Our New Journey

work for the boys

2008-07-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

it wasn't all play and no work. the boys did their share of housework in the kitchen. here's proof for you...

just a little fun so work won't be that boring...

more competitions in terelji

2008-07-18T22:54:00.001-07:00

on 12th july, the children had a fancy dress competition (using recycled materials) and face drawing competition.

the children having a whale of a time drawing and playing with the paints after the competition!

very creative i must say... i personally like the pumpkin and hip-hop group.

lotus nadaam

2008-07-18T22:48:00.001-07:00

on 11th july, the lotus children had their very own nadaam competition in terelji. no archery or horse-riding, just their very own favorite wrestling.

activities in yarmag

2008-07-18T06:09:00.001-07:00

the move to terelji national park with the lotus children for their summer camp took longer than usual with the hand, foot and mouth disease ban. instead of just bumming around, we did activities with the children in yarmag.

the ones below were done with the 5-6 year olds.

" check out my beautiful drawing"

hair-styling activities after drawing

a pose with the "hair-stylist"

and cross-stitch sessions with the older children. another surprise, the boys were the ones who completed their designs, not the girls... hmmmm, whoever said sewing were meant for girls?!?!?!

drawings by the children

2008-07-18T05:42:00.000-07:00

despite the late move into the camp, flood, rain, riots, etc, we still managed to conduct drawing activities with the children. check out the beautiful art pieces! we were amazed at the talents of some of the children, expecially the boys!!!

Blessing Ceremony @ the new site

2008-07-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

There was a blessing ceremony held @ "Gar-Choke" (pardon me for not getting the right spelling). Kids were performing @ this ceremony.

Looked at how we squeeze in one bus, i guess there is around 30 kids on this bus

Nuns blessing the new site

Sport Activities @ the Camp

2008-07-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Skipping Competition - See who can skip the most

See who can run up to the mountain @ the fastest speed

1st and 2nd prize winner

Best hair design

See who can jump to the highest level (Zero Point lah)

Who's the fastest runner???

Long Walk to the Supermarket

2008-07-17T07:42:00.001-07:00

The camp manager (sorry ya, i don't know how to spell her name) had to get some yeast for the kitchen, so she gather a few kids plus us of course to go to the supermarket. The supermarket is 1.5hrs walk (one way). Thank goodness, we managed to hitch a ride on a micro-bus on the way back to the camp.

Honestly speaking, the eagle is not light.

As it was a long walk, these boys decided to take a break by having some fun by posing to be vampires.

1 week break from Summer Camp

2008-07-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

When most of the kids are evacuated out from the summer camp, we had to collect drinkable water from a concrete tank which is around 30minutes walk from the camp. The stream water is not drinkable during this period as it was very very muddy.

Heavy Rainfall @ Summer Camp

2008-07-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

The kids had to be evacuated out on 24th June'08 due to the rising water level. We had opted to stay back together with 5 older boys, camp manager and 1 teacher to look after the camp site.

With no kids to play with, we "chu" patternz and started to play badminton

However, mother nature decided to reward us by showing 2 rainbows.

Shifting to Summer Camp

2008-07-17T06:09:00.001-07:00

Boys loading food stuff onto the lorry

Moving our beds out for the lorry to pick up.

Where got place for our beds????

Lake Khovsgul

2008-07-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

10th - 16th June 2008 (7 days tour to Lake Khovsgul)

Lake Khovsgul is known as Mongolia's largest and deepest lake, located at Northern Mongolia.
It is 136 km long,36 km wide, 262 metres deep and is located at an altitude of 1645 m above sea level. Lake Khovsgul is the second largest fresh water lake in Central Asia.

Our campsite for 2 nights

Our horseguides - Tsengel and his nephew Ulaanaa

16 yrs old Ulaanaa with his trademark sweet smile..

More scenic pictures:

short break...

2008-06-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

we are still stuck in ulaanbator... :(

have finally decided to go off for our tour to lake khuvsguul first... hopefully after our trip up north, we will be back to the city for some good news about summer camp at terelji with the children.

Updates

2008-06-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Pictures
Sorry folks, our memory stick was infected with Trojan virus during the last upload of pictures in our previous post.
We've decided to update all pictures when we're back in Singapore sometime Mid July.

Summer Camp
As of now, there is no fix date as of when the children can go to the summer camp as we are still waiting for the authorities' approval. The ger mothers will recce Tereji National Park on Tues and we have been tasked to baby-sit all the children in the living quarters.
Hopefully, after the recce, we can have a more concrete date.

Children Day
1st June is Mongolia Children Day.
We used part of the fund that we have collected to buy goodies and nicely wrapped for the Lotus kids.

A full-day party was held at the school compound yesterday.

Alice's little Basca
Alice was not feeling well last friday (30th May) and thus did not join the other 2 gals to Lotus.
On that fateful day, a relative of little Basca came, picked up little Basca and his elder brother and they have left Lotus for good.
Kind of mixed feelings over his leaving the centre... Alice is at a loss for words... (sob.... sob...)

New Discoveries (especially for former VA gals)
Chinzorig, Gantulga (aka Ganaa), Zayaa (1st Beckham) - very naughty boys and big bullies ..
2nd Beckham and Altan Bagan (aka Austonpang) - quiet, shy and non-destructive boys...
Uuganna - sticking to his "mummy" Jo every single minute (KNS!!!)
Bartedeng - not very sticky to us now... think due to the absence of Kellie... :)

Some pictures... Finally...

2008-05-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

and here are some of the photos taken while the children were doing the "i have a dream" project, initated by the norwegian NGO...

heh, spot the familiar faces...

Finally Arrived Ulaan Bator

2008-05-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

We finally arrived in UB after passing the amazing race in Beijing. Visited Lotus Centre yesterday and were surprised and happy that some of the kids actually remembered our names. The staff and ger mothers were happy as well to remember us.

A U.K. volunteer was asking the kids to draw some pictures to represent Mongolia kids in an exhibition in Norway. The theme of the drawing is " I have a dream".

Oh dear, we can't seem to load the pictures here. Shall try to do it at a internet cafe the next time.

Stucked in Beijing - 20 May @ 9:35am

2008-05-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Sad to say that we are still stuck in Beijing Airport. Yesterday due to some miscommunication breakdown, we did not managed to catch MIAT flight out. We spent a night @ Tian Yuan Airport Hotel and everything there is new as they are a newly established (2 months old) and the staff there are pretty inexperienced.

After much consideration, we decided to board Air China which WAS supposed to fly off @ 8:10am this morning but who knows due to some bad weather conditions, it had delayed to 7:00pm instead!!!!!

Now "wasting" and "nuahing" at Beijing airport, internet access unlimited time @ RMB30.00 (SGD6.00 ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Those people interested in coming, please take note the new terminal (T3) is so darn HUGE!!!!!!!! and you will get lost. Please plan your itinerary well to prevent being stranded. Between terminals, it would take about at least 20 minutes journey.

That's all for now, we shall upload pictures when we have our USB port as they are in the check in luggage. Pray hard that the flight don't get delayed any longer.

Hectic weeks

2008-05-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Pictures of some stationeries that we've purchased for the kids.

More things to buy and we're running short of time !!
The last week before we depart shall be another hectic week for us.

Yes, we are still leaving to Mongolia on 19th May, 0110hrs despite all the hiccups that we encountered in past one week.

Stay tuned !

Lotus Expedition - Background

2008-04-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

This blog was created to share our experiences with friends and families on our new expedition to Lotus Children Centre, Mongolia sometime mid May08

This center was set up by an Australian lady in 1996 to provide a shelter for the street children who came from horrible backgrounds like abandonment, abuse by drunkard parents, sexual abuse, domestic violence etc etc. The center has now expanded to 150 children and the number is still growing as there are too many of such cases happening in Mongolia.

If you would like to find out more of Lotus Children Centre, you can visit their website: http://www.lotuschild.org/.
Last year, we had the opportunity to visit Lotus Children Centre and spent 14 days with the kids in the summer camp.

Photo below was taken during our last day in the summer camp with the kids.

These children are so dear to us and we can't wait to tell them that we are going back this year to spend more time with them !!

View more photo and video in the links below:
Photo url:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alice.ng.nm/Mongolia

Video url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSanr-gc6b4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwhdYRwZhzg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvw9XMjguqg

Do come back often for more updates from us !!