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