Close to action, even closer to the people

Recently I got back from a 10-day work-trip in the Gobi desert, which, for instance to Americans, sounds like the absolute ends of the earth.

9.25 quality days spent under the open sky.



I got to work with the mining service crew from work, finally! Although I have been to many mine sites as well the company offices, none of those was the personal and exciting... Since we have a contract work with a foreign mining company working here, it is interesting, fun yet challenging to get to experience all of these things together:

the Gobi dessert which is so grand on so many levels, the beauty of the blue sky without a trace of cloud, the at times merciless sand storm that can be hard for even those not working outside all the time ... also having a poisonous spider as pets and feeding them with a kind of grasshopper and raw meat from cafeteria, a ger (Mongolian traditional dwelling) camp almost in the middle of nowhere, ger in spite its simplicity does have real feeling of "homy-ness" to it although it served as place to sleep in and warehouse for all our clothes(including PPEs) busy people like us, the constant warm breeze brushing through the top of the ger which sounded like sweet lullaby for people like me especially the first night as I had to be at the airport at 3.30 for the flight, the 2-weeks but if-and-when-necessary-can-be-extended-to-3weeks shift, the fact of being only 30 something kilometers from Mongolian border with China.

Combination of all these at one time or another seemed to check people against their limits one way or another.

Even happier I am for the fact that I got to see, meet and also hear about many people. To some of whom I had some connection even before meeting probably owing to the fact that it is a small world, partially owing to the fact that Mongolian population is even "smaller".

People working at the big-and-expanding-mine, most of whom are obviously men, not just men but real men strong in more than one sense of the word, as such so different from ordinary, business-like, metro ... (khm) guys you see at offices. How they really concentrate on ONLY their work and does not complain about this and that small details and put all their wit and strength into the hard and dangerous works at hand and how they can be still cool with the excellent result of their work! I could not help but feel all the emotions including being sympathetic, happy and proud of them! The real sun-burnt, sweaty heroes, who at times does not seem to be appreciated for their hard work.

Since I was the number one person in order, the "the representative of the HQ Management team" in flesh and blood, was at liberty to "allow" myself to literally work with the guys from our company crew. This in itself was nothing like I've ever done before. It made me see the real ups and downs of such kind of work and understand much more and better about my colleagues and where/when/how they really work and live. I was more than happy to boast etc., about them after I was back to UB.

The usually-official-me in (skirts/trousers & blouses/suit) in all those PPEs working in the field for 12hours just like everyone else, instead of tiptoeing around the camp and talking to and/or hanging with ONLY the managerial level guys there. It was just awesomely challenging and interesting.

All in all, cannot help being thankful for such many different kinds of work/engagements that are out there that enables us to see and get know the different people, even more interestingly the various sides to a single person.

I will try and make sure I shall have more of these adventures ...