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)