we understood because it had upset us. We honestly believe that the police just put the kids there to get them off the streets and from stopping them being potential criminals and so long as they had a bed and 3 meals a day that it was enough. They certainly didn't look happy because we we're playing with them and they were enjoying themselves and we got the distinct impression that the kids might be in trouble when we left because they were playing, making noise and enjoying themselves! I don't blame the CDPF or the charity rally for what I saw, but I am questioning what our charity money is supporting? The rally had raised almost 100,000 pounds cash and that is before the sale of all the vehicles donated. Wouldn't the rally be better off channelling its efforts into one proper cause? The money raised could build a proper care home for these poor children and the translator (who is also a CDPF staff member)  agreed, she said she had suggested this a while ago but the idea had been dismissed! We suggested to her that at the very least a proper carer could be paid for to give those poor kids some love and attention. A Mongolians yearly salary is comparatively low and could easily be covered by the sale of a few vehicles! I have spoken to other teams who have visited other childrens 'orphanages' supported by the rally and apparently they have seen the opposite side of the coin, cared for, happy children, despite their obvious problems. All I know is what I have seen and as a father myself, it left me deeply concerned.
Yesterday was basically a rest day and I managed for the first time to do a little city sightseeing, even though there is not very much to see! The main square is quite impressive, but apart from that it is a city pretty much the same as anywhere else. I think I have said countless times that I don't like cities, I'm a country boy at heart!
Todays mission was two-fold, find a pointy Mongolian hat and I find myself a wedding ring. I had already bought Liane a special ring in Iran but I hadn't even considered myself! I can report that my pointy hat mission was a success but no ring was found, tomorrow I will try again at another end of the city shopping area. I think I will also pay another visit to the 'black market' as I found some really cool Mongolian fur hats in the tourist shop and I'm sure I can find them cheaper at the market, my mad hat collection grows!!!!
So now I am waiting for my Chinese visa to arrive by DHL from Hansens and then I must work my way (by train) to Tianjin, China for the hand over ceremony of my 'green cheque' arranged for 8th September. I can't wait to try scorpion 'on a stick'!