We left UB after a late lunch at Ku’Damm Club at 4PM Wednesday afternoon. Tugtaar was invited by Enkhee to be our driver and photographer. Enkhee told me that it would take 5 to 6 hours from UB to Erdenet City. The Road was not bad. I believed her because the road between the biggest city UB and second biggest city Erdenet City shouldn’t be too good. But within one hour drive after we left UB, we were riding on the dirt road with multimple tracks. The road was so bumpy. I felt that Tugtaar was riding his car, in stead of driving his car.
Imagine a full plate of two German sausages and a big glass of beer for lunch, stirring ups and downs in my stomach, I felt nausea at the back seat. Enkhee tried to feed me with oranges and yogurt to divert my attention. I was amazed at my ability to get off the car only once to take care of my biological needs. I kept thinking it was such a memorable journey that I wish I couldn't have to take for the second time. How I wished I could take the train back to UB from Erdenet City. It was no fun to travel in a hurry in a car for a long time in Mongolia without taking time to take photos of the vast steppe of beautiful Mongolia.
It was like forever before we finally arrived at the Erdenet Hotel in the dark. The beautiful Russian receptionist asked me to fill in a check-in paper slip, I couldn't decipher any cyrillics, in Russian or in Mongolian. I was told to write down my name and sign my name. When I got into my room, I found that I couldn't get any hot water. Enkhee told me that I had to drain the cold water in the pipe for a long time to get the hot water. I tried and I failed. It must have been quite a long while since the last costumer occupied my room.
Two Days Toastmasters Training at EMC
I didn't know that the two days trainings at EMC would be for two groups, senior managers for the first day and junior managers for the second day till I walked into EMC high-tech tell conferencing room at 7:30 Thursday morning. I was excited to hang up the banner of Grand Toastmasters Club and I was ready to give my best!
During the first day, we worked on tabletopics and prepared speeches in the morning. Everyone was excited to stand up and speak up at the learning laboratory of Toastmasters. After lunch I introduced the Toastmasters International followed by playing the videoclip of Toastmaster Dananjaya Hettiarachchi's World Champion of Public Speaking 2014 in Malaysia. Battuul Baljinnyam from Development Department volunteered to transcribed the speech and translated into Mongolian. After a full-day training (a two hours lunch break was cut short into one hour), a demo meeting agenda was prepared, featuring major meeting roles, such as Toastmaster of the Day, Timer, Ah-Counter, two prepared speaker, grammarian, all by senior managers and my myself as the general evaluator. We also had a club president and Sergent-at-Arms ready
At the beginning of the second day training, every participant was given a demo meeting agenda in hand. I coached the participants how to respond to tabletopics, we practiced telling jokes in public. Enkhee explained meeting roles of a standard Toastmasters meeting in Mongolian with the fastest speed she could have exerted her effort. Enkhee was a responsible person, she started translating Toastmasters material in Mongolian language before I arrived in UB. She translated meetings roles of a standard toastmaster meeting from District 67 website diligently. I also covered as much as the introduction of the Toastmasters International, before it was time we joined the opening ceremony of the Health Road. Can you imagine a road for cyclists in Mongolia? Yes, the 5.8 kilometers bicycle trail was made happen by EMC from EMC to the train station of Erdenet City. Erdenet City is rich because of the hardworking miners on 4 shifts twenty-four seven.
The demo meeting started from 2PM till 3PM. The Toastmaster of the Day did a fantastic job introducing all assignment takers. Enkhee took charge of joke session. Four volunteers shared jokes and the audience erupted in laughter after laughter. Two icebreaker speeches by senior managers were simply amazing. The tabletopics master was a senior manager. She called upon senior and junior managers to answer four tabletopics, what is the most common food, what is the age of the earth, what is your dream, what is the most memorable moment. All tabletopics speaker did outstanding jobs within the time limits. It was indeed a demo meeting with a big success. And I realized how much people enjoyed being challenged to perform to the best of their abilities. After the demo meeting, a few junior managers hung around for one more hours to understand the roles of club officers before EMC chartered a corporate Toastmasters club. It came across my mind that a mining company knows how to mine human talents in the employees while they mine the ores from the dirt.
Erdenet is the secondest largest city in Mongolia. It was heavily urbanized in the 80's with Darhan, the third larget city in Mongolia, north of UB. Unlike UB, Erdenet City still wears a Russian veil because of EMC. People lead less hustle and bustle lives in Erdenet city. EMC employees are smart, diligent, and friendly. I am appreciate of the generosity of EMC to cover the gasoline between UB and Erdenet and hotel accommodations for Enkhee, Tugtar, and me for four nights in Erdenet City. As promised, Battuul Baljinnyam gave me the full transcript in English and translation in Mongolian of Dananjaya Hettiarachchi's champion speech "I See Something" Monday, October 20th. The two Russian lunches at EMC Thursday and Friday were so delicious that I couldn't be able to have them elsewhere in the world. In fact, at the first sight of EMC's restaurant, it reminded me of a restaurant in Kiev when I companied Taiwanese health officials to deliver the humanitarian medicine to Ukraine in 1992.
From Erdenet City to UB
It was five below zero when we left Erdenet City Sunday morning. No soon than later when we left Erdenet City, Enkhee pointed to me wild geese winging their way south in the V-shaped flocks. It was phenomenal to me, an islander from subtropical climate. In Taiwan, we often see migration birds stop over to spend the winter and go north to breed in the Spring.
In order to avoid car sickness, I lay down in the back seat most of the time. The traffic was good and we moved at 100 kilometers per hour from Erdenet City till UB. But it took us one and a half hours for less than 10 kilometers on Sunday afternoon to compete with all cars coming back to UB. It was more tiring to sit in the car moving like a snail. There is a joke about the traffic of UB. A young lady walked on the street. A friend of hers drove pass and offered her a ride, but she replied she was in a rush. It is faster walk on foot than taking a vehicle.
I didn't know that the two days trainings at EMC would be for two groups, senior managers for the first day and junior managers for the second day till I walked into EMC high-tech tell conferencing room at 7:30 Thursday morning. I was excited to hang up the banner of Grand Toastmasters Club and I was ready to give my best!
During the first day, we worked on tabletopics and prepared speeches in the morning. Everyone was excited to stand up and speak up at the learning laboratory of Toastmasters. After lunch I introduced the Toastmasters International followed by playing the videoclip of Toastmaster Dananjaya Hettiarachchi's World Champion of Public Speaking 2014 in Malaysia. Battuul Baljinnyam from Development Department volunteered to transcribed the speech and translated into Mongolian. After a full-day training (a two hours lunch break was cut short into one hour), a demo meeting agenda was prepared, featuring major meeting roles, such as Toastmaster of the Day, Timer, Ah-Counter, two prepared speaker, grammarian, all by senior managers and my myself as the general evaluator. We also had a club president and Sergent-at-Arms ready
At the beginning of the second day training, every participant was given a demo meeting agenda in hand. I coached the participants how to respond to tabletopics, we practiced telling jokes in public. Enkhee explained meeting roles of a standard Toastmasters meeting in Mongolian with the fastest speed she could have exerted her effort. Enkhee was a responsible person, she started translating Toastmasters material in Mongolian language before I arrived in UB. She translated meetings roles of a standard toastmaster meeting from District 67 website diligently. I also covered as much as the introduction of the Toastmasters International, before it was time we joined the opening ceremony of the Health Road. Can you imagine a road for cyclists in Mongolia? Yes, the 5.8 kilometers bicycle trail was made happen by EMC from EMC to the train station of Erdenet City. Erdenet City is rich because of the hardworking miners on 4 shifts twenty-four seven.
The demo meeting started from 2PM till 3PM. The Toastmaster of the Day did a fantastic job introducing all assignment takers. Enkhee took charge of joke session. Four volunteers shared jokes and the audience erupted in laughter after laughter. Two icebreaker speeches by senior managers were simply amazing. The tabletopics master was a senior manager. She called upon senior and junior managers to answer four tabletopics, what is the most common food, what is the age of the earth, what is your dream, what is the most memorable moment. All tabletopics speaker did outstanding jobs within the time limits. It was indeed a demo meeting with a big success. And I realized how much people enjoyed being challenged to perform to the best of their abilities. After the demo meeting, a few junior managers hung around for one more hours to understand the roles of club officers before EMC chartered a corporate Toastmasters club. It came across my mind that a mining company knows how to mine human talents in the employees while they mine the ores from the dirt.
Erdenet is the secondest largest city in Mongolia. It was heavily urbanized in the 80's with Darhan, the third larget city in Mongolia, north of UB. Unlike UB, Erdenet City still wears a Russian veil because of EMC. People lead less hustle and bustle lives in Erdenet city. EMC employees are smart, diligent, and friendly. I am appreciate of the generosity of EMC to cover the gasoline between UB and Erdenet and hotel accommodations for Enkhee, Tugtar, and me for four nights in Erdenet City. As promised, Battuul Baljinnyam gave me the full transcript in English and translation in Mongolian of Dananjaya Hettiarachchi's champion speech "I See Something" Monday, October 20th. The two Russian lunches at EMC Thursday and Friday were so delicious that I couldn't be able to have them elsewhere in the world. In fact, at the first sight of EMC's restaurant, it reminded me of a restaurant in Kiev when I companied Taiwanese health officials to deliver the humanitarian medicine to Ukraine in 1992.
From Erdenet City to UB
It was five below zero when we left Erdenet City Sunday morning. No soon than later when we left Erdenet City, Enkhee pointed to me wild geese winging their way south in the V-shaped flocks. It was phenomenal to me, an islander from subtropical climate. In Taiwan, we often see migration birds stop over to spend the winter and go north to breed in the Spring.
In order to avoid car sickness, I lay down in the back seat most of the time. The traffic was good and we moved at 100 kilometers per hour from Erdenet City till UB. But it took us one and a half hours for less than 10 kilometers on Sunday afternoon to compete with all cars coming back to UB. It was more tiring to sit in the car moving like a snail. There is a joke about the traffic of UB. A young lady walked on the street. A friend of hers drove pass and offered her a ride, but she replied she was in a rush. It is faster walk on foot than taking a vehicle.
No comments:
Post a Comment