Sunday, October 3, 2010
I think this is my shortest blog ever...you're welcome :)
What a beautiful afternoon. I spent the morning skyping with Christine, Megan, and Anthony. That was truly amazing to be able to speak to all of them at the same time. Skype is a beautiful creation. After my conversation I spent some time with my Bible, I have a goal to read the Bible from start to finish, I have never done this before in my life and thought why not now! Then I cleaned up my ger a bit before settling down in my big green comfy chair. With my new apple incense burning, a hot mug of strawberry tea and my new book in hand I spent the early part of the afternoon reading. (I just received “Eat, Pray, Love” in the mail, thanks Anna!)(Now I want to go to Italy even more then before!!!!!) Then I headed over Kathleen’s house to return her key and retrieve my oatmeal, peanut butter, and letter that she had picked up for me during her trip to UB. I took Arslan on this journey across town and he really enjoyed the walk. We were stopped a couple of times along the way by some inquisitive Mongolians. When I got home I made the best PB&J I have ever had. My counterpart and her family came home shortly after I did and we finished up the afternoon basking in the warm sun while playing with the puppies. Now I am heating up some water for an evening tumpin bath. Just wanted to share with my reader about my fabulous Sunday spent in Mongolia.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
September 22, 2010
Once again I have put my blogging off because I know how long it is going to take to write everything! However, I know a lot of people are reading this on a regular basis so I am sitting myself down to do the job! I can’t believe I have already been to my site for a month! Crazy! I have officially been in Mongolia for four months!! (My counterpart told me the other day that by the time someone is living in Mongolia for six months the government considers him or her to be a Mongolian) I am on my way!!
What has happened this past month? That is a loaded question! I feel like this month has flown by! Seriously I have been so busy settling in time has gone by so quickly! The first week was basically my getting comfy in my ger. I unpacked and bought a lot of things for my ger. (really just kitchen items) My ger is great! I really enjoy it, it is a lot bigger then the ger I lived in this summer.
Warning this blog might jump from topic to topic, be aware. :)
On August 30, 2010 I was walking home for lunch when I saw a puppy. I of course stopped to pet the pup. Then this elderly lady walked up to me and started speaking Mongolian to me. Now my Mongolian knowledge is extremely basic stuff. From what I gathered from the conversation she wanted me to take the puppy home. I wasn’t opposed to this but I didn’t know if it already had a home or not. I decided that I would let it go but then he followed me home! At that point I decided I would just adopt him. (I of course checked with my haasha family first) They thought it would be a great idea. So we decided that he would be both my dog and theirs, because I will only be here for two years and when my two years is up I am going to leave him here. To this fact I decided I would let my counterparts daughter name him. (It was her birthday that week) It took her a couple of days but she finally decided on Arslan. Arslan means lion in Mongolian. I like it. Something I find really cool about the Mongolian culture is when somebody is given a name the person giving the name says it three times in his or her ear. Neat huh! So Namina did this for Arslan.
That is the story of how he came to be apart of my Mongolian life, now to update y’all on his life in the past life. He is getting big! Despite his not liking my food! Arslan is now tripping all over himself because his legs are getting longer and longer and he hasn’t adjusted to them yet. It is really funny. He is slowly learning both Mongolian and English commands. He is going to be a smart dog…knowing two languages and all. I let him sleep in my ger though I don’t know how long this will last..he is peeing and pooping everywhere! He even peed in my bed twice, I was NOT happy! He loves to chew as all puppies do. He has already chewed a hole in my purse and my sleeping bag. Oh he also received friends! So, my haasha family had a dog but he died the same day Arslan followed me home. Ironic I know. About a week after this happened my haasha family brought home two more puppies! There were three little puppies running around our yard. I loved it. Unfortunately one of the new puppies is no longer. We aren’t 100% sure what happened to her but we think someone stole her. Now we have two boy puppies: one with a name, one with out.
On to another topic…my site is great! The town I live in is quaint. We have a couple of restaurants, internet cafes, a bunch of stores, a post office, hospital, police deptarment, a couple of museums, government buildings, shower houses, schools, day cares, and schools. I mean there are typical things you would find in any old town really. Oh I have a river!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited about that! I think I will be going there every weekend during the summer. We have this one restaurant who specializes in American food. They make spaghetti, tacos, pizza, spaghetti with cheese, and hamburgers. It is pretty decent food. Then there is other restaurant who has Chinese food. Yes they have sweet and sour chicken! Seriously shocking!! Well I guess not too shocking considering how close I am to China, but still. It makes me happy.
Let see what else! Oh my sitemates and I went on an adventure the other weekend. Kathleen who is a M20 has been in search of a little stone man. This little stone man had been left here from the Turkish Era. She heard about the guy from the lonely planet book about Mongolia. She has looked for him on several occasions but never found him. Recently she obtained the coordinates for the guy and thanks to Justin’s GPS WE FOUND HIM!! It was about a four-mile walk to his location and we had a little bit of trouble finding his exact location but eventually we stumbled upon him! He actually turned out to be bigger then what we thought. He was about 4 feet tall and was surrounded by a fence. (I suppose to protect him) It looked like to us that a lot of people visit him on a regular basis. There was a half empty bottle of vodka, some tea, money and various other things around him. It was exciting finding this little guy! We had a picnic by the dude and Arslan came along for the hike! (Though he ended up being carried most of the way, he is a tad bit lazy) I found out later that this guy is named from the Buddhist religion and people go and visit him when they want a dream/wish to come true….sorta like throwing a penny in a fountain!
In other news it is starting to get cold here. I built my first fire the other night. This is going to become a regular occurrence soon. I will more then likely have to get up in the middle of the night to put wood on the fire. Joy! I have pretty much gotten used to the outhouse. However my stomach is still adjusting. I feel like I have been getting sick about once a month. Not too bad. My hope is eventually my stomach will become an iron stomach, that’s what they call it right? Nothing like moving to another country and having constant stomach issues on top of no toilet! My legs are thanking me though! I am teaching myself how to cook, if that’s what you want to call it. I am working on my ger skills! Lol.
Ok this has become long enough of a blog. For those of you reading this let me know of anything you want to know/hear about. Sometimes I am not sure what y’all would be interested in!
Hope all of you are sitting well! (Mongolians say this, sorta like I hope all is well with you)
ZA!
B
OHHHH I forgot! My Mongolian students gave me a Mongolian name, Zulaa!
AND I am going to be an expert Karaoke singer by the time I leave here, I feel like my coworkers go on a regular basis. SO far I have gone twice, both times they made me sing a ton.
What has happened this past month? That is a loaded question! I feel like this month has flown by! Seriously I have been so busy settling in time has gone by so quickly! The first week was basically my getting comfy in my ger. I unpacked and bought a lot of things for my ger. (really just kitchen items) My ger is great! I really enjoy it, it is a lot bigger then the ger I lived in this summer.
Warning this blog might jump from topic to topic, be aware. :)
On August 30, 2010 I was walking home for lunch when I saw a puppy. I of course stopped to pet the pup. Then this elderly lady walked up to me and started speaking Mongolian to me. Now my Mongolian knowledge is extremely basic stuff. From what I gathered from the conversation she wanted me to take the puppy home. I wasn’t opposed to this but I didn’t know if it already had a home or not. I decided that I would let it go but then he followed me home! At that point I decided I would just adopt him. (I of course checked with my haasha family first) They thought it would be a great idea. So we decided that he would be both my dog and theirs, because I will only be here for two years and when my two years is up I am going to leave him here. To this fact I decided I would let my counterparts daughter name him. (It was her birthday that week) It took her a couple of days but she finally decided on Arslan. Arslan means lion in Mongolian. I like it. Something I find really cool about the Mongolian culture is when somebody is given a name the person giving the name says it three times in his or her ear. Neat huh! So Namina did this for Arslan.
That is the story of how he came to be apart of my Mongolian life, now to update y’all on his life in the past life. He is getting big! Despite his not liking my food! Arslan is now tripping all over himself because his legs are getting longer and longer and he hasn’t adjusted to them yet. It is really funny. He is slowly learning both Mongolian and English commands. He is going to be a smart dog…knowing two languages and all. I let him sleep in my ger though I don’t know how long this will last..he is peeing and pooping everywhere! He even peed in my bed twice, I was NOT happy! He loves to chew as all puppies do. He has already chewed a hole in my purse and my sleeping bag. Oh he also received friends! So, my haasha family had a dog but he died the same day Arslan followed me home. Ironic I know. About a week after this happened my haasha family brought home two more puppies! There were three little puppies running around our yard. I loved it. Unfortunately one of the new puppies is no longer. We aren’t 100% sure what happened to her but we think someone stole her. Now we have two boy puppies: one with a name, one with out.
On to another topic…my site is great! The town I live in is quaint. We have a couple of restaurants, internet cafes, a bunch of stores, a post office, hospital, police deptarment, a couple of museums, government buildings, shower houses, schools, day cares, and schools. I mean there are typical things you would find in any old town really. Oh I have a river!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited about that! I think I will be going there every weekend during the summer. We have this one restaurant who specializes in American food. They make spaghetti, tacos, pizza, spaghetti with cheese, and hamburgers. It is pretty decent food. Then there is other restaurant who has Chinese food. Yes they have sweet and sour chicken! Seriously shocking!! Well I guess not too shocking considering how close I am to China, but still. It makes me happy.
Let see what else! Oh my sitemates and I went on an adventure the other weekend. Kathleen who is a M20 has been in search of a little stone man. This little stone man had been left here from the Turkish Era. She heard about the guy from the lonely planet book about Mongolia. She has looked for him on several occasions but never found him. Recently she obtained the coordinates for the guy and thanks to Justin’s GPS WE FOUND HIM!! It was about a four-mile walk to his location and we had a little bit of trouble finding his exact location but eventually we stumbled upon him! He actually turned out to be bigger then what we thought. He was about 4 feet tall and was surrounded by a fence. (I suppose to protect him) It looked like to us that a lot of people visit him on a regular basis. There was a half empty bottle of vodka, some tea, money and various other things around him. It was exciting finding this little guy! We had a picnic by the dude and Arslan came along for the hike! (Though he ended up being carried most of the way, he is a tad bit lazy) I found out later that this guy is named from the Buddhist religion and people go and visit him when they want a dream/wish to come true….sorta like throwing a penny in a fountain!
In other news it is starting to get cold here. I built my first fire the other night. This is going to become a regular occurrence soon. I will more then likely have to get up in the middle of the night to put wood on the fire. Joy! I have pretty much gotten used to the outhouse. However my stomach is still adjusting. I feel like I have been getting sick about once a month. Not too bad. My hope is eventually my stomach will become an iron stomach, that’s what they call it right? Nothing like moving to another country and having constant stomach issues on top of no toilet! My legs are thanking me though! I am teaching myself how to cook, if that’s what you want to call it. I am working on my ger skills! Lol.
Ok this has become long enough of a blog. For those of you reading this let me know of anything you want to know/hear about. Sometimes I am not sure what y’all would be interested in!
Hope all of you are sitting well! (Mongolians say this, sorta like I hope all is well with you)
ZA!
B
OHHHH I forgot! My Mongolian students gave me a Mongolian name, Zulaa!
AND I am going to be an expert Karaoke singer by the time I leave here, I feel like my coworkers go on a regular basis. SO far I have gone twice, both times they made me sing a ton.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
August 29, 2010
I have to start off by saying I have been dreading writing this blog because I know how long it is going to take me to type it up, a lot has happened in the last two and half weeks! To begin August 15 was a whirlwind of a day; I had to say goodbye to my host family and I learned of my new site information. Saying goodbye to my host family was a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. Everyone’s host family went to the school and helped us load the meaker. That was a task. We all have a lot of crap; I was impressed that it all fit in one small meaker! When we were pulling away some of our family members started to cry that in turn made everyone in the meaker teary eyed. So that was saying goodbye to them.
Then we arrived in a near by town called Zunnmod. This town is where we have been having our big gatherings all summer. That day was filled with various meetings of sort that I honestly couldn’t tell you a thing about because we were all focused on one thing, finding out our sites! FINALLY 4:30 roled around..the hour we had all been waiting for. It was really neat how they had us find out to begin there was a huge map of Mongolia spread across the gym floor and we gathered around it. Then one by one they would call out our new Aimag, town, and job location. Then the person would walk on the map and they would guide you to your new location. For 70ish people this took a while! Thankfully my name was called towards the beginning. For safety reasons I cannot publically display where exactly I am but if you want to know just email me and I’ll spill! (BTW I have a new email baneace@gmail.com) I do have to say I was very happy with my site location. I really didn’t have too many expectations so I really couldn’t be disappointed! :) However, I do have to say I did really want to be living in an apartment…but that wish didn’t come true. For the next two years of my life I will be living in a ger and using an outhouse. I know I know y’all are so jealous!! I really don’t think it will be too terribly bad considering after two years I will be a expert fire maker and squatter.
SO about my job!!!! I am uber excited about it. I am working in the Aimag Children’s Center. This particular center has applied for three years for a PC VOL, I am the first one they have ever had! My job will consist of a lot of various aspects, which I am excited about! I will of course teach English; also I am going to be teaching my co-workers about psychology and social work, doing assorted clubs. Also they have a lot of different contest through out the year, which I get to help with. This November they have a fashion show coming up. I can’t wait! OH and get this I am going to have a DJ job! I will have two shows a week. Who would of guessed me being a DJ. Also during the summers I will also be helping out with a summer camp teaching various things. Needless to say I am going to be busy, busy, busy!
The rest of our time in Zunmod went really quickly. We finished up random meetings and sorts. Oh and had another dance party which was fun. Other then that nothing too exciting happened that I can remember.
Ok, now to more exciting things!! We then went to UB, Ulaanbaatar, the capital. There we stayed at the internationally dorms which was interesting. They really did remind me of UT. I’d say they resembled South and North Carrick Dorms. SO when we got settled we went around UB which people who would be living in our regions. We went to this lovely café for lunch where I had a CHICKEN BURRITO! It was amazing. After lunch we continued touring around UB finding where all the good markets and stores are located. Then we went to the Peace Corps office where I got my new cell phone! I have to say it was really odd this summer not having a cell phone. At times it was nice not being tied to a phone but other times I wished I had one so I didn’t have to walk across town to tell someone something. Anywho, so I now have a cell phone everyone! So if you want to call me please do :) My number is 976-995-29461, 976 is the country code. For those of you who have skype you can call directly to my cell phone! If you don’t have skype it is really easy to get. (If you need help just ask me!)
After picking up my winter suitcase, heater, fire extinguisher, outlet surge, and cell we had to walk back to the international dorms. Y’all this was one of those memories that I hope to forget. To begin sidewalks here are not up to the standard I’d like them to be. SO rolling my suitcase was a fete AND I had other things I had to carry. That walk too like an hour and my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I guess I should have worked on my arm muscles before coming here! Jokes aside we made it to the dorm just fine.
The next day we meet our supervisors. Again they did this in a pretty interesting way. They had everyone in a big room, both our supervisors and us. Individually they called everyone names off. I was really worried I wouldn’t know when the said my job because they of course said it in Mongolian but I heard it! My supervisors name is Bat-Erdene. He is a very nice guy. That day after meeting them we went to lunch with everyone. That lunch might have been one of the most awkward lunch I have ever gone to. I speak very little Mongolian and well Bat-Erdene he speaks NO English! We managed to talk about the little bit I know how to say in Mongolian and it went find.
The next day was basically meetings all day. I went over my workplan with my supervisor, thankfully we had a translator! Then, hahah ok so this day I was sick. I mean my stomach hurt awfully! So as lunch we went again with our supervisors. I just could not eat because I was in so much pain. My supervisor notice I was eating. He was so concerned! He asked me if I had medicine and told me to eat rice. I thought that was very kind of him. (Note funny story to follow this tid bid)
Other random things that happened in UB:
-I went to a French Bakery and a German Bakery in the same day. That day I successfully spoke 4 different languages. (French, German, English, and Mongolian)
-I bought some kick ass slippers for my ger. They are made out of wool!
-I was spit on by a teenage boy. I know I know I was not a happy camper about this. He was a homeless guy and I suppose he just doesn’t like foreigners.
-I found tequila.
-I had pizza and nachos!!
- I was told there is a Catholic Church in UB, but I have no idea where it is. I hope to find it at some point.
Ok so then we had our swearing in ceremony. It was interesting because almost everyone was wearing their own traditional Dhell! Everyone was so colorful! I have to say I think I like mine the best! I had the only purple one! For the ceremony it was sorta weird because it reminded of a graduation. (Which I just had) We individually walked across the stage and received our contract of sorts. We also had to say a saying that is what all government workers have to say. (My brothers had to say something similar when they swore into the Army) Also at the ceremony some people preformed traditional Mongolian songs and dances. Then after the ceremony PC had a reception for everyone with all different kinds of food. It was there that I had to say goodbye to all my newly made friends because my supervisor wanted to leave for site at that point.
I was sad I had to leave so soon but I was thankful that we were traveling in his car. So I didn’t have to worry about public transportation. I have to say though the next couple hours were really confusing. I thought at first it was going to be him and me with all my stuff and my site mates belongings. I was wrong. We took all of our things to the Black market to be placed on a meaker. This I have to say made me really nervous to send my things via another vehicle. After we left our things we were on our way! The trip wasn’t bad at all. It was my supervisor and Jingo with his supervisor along with another lady. They even bought us snacks for the road. (Same as an American roadtrip) I have to say though I was SO tired! I tried really hard not to sleep but I ended up passing out for the entire trip. When we arrived my supervisor asked if I was tired. Lol.
I got to my new home at like 11ish at night. My counterpart had made me dinner, which was uber nice. She has two little girls ages 4 and 1. They both wanted to meet me but feel asleep. Urta, my coworker also told me that all my coworkers had been waiting for my arrival but went home bc it got too late. After chatting for a bit I went into my ger.
My ger is huge! I mean seriously this ger is prolly twice the size of the one I had this summer! I can actually stand up in it! My ger is really pretty and quite cozy. I have a bed, a desk, a kitchen cabinet, a dresser, a dry sink, two tables, an electric stove, a wood stove, and two comfy green chairs! I have been working on getting it to feel like a home. (Look for pictures on Facebook!)
That Saturday my bags arrived in the morning. Thank goodness!! I unpacked which was a great feeling to finally be able to get out of suitcases! Then the rest of the day my counterparts took me around the town to help me buy a bunch of things I needed for my new ger. They even took me out to lunch! Ok this is the part I was referring to earlier. My supervisor told EVERYONE that I had a bad stomach and that I was sick. At first I was shocked that he would tell everyone that but I have learned to be thankfully that he did this. Now everyone thinks that my stomach is bad and I can only eat certain things. I have been using this for my advantage for sure! They think I am a vegetarian. Which isn’t far from the truth. I have decided that I really won’t be eating meat much because it really does hurt my stomach. We will see how this turns out.
So that is what has been going on! More to come later!
B
I have to start off by saying I have been dreading writing this blog because I know how long it is going to take me to type it up, a lot has happened in the last two and half weeks! To begin August 15 was a whirlwind of a day; I had to say goodbye to my host family and I learned of my new site information. Saying goodbye to my host family was a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. Everyone’s host family went to the school and helped us load the meaker. That was a task. We all have a lot of crap; I was impressed that it all fit in one small meaker! When we were pulling away some of our family members started to cry that in turn made everyone in the meaker teary eyed. So that was saying goodbye to them.
Then we arrived in a near by town called Zunnmod. This town is where we have been having our big gatherings all summer. That day was filled with various meetings of sort that I honestly couldn’t tell you a thing about because we were all focused on one thing, finding out our sites! FINALLY 4:30 roled around..the hour we had all been waiting for. It was really neat how they had us find out to begin there was a huge map of Mongolia spread across the gym floor and we gathered around it. Then one by one they would call out our new Aimag, town, and job location. Then the person would walk on the map and they would guide you to your new location. For 70ish people this took a while! Thankfully my name was called towards the beginning. For safety reasons I cannot publically display where exactly I am but if you want to know just email me and I’ll spill! (BTW I have a new email baneace@gmail.com) I do have to say I was very happy with my site location. I really didn’t have too many expectations so I really couldn’t be disappointed! :) However, I do have to say I did really want to be living in an apartment…but that wish didn’t come true. For the next two years of my life I will be living in a ger and using an outhouse. I know I know y’all are so jealous!! I really don’t think it will be too terribly bad considering after two years I will be a expert fire maker and squatter.
SO about my job!!!! I am uber excited about it. I am working in the Aimag Children’s Center. This particular center has applied for three years for a PC VOL, I am the first one they have ever had! My job will consist of a lot of various aspects, which I am excited about! I will of course teach English; also I am going to be teaching my co-workers about psychology and social work, doing assorted clubs. Also they have a lot of different contest through out the year, which I get to help with. This November they have a fashion show coming up. I can’t wait! OH and get this I am going to have a DJ job! I will have two shows a week. Who would of guessed me being a DJ. Also during the summers I will also be helping out with a summer camp teaching various things. Needless to say I am going to be busy, busy, busy!
The rest of our time in Zunmod went really quickly. We finished up random meetings and sorts. Oh and had another dance party which was fun. Other then that nothing too exciting happened that I can remember.
Ok, now to more exciting things!! We then went to UB, Ulaanbaatar, the capital. There we stayed at the internationally dorms which was interesting. They really did remind me of UT. I’d say they resembled South and North Carrick Dorms. SO when we got settled we went around UB which people who would be living in our regions. We went to this lovely café for lunch where I had a CHICKEN BURRITO! It was amazing. After lunch we continued touring around UB finding where all the good markets and stores are located. Then we went to the Peace Corps office where I got my new cell phone! I have to say it was really odd this summer not having a cell phone. At times it was nice not being tied to a phone but other times I wished I had one so I didn’t have to walk across town to tell someone something. Anywho, so I now have a cell phone everyone! So if you want to call me please do :) My number is 976-995-29461, 976 is the country code. For those of you who have skype you can call directly to my cell phone! If you don’t have skype it is really easy to get. (If you need help just ask me!)
After picking up my winter suitcase, heater, fire extinguisher, outlet surge, and cell we had to walk back to the international dorms. Y’all this was one of those memories that I hope to forget. To begin sidewalks here are not up to the standard I’d like them to be. SO rolling my suitcase was a fete AND I had other things I had to carry. That walk too like an hour and my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I guess I should have worked on my arm muscles before coming here! Jokes aside we made it to the dorm just fine.
The next day we meet our supervisors. Again they did this in a pretty interesting way. They had everyone in a big room, both our supervisors and us. Individually they called everyone names off. I was really worried I wouldn’t know when the said my job because they of course said it in Mongolian but I heard it! My supervisors name is Bat-Erdene. He is a very nice guy. That day after meeting them we went to lunch with everyone. That lunch might have been one of the most awkward lunch I have ever gone to. I speak very little Mongolian and well Bat-Erdene he speaks NO English! We managed to talk about the little bit I know how to say in Mongolian and it went find.
The next day was basically meetings all day. I went over my workplan with my supervisor, thankfully we had a translator! Then, hahah ok so this day I was sick. I mean my stomach hurt awfully! So as lunch we went again with our supervisors. I just could not eat because I was in so much pain. My supervisor notice I was eating. He was so concerned! He asked me if I had medicine and told me to eat rice. I thought that was very kind of him. (Note funny story to follow this tid bid)
Other random things that happened in UB:
-I went to a French Bakery and a German Bakery in the same day. That day I successfully spoke 4 different languages. (French, German, English, and Mongolian)
-I bought some kick ass slippers for my ger. They are made out of wool!
-I was spit on by a teenage boy. I know I know I was not a happy camper about this. He was a homeless guy and I suppose he just doesn’t like foreigners.
-I found tequila.
-I had pizza and nachos!!
- I was told there is a Catholic Church in UB, but I have no idea where it is. I hope to find it at some point.
Ok so then we had our swearing in ceremony. It was interesting because almost everyone was wearing their own traditional Dhell! Everyone was so colorful! I have to say I think I like mine the best! I had the only purple one! For the ceremony it was sorta weird because it reminded of a graduation. (Which I just had) We individually walked across the stage and received our contract of sorts. We also had to say a saying that is what all government workers have to say. (My brothers had to say something similar when they swore into the Army) Also at the ceremony some people preformed traditional Mongolian songs and dances. Then after the ceremony PC had a reception for everyone with all different kinds of food. It was there that I had to say goodbye to all my newly made friends because my supervisor wanted to leave for site at that point.
I was sad I had to leave so soon but I was thankful that we were traveling in his car. So I didn’t have to worry about public transportation. I have to say though the next couple hours were really confusing. I thought at first it was going to be him and me with all my stuff and my site mates belongings. I was wrong. We took all of our things to the Black market to be placed on a meaker. This I have to say made me really nervous to send my things via another vehicle. After we left our things we were on our way! The trip wasn’t bad at all. It was my supervisor and Jingo with his supervisor along with another lady. They even bought us snacks for the road. (Same as an American roadtrip) I have to say though I was SO tired! I tried really hard not to sleep but I ended up passing out for the entire trip. When we arrived my supervisor asked if I was tired. Lol.
I got to my new home at like 11ish at night. My counterpart had made me dinner, which was uber nice. She has two little girls ages 4 and 1. They both wanted to meet me but feel asleep. Urta, my coworker also told me that all my coworkers had been waiting for my arrival but went home bc it got too late. After chatting for a bit I went into my ger.
My ger is huge! I mean seriously this ger is prolly twice the size of the one I had this summer! I can actually stand up in it! My ger is really pretty and quite cozy. I have a bed, a desk, a kitchen cabinet, a dresser, a dry sink, two tables, an electric stove, a wood stove, and two comfy green chairs! I have been working on getting it to feel like a home. (Look for pictures on Facebook!)
That Saturday my bags arrived in the morning. Thank goodness!! I unpacked which was a great feeling to finally be able to get out of suitcases! Then the rest of the day my counterparts took me around the town to help me buy a bunch of things I needed for my new ger. They even took me out to lunch! Ok this is the part I was referring to earlier. My supervisor told EVERYONE that I had a bad stomach and that I was sick. At first I was shocked that he would tell everyone that but I have learned to be thankfully that he did this. Now everyone thinks that my stomach is bad and I can only eat certain things. I have been using this for my advantage for sure! They think I am a vegetarian. Which isn’t far from the truth. I have decided that I really won’t be eating meat much because it really does hurt my stomach. We will see how this turns out.
So that is what has been going on! More to come later!
B
Thursday, August 19, 2010
August 12, 2010
I am officially done with training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahooo!!!!!!! I had my TAP interview this morning along with my LPI. The TAP is basically an interview about how I did during training. That went fine. Then the LPI is the language test. That went ok. The lady said I did Dutchgwee, which is Mongolian for good job. I have my reservations still, I think that I answered all of her questions fine but I know that I have a lot more to learn.
Now that I am done I have the weekend to pack and prepare for the upcoming week! Today my site mates and I are going to have a belated birthday celebration for Shar/ a we are done party! I am looking forward to that! Shar’s mom sent her a cake mix for her birthday and we are going to cook it in a rice cooker….we’ll see how that turns out!
Tomorrow we are going to continue painting. There is an informal education school and the lady who runs it asked us to help. We are painting the new fence. It is a chain link fence, kinda odd to me that we are painting it but as long as it makes her happy. The painting process here is a bit different from America. For example we are painting with pieces of an old bed cushion. My sponge kept falling apart but it worked. There are like 60 some fence sections so it is going to take a while.
Yesterday, I got my Dell! Dell’s are traditional Mongolian dress. My dell is purple. It is really pretty! Mine is a skirt and a top. I’ll post pictures of it on facebook asap. I am planning on wearing it to my swearing in ceremony.
Ok let see what else has been going on the other weekend we took our families out to the hodoo (countryside) for an appreciation day. That was a lot of fun. We went to this camp where they just started a mine. The entire area seems like it might be a protected park. That doesn’t really make sense to me if they are both mining plus protecting the area..I am not really sure. There were about 40 people who came with us. All the American’s made food at home and brought it with us. I made onion rings. Let me just say that was an experience making them. I have never cried so much! Lol. Delgema, Benda, Anka, and her boyfriend all helped me in the morning making them. We had quite the assembly line! Anywho, the families made the meat for us. They killed a sheep ( I think it was a sheep) and prepared it with the hot rocks. I once again knew that I was going to get sick but at this point I didn’t care because the meat is really tasty.
The day was filled with every one eating. We had quite the spread. Potato salad, onion rings, fruit, juice, vodka, candy, veggies, cookies, etc… We also ending up playing the human knot. I was in charge of it and let me just say it was a sight for eyes! We had all sorts of people playing; Ashley’s Dad played, who is like 70, then we also had a bunch of kids. It took a while for them to figure out the game but in the end I think everyone really enjoyed it!
So now that I am leaving the town I suppose I will speak alittle bit about where I have been living the past couple of months! (PC didn’t want us to disclose this info while we lived here for safety reasons) I have been living in Ulzit. Ulzit is about a 30ish minute drive from UB. The town is quite small. It is known for its horses. They have a lot of breeders here that breed horses for Nadaam. There is a post office and it has one computer that I have been using all summer, yet it doesn’t send any mail international. There is one bar in town, which also doubles as the one and only restaurant. Overall the town is quaint. I have really enjoyed it here.
That being said I have a new address. For those of you sending me mail and or packages hold off for the next week or so until I know my new address. I will let y’all know as soon as I find it out!
I have to say this has been the most interesting and adventurous summer of my life. I have really enjoyed my host family and I am sad that I soon will have to say goodbye. My family has been really great. They gave me a going away present today. It was a framed Mongolian flag and a leather wallet with Mongolian designs on it. Then my rascal of a little brother drew me a picture! It was really sweet because he wrote on it that it was for his older sister. Too cute! Well now that my summer is over I do have to say that I have realized something really exciting…this is the FIRST August since Kindergarten that I am NOT going back to school. Pretty stoke about that!!!! OK off to pack…totally not looking forward to lugging all my stuff around Mongolia.
Za,
Brittany
I am officially done with training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahooo!!!!!!! I had my TAP interview this morning along with my LPI. The TAP is basically an interview about how I did during training. That went fine. Then the LPI is the language test. That went ok. The lady said I did Dutchgwee, which is Mongolian for good job. I have my reservations still, I think that I answered all of her questions fine but I know that I have a lot more to learn.
Now that I am done I have the weekend to pack and prepare for the upcoming week! Today my site mates and I are going to have a belated birthday celebration for Shar/ a we are done party! I am looking forward to that! Shar’s mom sent her a cake mix for her birthday and we are going to cook it in a rice cooker….we’ll see how that turns out!
Tomorrow we are going to continue painting. There is an informal education school and the lady who runs it asked us to help. We are painting the new fence. It is a chain link fence, kinda odd to me that we are painting it but as long as it makes her happy. The painting process here is a bit different from America. For example we are painting with pieces of an old bed cushion. My sponge kept falling apart but it worked. There are like 60 some fence sections so it is going to take a while.
Yesterday, I got my Dell! Dell’s are traditional Mongolian dress. My dell is purple. It is really pretty! Mine is a skirt and a top. I’ll post pictures of it on facebook asap. I am planning on wearing it to my swearing in ceremony.
Ok let see what else has been going on the other weekend we took our families out to the hodoo (countryside) for an appreciation day. That was a lot of fun. We went to this camp where they just started a mine. The entire area seems like it might be a protected park. That doesn’t really make sense to me if they are both mining plus protecting the area..I am not really sure. There were about 40 people who came with us. All the American’s made food at home and brought it with us. I made onion rings. Let me just say that was an experience making them. I have never cried so much! Lol. Delgema, Benda, Anka, and her boyfriend all helped me in the morning making them. We had quite the assembly line! Anywho, the families made the meat for us. They killed a sheep ( I think it was a sheep) and prepared it with the hot rocks. I once again knew that I was going to get sick but at this point I didn’t care because the meat is really tasty.
The day was filled with every one eating. We had quite the spread. Potato salad, onion rings, fruit, juice, vodka, candy, veggies, cookies, etc… We also ending up playing the human knot. I was in charge of it and let me just say it was a sight for eyes! We had all sorts of people playing; Ashley’s Dad played, who is like 70, then we also had a bunch of kids. It took a while for them to figure out the game but in the end I think everyone really enjoyed it!
So now that I am leaving the town I suppose I will speak alittle bit about where I have been living the past couple of months! (PC didn’t want us to disclose this info while we lived here for safety reasons) I have been living in Ulzit. Ulzit is about a 30ish minute drive from UB. The town is quite small. It is known for its horses. They have a lot of breeders here that breed horses for Nadaam. There is a post office and it has one computer that I have been using all summer, yet it doesn’t send any mail international. There is one bar in town, which also doubles as the one and only restaurant. Overall the town is quaint. I have really enjoyed it here.
That being said I have a new address. For those of you sending me mail and or packages hold off for the next week or so until I know my new address. I will let y’all know as soon as I find it out!
I have to say this has been the most interesting and adventurous summer of my life. I have really enjoyed my host family and I am sad that I soon will have to say goodbye. My family has been really great. They gave me a going away present today. It was a framed Mongolian flag and a leather wallet with Mongolian designs on it. Then my rascal of a little brother drew me a picture! It was really sweet because he wrote on it that it was for his older sister. Too cute! Well now that my summer is over I do have to say that I have realized something really exciting…this is the FIRST August since Kindergarten that I am NOT going back to school. Pretty stoke about that!!!! OK off to pack…totally not looking forward to lugging all my stuff around Mongolia.
Za,
Brittany
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Warning this is a LONG blog!
August 2, 2010
This weekend I went to camp. Let’s just say that this weekend was the highlight of my summer! To begin the fun began Thursday night when I found a present outside my ger. I was inside my ger doing who knows what when I heard this noise outside my door. I was curious as to what it was so I opened my door to find a PUPPY!!! Yes ladies and gents a PUPPY! I think it was God’s way of saying I need an animal in my life..but unfortunately this particular pup came at a bad time. (I was leaving for the entire weekend and my family would NOT have appreciated taking care of a puppy for me especially because they were frighten of the thing!) Well I took the pup inside my ger for a bit and played with it..Y’all this pup was ADORABLE! Then I showed her to my fam and they were all so scared of it! They wouldn’t even touch it! Then I decided to take her to my friends ger to get her advice as to what I should do. (I really really really wanted to keep it) So after consoling with Shar she informed me that she thought the pup belonged to this lady in town…we decided I’d take it there in the morning if it was still around.
SO when I got home I still wanted to play with it before letting it outside BUT the silly pup got out of my ger as soon as I brought it in! It escaped out from under my ger walls..that made me sad. However, I decided that if it was still outside in the morning I’d take it to the lady in town to see if it was hers or not….I continued on with my evening of watching the movie “The Departed” when I heard a noise coming from INSIDE my ger. I was a tad bit freaked out because I had no idea what the sound was. I got out of my comfy bed to find the puppy had magically gotten back into my ger and was shaking because it was so cold. At that point I decided that she was just going have to share my bed, which she gladly did. In the morning I awoke to her barking at some birds that were outside my ger at 6 AM!!!!!! That did not make me happy. After getting ready I went to the OTHER side of town to see if this pup belonged to her….nope! Her pup was still there. At that point I just wanted to keep her but I had no one to watch her for the weekend. So we decided ( I had fellow sitemates with me at this point) to take her back to my side of town and leave her in hopes that she would find her real home. That was hard to do especially because she kept following me! Eventually she got distracted long enough by some people waiting for the bus that it let me to slip away with out her noticing.
Then to continue on with the morning we had an early Mongolian Language lesson in the morning then we got on the bus to UB. The bus was really crowded and I had to stand the entire time, which wasn’t awful but definitely not ideal. Then when we got to UB a fellow PCV who took us to the State Department Store where we were able to go to the bank. Afterwards we went to American Burgers and Fries. Delicious. I had a hamburger and French fries! It was fabulous. THEN I went across the street and had COFFEE!!!! I was in heaven at that point!
Later on we ended up going back to the State Department Store where we went shopping for some snacks for the weekend. That store was AMAZING. They had so many great things that I love. First of all they had coffee!! THEN they had Kinder and Cadbury chocolate!!!!!!!!!! (Joy and Marissa can you believe that!!!!) That was just shocking that I found that in MONGOLIA of all places! So after we all walked around the isles in awe we made our purchases and waited outside to meet up with everyone.
It was there that I encountered a culture shock. There were two kids who were standing outside the store. These kids looked like they were homeless. They had rags for clothes and we extremely dirty. Ashley, a fellow CYD, had bought a bunch of peaches. The little boy came up to her and asked for one. She in turn gave him one. Then, who I am assuming was his sister came and asked her for one as well. She again gave her one. This was all nothing too terribly surprising, but then for some reason the girl started to yell at the boy and threw him to the ground. The boy began to cry and then threw his peach on the dirty ground. I was shocked that he being homeless and hungry would do such a thing. I just could not comprehend as to why he would do that. Molly who is our PCVL told me that his actions were not surprising to her for she has seen it happen on several occasions. I supposed there are some things in this world that I will never understand.
On a lighter note, we left the store and started to walk to the train station. On the way we passed the Beatles monument! I had no prior knowledge that Mongolia had such a thing but it was pretty neat. I’ll post a pic on FB. ALSO on the way, someone saw a sign for H&M. I am not entirely sure if there is a real H&M in Mongolia but if there is one that will make me happy! I am going to look into this further when I need to get clothes down the road. The walk to the train seemed to take a while but it was good exercise after eating the burger so I didn’t mind!
Ok so the train…pretty standard train. It reminded me of the one I took from Berlin to Prague back in March. They had a car that had little cabin like nooks. In the nook there was enough seating for 6 people. They had beds up above that people could lay down on and they had tables. I guess one issue they have with the trains is that they tend to over sell the seats…so it was a tad bit crowded. I actually ended up on one of the beds at one point and it was fairly comfy.
The train ride only took about 2 hours then we were there! To be honest I still do not know of the town that we were in. All I know was that it was 2 hours north of UB. The town was really pretty!! They actually had trees!!!!!!!!! When we got off the train we went to get in a Meaker (Russian Bus) to continue our journey to the Camp. The meaker ride was an adventure to say the least. We were all crammed in that thing! There were 12 people and everyone’s individual backpack in an 8-person bus. It was a tad bit tight to say the least. Then to top that off the road was far from being pot-hole-less. Before coming to Mongolia I wasn’t ever the one to get carsick but I have to say on that trip all I could focus on was not throwing up. Then at one point the bus stopped. So a couple of people had to get out and help push it to get it to start again. *I have decided that Mongolia needs AAA* Thankfully that got the bus to start up again and we made it to camp. By the time we got to camp it was pick black outside and to top it off the electricity was out!
We went into the mess hall and they had a late dinner waiting on us. Dinner by one-candle light, it was ideal. After that we went to out individual cabins. The rooms were divided into two rooms and had three beds in each room. It was nice. Then we went to bed. I have to say that was the first night so far that I was cold. I was the end of July and I was cold! I already know I have a long winter ahead!
I have never been to camp before in my life. I have done tons of retreats for church so I thought that it would be similar- which it was but there definitely were some differences. To begin at 6:55 A.M. I awoke to music blearing outside my cabin. I was not expecting that, a trumpet maybe but definitely not English speaking music! My roommates and I get up to find out that we had to go outside for the singing of the Mongolian national anthem. That was an interesting way to wake up that is for sure!
The camp that we were helping out with was a soccer camp for boys. There were boys from the age of 9 to about 15. They to our surprise knew a lot of English! Justin found that out quickly when he taught English that afternoon. We also taught a couple of lifeskills lessons to them. When I say we I mean my other sitemates because I was actually signed up to do anything the entire weekend but I did teach them the human knot game. That was interesting! The first time we tried it I would say it fail miserably. However, the second time after a while they caught on and actually finished it! The boys I think were really excited that they figured it out. THEN later on in the evening when we were getting ready to watch a movie we were all outside and the boys played it again! That made my heart smile :) Just to see them do something on their own…that’s what I am here for! So that evening we watched Karate Kid. Yes the new movie! Can you believe it! Well to y’all back at home it prolly isn’t as new but it really is a fairly new movie. I was shocked! The movie was ok, I was so tired at this point I was having a hard time staying awake! THEN after the movie the kids had a dance. I just could not bring myself to go to it so I went to bed instead. A couple of people went and said it was a lot of fun..i will take their word for it! That night was a cold night! It was the end of July and it is ALREADY getting cold in Mongolia! It is going to be a long winter!
If you are still reading this blog at this point, Bless you. I know this is a long one! At camp they have a really interesting way of washing dishes. To begin the campers wash their own dishes and they have a system. They have 5 buckets and they just pass the dirty dish through each bucket. It has been the most effective version of washing dishes I have seen so far in Mongolia. I liked it!
Sunday morning was similar to Saturday, but we as a group went on a little hike to the stream. This stream they say is good for your stomach and is very sacred to Mongolians. Before getting into the water you have to touch the water to your mouth and head. I did this before going creeking. It was cold, similar to the Mountain waters of Tennessee. So that was a lot of fun to go and see that. In addition, Mongolians offer blue scarfs (I can’t remember the Mongolian word for it) to the trees as well as money. Afterwards when we were walking back to the camp we saw 5 different animals with in a minute: cows, sheep, goats, horses, and yaks! It was exciting. THEN I got to get on a horse! That was fun, basically got up there long enough for my picture to be taken and then got down. I have to say the saddles here are a lot different then ours in the states.
The rest of the day we had more English and Lifeskills lessons. OH and I found that they had a SHOWER!! It was amazing! It was warm water and all! I stayed in there for like 30 minutes! Then we planned for our talent show! Don’t you worry there will be uploads to facebook asap. Think spice girls and backstreet boys! :) It was a lot of fun to plan our talent show. We had a dancing section, some drama, singing, and our chant! The kids LOVED it! Afterwards we went and had yogurt. Now I have to say I am not one to have milk products here in Mongolia but I tried the yogurt that night and it was delicious!
K, so you’d think that would be enough for one day but NO they then wanted us to play a game with them. I am not sure what they call this game in Mongolian but I would say it is a cross between war and capture the flag. Let’s just say I was scared for my life. Not only was it pitch black out side, but I also had no idea where we were or who was right next to me. I was really scared but I played..why I don’t know. So there were two teams and we both had a big flag. The big flag we hide. We also had flags ( a piece of material around our head) that the opposing team had to get from us. So the objective of the game was to capture as many head flags and the big flag. Keep in mind though it is pitch black, I mean you can not see anything. AND we were playing on a hill with trees and stumps and holes. It basically was a disaster waiting to happen. Shar and I were on the same team and we had two boys with us. I would not let them leave our side for anything. There was a lot of screaming and falling down but all in all it was fun. Would I even play it again? No. Not inless I knew exactly where I was and there was some light. Y’all know I hate being scared!
Other highlights from the weekend:
The kids loved my tattoo and wanted me to draw tattoos on them.
There was a Brazilian Soccer Coach who spoke Spanish to the Mongolian children…that didn’t work out to well. The kids were having difficulties understanding him if you could imagine! At one point we had an interesting line of communication. The coach spoke to Brittany Ross (who speaks Spanish) then Bross spoke to Mugii (our boss of sorts who speaks English and Mongolian) who then spoke to the Mongolian who the coach was trying to relay the message to..It was an interesting line of communication.
Then Monday we left to go back to our town. On the way to the train we had to stop and help a fellow car out. He was out of gas so he took some from us. We got to the train just in time. It was really crowded but I was able to rest so I didn’t mind. THEN when we got back into UB we took a bus to a resturant for dinner. ON the bus my fellow sitemate was pickpocketed. Bad news bears! Her entire wallet was taken out of her zipped purse. Her passpost, credit cards, and cash were stolen. Needless to say she was upset. I think it showed all of us to always look out for one another no matter what and never feel too comfortable in your surroundings.
That night we went to an Irish Pub for dinner! I was amazing! I had NACHOS and a Margarita!! It was once again the best Nachos and Margarita and the worst I have ever had. They were great just because they reminded me of home but they weren’t the best. For example the nachos were made with Doritos if that tells you anything. Then after dinner we had to wait forever for our bus to go back to our town. I think we were afraid that we might not have a ride because it was getting dark. Then when what we thought was the bus (it ended up turning out to be the wrong one) we all ran towards it. During that minute of a run…..SOMEONE tried to pickpocket us again!!! Twice within two hours! Crazy! Thankfully, Molly our PCLV saw the guy and basically took it back out of his hands. He tried to take Jo’s camera and would have gotten away with it had we not been paying attention. I learned a very important lesson that day….watch out for thiefs!!!
The ride home was just as crowded as the ride into UB. There was this really sweet lady who let me sit by her feet. I think she saw me wobbling about and felt sorry for me! Lol. I thought it was a very nice gesture. Anywho when I got home I was happy to see my family and just happy to be home. The weekend was a lot of fun and extremely eventful but I was happy to come home to my own ger.
Thanks for reading!
Za,
Little B (That has become my nickname at site)
This weekend I went to camp. Let’s just say that this weekend was the highlight of my summer! To begin the fun began Thursday night when I found a present outside my ger. I was inside my ger doing who knows what when I heard this noise outside my door. I was curious as to what it was so I opened my door to find a PUPPY!!! Yes ladies and gents a PUPPY! I think it was God’s way of saying I need an animal in my life..but unfortunately this particular pup came at a bad time. (I was leaving for the entire weekend and my family would NOT have appreciated taking care of a puppy for me especially because they were frighten of the thing!) Well I took the pup inside my ger for a bit and played with it..Y’all this pup was ADORABLE! Then I showed her to my fam and they were all so scared of it! They wouldn’t even touch it! Then I decided to take her to my friends ger to get her advice as to what I should do. (I really really really wanted to keep it) So after consoling with Shar she informed me that she thought the pup belonged to this lady in town…we decided I’d take it there in the morning if it was still around.
SO when I got home I still wanted to play with it before letting it outside BUT the silly pup got out of my ger as soon as I brought it in! It escaped out from under my ger walls..that made me sad. However, I decided that if it was still outside in the morning I’d take it to the lady in town to see if it was hers or not….I continued on with my evening of watching the movie “The Departed” when I heard a noise coming from INSIDE my ger. I was a tad bit freaked out because I had no idea what the sound was. I got out of my comfy bed to find the puppy had magically gotten back into my ger and was shaking because it was so cold. At that point I decided that she was just going have to share my bed, which she gladly did. In the morning I awoke to her barking at some birds that were outside my ger at 6 AM!!!!!! That did not make me happy. After getting ready I went to the OTHER side of town to see if this pup belonged to her….nope! Her pup was still there. At that point I just wanted to keep her but I had no one to watch her for the weekend. So we decided ( I had fellow sitemates with me at this point) to take her back to my side of town and leave her in hopes that she would find her real home. That was hard to do especially because she kept following me! Eventually she got distracted long enough by some people waiting for the bus that it let me to slip away with out her noticing.
Then to continue on with the morning we had an early Mongolian Language lesson in the morning then we got on the bus to UB. The bus was really crowded and I had to stand the entire time, which wasn’t awful but definitely not ideal. Then when we got to UB a fellow PCV who took us to the State Department Store where we were able to go to the bank. Afterwards we went to American Burgers and Fries. Delicious. I had a hamburger and French fries! It was fabulous. THEN I went across the street and had COFFEE!!!! I was in heaven at that point!
Later on we ended up going back to the State Department Store where we went shopping for some snacks for the weekend. That store was AMAZING. They had so many great things that I love. First of all they had coffee!! THEN they had Kinder and Cadbury chocolate!!!!!!!!!! (Joy and Marissa can you believe that!!!!) That was just shocking that I found that in MONGOLIA of all places! So after we all walked around the isles in awe we made our purchases and waited outside to meet up with everyone.
It was there that I encountered a culture shock. There were two kids who were standing outside the store. These kids looked like they were homeless. They had rags for clothes and we extremely dirty. Ashley, a fellow CYD, had bought a bunch of peaches. The little boy came up to her and asked for one. She in turn gave him one. Then, who I am assuming was his sister came and asked her for one as well. She again gave her one. This was all nothing too terribly surprising, but then for some reason the girl started to yell at the boy and threw him to the ground. The boy began to cry and then threw his peach on the dirty ground. I was shocked that he being homeless and hungry would do such a thing. I just could not comprehend as to why he would do that. Molly who is our PCVL told me that his actions were not surprising to her for she has seen it happen on several occasions. I supposed there are some things in this world that I will never understand.
On a lighter note, we left the store and started to walk to the train station. On the way we passed the Beatles monument! I had no prior knowledge that Mongolia had such a thing but it was pretty neat. I’ll post a pic on FB. ALSO on the way, someone saw a sign for H&M. I am not entirely sure if there is a real H&M in Mongolia but if there is one that will make me happy! I am going to look into this further when I need to get clothes down the road. The walk to the train seemed to take a while but it was good exercise after eating the burger so I didn’t mind!
Ok so the train…pretty standard train. It reminded me of the one I took from Berlin to Prague back in March. They had a car that had little cabin like nooks. In the nook there was enough seating for 6 people. They had beds up above that people could lay down on and they had tables. I guess one issue they have with the trains is that they tend to over sell the seats…so it was a tad bit crowded. I actually ended up on one of the beds at one point and it was fairly comfy.
The train ride only took about 2 hours then we were there! To be honest I still do not know of the town that we were in. All I know was that it was 2 hours north of UB. The town was really pretty!! They actually had trees!!!!!!!!! When we got off the train we went to get in a Meaker (Russian Bus) to continue our journey to the Camp. The meaker ride was an adventure to say the least. We were all crammed in that thing! There were 12 people and everyone’s individual backpack in an 8-person bus. It was a tad bit tight to say the least. Then to top that off the road was far from being pot-hole-less. Before coming to Mongolia I wasn’t ever the one to get carsick but I have to say on that trip all I could focus on was not throwing up. Then at one point the bus stopped. So a couple of people had to get out and help push it to get it to start again. *I have decided that Mongolia needs AAA* Thankfully that got the bus to start up again and we made it to camp. By the time we got to camp it was pick black outside and to top it off the electricity was out!
We went into the mess hall and they had a late dinner waiting on us. Dinner by one-candle light, it was ideal. After that we went to out individual cabins. The rooms were divided into two rooms and had three beds in each room. It was nice. Then we went to bed. I have to say that was the first night so far that I was cold. I was the end of July and I was cold! I already know I have a long winter ahead!
I have never been to camp before in my life. I have done tons of retreats for church so I thought that it would be similar- which it was but there definitely were some differences. To begin at 6:55 A.M. I awoke to music blearing outside my cabin. I was not expecting that, a trumpet maybe but definitely not English speaking music! My roommates and I get up to find out that we had to go outside for the singing of the Mongolian national anthem. That was an interesting way to wake up that is for sure!
The camp that we were helping out with was a soccer camp for boys. There were boys from the age of 9 to about 15. They to our surprise knew a lot of English! Justin found that out quickly when he taught English that afternoon. We also taught a couple of lifeskills lessons to them. When I say we I mean my other sitemates because I was actually signed up to do anything the entire weekend but I did teach them the human knot game. That was interesting! The first time we tried it I would say it fail miserably. However, the second time after a while they caught on and actually finished it! The boys I think were really excited that they figured it out. THEN later on in the evening when we were getting ready to watch a movie we were all outside and the boys played it again! That made my heart smile :) Just to see them do something on their own…that’s what I am here for! So that evening we watched Karate Kid. Yes the new movie! Can you believe it! Well to y’all back at home it prolly isn’t as new but it really is a fairly new movie. I was shocked! The movie was ok, I was so tired at this point I was having a hard time staying awake! THEN after the movie the kids had a dance. I just could not bring myself to go to it so I went to bed instead. A couple of people went and said it was a lot of fun..i will take their word for it! That night was a cold night! It was the end of July and it is ALREADY getting cold in Mongolia! It is going to be a long winter!
If you are still reading this blog at this point, Bless you. I know this is a long one! At camp they have a really interesting way of washing dishes. To begin the campers wash their own dishes and they have a system. They have 5 buckets and they just pass the dirty dish through each bucket. It has been the most effective version of washing dishes I have seen so far in Mongolia. I liked it!
Sunday morning was similar to Saturday, but we as a group went on a little hike to the stream. This stream they say is good for your stomach and is very sacred to Mongolians. Before getting into the water you have to touch the water to your mouth and head. I did this before going creeking. It was cold, similar to the Mountain waters of Tennessee. So that was a lot of fun to go and see that. In addition, Mongolians offer blue scarfs (I can’t remember the Mongolian word for it) to the trees as well as money. Afterwards when we were walking back to the camp we saw 5 different animals with in a minute: cows, sheep, goats, horses, and yaks! It was exciting. THEN I got to get on a horse! That was fun, basically got up there long enough for my picture to be taken and then got down. I have to say the saddles here are a lot different then ours in the states.
The rest of the day we had more English and Lifeskills lessons. OH and I found that they had a SHOWER!! It was amazing! It was warm water and all! I stayed in there for like 30 minutes! Then we planned for our talent show! Don’t you worry there will be uploads to facebook asap. Think spice girls and backstreet boys! :) It was a lot of fun to plan our talent show. We had a dancing section, some drama, singing, and our chant! The kids LOVED it! Afterwards we went and had yogurt. Now I have to say I am not one to have milk products here in Mongolia but I tried the yogurt that night and it was delicious!
K, so you’d think that would be enough for one day but NO they then wanted us to play a game with them. I am not sure what they call this game in Mongolian but I would say it is a cross between war and capture the flag. Let’s just say I was scared for my life. Not only was it pitch black out side, but I also had no idea where we were or who was right next to me. I was really scared but I played..why I don’t know. So there were two teams and we both had a big flag. The big flag we hide. We also had flags ( a piece of material around our head) that the opposing team had to get from us. So the objective of the game was to capture as many head flags and the big flag. Keep in mind though it is pitch black, I mean you can not see anything. AND we were playing on a hill with trees and stumps and holes. It basically was a disaster waiting to happen. Shar and I were on the same team and we had two boys with us. I would not let them leave our side for anything. There was a lot of screaming and falling down but all in all it was fun. Would I even play it again? No. Not inless I knew exactly where I was and there was some light. Y’all know I hate being scared!
Other highlights from the weekend:
The kids loved my tattoo and wanted me to draw tattoos on them.
There was a Brazilian Soccer Coach who spoke Spanish to the Mongolian children…that didn’t work out to well. The kids were having difficulties understanding him if you could imagine! At one point we had an interesting line of communication. The coach spoke to Brittany Ross (who speaks Spanish) then Bross spoke to Mugii (our boss of sorts who speaks English and Mongolian) who then spoke to the Mongolian who the coach was trying to relay the message to..It was an interesting line of communication.
Then Monday we left to go back to our town. On the way to the train we had to stop and help a fellow car out. He was out of gas so he took some from us. We got to the train just in time. It was really crowded but I was able to rest so I didn’t mind. THEN when we got back into UB we took a bus to a resturant for dinner. ON the bus my fellow sitemate was pickpocketed. Bad news bears! Her entire wallet was taken out of her zipped purse. Her passpost, credit cards, and cash were stolen. Needless to say she was upset. I think it showed all of us to always look out for one another no matter what and never feel too comfortable in your surroundings.
That night we went to an Irish Pub for dinner! I was amazing! I had NACHOS and a Margarita!! It was once again the best Nachos and Margarita and the worst I have ever had. They were great just because they reminded me of home but they weren’t the best. For example the nachos were made with Doritos if that tells you anything. Then after dinner we had to wait forever for our bus to go back to our town. I think we were afraid that we might not have a ride because it was getting dark. Then when what we thought was the bus (it ended up turning out to be the wrong one) we all ran towards it. During that minute of a run…..SOMEONE tried to pickpocket us again!!! Twice within two hours! Crazy! Thankfully, Molly our PCLV saw the guy and basically took it back out of his hands. He tried to take Jo’s camera and would have gotten away with it had we not been paying attention. I learned a very important lesson that day….watch out for thiefs!!!
The ride home was just as crowded as the ride into UB. There was this really sweet lady who let me sit by her feet. I think she saw me wobbling about and felt sorry for me! Lol. I thought it was a very nice gesture. Anywho when I got home I was happy to see my family and just happy to be home. The weekend was a lot of fun and extremely eventful but I was happy to come home to my own ger.
Thanks for reading!
Za,
Little B (That has become my nickname at site)
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 26, 2010
Hey y’all!!! Right now in Mongolia it is about 6 p.m. and I just got back to my ger from my long day of class and training. Today I taught English for the second time. It was a lot of fun! My Mongolian dad, the school guard, and a young girl were in attendance. The lesson was days of the week and months. I think that they all really enjoyed the lesson. I played a fun matching game with them. It is interesting teaching someone a foreign language when you yourself don’t speak his or her language! However, I think they walked away learning so that is all that matters!
This past weekend was full of activity. On Saturday I taught my first English class. It was the same material but more so a trial run for the Monday lesson. I was a little sad that only one kid showed up but 30 minutes into the lesson another girl showed up. So a grand total of 5 individuals now know the days of the week and months in English! That is more then when I started. I feel like that could be an issue during my time here- trying to get involvement. BUT I plan on making my lessons really interactive with a lot of games so hopefully word will get around the town that it is a lot of fun! Oh and this weekend my sitemates and I planned our CAMP! We get to run a camp this up coming weekend. I am really looking forward to that! (Plus I get to ride the Mongolian train for the first time!)
Then this past Friday I taught yoga for the first time with my sitemate Ashley. I really enjoyed that! We had about 5 kids and the school guard. I think that was definitely the first time they had done yoga, but they seemed to really like it! I am hoping that when I get to my actual site to start up an exercise club that meets once a week.
In other news, my cousin who lives in the ger next to me who is sixteen just got her nose pierced-her mom doesn’t know yet. I have a sneaky suspicion that she got the idea from me…so I hope her mom likes it!
Last week I started to learn a Mongolian song. That was a lot of fun. My family was laughing at my pronunciations skills and me. Hahah. It’s coming along though.
Food news is as follows: I miss American food. I know it has been about two months since I have been gone but man I am already tired of potatoes! I did learn how to make sushi last week. It consisted of rice and seaweed; it was a nice change from the typically potato dish. Oh and I have found that I like tofu and soy meat better then Mongolian meat. I think my family was picking up on the fact that I wasn’t eating a lot of meat so they started using these things. In the states I prolly would have never eaten tofu or soy meat but ‘when in Mongolia!’ OH AND BREAKING NEWS!!!! My dad told me he loved my cooking!!!!!!!! No one has every said that to me in my life! I was shocked when he said it! ( I think he just might love the French fries that I make but all in all he still said it!!!!!!)
There ya have it folks. A short little update for all to hear!
Love,
Brit
This past weekend was full of activity. On Saturday I taught my first English class. It was the same material but more so a trial run for the Monday lesson. I was a little sad that only one kid showed up but 30 minutes into the lesson another girl showed up. So a grand total of 5 individuals now know the days of the week and months in English! That is more then when I started. I feel like that could be an issue during my time here- trying to get involvement. BUT I plan on making my lessons really interactive with a lot of games so hopefully word will get around the town that it is a lot of fun! Oh and this weekend my sitemates and I planned our CAMP! We get to run a camp this up coming weekend. I am really looking forward to that! (Plus I get to ride the Mongolian train for the first time!)
Then this past Friday I taught yoga for the first time with my sitemate Ashley. I really enjoyed that! We had about 5 kids and the school guard. I think that was definitely the first time they had done yoga, but they seemed to really like it! I am hoping that when I get to my actual site to start up an exercise club that meets once a week.
In other news, my cousin who lives in the ger next to me who is sixteen just got her nose pierced-her mom doesn’t know yet. I have a sneaky suspicion that she got the idea from me…so I hope her mom likes it!
Last week I started to learn a Mongolian song. That was a lot of fun. My family was laughing at my pronunciations skills and me. Hahah. It’s coming along though.
Food news is as follows: I miss American food. I know it has been about two months since I have been gone but man I am already tired of potatoes! I did learn how to make sushi last week. It consisted of rice and seaweed; it was a nice change from the typically potato dish. Oh and I have found that I like tofu and soy meat better then Mongolian meat. I think my family was picking up on the fact that I wasn’t eating a lot of meat so they started using these things. In the states I prolly would have never eaten tofu or soy meat but ‘when in Mongolia!’ OH AND BREAKING NEWS!!!! My dad told me he loved my cooking!!!!!!!! No one has every said that to me in my life! I was shocked when he said it! ( I think he just might love the French fries that I make but all in all he still said it!!!!!!)
There ya have it folks. A short little update for all to hear!
Love,
Brit
Thursday, July 22, 2010
July 18
Today was our family picnic. Well let me rephrase that, our family gathering. So our cross culture team gave us some money to have a picnic but it was not nearly enough to have a good picnic for all of our family members. SO we decided to have a fruit party. We had our LCF go to UB and gather them up for us. We had watermelon, grapes, apples, dried apricots, dates, peaches, plums, nectarines, and bananas. It was AWESOME. We really don’t get to see any of these fruits in our little town so it was really great to be able to do this for our family. So we cut up everything and had a whole spread for everyone. We had a great turn out. I think everyone really enjoyed himself or herself.
Afterwards Shar and I went on a walk around town. We went over to Ashley’s ger and hung out for a bit then I came back home. When I got home I realized I missed out on the first 15 minutes of the nightly soap opera that my family watches. It really is actually a good show…I know this because it has English sub tittles! Anywho tonight for dinner I had pasta tossed in mayo with cucumbers with some Mantel. Mantel is essentially a doughy biscuit.
Then, I was hanging out in my ger after dinner when my folks came in. They do this about once a week just to hang out in my ger, which is fine with me. So we are sitting around listening to some of my music and my Dad asks to see my camera to look at pictures. We look through them and afterwards I ask them what they are doing tomorrow. Typically Mondays we teach English to adults so I wanted to find out if they wanted to come. However I found out that my Dad was going to the hospital. I was shocked; I didn’t think he was sick. So I asked what was wrong. They told me he was fine but he was tired. So I picked up my rock that I picked up on my way home, thanks to a dog who tried to come after me, and gave it to him. He thought this was the funniest thing ever. (When at the family picnic they made me hold a hot rock and told me it was so I wouldn’t get tired) We were all laughing so hard, I have never seen him and my mom laugh so hard. Anywho, I told my mom I was a Psychology major during school and asked what was wrong….she told me he was fine. Just tired. I am still curious as to what this means, but he is supposed to go there for 8 days to rest.
P.S. The cutest thing happened tonight. When my family was leaving my ger to go to sleep, I gave my little sister a hug goodnight. Not only did she return it but she also gave me a kiss!! It was the cutest thing ever. I feel like I am apart of the family for sure now!
Afterwards Shar and I went on a walk around town. We went over to Ashley’s ger and hung out for a bit then I came back home. When I got home I realized I missed out on the first 15 minutes of the nightly soap opera that my family watches. It really is actually a good show…I know this because it has English sub tittles! Anywho tonight for dinner I had pasta tossed in mayo with cucumbers with some Mantel. Mantel is essentially a doughy biscuit.
Then, I was hanging out in my ger after dinner when my folks came in. They do this about once a week just to hang out in my ger, which is fine with me. So we are sitting around listening to some of my music and my Dad asks to see my camera to look at pictures. We look through them and afterwards I ask them what they are doing tomorrow. Typically Mondays we teach English to adults so I wanted to find out if they wanted to come. However I found out that my Dad was going to the hospital. I was shocked; I didn’t think he was sick. So I asked what was wrong. They told me he was fine but he was tired. So I picked up my rock that I picked up on my way home, thanks to a dog who tried to come after me, and gave it to him. He thought this was the funniest thing ever. (When at the family picnic they made me hold a hot rock and told me it was so I wouldn’t get tired) We were all laughing so hard, I have never seen him and my mom laugh so hard. Anywho, I told my mom I was a Psychology major during school and asked what was wrong….she told me he was fine. Just tired. I am still curious as to what this means, but he is supposed to go there for 8 days to rest.
P.S. The cutest thing happened tonight. When my family was leaving my ger to go to sleep, I gave my little sister a hug goodnight. Not only did she return it but she also gave me a kiss!! It was the cutest thing ever. I feel like I am apart of the family for sure now!
July 14
The Monday after going to UB for Naadam it was a really chill day. I did some yoga with my little brother and cousins. That was entertaining in itself. Then I went over to Jo’s ger where a bunch of us just hung out for a bit and talked. Overall a really relaxing day.
The next day I thought was going to be the same. Come to find out I was totally wrong, which was fine. I got up and was fiddling around doing nothing too exciting. Then my mom came into my ger and informed me that we were going to the hodoo. (Country side) So we were off. Then before we got out of town we met up with Brittany, my other site mate, and I rode in her car with her. Let me just say I experienced some more Mongolian off roading. When they drive her if they have a choice between a paved road and a non-paved road, they chose the non. That was an adventure. At one point we hit a ditch so hard it turned off the engine, which should give you an idea of how the ride went.
Upon arriving we were basically out in the middle of nowhere and there were a bunch of cars. We got out and joined the crowd. There we stood on the tiny little stadium of sorts that should have been for about 15 people but there were a lot more then just 15 people on this thing. We watched a total of three fights, I say watched but I couldn’t see anything over everyone. Afterwards we went to look for food. We ended up deciding on Naadam Hos-sures. (which are basically dough with meat inside that are fried) We took them back to our cars and ate. Then Brittany’s family was going to go to the Hodoo to visit their family and asked me to come along. I thought I was already in the countryside, but I was wrong. We were in the countryside just not completely there yet.
I decided to go along for the ride where I experienced some more off roading. We were really getting out in the middle of nowhere! I finally have experience being in the BFE. I mean I thought I used to live there in Tallassee, Tennessee but nope! Once we got there we were ushered into a ger. Then they gave us some Sue-tee-tea (tea, salt, water, and milk) as well as the meat try. Ok folks when I say meat tray I mean it. PLUS this lovely meat tray had a GOAT FACE on it! I about died! Let’s just say I did not eat that!!! Then I met the family cat! I wanted to steal it!! It was the first cat I had seen her in Mongolia!
Ok after ‘eating’ we went outside to see all the other animals. They had a BUNCH of horses and cows. I got to wear my first Dell, which was really exciting! A dell is basically a robe dress thing that Mongolians wear when they are outside working. I want one! I think I am going to have one made. Then Brittany started to play volleyball with everyone while I played with the cat. Soon it was time to go but I seriously thought about taking that cat with me but I didn’t. Then we got into the car to go home. Before leaving the ger-site they stoped the car and the family members brought us the CAT!!! I was so excited! I have no idea why they did so, I guess this cat goes in between homes but I didn’t care because I got to hold the cat on the way home. Plus we named the cat hodoo monster otherwise known as H&M. (Yes like the store) :)
SO the ride home….y’all I thought I was going to be stuck out in the middle of the hodoo! Our car kept dying. I mean it would work for like a minute and then die. This was going on for quite a bit. We left at 8:30 and finally my Dad came and got us at 11:30. Thank goodness for him other wise we would have been out there all night! So my day that I thought was going to be uneventful turned out to be an adventurous one at that!
The next day I thought was going to be the same. Come to find out I was totally wrong, which was fine. I got up and was fiddling around doing nothing too exciting. Then my mom came into my ger and informed me that we were going to the hodoo. (Country side) So we were off. Then before we got out of town we met up with Brittany, my other site mate, and I rode in her car with her. Let me just say I experienced some more Mongolian off roading. When they drive her if they have a choice between a paved road and a non-paved road, they chose the non. That was an adventure. At one point we hit a ditch so hard it turned off the engine, which should give you an idea of how the ride went.
Upon arriving we were basically out in the middle of nowhere and there were a bunch of cars. We got out and joined the crowd. There we stood on the tiny little stadium of sorts that should have been for about 15 people but there were a lot more then just 15 people on this thing. We watched a total of three fights, I say watched but I couldn’t see anything over everyone. Afterwards we went to look for food. We ended up deciding on Naadam Hos-sures. (which are basically dough with meat inside that are fried) We took them back to our cars and ate. Then Brittany’s family was going to go to the Hodoo to visit their family and asked me to come along. I thought I was already in the countryside, but I was wrong. We were in the countryside just not completely there yet.
I decided to go along for the ride where I experienced some more off roading. We were really getting out in the middle of nowhere! I finally have experience being in the BFE. I mean I thought I used to live there in Tallassee, Tennessee but nope! Once we got there we were ushered into a ger. Then they gave us some Sue-tee-tea (tea, salt, water, and milk) as well as the meat try. Ok folks when I say meat tray I mean it. PLUS this lovely meat tray had a GOAT FACE on it! I about died! Let’s just say I did not eat that!!! Then I met the family cat! I wanted to steal it!! It was the first cat I had seen her in Mongolia!
Ok after ‘eating’ we went outside to see all the other animals. They had a BUNCH of horses and cows. I got to wear my first Dell, which was really exciting! A dell is basically a robe dress thing that Mongolians wear when they are outside working. I want one! I think I am going to have one made. Then Brittany started to play volleyball with everyone while I played with the cat. Soon it was time to go but I seriously thought about taking that cat with me but I didn’t. Then we got into the car to go home. Before leaving the ger-site they stoped the car and the family members brought us the CAT!!! I was so excited! I have no idea why they did so, I guess this cat goes in between homes but I didn’t care because I got to hold the cat on the way home. Plus we named the cat hodoo monster otherwise known as H&M. (Yes like the store) :)
SO the ride home….y’all I thought I was going to be stuck out in the middle of the hodoo! Our car kept dying. I mean it would work for like a minute and then die. This was going on for quite a bit. We left at 8:30 and finally my Dad came and got us at 11:30. Thank goodness for him other wise we would have been out there all night! So my day that I thought was going to be uneventful turned out to be an adventurous one at that!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Naadam Sunday
Hello all!!!
This weekend has been BusY! This Sunday my family and I went to Ulaanbaatar for the opening ceremony of Naadam. To begin UB I believe has NO version of parking lots. We ended up parking in a mess of cars that were on top of each other. There were a lot of people everywhere! The most since I have gotten here! When walking up the arena I saw a good amount of foreigners. I was surprisingly excited to see these people even thought I had no idea who they were or where they were from. Just seeing people in general I guess was exciting. Walking up to the arena doors it was crazy. People were everywhere trying to get inside. My mom told me that it was packed and they weren’t letting everyone in. While trying to get inside I found someone I knew!!!!!!! Crazy to think that! I ran into a fellow PCT, Katie, and she was trying to get in as well. Thankfully my uncle is a police officer and he knew the guys at the gate and they let us in. I think it was because I was an American because they were not letting anyone in. Once inside I realized why this was. IT WAS PACKED!!! For those of you VOL fans think game day with a MUCH smaller stadium. (Anna you would not of made it….thinking back to freshman year) Anywho we forced our way through the crowd and some how ended up at the front row.
Once there I happened to be standing next to a foreigner who I spoke to. I asked her if she spoke English, which she did. She was from England. I found out she was visiting her daughter-in-laws family. It was nice to be able to talk to someone for more then a minute. Meanwhile, Sunday was a HOT day. It wasn’t helping that there was so many people crammed into that small arena, but I really didn’t mind because I am storing all these warm memories to help me get through the winter. (which is just around the corner) So the opening ceremonies consisted of music, speeches, dancing, marching, parading, balloons, and skydiving. On the note, skydivers here are crazy. Marissa you should have seen them landing! They landed like they were standing up!!! I was surprised no one didn’t break their legs! (For those of you who don’t know Marissa and I went skydiving a couple years ago)
So after watching all that we ended up getting to go down into the arena, thanks to my uncle! Yet it was really brief, I think it was just a faster way out. But I got to see behind the scenes wrestlers! So basically wrestleing is huge here in Mongolia. They love it! I can’t wait for y’all to see what they wear! It is basically girl style underwear, bikini style, with a vest-ish that consisted of fabric and rope, and boots. Really cool looking! After we left there my Mom bought us all popcorn!!!!!!!!!! I about fainted when she bought it! It was the best popcorn I have ever had!!!!!! After the popcorn we went over to see some of the archery, but we didn’t stay very long. Then we went back to my mom’s parents house where we ate Naadam hoosers. (Which are basically fried dough with meat inside) They were really great! So that was the extent of my Naadam experience…..So I thought….I’ll write more on this subject matter later. Because as of now it is starting to storm outside my ger and I have Mongolian Language homework to do before my power goes out. (when it storms it is a sure bet that soon the power will go out)
Za,
B
This weekend has been BusY! This Sunday my family and I went to Ulaanbaatar for the opening ceremony of Naadam. To begin UB I believe has NO version of parking lots. We ended up parking in a mess of cars that were on top of each other. There were a lot of people everywhere! The most since I have gotten here! When walking up the arena I saw a good amount of foreigners. I was surprisingly excited to see these people even thought I had no idea who they were or where they were from. Just seeing people in general I guess was exciting. Walking up to the arena doors it was crazy. People were everywhere trying to get inside. My mom told me that it was packed and they weren’t letting everyone in. While trying to get inside I found someone I knew!!!!!!! Crazy to think that! I ran into a fellow PCT, Katie, and she was trying to get in as well. Thankfully my uncle is a police officer and he knew the guys at the gate and they let us in. I think it was because I was an American because they were not letting anyone in. Once inside I realized why this was. IT WAS PACKED!!! For those of you VOL fans think game day with a MUCH smaller stadium. (Anna you would not of made it….thinking back to freshman year) Anywho we forced our way through the crowd and some how ended up at the front row.
Once there I happened to be standing next to a foreigner who I spoke to. I asked her if she spoke English, which she did. She was from England. I found out she was visiting her daughter-in-laws family. It was nice to be able to talk to someone for more then a minute. Meanwhile, Sunday was a HOT day. It wasn’t helping that there was so many people crammed into that small arena, but I really didn’t mind because I am storing all these warm memories to help me get through the winter. (which is just around the corner) So the opening ceremonies consisted of music, speeches, dancing, marching, parading, balloons, and skydiving. On the note, skydivers here are crazy. Marissa you should have seen them landing! They landed like they were standing up!!! I was surprised no one didn’t break their legs! (For those of you who don’t know Marissa and I went skydiving a couple years ago)
So after watching all that we ended up getting to go down into the arena, thanks to my uncle! Yet it was really brief, I think it was just a faster way out. But I got to see behind the scenes wrestlers! So basically wrestleing is huge here in Mongolia. They love it! I can’t wait for y’all to see what they wear! It is basically girl style underwear, bikini style, with a vest-ish that consisted of fabric and rope, and boots. Really cool looking! After we left there my Mom bought us all popcorn!!!!!!!!!! I about fainted when she bought it! It was the best popcorn I have ever had!!!!!! After the popcorn we went over to see some of the archery, but we didn’t stay very long. Then we went back to my mom’s parents house where we ate Naadam hoosers. (Which are basically fried dough with meat inside) They were really great! So that was the extent of my Naadam experience…..So I thought….I’ll write more on this subject matter later. Because as of now it is starting to storm outside my ger and I have Mongolian Language homework to do before my power goes out. (when it storms it is a sure bet that soon the power will go out)
Za,
B
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 10, 2010
Saturday my family and I went on a picnic. Let me just begin by saying my family is so very loving. They were all very welcoming to me even though I lack Mongolian language skills. At times I am sure they were speaking and laughing at me but I was cool with that. We went to a river of sorts. My mom told me it was the biggest river in Mongolia. I told her she needed to see the rivers in America and it would put that river to shame. She laughed. Her and I went wadding in the river and the water was cold but not nearly as cold as the Mountain waters in Tennessee. Also my Grandpa, I have declared, is the best rock skipper I have ever seen. I thought I’d be cool and show them how to do it but I soon found out that they were better then I was. Also they call it ‘bunny rocks.’ (I think that is a loose translation but essentially the rock resembles a bunny to them)
Let’s see what else…my family feed me all day long like I was starving. I feel like that is all I did was eat. There was a bunch of candy, bread, juice, candy, veggies, and meat…the meat I steered away from. Then more family arrived after our being there for about twoish hours. Guess what they brought with them!!!! I newly slaughtered sheep. It was in that moment of seeing the gutted sheep that I knew I was finally going to get sick in Mongolia. I have made it about 5 weeks without getting sick, which I was extremely happy about. I just knew the minute I saw it I was in for it. Thanks to my background of several family members who like to hunt I wasn’t terribly grossed out from the meat. I found it funny I was sitting on a blanket with some family members when they began to cut it up and the lady sitting next to me told them to move the animal away so I didn’t have to see it. My response was I got up and walked over to the men and started taking pictures. They laughed. Let me just tell you, Uncles of mine back home these men could teach you a thing or two about cutting meat. They had that animal chopped up in 30 minutes!! I was impressed. THEN came the interesting part. (Which I took a video of and will be posting it on my fb soon) From the fire came hot rocks, which they put into a metal container along with the meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, and water. Then they placed the container over the fire to cook.
Once dinner was cooking my family proceeded to begin a game of cards. Let me tell you all this, I watched this game for an hour and half to still be as confused as when I sat down. The only thing I picked up from the game was the fact that there were two teams but it was a lot of fun to watch them interact with each other. After the game it was dinnertime. Surprisingly the meal was really really good. I was hesitant at first but I actually enjoyed it! Soon after the meal we got back into the car and headed home. Upon arriving home I proceeded to the outhouse where I got sick for the first time. My luck I guess ran out but I am fine now. The moral of this story is when cooking with hot rocks expected the meal to be great but to expect to get sick.
That was my picnicking experience in Mongolia, hope y’all enjoyed reading!
ZA,
B
Let’s see what else…my family feed me all day long like I was starving. I feel like that is all I did was eat. There was a bunch of candy, bread, juice, candy, veggies, and meat…the meat I steered away from. Then more family arrived after our being there for about twoish hours. Guess what they brought with them!!!! I newly slaughtered sheep. It was in that moment of seeing the gutted sheep that I knew I was finally going to get sick in Mongolia. I have made it about 5 weeks without getting sick, which I was extremely happy about. I just knew the minute I saw it I was in for it. Thanks to my background of several family members who like to hunt I wasn’t terribly grossed out from the meat. I found it funny I was sitting on a blanket with some family members when they began to cut it up and the lady sitting next to me told them to move the animal away so I didn’t have to see it. My response was I got up and walked over to the men and started taking pictures. They laughed. Let me just tell you, Uncles of mine back home these men could teach you a thing or two about cutting meat. They had that animal chopped up in 30 minutes!! I was impressed. THEN came the interesting part. (Which I took a video of and will be posting it on my fb soon) From the fire came hot rocks, which they put into a metal container along with the meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, and water. Then they placed the container over the fire to cook.
Once dinner was cooking my family proceeded to begin a game of cards. Let me tell you all this, I watched this game for an hour and half to still be as confused as when I sat down. The only thing I picked up from the game was the fact that there were two teams but it was a lot of fun to watch them interact with each other. After the game it was dinnertime. Surprisingly the meal was really really good. I was hesitant at first but I actually enjoyed it! Soon after the meal we got back into the car and headed home. Upon arriving home I proceeded to the outhouse where I got sick for the first time. My luck I guess ran out but I am fine now. The moral of this story is when cooking with hot rocks expected the meal to be great but to expect to get sick.
That was my picnicking experience in Mongolia, hope y’all enjoyed reading!
ZA,
B
Saturday July 7th 2010
Hello all!!! I know it has been a bit since I’ve written a blog but I have been busy busy busy!! I think it might be best to work backwards to fill everyone in on what been going on. Right now my brother, Porta Potty ( his name is not exactly Porta Potty but it sounds extremely close…so that’s what I call him) is sitting on my bed eating candy. He and my sister eat candy like it is going extinct. So last night I got home from a threeish day mid center training, where my site mates and I met up with the other 74 trainees for more training. It was great to be able to see everyone and hear about his or her experiences thus far.
During our mini vaca, as I like to call it, we had more sessions regarding Peace Corp and other necessary information. As a CYD we were able to meet with local agencies to become acquainted. That was really helpful to go and visit to see what they were all about. We meet with a Aimag Children’s Center as well as World Vision. Another thing we got to do, as CYD was I paired up with a fellow site mate, Jo, to inform other PCT’s about lifeskills. That is apart of my job is to facilitate Lifeskill training. Lifeskills is basically what one might think but here in Mongolia such topics are necessarily implemented within the schools like the U.S. For example in the U.S. we have Character Education that is somewhat similar but in Mongolia they don’t. SO it is apart of my job to try and show the importance of the curriculum and have them become apart of the education. Anywho what Jo and I did was explain to other PCT’s how to do this in their future sites.
Ah lets see what else….oh we had a 8th of July party which was a lot of fun! The trainers cooked for everyone and the food was great! We had kabob’s, watermelon, salad, and Kool-Aid! It was awesome! After that we had a dodge ball tournament by site. My site one our first game but lost the second. Despite my disinterest in dodge ball, it was quite enjoyable. That evening we also had a dance, which was great entertainment as well. Umm let see what else..oh I went to a monastery! That was really really fascinating! There was a bunch of prayer wheels and about tenish monks. The building was very ornate with colors and design. They had a little shop where I purchase a prayer bead bracelet. (it actually reminds me of the bracelets which were popular when I was in middle school) So the three day mini vaca was very eventful and was a great break from our busy schedule.
On a sad note, I am not sure if anyone at home has heard the news or not but a fellow American died here in Mongolia. The story goes that there were two Americans who were here for an internship of some sorts and were traveling around. They were hiking last week at some point when they got separated somehow. The one got back safely, but unfortunately the other did not. We have been told that the individual died from exposure. It is really a sad sad story. Something that I think we all have taken from this is to never leave anyone behind no matter what! Buddy systems are very important!
Before our vaca we had individual evaluations regarding our progress thus far. One of the topics was language. Let’s just say I am learning but Mongolian is a tough language to master. I have roughly a month left to achieve a novice-high level in Mongolian. I think I can achieve that but I have a lot of practicing to do!!! Some important dates ahead are: August 15 and August 20. The 15 I find out where I will be going in Mongolia and a bit more on my specific job duties. The 20th is when I will be officially sworn in as a PCV!!!!
I have to say that this summer is flying by! It is hard to believe that I have been here for over a month! I have to say I miss everyone at home!!! It is one week till my brother’s wedding!!! Congrats early to Jesse and Buffy Neace!!!!!
Ok well I am going to get off here. My family and I are going on a picnic!! I am really excited to see how this goes! They have watermelon so I know it is going to be awesome! Oh and Naadaam is this weekend as well! For those of you who don’t know what it is…please look it up!! It really is fascinating. Basically it is a festival of sorts. There is wrestling, archery, and horse racing!! I think tomorrow and Monday my family and I are going to be going to watch the festivities! I’ll get back to y’all about how that goes!!
Za,
B
During our mini vaca, as I like to call it, we had more sessions regarding Peace Corp and other necessary information. As a CYD we were able to meet with local agencies to become acquainted. That was really helpful to go and visit to see what they were all about. We meet with a Aimag Children’s Center as well as World Vision. Another thing we got to do, as CYD was I paired up with a fellow site mate, Jo, to inform other PCT’s about lifeskills. That is apart of my job is to facilitate Lifeskill training. Lifeskills is basically what one might think but here in Mongolia such topics are necessarily implemented within the schools like the U.S. For example in the U.S. we have Character Education that is somewhat similar but in Mongolia they don’t. SO it is apart of my job to try and show the importance of the curriculum and have them become apart of the education. Anywho what Jo and I did was explain to other PCT’s how to do this in their future sites.
Ah lets see what else….oh we had a 8th of July party which was a lot of fun! The trainers cooked for everyone and the food was great! We had kabob’s, watermelon, salad, and Kool-Aid! It was awesome! After that we had a dodge ball tournament by site. My site one our first game but lost the second. Despite my disinterest in dodge ball, it was quite enjoyable. That evening we also had a dance, which was great entertainment as well. Umm let see what else..oh I went to a monastery! That was really really fascinating! There was a bunch of prayer wheels and about tenish monks. The building was very ornate with colors and design. They had a little shop where I purchase a prayer bead bracelet. (it actually reminds me of the bracelets which were popular when I was in middle school) So the three day mini vaca was very eventful and was a great break from our busy schedule.
On a sad note, I am not sure if anyone at home has heard the news or not but a fellow American died here in Mongolia. The story goes that there were two Americans who were here for an internship of some sorts and were traveling around. They were hiking last week at some point when they got separated somehow. The one got back safely, but unfortunately the other did not. We have been told that the individual died from exposure. It is really a sad sad story. Something that I think we all have taken from this is to never leave anyone behind no matter what! Buddy systems are very important!
Before our vaca we had individual evaluations regarding our progress thus far. One of the topics was language. Let’s just say I am learning but Mongolian is a tough language to master. I have roughly a month left to achieve a novice-high level in Mongolian. I think I can achieve that but I have a lot of practicing to do!!! Some important dates ahead are: August 15 and August 20. The 15 I find out where I will be going in Mongolia and a bit more on my specific job duties. The 20th is when I will be officially sworn in as a PCV!!!!
I have to say that this summer is flying by! It is hard to believe that I have been here for over a month! I have to say I miss everyone at home!!! It is one week till my brother’s wedding!!! Congrats early to Jesse and Buffy Neace!!!!!
Ok well I am going to get off here. My family and I are going on a picnic!! I am really excited to see how this goes! They have watermelon so I know it is going to be awesome! Oh and Naadaam is this weekend as well! For those of you who don’t know what it is…please look it up!! It really is fascinating. Basically it is a festival of sorts. There is wrestling, archery, and horse racing!! I think tomorrow and Monday my family and I are going to be going to watch the festivities! I’ll get back to y’all about how that goes!!
Za,
B
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weekend
June 27, 2010
This weekend has flown by!!! Friday my site mates and I got to go to Ulaanbaatar! That was a lot of fun! We took the bus into town, which was an adventure. First of all my friend Jo and I ran to my house after language class to drop off our books, so that we didn’t have to lug them around town. BUT when we got back to school our LCF (Language Teacher) told us the bus already had come and gone. Let’s just say I was frustrated. At that point I thought we weren’t going to be able to go but she quickly reassured us that the bus was just going to the other side of our town and then coming back to pick us up. That was a relief! Ten minutes passed and the bus was back for us! I think that might have been the first time since I have been here that I was worried. Anywho, we got on the bus and went to town!
When we got into UB we got off the bus to meet up with some other PC’s to get on a smaller bus to take us the remainder of the way to the restaurant. On the way we saw another PCT on the side of the road walking. That shocked us because none of us are suppose to be in UB and especially not alone. Caroline, our trainer quickly told us that that was our first ET. (Early Terminator) Three weeks in and someone is already going back to the states. Crazy to think that someone is already going home but I am sure there is a good explanation as to why. (We’ll just have to find out later!)
Finally we arrived at the lovely ABAF!!!!!!!! American Burgers & Fries might be my favorite place in UB. Ah that meal was amazing!!!!!!!! I had a coke, cheeseburger, fries, and real ketchup!!! (No mustard unfortunately but the meal made up for it) During the meal I don’t think we spoke a word because we were all so very much enjoying the food! The restaurant owner, who I forget his name, is Korean American and for what ever reason he had the genius idea of opening up this place. I am very grateful for him!
After our lunch we then had the opportunity to meet with three different agencies that we as CYD’s might be working with in the next two years. I was thrilled to be able to meet them all and I am really looking forward to getting to my site to begin working! One of the agencies was dealing with child labor and we got to meet some of the kids who they helped get off the streets. That was really moving to be able to see the accomplishments they have made in their work. I hope to be able to become apart of an organization similar to that one to help prevent further kids from resorting to child labor. A lot of my job will be working with children to help prevent a lot of the issues we have been told about since arriving. My hope is to try and make a difference in my Aimag (town) so that the children see their own potential in themselves.
After meeting with everyone we got on the bus to get back to our little old town. I think myself and site mates included were excited to go home after our long day. When we got back we went to the locale Karaoke café to wind down. We have yet to sing but it is really entertaining to watch the Mongolian’s sing. They get so into it and pretty much scream at the top of their lungs! Afterwards I headed home. When I got home my mom had dinner waiting for me. As I was eating my Mongolian sushi, which consisted of seaweed and rice, low and behold my brother comes on T.V.!!!!!!!!!! (Alicia Key’s latest music video came on) Chad you have made it to MONGOLIA! That was really cool to show my family who you were in the video! I think that they were impressed! LoL.
On to Saturday, in the morning I didn’t do anything too terribly exciting. I basically just relaxed. Then my mom asked me to make lunch. Those of you who know me know that I am not best of cooks but I was so excited to be able to cook something new for my family! I had no idea what I was going to make. She sat out a leg, thigh, winged piece of chicken for me to defrost. The first thing that came to mind was fried chicken! It took me an hour to defat the piece of meat and to cut it off the bones. After that process everything else was a piece of cake! I made fried chicken, French fries, and sweet tea!!! They loved it!
After lunch we had our first community meeting/youth group! It was great!!! I was so happy that people came out to hang out with us! I’d say we had about 15ish kids there. We played uno, poker, guitar, and basketball with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised there was two kids there that knew English fairly well. It really wasn’t too bad with the language barrier. I am excited to get to know these kids through out the summer, we are meeting every week!!
Saturday evening was fairly laid back. A couple friends came over and we chatted for a couple hours. Then I watched some world cup with my family. I have no idea who was playing. The TV screen was a little fuzzy but it was fun to watch it with them!
Last but not least Sunday, today. Today had been HOT! Seriously I don’t think I have ever been this hot before but I do not mind it one bit. I am taking in all the hot memories I can get! ( I am storing them up for winter time lol) This morning three of my site mates and myself went on our weekly hike. Whooo, what a hike!!!! We hiked for about four hours. The mountain that we hiked to today we could see an over look of UB. There are a ton of mountains around here and our goal is to a hike every weekend!
After we came down from the mountain we decided to continue our hike over to the town’s water hole. Haha it really is a water hole. It is so small yet the coldest water I have had in Mongolia. It was a lot of fun because there we so many animal around like goats, cows, horses. They were just hanging out. Then I got to hold my first goat!!!!!! It was a baby and the cutest little thing!!!!
When I got home I was exhausted! My dad made me lunch and I went to my ger for a nap. I also realized I got really sun burned today. I didn’t think about putting sun block on today. Oh well, after my nap I awoke to find prolly the biggest bug I have seen in Mongolia. I quickly got my dad and he took care of it for me. Thank goodness he was around.
Well that has been my weekend. Full of random and exciting things! I am going to go have dinner now.
Love,
b
This weekend has flown by!!! Friday my site mates and I got to go to Ulaanbaatar! That was a lot of fun! We took the bus into town, which was an adventure. First of all my friend Jo and I ran to my house after language class to drop off our books, so that we didn’t have to lug them around town. BUT when we got back to school our LCF (Language Teacher) told us the bus already had come and gone. Let’s just say I was frustrated. At that point I thought we weren’t going to be able to go but she quickly reassured us that the bus was just going to the other side of our town and then coming back to pick us up. That was a relief! Ten minutes passed and the bus was back for us! I think that might have been the first time since I have been here that I was worried. Anywho, we got on the bus and went to town!
When we got into UB we got off the bus to meet up with some other PC’s to get on a smaller bus to take us the remainder of the way to the restaurant. On the way we saw another PCT on the side of the road walking. That shocked us because none of us are suppose to be in UB and especially not alone. Caroline, our trainer quickly told us that that was our first ET. (Early Terminator) Three weeks in and someone is already going back to the states. Crazy to think that someone is already going home but I am sure there is a good explanation as to why. (We’ll just have to find out later!)
Finally we arrived at the lovely ABAF!!!!!!!! American Burgers & Fries might be my favorite place in UB. Ah that meal was amazing!!!!!!!! I had a coke, cheeseburger, fries, and real ketchup!!! (No mustard unfortunately but the meal made up for it) During the meal I don’t think we spoke a word because we were all so very much enjoying the food! The restaurant owner, who I forget his name, is Korean American and for what ever reason he had the genius idea of opening up this place. I am very grateful for him!
After our lunch we then had the opportunity to meet with three different agencies that we as CYD’s might be working with in the next two years. I was thrilled to be able to meet them all and I am really looking forward to getting to my site to begin working! One of the agencies was dealing with child labor and we got to meet some of the kids who they helped get off the streets. That was really moving to be able to see the accomplishments they have made in their work. I hope to be able to become apart of an organization similar to that one to help prevent further kids from resorting to child labor. A lot of my job will be working with children to help prevent a lot of the issues we have been told about since arriving. My hope is to try and make a difference in my Aimag (town) so that the children see their own potential in themselves.
After meeting with everyone we got on the bus to get back to our little old town. I think myself and site mates included were excited to go home after our long day. When we got back we went to the locale Karaoke café to wind down. We have yet to sing but it is really entertaining to watch the Mongolian’s sing. They get so into it and pretty much scream at the top of their lungs! Afterwards I headed home. When I got home my mom had dinner waiting for me. As I was eating my Mongolian sushi, which consisted of seaweed and rice, low and behold my brother comes on T.V.!!!!!!!!!! (Alicia Key’s latest music video came on) Chad you have made it to MONGOLIA! That was really cool to show my family who you were in the video! I think that they were impressed! LoL.
On to Saturday, in the morning I didn’t do anything too terribly exciting. I basically just relaxed. Then my mom asked me to make lunch. Those of you who know me know that I am not best of cooks but I was so excited to be able to cook something new for my family! I had no idea what I was going to make. She sat out a leg, thigh, winged piece of chicken for me to defrost. The first thing that came to mind was fried chicken! It took me an hour to defat the piece of meat and to cut it off the bones. After that process everything else was a piece of cake! I made fried chicken, French fries, and sweet tea!!! They loved it!
After lunch we had our first community meeting/youth group! It was great!!! I was so happy that people came out to hang out with us! I’d say we had about 15ish kids there. We played uno, poker, guitar, and basketball with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised there was two kids there that knew English fairly well. It really wasn’t too bad with the language barrier. I am excited to get to know these kids through out the summer, we are meeting every week!!
Saturday evening was fairly laid back. A couple friends came over and we chatted for a couple hours. Then I watched some world cup with my family. I have no idea who was playing. The TV screen was a little fuzzy but it was fun to watch it with them!
Last but not least Sunday, today. Today had been HOT! Seriously I don’t think I have ever been this hot before but I do not mind it one bit. I am taking in all the hot memories I can get! ( I am storing them up for winter time lol) This morning three of my site mates and myself went on our weekly hike. Whooo, what a hike!!!! We hiked for about four hours. The mountain that we hiked to today we could see an over look of UB. There are a ton of mountains around here and our goal is to a hike every weekend!
After we came down from the mountain we decided to continue our hike over to the town’s water hole. Haha it really is a water hole. It is so small yet the coldest water I have had in Mongolia. It was a lot of fun because there we so many animal around like goats, cows, horses. They were just hanging out. Then I got to hold my first goat!!!!!! It was a baby and the cutest little thing!!!!
When I got home I was exhausted! My dad made me lunch and I went to my ger for a nap. I also realized I got really sun burned today. I didn’t think about putting sun block on today. Oh well, after my nap I awoke to find prolly the biggest bug I have seen in Mongolia. I quickly got my dad and he took care of it for me. Thank goodness he was around.
Well that has been my weekend. Full of random and exciting things! I am going to go have dinner now.
Love,
b
Body Language is Universal
June 24, 2010
This week has flown by! We, my site mates and I, went on a day trip on Monday and Tuesday to a near by town to have a couple of classes on TEFEL for NON-TEFEL. Basically that is where we briefly learned how to teach English as a second language. Those two days were a lot of fun because we go to interact with some PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainers) who we don’t get to see too often. The rest of this week has also been very busy with language lessons, CYD Sector meetings, and Cross Culture meetings. AND tomorrow is going to be a very very exciting day because WE get to GO to the BIG city!!!! My sitemates and I are going to UB! (Ulaanbaatar) We are all very very excited!!!!! Not only do we get to go to a big city, but we also get to meet some very important people whom we will be working with in the next two years. We are visiting several agencies that we will be working for in our sector. AND we are going to ABAF!!!!!!! That is American Burger’s And Fries for you non-Mongolians!!! I am so excited to have yellow mustard…I can’t wait. I might not even get any sleep tonight because I am that excited!!!!! (Seriously)
HA, anyways…this week has also been eventful in my growing with the Mongolian culture. First of all I wait FOUR days till I took a tumpin bath! I think that might be the longest I have every gone with out bathing. Let’s just say I felt a tad bit gross! Oh and I FINALLY milked the family cow! That was an adventure!!!! It is so akwkard trying to hold the bucket, while sitting on a bucket, while crouching under a cow, while milking. But I did it…even if it was only for five minutes, I can now say I’ve milked a cow. Umm what else…today the power was out for most of the day. I think my mom was trying to tell me there was some sort of damage…I’m really not sure. BUT this comes into play when I tell my next story.
So today was extremely warm. I mean I was sweating up a storm all day long. SO when I got home for lunch the last thing that I wanted to drink was hot tea. I decided I would teach my family how to make sweet tea. I was so excited about this. I even found ice cube trays in the freezer, which just made my day!!!! I put on a pot of water to boil while I cleaned out the ice trays. As I am waiting for the water to boil I explained to my mom that I was going to make ice tea. (I think she understood me) Finally I looked at the water pot (which is basically a water heater) and realize that it is not on……then my mom informed me that the power was out. Let’s just say I was a tad bit disappointed!! BUT I am going to try again another day.
To continue on the subject of a hot day and my sweating, I have to say that body language is universal. All who know me well know that my feet sweat. I mean whose doesn’t? But I suppose on a sweaty day like today it was to the extreme. So in agreement of trying to follow the culture here today I realized that in my family’s house they take their shoes off when going into the living room/bedroom. I just realized this today. Now I knew that it prolly wasn’t the best idea to take my shoes off at this point but I wanted to be respectful. I took by black flats off against my better judgment. As I sat on the floor with my feet out stretched my brother came over with his machine. (Toy truck) At this point I was thinking to myself well maybe he won’t notice. He didn’t…for a bit. But as he was driving his machine around the living room floor he encountered my feet. Let’s just say I think y’all can image his reaction. He covered his nose while saying something in Mongolian and proceeded to run out of the room. So when they say that Body Language is universal, it’s true.
Hope y’all enjoyed that story! Lol.
Love,
b
This week has flown by! We, my site mates and I, went on a day trip on Monday and Tuesday to a near by town to have a couple of classes on TEFEL for NON-TEFEL. Basically that is where we briefly learned how to teach English as a second language. Those two days were a lot of fun because we go to interact with some PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainers) who we don’t get to see too often. The rest of this week has also been very busy with language lessons, CYD Sector meetings, and Cross Culture meetings. AND tomorrow is going to be a very very exciting day because WE get to GO to the BIG city!!!! My sitemates and I are going to UB! (Ulaanbaatar) We are all very very excited!!!!! Not only do we get to go to a big city, but we also get to meet some very important people whom we will be working with in the next two years. We are visiting several agencies that we will be working for in our sector. AND we are going to ABAF!!!!!!! That is American Burger’s And Fries for you non-Mongolians!!! I am so excited to have yellow mustard…I can’t wait. I might not even get any sleep tonight because I am that excited!!!!! (Seriously)
HA, anyways…this week has also been eventful in my growing with the Mongolian culture. First of all I wait FOUR days till I took a tumpin bath! I think that might be the longest I have every gone with out bathing. Let’s just say I felt a tad bit gross! Oh and I FINALLY milked the family cow! That was an adventure!!!! It is so akwkard trying to hold the bucket, while sitting on a bucket, while crouching under a cow, while milking. But I did it…even if it was only for five minutes, I can now say I’ve milked a cow. Umm what else…today the power was out for most of the day. I think my mom was trying to tell me there was some sort of damage…I’m really not sure. BUT this comes into play when I tell my next story.
So today was extremely warm. I mean I was sweating up a storm all day long. SO when I got home for lunch the last thing that I wanted to drink was hot tea. I decided I would teach my family how to make sweet tea. I was so excited about this. I even found ice cube trays in the freezer, which just made my day!!!! I put on a pot of water to boil while I cleaned out the ice trays. As I am waiting for the water to boil I explained to my mom that I was going to make ice tea. (I think she understood me) Finally I looked at the water pot (which is basically a water heater) and realize that it is not on……then my mom informed me that the power was out. Let’s just say I was a tad bit disappointed!! BUT I am going to try again another day.
To continue on the subject of a hot day and my sweating, I have to say that body language is universal. All who know me well know that my feet sweat. I mean whose doesn’t? But I suppose on a sweaty day like today it was to the extreme. So in agreement of trying to follow the culture here today I realized that in my family’s house they take their shoes off when going into the living room/bedroom. I just realized this today. Now I knew that it prolly wasn’t the best idea to take my shoes off at this point but I wanted to be respectful. I took by black flats off against my better judgment. As I sat on the floor with my feet out stretched my brother came over with his machine. (Toy truck) At this point I was thinking to myself well maybe he won’t notice. He didn’t…for a bit. But as he was driving his machine around the living room floor he encountered my feet. Let’s just say I think y’all can image his reaction. He covered his nose while saying something in Mongolian and proceeded to run out of the room. So when they say that Body Language is universal, it’s true.
Hope y’all enjoyed that story! Lol.
Love,
b
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
H2O
June 20, 2010
What a morning! I sleep in to 9 a.m. thankfully! Then I had bfast, which consisted of bread and tea. Afterwards I wrote some emails. While I was writing my emails I had some music on which I think attracted my family. I don’t think they like it very much, prolly because it sounds so different from theirs. Anywho then I started my laundry. Hand washing! I really don’t mind it because I hand washed a lot of my clothes back in the states. The only thing I do mind is the water situation. In the states if you need more water you just go to the sink. Here it is a process. My family has a water bucket. So I take my bucket to their water bucket to fill, with a small pot. Then I carry my bucket, which is heavy, to my ger. Then I have to fill the water heater by spoon, to heat the water. This way is faster then my distiller that I have. My distiller takes like 8 hours to filter the water.. the family water heater takes like 5 minutes. Then I fill my wash bucket with soapy water. That’s a lot of steps to take before I can actually wash my clothes! But that’s not it! The process starts from square one when I need to rinse my clothes to get rid of the soapy water. Lets just say it took about an hour and a half to do a very very small load. But all in all its really not too bad. I guess I have the time to spend. Today I am going to meet up with my site mates to study and work on some things for the upcoming week. Off to lunch!
love,
b
What a morning! I sleep in to 9 a.m. thankfully! Then I had bfast, which consisted of bread and tea. Afterwards I wrote some emails. While I was writing my emails I had some music on which I think attracted my family. I don’t think they like it very much, prolly because it sounds so different from theirs. Anywho then I started my laundry. Hand washing! I really don’t mind it because I hand washed a lot of my clothes back in the states. The only thing I do mind is the water situation. In the states if you need more water you just go to the sink. Here it is a process. My family has a water bucket. So I take my bucket to their water bucket to fill, with a small pot. Then I carry my bucket, which is heavy, to my ger. Then I have to fill the water heater by spoon, to heat the water. This way is faster then my distiller that I have. My distiller takes like 8 hours to filter the water.. the family water heater takes like 5 minutes. Then I fill my wash bucket with soapy water. That’s a lot of steps to take before I can actually wash my clothes! But that’s not it! The process starts from square one when I need to rinse my clothes to get rid of the soapy water. Lets just say it took about an hour and a half to do a very very small load. But all in all its really not too bad. I guess I have the time to spend. Today I am going to meet up with my site mates to study and work on some things for the upcoming week. Off to lunch!
love,
b
June 16, 2010
A great end to a productive day!
I finally learned how to say goodnight in Mongolian!!!! It is so easy. Basically it is Sayhan Nursery!!! For me the best way to learn and remember this language is to associate the words with English words, especially because a lot of the words sound familiar. I feel like today was a very productive day for me, aside from my waking up late issues. (Which I hope to resolve by tomorrow!)
To begin, this morning I believe there was some miscommunication between my host mom and I. Yesterday I told her that I was going on a trip on Wednesday. In addition, I told her that I need a packed lunch and that I was leaving at 11. Well I think that she thought that I wasn’t leaving the house till 11 because when I went to the house this morning for breakfast she didn’t make me anything. Which was fine because there was some bread on the table, which sufficed. (Plus she was busy bathing my brother in the kitchen) Anywho, I quickly ran to my school…which I was a few minutes late. .I am going to try to work on getting there 5 minutes early from now on. However, in Mongolia I find that time is not an issue like in America. People are in no hurry, which is nice but when it comes to class I need to be more mindful of my classmates.
Class this morning was short. We had about 2 hours of Mongolian Language where we worked on our greetings and possessive pronouns. Then we piled into cars for our trip. When I say piled I mean PILED!! LOL. To begin the trip my friend Shar was basically laying on top of the three of us in the back seat. About half way through the trip our driver (who is Shar’s host dad) stopped the car so we could rearrange. Then I got to sit on top of Mama Jo (Joanne’s) lap. (which for me was nothing for in my younger days I was used to always being the one to sit on someone’s lap….siblings you know what I am talking about!!!) Anywho that was comical for all the people in the car, 7 people in a 5 person car.
The reason for our trip was to go to a nearby town to received…..MORE SHOTS!!!! Fun Fun!!! My total for shots in Mongolia is up to 8!!! Hopefully I won’t be getting sick anytime soon!! Oh and silly me pulled away during receiving one of the shots so I was scrapped a bit by the needle which was no fun!!! Lets just say my arms hurt a bit tonight. It was a great trip because we were able to see other trainees who are staying in that town whom we haven’t seen in a week. Plus I got to mail out my 11 letters!!! (Which was expensive!!) Oh and I got to get online..to those of you reading my nonsense go to my facebook to view pictures. It is a lot easier to post pictures on Facebook then to post them on my blog.
Then we ventured back to our home sweet home. Upon returning we had another CYD session. That session was helpful because we were informed a little bit more on how to be successful in our final sites come August. Let’s see what else…oh we are planning a community meeting for Friday so that we can have a ‘needs assessment’ which members of the community to see what we can do through out the summer in our town. I am really excited to see who turns out for the meeting!
When I got home I ‘mongolian chatted’ with my fam a bit. Then my friend Shar came over and we decided to go check on another site mate who was sick that day. Her name is Brittany as well. Thank goodness we went to see about her because she was not feeling well at all. I took her temp and called the doctor to see what em (meds) to give her. I think that she got sick because of what she had for bfast, which was rice milk tea. Ironically my mom tried to give me that for dinner but I politely refused. ( I was worried I’d be sick too!!!)
So one of the reasons I am really excited about my day is because I feel like my family is really starting to understand me and why I am here. One of the Peace Corp goals is to teach other cultures about the American culture. SO…I asked my mom if she likes to exercise. She said yes. So I told her that I like to do yoga and asked her if she wanted to try it. SHE AGREED!!! We decided to try it out in the morning! So I am really looking forward to that. THEN another Peace Corp goal is to learn the Mongolian culture. SO…I asked my little brother to teach me a Mongolian song. He understood me but ran away laughing. Lol. Then my mom told me that she would teach me because my little brother prolly wouldn’t do a good job. Still I am so excited to learn!!! Finally the last of the three main Peace Corp goals is to create world peace through friendship and I feel like I have made a great friend in my neighbor..(her name sounds like Delgima) I asked her if she wanted to learn English and she does. So when I teach my English class to adults I am going to make sure she is apart of that! Oh and my little sister (who is 2ish) is letting me hold her!!! That just makes me smile!
Anyways if you have made it this far into this blog thank you for reading my rambling!!!
Love,
B
A great end to a productive day!
I finally learned how to say goodnight in Mongolian!!!! It is so easy. Basically it is Sayhan Nursery!!! For me the best way to learn and remember this language is to associate the words with English words, especially because a lot of the words sound familiar. I feel like today was a very productive day for me, aside from my waking up late issues. (Which I hope to resolve by tomorrow!)
To begin, this morning I believe there was some miscommunication between my host mom and I. Yesterday I told her that I was going on a trip on Wednesday. In addition, I told her that I need a packed lunch and that I was leaving at 11. Well I think that she thought that I wasn’t leaving the house till 11 because when I went to the house this morning for breakfast she didn’t make me anything. Which was fine because there was some bread on the table, which sufficed. (Plus she was busy bathing my brother in the kitchen) Anywho, I quickly ran to my school…which I was a few minutes late. .I am going to try to work on getting there 5 minutes early from now on. However, in Mongolia I find that time is not an issue like in America. People are in no hurry, which is nice but when it comes to class I need to be more mindful of my classmates.
Class this morning was short. We had about 2 hours of Mongolian Language where we worked on our greetings and possessive pronouns. Then we piled into cars for our trip. When I say piled I mean PILED!! LOL. To begin the trip my friend Shar was basically laying on top of the three of us in the back seat. About half way through the trip our driver (who is Shar’s host dad) stopped the car so we could rearrange. Then I got to sit on top of Mama Jo (Joanne’s) lap. (which for me was nothing for in my younger days I was used to always being the one to sit on someone’s lap….siblings you know what I am talking about!!!) Anywho that was comical for all the people in the car, 7 people in a 5 person car.
The reason for our trip was to go to a nearby town to received…..MORE SHOTS!!!! Fun Fun!!! My total for shots in Mongolia is up to 8!!! Hopefully I won’t be getting sick anytime soon!! Oh and silly me pulled away during receiving one of the shots so I was scrapped a bit by the needle which was no fun!!! Lets just say my arms hurt a bit tonight. It was a great trip because we were able to see other trainees who are staying in that town whom we haven’t seen in a week. Plus I got to mail out my 11 letters!!! (Which was expensive!!) Oh and I got to get online..to those of you reading my nonsense go to my facebook to view pictures. It is a lot easier to post pictures on Facebook then to post them on my blog.
Then we ventured back to our home sweet home. Upon returning we had another CYD session. That session was helpful because we were informed a little bit more on how to be successful in our final sites come August. Let’s see what else…oh we are planning a community meeting for Friday so that we can have a ‘needs assessment’ which members of the community to see what we can do through out the summer in our town. I am really excited to see who turns out for the meeting!
When I got home I ‘mongolian chatted’ with my fam a bit. Then my friend Shar came over and we decided to go check on another site mate who was sick that day. Her name is Brittany as well. Thank goodness we went to see about her because she was not feeling well at all. I took her temp and called the doctor to see what em (meds) to give her. I think that she got sick because of what she had for bfast, which was rice milk tea. Ironically my mom tried to give me that for dinner but I politely refused. ( I was worried I’d be sick too!!!)
So one of the reasons I am really excited about my day is because I feel like my family is really starting to understand me and why I am here. One of the Peace Corp goals is to teach other cultures about the American culture. SO…I asked my mom if she likes to exercise. She said yes. So I told her that I like to do yoga and asked her if she wanted to try it. SHE AGREED!!! We decided to try it out in the morning! So I am really looking forward to that. THEN another Peace Corp goal is to learn the Mongolian culture. SO…I asked my little brother to teach me a Mongolian song. He understood me but ran away laughing. Lol. Then my mom told me that she would teach me because my little brother prolly wouldn’t do a good job. Still I am so excited to learn!!! Finally the last of the three main Peace Corp goals is to create world peace through friendship and I feel like I have made a great friend in my neighbor..(her name sounds like Delgima) I asked her if she wanted to learn English and she does. So when I teach my English class to adults I am going to make sure she is apart of that! Oh and my little sister (who is 2ish) is letting me hold her!!! That just makes me smile!
Anyways if you have made it this far into this blog thank you for reading my rambling!!!
Love,
B
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Delayed Post
June 10, 2010
WOW. A lot has happened in the past couple of days! First of all this is the first time I am turning on my computer since Saturday…and it is about to be Friday. One week without a computer I must say is quite liberating! Ok so to give the run down of the past couple of days I will briefly inform y’all on my whereabouts!
To begin getting to Mongolia was LONG! After arriving in South Korea we took off on MIAT (Mongolian Airlines) and let me just tell you I was very tired. I believe I was a tad bit slaphappy because I was laughing hysterically at everything. For example my new friend Sharaya was sitting next to me and we were ‘trying’ to talk to the flight attendant whose name was Doggie and lets just say it was interesting experience. To say the least he did not speak a lot of English. Anywho eventually I passed out on that flight. Arriving in Mongolia the first thing I noticed was there were no people! Seriously none! Typically every airplane ride I have come off of there is someone around. Not in Mongolia! We, as a group preceded towards customs and waited in line to enter the country!!! That was a piece of cake then there was Peace Corps Personally inside the customs room. Paul (Health Personal) and Lisa (Country Director) greeted us with a lovely Peace Corps nametag. Directly after I retrieved both of my bags (thank goodness there were NO baggage issues!!!) THEN craziness began…the moment I left the baggage claim area there was a tunnel like (think VOL walk) welcome in which I walked through and about 100 people cheered for me!!! It was awesome! The feeling that I felt was really overwhelming. I was so happy to finally be in Mongolia and surprised to see everyone cheering for my arrival! Then I went to my appropriate bus and proceeded to pass out again for the drive to our training town. When we finally arrived at the school dorm it was pitch black out and Sunday morning..keep in mind I left San Fran early FRIDAY morning!! So we all went to bed.
Sunday morning we all woke up at the crack of dawn. Let me just say I haven’t really ever had any issues with jet leg but now I can say I have truly experienced it to the fullest. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were jammed pack with meeting galore. Every type of question one would have in regards to the Peace Corps, Mongolia, or anything was covered during these days. Oh and I received four more shots…I have no idea where my shot total is but I feel like it is getting up there. So yeah these days were a lot of fun because we as a group got to know everyone pretty well and I must say there are some fabulous individuals along for the ride!!
Mongolia in general from my short experience thus far has been terrific. I do have to say that already I can tell that I am going to like this place. It is beautiful here. Now it has been raining quite a bit since we have gotten here but I have to say the ‘blue sky’ rumor is true! J In regards to what I have encountered thus far..well I’d have to say that it is quite primitive in that there really isn’t a lot going on from what I can tell. The people are very interested in who we are and extremely nice. The language is going to be rough. But I am on my way to being a novice in Mongolian! The animals are everywhere….I can’t pet the dogs and it hurts not to be able to do that! (Ashley and Kristin you would not survive) The dogs here are guard dogs. If you approach them you will die. (Lol, Not really but you do have a 100% chance of getting bite) Oh what else…there is a lot. But I will continue to give everyone insight.
On to the more exciting stuff, my GER!!!! Today we all moved into with our host families!!!! I took a bus with 8 of my other site mates to a town close to the orientation town. Lets just say if you think that any city in America has a pothole problem…it is NOTHING in comparison to Mongolia. Thanks to my mountain/off roading experience it was no big deal for me! We quickly arrived to our town at the school in which we will be training all summer. All the families were waiting outside for us! It was a crazy feeling once again because finally reality was setting in! NO MORE ENGLISH!! AHHH!!! They had an amazing welcoming ceremony for the 9 of us. Filled with candy, lemonade, cow milk tea, and kagdag (spelling?). The kagdag is where the families gave us all a scarf looking thing which represents a welcoming and the blue skies. (in addition to a couple of other aspects) My host mom and host brother came to welcome me! It was joyous! Then they helped me with my stuff to load it into their CAR! (I was not expecting them to have a car!!) Lets just say I am going to have to learn Mongolian quick because this communication barrier is already getting to me! Taggee, the mom, then drove us home! So the home set up is pretty sweet!!!! We have a yard with two cows, a house, two gers, and an outhouse. Ladies and Gents a true outhouse!! (I used it for the first time today and I thought my host brother was going to come in with me…that was interesting) Ok so basically my host mom gave me a snack and I sat awkwardly in the living room for a bit. Then I decided to try to figure out how to say gift….I came up with something in which she understood…which allowed me to go to my ger to get some of the toys I brought to give to the kids. I think that really broke the ice!!! Once I gave the little boy and girl their gifts I was golden!! LOL. I think I am really going to like my kasha family! After figuring out some words my host mom made me soup…which was good. Then we went outside to play Frisbee and my host family helped me settle into my ger!!
I will talk more on this in another blog. It is late and getting cold so I am going to get into my sleeping bag!!!
Za!
B
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)